I’ve worked intimately with the Nalla group since we launched KNect365 together in 2016. I spent a week with these guys when we first kicked off in Shoreditch (London) where they are based and had a blast. It was Nalla’s vision that was key in paving way towards our new global business launch at KNect365. We won several awards for the effort and continue to take on branding and design challenges to this day at Informa Connect. Vicki Young, Nalla’s founder has also been a great partner and I had the pleasure of interviewing her on my podcast as well.
Chinatown Bureau is a New York City based digital branding consultancy who focus is on “the intersection of brand strategy and technology.” I’ve worked in many capacities with CTB’s CEO and founder Paul Miser and have relied on advice from this group in multiple professional capacities. I witnessed these guys first hand going from a creative team at Hudson Rouge, working on the famed Matthew McConaughey Lincoln MKZ commercials to formulating their own start-up agency.
Audiobrain is an Emmy award winning agency who’s partnered with us over the years at FUSE. It was a real treat working with Audrey Arbeeny and team as they’ve evolved and innovated the sound of FUSE. In 2019 I became a bit more involved in working with Audiobrain as we customized the sound for our Bauhaus centennial tribute. I gave guidance and direction on how they curated and evolved the sounds. We came up with a tapestry of music to be played in various areas of the event location that evoked a sense of history. Chicago blues paid tribute to the venue’s city. “Jazz era” music of the roaring twenties celebrated the Bauhaus time period. And, of course FUSE’s signature sound was integrated as well.
Creative Source is a boutique design firm based in New York City. They’ve been a great resource for what I’d describe as “outsourcing our in-house design process". We essentially used Creative Source as an extension of our in-house production design function. Carol Smith, their founder, president has been a great support to us over the years and she’s also become a good friend.
For many years as art director at IIR and for a couple of years into my role at Informa I worked on collaborations with the FLOOD design group. FLOOD provided an upscale branded approach for our FUSE events and was essentially responsible for the ‘face of FUSE’ for more than a decade. I also interviewed FLOOD’s founder, Renee Whitworth, back in 2018.
Ann Willoughby has to be by far one of the kindest business leads I’ve ever met. Based in Kansas City, I was first introduced to the Willoughby design group when I interviewed them on my podcast. In 2019 Ann and team generously assisted me with some omnichannel design case study experiments. I found this team to be unique in their ability to create a sharp business focus while somehow simultaneously maintaining a laid back attitude. They were great.
Aaron Keller, founder of Capsule and co-author of The Physics of Brand has been a FUSE staple since we launched the event. Capsule as a group has always been very proactive participating in the FUSE event providing support in attendance and providing much welcome content through social media channels. In 2019 Capsule assisted me in executing omnichannel design case study experiments as well. Shortly after the release of The Physics of Brand I . was able to interview Aaron on my podcast.
I was hired by Flywheel to do a series of illustrations over the course of 2015. These illustrations were for LUNGevity, a sloan Kettering based group devoted to improving the lives of patients with lung cancer.
