Hi, I’m Michael. I’ve spent 25+ years being the person government agencies and mission-driven organizations call when they need real creative work done, but don’t have five different vendors’ worth of budget or patience to coordinate it.

So I became that partner myself. Strategy, brand identity, web, campaigns, print, social media. All of it… from one person who understands your mission, not just billing hours against it.

My résumé reads like a strange itinerary: public transportation (Amtrak, Caltrans, Capitol Corridor), 14 years inside city government communications for Yorba Linda, state library programs, museums, nonprofits. It’s not an accident. Somewhere along the way I also became the person who’s flown 750+ flights across 693,000 miles to 13 countries (so far), which either means I understand transit obsessively or that I just really like airports. Possibly both.

Why This Work Requires a Different Approach

Public sector and mission-driven organizations operate differently. You’re serving diverse communities, navigating complex approval processes, working within tight budgets, meeting accessibility requirements, and balancing multiple stakeholder interests. Cookie-cutter creative solutions don’t work here.

What does work: A partner who understands these constraints from the inside and can deliver complete creative services without requiring you to become a project manager coordinating five different vendors.

Transit and transportation work taught me to handle complexity at the highest level. Launching a regional rail service means creating brand identities that work at 70mph and at a standstill, designing wayfinding for daily commuters and first-time tourists, coordinating across multiple agencies and approval bodies, and executing across train interiors, station platforms, mobile apps, print schedules, and marketing campaigns.
If I can do that, I can handle your museum rebrand, library system guidelines, or cultural institution marketing campaign.

What I Bring to Every Project

After 25+ years, I’ve learned what actually works creatively:

I don’t just design logos. I build the whole system. Strategy, brand, web infrastructure, print, social, campaigns. Basically, A to Z, so you get one experienced partner instead of a coordination headache.

I speak government. Fourteen years inside city government means I know how approvals actually move, and how to keep the work sharp while they do.

I build things that outlast me. Brand guidelines a non-designer can actually use. Wayfinding that adapts to a new location without a redesign. Systems, not one-offs.

Strategy comes first; trends come never. Every project starts with your actual goals and constraints, not whatever’s popular this year.

I respect the process, even when it’s slow. Public sector work means patience, accessibility standards, and a dozen stakeholders with opinions. I work inside that, and I still push for the best possible outcome.