Coaching Corps pairs volunteers with students in low-income communities to teach athletic skills and life lessons. We created this new home page interaction to help the nonprofit recruit more volunteer coaches in their 13 locations throughout the country. 

Creative direction, copywriting
Design: Lacey Ankenman
Web Development: Alan Greene + Michael Herring
Agency: Vermilion

The City of Boulder passed legislation designed to increase recycling and composting rates, then launched a website to educate businesses and residents about their role in achieving zero waste.  

Two years later, the Daily Camera reported Boulder was preventing more than half of its waste from entering landfills—composting 1,791 tons of food waste and recycling 2,081 tons of plastic, metal, and other items.

Copywriting, creative direction
Art direction: Lacey Ankenman
Illustration: Julia Williams
Development: Alan Greene
Agency: Vermilion

Soon after Patagonia announced it was giving all of its profits to charitable causes, the company launched Home Planet Fund—an organization that supports local and indigenous communities whose practices mitigate climate change.

In my role as freelance copywriter for Teal Media, I helped establish HPF’s brand language and wrote the script for this video, which announced the organization to the world.

Concept, copywriting
Art Direction: Amanda Buck
Agency: Teal Media

The Town of Vail launched an ambitious sustainability program to dramatically improve recycling rates and increase protections around Gore Creek—the stream that runs through the heart of the city. I worked with Vermilion's art director Kevin Bonner and freelance designer Loren Klein to craft campaigns for these two initiatives; update the town's sustainability website; and create signage, brochures, reports and infographics to be distributed to residents and visitors. 

Creative direction, copywriting. 
Art direction: Kevin Bonner
Design: Loren Klein
Agency: Vermilion

Fundraising campaign for Rubicon, a nonprofit working to address poverty and homelessness in the San Francisco Bay Area, with a special emphasis on those returning home from prison. Part of Elefint's Desgn.It volunteer event in Lake Tahoe, CA. 

RESULT: Unveiled at the organization's annual dinner, the campaign helped Rubicon raise $160,000 in one evening.

Copywriting
Agency: Elefint

The Town of Vail had just implemented some pretty serious recycling legislation, and wanted to draw the attention of residents and visitors with a funny, lighthearted campaign that would offer a friendly nudge in the right direction. I looked to dated ski fashions for inspiration, to remind the audience that we've all made mistakes in our past—like tossing bottles and cans into the garbage bin—but now we know better. The campaign included print ads (top) as well as stickers designed for local pizza shops, magnets for hotel/condo refrigerators, and digital ads.

Note: At the last minute, well after final production was complete, town representatives worried that the campaign was too edgy, so we presented several other options, and landed on a different approach. I include the work in this portfolio because it represents my thinking and captures an advocacy message in an unexpected way.

Concept, creative direction, copywriting
Design: Kevin Bonner
Agency: Vermilion

ZOLL makes automated external defibrillators (AEDs), including the one that saved the life of NFL player Damar Hamlin, who collapsed during a Monday Night Football game watched by millions.

When ZOLL decided to launch a campaign to get more AEDs into high schools, community centers and workplaces, Hamlin was kind enough to serve as the spokesperson and fund donations of AEDs through his foundation. I wrote the copy for the site, social-media graphics, and supporting FAQs under the guidance of Gray Communications and Eighty2Degrees.

See the site.

Copywriting
Art Direction: Ambica Prakash
UX Design: Iris Tao
Agency: Eighty2Degrees

Words in the Wild is a Bay-Area nonprofit that uses kids’ interest in science and the outdoors to turn them into become better readers — an approach that’s especially helpful for those who struggle in the typical classroom setting.

When the founder decided to expand her efforts from a small summer camp and after-school program to include teacher trainings and pre-packaged curricula, she asked Friday to create a sophisticated brand that would appeal to her many audiences.

Read about the process in my Medium post.

Creative direction, brand language, copywriting
Design: Hillary Celebi
Illustration by David Espinosa
Agency: Friday

A college degree has always been to be the best way to improve your life, but for many people, that opportunity is just out of reach—for all the wrong reasons. The Hybrid College Network is a collection of schools that combine the flexibility and affordability of online courses with the support of coaches and mentors—for everyone who can’t afford to put their lives on hold for 4-5 years.

Friday produced a brand idenity and a website to expand the number of schools in the network and help the group connect to more funders and community orgs in their regions.

