My moments of delight are those when I experience simplicity and beauty, the moments that are created by humans, through our unique ability to shape our world by design. For me, the meaning of design is more than the visual aspect; it is the conscious details that make for a memorable experience. At a young age, I was fascinated by our everyday objects, their form, and function. I studied design for that very reason and developed a passion for the creative journey.
My work over the last 19 years has spanned brand development, brand communication, event and retail design, experience design, interface design, content strategy, and thought leadership. In designing experiences and spaces at Facebook, Nike, Sonos, SY/Partners, and AKQA, I bring elevated, never-been-done thinking. This allows for new creative expressions that are out of the ordinary, and sometimes extraordinary.
I enjoy working with, leading, and mentoring cross-disciplinary teams. As a critical thinker, I see things for what they are and provide direct, honest feedback in a constructive way that shows a way forward. I motivate teams to create work that we believe in, has been carefully thought through and expounded upon, and emotionally resonates with our clients and the audiences they serve. I currently live in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, with my wife Rahsan and our kids, Rumi and Camilla, enjoying the city’s vibrant energy.
Brand Experience & Design
Collaborations with agencies and brands to deliver Nord star projects, user experience and design for physical and digital experiences, brand communication, and brand activations.
Lululemon • Lotus Cars • SentinelOne • Norfolk Southern • SK-II • Relmada Therapeutics • Timberland • Tiger Global • Sedgwick • AMEX • Aon • Volkswagen • T-Mobile • Metlife • RR Donnelly • Forcepoint • Walmart • Ro Zero • CK Jeans • Huawei
Collaborations: Lululemon • Exposure • AKQA • Oliver Wyman • Shophouse • Rosie Lee • Accenture • Wunderman Thompson • CO:Collective • Designit • Gensler • Publicis • Ro • Spring Studios
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Publicis’ Power of One philosophy puts our clients at the center. By understanding their needs, we bring together the right cross-agency experts to create magical brand stories and experiences that consumers love and unlock growth. I worked across PSONE client teams and on new business in my role.
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Set strategy and recommendations for Smucker’s pet, consumer, and coffee brands to modernize the online user experience and brand presence.
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Developed and ran progressive profiling workshops for Smucker’s to uncover customer value across their portfolio of brands in exchange for customer data and use the insights for personalized consumer experiences and marketing outreach.
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Articulated Samsung’s Post Purchase experience value proposition and channel communication strategy to deliver a global brand asset communication toolkit for countries to communicate the benefits of being a Samsung Member.
McKinsey understands the importance of design to business and how human-centered design can be at the heart of disruptive and sustained commercial success. While working at McKinsey Design, we helped clients design change that matters by delivering breakthrough products, services, and customer experiences.
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Partnered with Lunar Design to build in-house innovation capabilities for our client, educating twenty-two cross-functional experts design thinking methodology to uncover user insights and create product and service opportunities to help them lead their industry.
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Prepared and facilitated a series of workshops for a government bank to articulate their four-year aspiration on what role they can play and new value they can bring to entrepreneurs beyond lending and personalized advice.
Facebook has an ambitious mission to "bring the world closer together." The Studio is the in-house creative agency that crafts simple, compelling brand stories for product launches and cultural moments. In my role, I collaborated with brand and product marketing to deliver event branding, physical, and digital experiences.
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Turned the Facebook Social Good Forum, a platform to announce new tools and initiatives to help people keep each other safe and supported on Facebook, into a reoccurring annual event by establishing the brand identity and event experience.
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Directed the brand identity refresh and event experience for Facebook's annual F8 Developer Conference in 2018 at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California, to attract more developers to explore the future of technology.
AKQA is an ideas and innovation company. By partnering with clients, AKQA creates world-class brand experiences across marketing, products, services, and physical spaces. In my role, I directed creative for Verizon's retail experiences and in-store communication and managed a 40+ team of UX, UI, and brand designers.
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Evolved Verizon's new identity for the in-store communication and environmental graphics programs across their different retail store programs.
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Defined concepts and set the creative direction for product campaigns, including the Verizon Home Services and Droid product launches.
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Launched a simple, frictionless My Verizon app experience that reduced customer phone calls by having customers self-serve on their mobile devices and support their shopping experience online and in-store.
