Brochure design for the Smithsonian Gardens in collaboration with Smithsonian Institution Exhibits and their development office.

The goal: To connect and engage with potential donors for programs such as the Orchids Collection and the Internship Program. The piece needed to be informational and feel inspirational. It was important to accurately showcase orchid species and collections.

The solution: A vibrant photo composition of a variety of orchids, trees, and flowers to illustrate the idea of a lush garden. While the rich colors bring in energy, the overlapping folds of the brochure generate interest as when you walk through a diverse garden.

The project: Explorers Festival is National Geographic's main yearly event that convenes explorers, scientists, storytellers, and educators from around the globe. This year's event required a visual identity that would convey the idea of global connectivity and inspiration.

The challenge: This event has been, historically, an invitation for explorers, stakeholders, and the Nat Geo community alone. But this year's goal was to open it to the general public through a series of live events at Nat Geo's headquarters in Washington, DC.

The solution: Inspired by the idea of convening and exploration, I designed the new logo and visual language to help engage domestic and international audiences. The new design not only carried Nat Geo's brand essence but also meaning and functionality. The concept included a graphic symbol and visual language that helped with comprehensive brand activations including email campaigns, digital advertising, video, on-stage graphics and animations, programs, and environmental graphics.

The visual identity package helped scaled the event to international markets such as Mexico City and London.

Project: Live events including talks, virtual reality, insider tours, and happy hours were a key component of National Geographic public experiences in Washington, DC. The design of the mailer brochure, which was a key tool to promote them, needed to be updated.

The challenge: Being in the market for many years, the brochure had become outdated in size and design. As the creative director for that vertical, I proactively pitched the idea of revamping it. The piece called for a new format to accommodate striking photography, better readability, and a clear call to action.

The solution: Through research and working with a production vendor, the new design included new paper type and weight as well as a larger size that considered postal costs. The layouts and page templates included larger areas for photo placements and the new Nat Geo's branded typography. The new format and look later expanded to digital marketing campaigns and traveling exhibit brochures. This design change was critical in meeting the organizational goal of filling up an auditorium with 400-people capacity at every event.

This exhibition about the Titanic was like no other. It focused on the story about the recovery of the shipwreck by ocean explorer and Nat Geo Explorer, Robert Ballard.

The concept is a play in words to convey the significance of the mission and the size of the ship. The outdoor billboard grabbed passer byers’ attention at this street corner in downtown DC. It was an opportunity for pedestrians to take a selfie too. For that purpose, I created a sidewalk decal across the street to signal the selfie spot.

In my role as the designer, I laid out the artwork and worked with the copywriter and VP of creative on the final piece.

OBIE Award 2019.

Ignite the Spirit of Exploration | In my role as the creative director for all education brand marketing, I conceptualized materials to elevate Nat Geo’s presence at conferences.

Youthful feel | Unlike the parent brand, which displayed a darker and more adult feel, the education brand marketing I created featured a brighter palette and more negative space, while retaining the essence of the brand standards.

Unfolding curiosity | With the goal of conveying a sense of curiosity, the design concept did just that through brochure accordion folds, bold typography, and powerful single words.

Meaningful photography | As a key part of Nat Geo’s brand, photography played a key roll in telling the education story.

The National Geographic Society had two yearly nation-wide school competitions, GeoBee and GeoChallenge, where thousands of students register to compete on geography questions and problem-solving projects. Many participants make it to the finals where students get the chance to visit Nat Geo’s headquarters in Washington, DC.

In my role as the creative director to market these programs, I conceptualized the marketing campaigns in an integrated manner.

The brand marketing included email campaigns, sizzle videos, registration and program guides, merch, iconography, and on-stage graphics in partnership with the event production contractor.

Explorer is National Geographic classroom magazine. This print and digital campaign captured the ideas of curiosity and exploration by featuring refreshing images of children active in nature and going beyond the classroom to learn. The marketing and ad campaign included new email templates, print and social media ads, and a direct mail postcard targeted to school teachers with the goal of increasing subscriptions.

This campaign was developed in collaboration with our in-house copy writer and marketing manager for National Geographic’s education department.

The National Skills Coalition (NSC) advocates for both workers and small businesses to have access to high-quality skills training. They are made up of a large network of local and state-level organizations that come together to propose policy changes that would improve employability around the U.S.