Visit the site.

Copywriting, creative direction.
Strategy: Austin Dannhaus
Design: Loren Klein + MK Cook

Sparkling Ice worked with Phinney Bischoff to update its website, while introducing a new line of flavors with a caffeine boost. I wrote dozens of headlines to match the brand’s cheeky tone, aimed at women looking for something as flavorful as soda but without all the sugar and calories.

Copywriting
Art direction: Sarina Montenegro
Agency: Phinney Bischoff

A key tool for NPCA's marketing and fundraising efforts, NPCA's annual reports presented a great opportunity to showcase the organization's victories, using photography and illustration.

I oversaw the creative direction and the content for these pieces with the help of our in-house art director, Annie Riker and Fuszion, an agency in Alexandria, Virginia.

A few sample spreads from NPCA’s membership publication, National Parks Magazine (circ. 330,000), which won 12 FOLIO awards for writing, design, and photography during my tenure as editor in chief.  

I oversaw all aspects of the magazine including a FT staff of three—assigning articles, selecting writers and photographers, editing text, and art directing our freelance graphic designer, Jessie Despard.

Baiting grizzlies with donuts and chicken fat?
Using snares that trap bears to be shot like fish in a barrel?
Shooting grizzlies and their cubs during hibernation? 

Not cool. 

As part of NPCA’s campaign to protect grizzlies in and around Alaska's national parks, we created the #Unbearable campaign, which addressed irresponsible practices allowed by Alaska’s Board of Game. For years, the state agency had approved specific hunting methods and season lengths that allow hunters to kill bears and wolves, so there are more moose and caribou for sport hunters to kill. Leveraging promoted tweets, the project generated 340,000 impressions, had an incredible 12.4% engagement rate—all of which complemented our e-mail appeals to longstanding NPCA members, of course.

NPCA delivered 45,000 signatures and 30,000 letters in support of the Park Service proposed hunting regulations. As a result, in November 2015, NPCA won the protections for Alaska’s grizzlies. 

Art direction, copywriting.

Illustrations by Drew Litton. 

As part of a broad campaign designed to gather public support for park funding, increase NPCA member engagement, and marketing exposure, we asked NPCA members to send snapshots of their park visits, then we added a VO and set it to music. Generated 12,000 views on Vimeo and YouTube. 

Access the video here.

Concept, creative direction, photo editing.
Video editing by Jesse Rosten.
Script by Kallie Markle.

Infographics produced for NPCA, illustrating Park Service programs that use food to interpret American history, best times to view wildlife throughout the country, and a close look at the economic impact of national parks during a budget battle that closed the sites for several weeks. 

Concepts, writing, copyediting, art direction. 

Design by LouLou & Tummie, Matt Brass, Mike Kasun and Lemonly. 

NPCA’s Government Affairs team wanted a way to promote their campaign for a dozen new potential park sites. Rather than creating boring fact sheets, we designed “postcards from the future,” which document the important attributes of each site as a more tactile, visual way to express the message.

On their first trip to Capitol Hill, our lobbying team got a great response from legislators—one House staffer tacked every postcard to her office wall. In the months that followed, many Hill staffers referred to the sites as “the postcard parks.”

RESULT: Congress approved and the President signed the bill designating 11 of the 12 sites, as part of the biggest public lands bill passed in years. Pullman National Monument in Chicago was added to the Park Service via separate legislation the following year, making the campaign a perfect 12 for 12.

NPCA was the unquestioned leader in moving the legislation, and this marketing campaign played a small but crucial role in the achievement.

Concept, creative direction.
Design: Loren Klein.

Beekeeping isn’t the kind of thing you can learn on YouTube. It takes real training, the right equipment — and plenty of patience.

Article and short video documenting Saguaro Bioblitz, sponsored by National Geographic and several desert conservation groups in Arizona. Visited Tuscon for the piece, wrote the article, hired the videographers, identified interview subjects, and oversaw the final cut.

Birdwatching at home is a powerful way to learn about your local ecosystem. Here’s how to attract a variety of species and identify their behaviors.

Linzie Hunter spent a month capturing your New Year’s resolutions in perpetuity—even the ones that are already distant memories.

Irishman Peter Donnelly’s whimsical work runs the gamut from children’s books to craft beer labels.