Do rad stuff!
Hey, I’m Mike.
I am a Santa Cruz based web and graphic designer.
My simple goal in life is to do what I can to leave this place better than I found it. I strive to surround myself and work with people that share this same goal. I know a lot of good can be done when creative, well-intentioned people get together and collaborate. I’m excited about the possibilities.
Professionally, my passion lies in creating fun, unique branding and exploring the possibilities of what that could look like across all applications. I love using my illustration skills to create additional branding elements like custom icons and patterns. Through my professional experience of both creating and managing the creation of graphics for a wide variety of outputs, I am confident in my ability to produce high quality content in a collaborative team environment.
Outside of my professional life, my passions are surfing, enjoying nature, art and music. I grew up competitive surfing through college and the ocean continues to be where I go to recharge. If I’m not outside hiking with my family or in the water surfing, I am most likely indulging in art in one form or another. Recently, this has involved playing guitar, drawing and wood burning. These passions play a very important role in maintaining my inspiration both artistically and professionally.
My Design Process
Initial Discovery
I use a branding questionnaire and competitive analysis to gain a 360 degree understanding of the client’s business and their unique position within the industry that they are part of. I then create moodboards based on the insight I have gained to give the client a clear understanding of the design direction.
Brainstorming
I like to give myself judgement free time to explore as many different design concepts/approaches as possible to see what feels best and be open to what might spark new ideas. I use the chosen moodboard to guide the style of the design concepts that I explore during the initial brainstorming.
Refining
This is where my perfectionism kicks in. Based on feedback from the client and time spent with the design, I refine the design to its pixel perfect form. Throughout the refining process, I continue to use the moodboard and goals of the project as the north star to guide the refining process.
Final Stoke!
Once the design is signed off on, the final deliverables are sent in all of the necessary file types. For branding projects, I make sure to provide a branding guidelines document that details all the styling specifications needed to produce consistent branding for all outputs. Similarly, for websites, I provide a user guide that shows how to update the site.
Work with me