In celebration of its 20th anniversary, NSC wanted to redesign its logo and visual identity from the ground up to evoque credibility, community, and bipartisanship.

I conceptualized and designed a new solid logo and flexible visual system that carried over a newly redesigned website (by nclud), stylized reports, event logos, and a 20th anniversary conmemorative logo. My work also included iconography, styles, and a brand style guide.

In collaboration with Eighty2degrees LLC.

The logo for Planet Word sub-brand, Lexicon Lane, was designed to carry the style of the playroom in which that museum installation lives in. Lexicon Lane is a puzzle/clue-oriented experience that’s part of Planet Word permanent exhibition. Here, visitors solve Sherlock Holmes inspired mysteries in a room decorated as a British alley.

Shown here the newly created logo and website placement by Planet Word.

In collaboration with eighty2degrees LLC.

Covenant Park, a company positioned as a government contractor, needed to reach new types of clients. In order to do this they recognized the need to work with a designer to develop their brand to a level that can be recognizable, competitive, and true to its values. I developed this brand refresh, which included a logo clean up, new color palette, a simple brand language with design elements relevant to what they do, and a style for current and upcoming sub brands, all compiled in a useable brand style guide oriented to serve their digital space.

Materia Prima is a compilation book from international photographer and National Geographic Fellow, Erika Larsen. Her book tells the story of rituals in indigenous communities around the world. The design of the book serves as an eye-opener to the public.

I was commissioned to do the design and layout of Erika’s book in a honest and modest style that would allow her powerful images speak to the reader. To achieve that, her photography is surrounded with enough negative space to allow observation and understanding.

I laid out her poems and writings with type treatments that supported the style and intentional spacing.

“Materia Prima explores ritual, time, and the process of remembering we are nature,” Erika Larsen.

Artists in the project: Symbols designed by Frida Larios, artist focused on indigenous graphic language. Map illustration by Anishinaabe Onyota’aka, artist from Beausoleil First Nation and Oneida Nation of the Thames.

The Panamerican Health Organization (PAHO) compiled years of photographs taken by families around the world in the book Best Practices and Photography.

I designed this book under the concept of how women from diverse backgrounds experience motherhood. The design takes into account the exposure of disparities in income distribution and inequalities related to place of residence, ethnic groups, gender, and other factors.

HQ Supplies is a small business that operates in Philadelphia that specializes in supplying janitorial products to corporations and institutions. As a new business, it needed to come in strong to compete with long-established, family-owned businesses. Through a creative brief I was able to establish key values and goals that guided the design decisions in the process of designing their logo and color palette.

The final design incorporates a knock-out effect on the letter Q to directly convey the industry in which the company operates. The color palette is modern, and represents cleanliness and energy.

The Chronicle was in need of refreshing an old ad campaign and to reposition itself as the #1 news source in academe in order to increase print subscriptions from pass-along readers. The design utilized simple and familiar images that the audience would feel identified with. The images are displayed as essentials items just as The Chronicle.

Award Winner. This branded system was part of the "Every Campus. Every Day" marketing campaign for The Chronicle of Higher Education. The printed kit served as a tool for sales reps to promote corporate, image, and recruitment advertising sales. The design was info and typographic-driven highlighting data points.

The campaign included, sales kits, slide presentations, iPad product display, conference exhibits, motion graphics, email marketing, brochures, and merch.

ASAE has had a brand reputation that wanted to keep but it was in need of a refresher as it approached its 100 year anniversary. The goal was to visually represent "moving forward" without compromising its core value of connecting people and ideas. The organization's visual identity went through a "soft update" in which the logo slightly changed including its star symbol, color, and typography. Many pieces came along with the deployment of this new identity, such as stationery, name badges, email templates, clothing, and digital and print advertising. A new brighter orange was able to bring this membership-based professional association to a higher level of corporate branding.

The campaign utilized images of crumpled paper and a paper airplane as a way to illustrate the headline "many ideas, one journey". The brochure featured a tear-off page for creating a folding paper plane, which also served as a save-the-date piece to generate excitement. The concept of generating ideas was expanded on-site with the creation of the "Idea Runway", which was a 20 feet wide panel on which conference attendees could post their ideas and connect.

