Currently Reading:
How to Turn Down A Billion Dollars: The Snapchat Story
User Friendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design Are Changing the Way We Live, Work, and Play
I grew up just outside of Philadelphia, PA, where I first got into design back in 2011 by playing around with Pixlr (a free Photoshop alternative because I couldn't afford the Adobe suite). I would spend hours watching PS tutorials online and try and replicate them the best I could on my free software. By high school, I was able to get Photoshop far cheaper under my schools email so I started freelancing. Mainly designing for small social media brands and eSports teams. Around the same time, I started Vision Collective, a clothing brand that doubled as a music marketing platform. It worked like an underground YouTube radio station, where I’d find small artists, post their music, curate playlists, and even run interviews. At its peak, the channel was hitting 100,000 monthly views.
2 months after graduation, I moved to the city and went to college for two semesters, but by 2020, I decided to drop out and move to Austin with barely a plan and a limited budget. Within two weeks of getting here, I joined Volume Digital, a music marketing company where I worked on creating marketing assets, social media design, and assisting anywhere I could on album rollout campaigns for artists like Lil Baby, Bryce Vine, and Night Lovell. I was also the designer and social media manager for their daily Instagram page that had over 800,000 followers, handling everything from content design to scheduling.
Volume ended up getting acquired, and in the months that followed I was still freelancing but understanding that this wasn't sustainable, I decided I'd go back to school. I ended up getting accepted into Rutgers so I was planning on moving back to the east coast but the day before I had hit the accept button, the previous founders of Volume reached out to me about a new project they were starting. I had nothing to lose, so I jumped on board. It only lasted a few months but the project ended up doing very well and allowed me to not have to go back to school. The year following I really spent time indulging myself in everything creative I'd ever wanted to. Starting another clothing brand where I focused on designing tech packs and working with clothing manufacturers, playing around with cinematography, more detailed storytelling and video editing, and as I stepped back into the music industry I eventually got to work on some larger music video productions. Working on set as a PA or behind-the-scenes shooter for artists like Lancey Foux, Sexyy Red, and Cochise, which snowballed into doing title card and credit design/animation for artists like Lil Tecca and SahBabii. Through freelancing, I also landed a role in creative directing and strategizing the album rollout for 'WAR' by SoFaygo under Cactus Jack (Travis Scott’s label). The project never saw the light of day, but it helped me realize how much I love storytelling through design. Blending visuals, marketing, and product thinking to create something that actually connects with people and evokes real emotion.
Currently, I’m a Marketing Coordinator by day and working on Wavform — a social-driven music discussion platform I built that’s similar to Goodreads or Letterboxd, but for music. It integrates directly with Spotify, letting people rate, review, and share their music taste seamlessly.
Outside of all that, I’m usually notetaking, perusing Mobbin/Pinterest/Twitter, running, playing basketball, watching way too much YouTube, or listening to music.