The first 15 years of my career were spent working in-house with lifestyle brands, directing design and overall creative for consumer products brands in the action sports space. An opportunity eventually arose back in 2016 to start a consultancy- which is something that I had always strived to do. It was a goal of mine, and with time, the proper relationships, clients, and office space aligned to make it possible. 2016 was the beginning of Superbase.
I’ve been fascinated with branding and starting things for as long as I can remember. This originated from the stuff I was into as a kid: skateboarding and punk music. With these interests came a passion for starting my own zines, t-shirt brands, skateboard companies, and I even started a snowboard company while I was in college. I studied entrepreneurship from DIYers without even knowing it, and then ultimately changed my major from design to business, where I was able to learn the fundamentals of owning and operating a business.
There are many beliefs that I’ve had, which have changed or evolved over the years. Most notably, I’ve changed my mind about specialization vs generalization in our industry. This topic and my views on it are much more nuanced than I can explain here, but you could say that I’m more focused on refining the specific skills that I’m best at.
I get excited about new projects and organizing information in order to create new processes or improve current ones.
My day begins pretty early. I have 3 kids that need to get to school in the morning, so I try to wake up before them to get about 20 minutes of meditation and breathing exercises in, followed by some physical training. I’ve been doing this for the last ten years and I really look forward to it each morning. Once I’m at the studio, my typical day consists of a lot of internal design reviews and trying to unbury myself from emails. And average day is so full of both of these that I usually eat lunch at my desk and have to set timers to remind myself to get up and walk around. Then I also try to get some snowboarding or skateboarding in on one of my days off.
For better or worse, I have a habit of scrutinizing my work before the client sees it, and making sure that when they see the work, they are visualizing the finished product. I believe this “measure twice, cut once” approach has paid off in the long run.
One of the biggest mistakes I made early in my career was believing I knew more than I did. I think this is common with young Creative Directors who are expected to have answers before they explore the questions. The best work doesn’t come from arrogantly rushing to the solution, it comes from not knowing the solution, and instead spending the time it takes to truly understand the problem.
My interest and pursuits outside of my profession are almost as important to my work as the technical expertise that I’m always trying to improve. I spend as much time as I can with my family, and my passion for snowboarding and spending time in the mountains is a big part of my life.
At Superbase, our success is measured entirely by this outcome: The quality of the work we deliver makes us proud to put our names on it and the process is embraced by the client. This results in both parties being vested in the vision and valuing the work.
As an independent creative consultancy, we believe that good design is not only good for business, it’s good for humankind. By maintaining the creative chemistry and agility of a boutique agency with the experience required to work with clients ranging from early startups to internationally revered brands, SUPERBASE is built from the ground up to work like an extension of our client’s teams.
Superbase does not do work in industries that produce harmful or addictive products or services. This means we refrain from doing work for organizations that promote or sell alcohol, drugs, tobacco, pornographic material, etc. We also believe that no single client should represent more than 40% of our total overall gross revenue.
We believe in being easy to work with and making a pro-active effort to reduce the load on the client. We make it easy for them to focus more on their business and less on design decisions or following up with creative tasks.
Whenever interviewing for open positions, I look for communication skills and emotional maturity as much as I do creative talent.
I’ve tried to create opportunities for our team to contribute to passion projects within the agency. This is in the form of creating our own zines, product collections, hosting events, and devoting a portion of time each week to get inspired.
Human-generated work.
To compile our standard operating procedures with our philosophy as an agency. We call it our Culture & Operations Manual, and it is fundamental to the way we work with each other and our clients.
Firstly, we don’t bill on an hourly basis for developing intellectual property. Secondly, it is our policy to not begin solving our clients’ problems until we are engaged. Engagement begins when the Service Agreement & Statement of Work has been signed and a payment deposit is received.
We operate on a four-day workweek, and those days are in-studio. There is no substitute for the efficiency and collaborative culture of being face-to-face with a team.
What is my most controversial or unpopular belief? Probably that Artificial Intelligence is not the answer and that there is no substitute for the efficiency and collaborative culture of being face-to-face with a team.
The true value of working with external partners to provide insights in a way that can rarely be done, sustainably, with in-house teams.
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