Sonos' mission is to fill every home with music. The wireless HiFi system makes listening easier and more immersive by accessing all the music services in the world and streaming to any room in your home with a Sonos speaker. In my role, I partnered with the VP of Brand to build in-house design capabilities and led digital and physical retail.
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Collaborated with a cross-functional team to create an "experience first" retail concept that resembles the home listening experience—The NYC Sonos store sets the bar for how customers experience sound and shop for speakers.
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Developed a global premium display system that stands out from the competition in cluttered multi-brand retail environments to inspire and educate modern music lovers at partner locations worldwide.
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Created the first-ever Sonos product partnership campaign to celebrate 75 years of Blue Note Records with the Sonos Blue Note Limited Edition PLAY:1.
AKQA is an ideas and innovation company. By partnering with clients, AKQA creates world-class brand experiences across marketing, products, services, and physical spaces. In my role, I managed a multidisciplinary team of creatives and led the creative vision and strategy for Verizon digital retail.
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Built the AKQA Verizon team in three months after winning the business by helping to hire 100+ colleagues across disciplines.
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Organically grew the Verizon business from digital retail maintenance projects to leading the vision, strategy, and execution of the new flagship retail experience.
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Rolled out seven large-scale digital installations and a platform of touchscreens within eight months that entertained, engaged, and educated Verizon customers in-store.
SY/Partners is a business strategy and innovation consultancy that works with CEOs and leadership teams in moments of transformation. SY/P uniquely integrates strategic thinking and design to challenge the status quo and imagine new value. We designed conversations, epiphanies, mindset shifts, products and services, and spaces that work.
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Aligned the Ann INC. Leadership team around their multichannel future by defining customer-first principles, visualizing the customer journey, and mapping the integrated multichannel process.
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Designed and facilitated a two-day summit experience to inspire and align two merged coal companies leaders around what they stand for, provoke new thinking, and accelerate their new shared culture.
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Elevated the IBM's Centennial THINK Forum, where future leaders talked about ambitions, challenges, and opportunities, by creating a leadership arena where attendees' names were among leaders that have made a difference in the world.
Nike’s mission is to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. The brand expands the human potential with groundbreaking products and by making a positive impact in communities. In my Brand Design Director role at Nike EMEA, I led and initiated creative brand concepts for the Nike Women, Running, and Training sports categories.
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Built, developed, and led a capable design team as part of the EMEA Brand Design core leadership team.
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Implemented the global repositioning of Nike Women in EMEA Nike-owned and retail franchise locations ensuring local market relevance.
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Re-envisioned the Nike Town London running pavilion with the first Nike+ Lab and running club experiences in Europe, creating a destination online and offline for the running community.
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Launched the Nike Pro Dri-FIT technology campaigns in retail to compete with competitor products in the EMEA region, featuring top soccer and rugby athletes.
In a newly created brand design director film & video role, I defined the vision for Nike’s sports categories branded online and retail content. In collaboration with marketing and the product groups, I led the creative direction and execution of campaign and sales meeting content and experiences.
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Built and mentored the Film & Video team in the Nike EMEA headquarters.
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Directed over fifty plus branded content pieces a year for Nike’s sports categories’ tier two and three marketing initiatives for a visceral experience online and retail.
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Established and maintained a reliable network of freelancers, motion graphic studios, and editing houses to execute on time on sales and marketing initiatives directives.
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Developed and Implemented a digital video and music distribution system with the Mill London for remote content and music programming per Nike store across the region.
LBi is a global marketing and technology agency that transforms businesses for the digital age. As creative lead, I directed a team of visual, user experience, and motion designers while closely working with technology leads. We realized innovative concepts that leveraged emerging technologies for educational, digital, and physical experiences.
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Built the in-house motion graphics capability to serve clients’ needs for digital content creation, motion identity design, and user interface prototyping.
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Designed a mobile app that enhances the Formula 1 on-circuit experience with real-time data insights for visitors to follow the progression of the race from where they are.
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Designed various museum experiences that make the invisible visible by merging digital storytelling with physical locations and objects.
Museum Projects
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For the Anne Frank House, you can experience the house as it was in times of hiding by exploring 360 degrees of virtual environments.
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For the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum, you can discover stories behind the art in their archive by digitally navigating physical objects.
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For the Maritime Museum, you can uncover the history of the harbor of Rotterdam by interacting with a large-scale model.