The campaign included a microsite, direct mail, email marketing, postcards, program guides, and exhibits

The conference broke record attendance in 7 years and was expanded to the Asia Pacific region in 2015.

The Asia-Pacific version of the ASAE Great Ideas conference needed a refreshing look to continue attracting new audiences. This design incorporated a bright palette as well as clean and sharp graphic elements to inject energy and excitement in this new program for the organization.

With that goal in mind, I created a symbol that represented human connectivity to go along with the conference theme “great ideas happen when you connect”. The lines of the graphic always expand when applied to different formats in order to not loose the concept of connection.

The concept of “give and get” illustrates the annual meeting experience of exchange, where you give what you are compelled to share and get what you are required for success.

The play in words convey the sense of community in the association industry where learning from peers is as important as learning from educational sessions in order to obtain a full conference experience.

The arrow graphics illustrate the words and their opposites by pointing in divergent directions. There’s flexibility and an opportunity in this graphic to create patterns and visual elements that support the core message depending on the format and media outlet in use.

The design goal was to develop a campaign that embraced the musical factor of the host city but also capture the spirit of the conference without falling into an obvious and predictable visual solution. By using language and visuals that were familiar to everyone, the concept summarized what an attendee would experience at the conference in 3 simple words: Pause, Play, Forward. "Pause" for taking a break from work; "Play" for coming out to network and have fun; and "Forward" as moving ideas forward and bringing them back to the office. The campaign included direct mail, social media, info graphics, exhibits, microsite, preliminary and onsite program books, print and digital advertising. The conference broke record attendance in the last 7 years with almost 6,000 attendees.

The Business of Meetings is a credited certificate program from ASAE. The program includes 4 courses the participant needs to complete to achieve certification. As a key certification for meeting and event planners, the program needed a visual identity that will help position it as a primordial credential to succeed in the profession. Messaging and graphics in this brand system establish a recognizable and grounded identity that’s flexible and current.

In my role as the sr. art director, I wrote the headlines for the campaign, conceptualized the idea, and executed the design.

The ASAE’s CEO and Chief Executive Board symposiums were promoted in an invitation style brochure to convey its uniqueness as opposed to its traditional letter form.

I conceptualized and designed this iconographic designs to elevate the programs’ perception as a fresh educational offering. The graphics intentionally illustrate ideas of partnership and synergy, key components in c-suite level education programs.

I conceptualized and designed this annual report for the See Forever Foundation, the organization that manages the Maya Angelou Schools in Washington, DC through pro-bono work with the Taproot Foundation.

The finished result that you see here was a team collaboration with the goal of showcasing the impact that Maya Angelou Schools have in the community.

Part of the concept, which included the use of bold typography, imagery, and color, was to bring up the organization’s brand essence while conveying a sense of urgency and awareness of the tremendous job that they are doing.

These logo designs reflect the vision of organizations, corporations, or specific programs as a symbol representing their brand goals at the time. Some of them were created in collaboration with in-house marketing departments and some by partnering with clients wanting to convey meaningful brand values.

This is a collection of award-winning posters that I have designed through the years inspired by current issues, typography, and for the sake of conceptualization. Most of them have been featured as a part of the AIGA Get Out the Vote poster gallery, a part AIGA’s initiative Design for Democracy.

These are examples of multiple corporate communications materials I produced for the U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP), an independent, scientific nonprofit.

The main goal in corporate design was to convey USP's mission and strategic plan to stakeholders, partners, board members, and the media around the world.

My work included media kits, calendars, presentations, annual reports, and newsletters, which were translated in 3 different languages for design layout.

Typical projects included conceptualization, typography, photo shoots, and working with print vendors. As the design leader in the corporate communications group I established production and creative processes from scratch and pitched design ideas to leadership teams.

USP Inaugural Brochure, award winning.

The U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) had just completed the construction of a state of the art headquarters in Rockville, MD. In order to celebrate the opening of this new building, there was an inaugural ceremony, which called for invitations, a brochure, and maps for the guests.

The goal of the printed brochure was to highlight the different areas and features of the building and serve as a self-guided tour on the day of the event.

The concept behind the design was to convey the collaborative aspect of the work environment in offices, cubicles, and the lab.

I collaborated with a photographer on art direction for 2 full days of photo shoots on site and partnered up with a printer to select elegant pearled and velum papers.