Jersey Shore was the biggest show on MTV. We made the opposite.
I'd moved to Washington Heights and fell in love with it — one of the last genuinely alive neighborhoods in Manhattan. Families on stoops, music everywhere, first-generation Dominican-Americans with real ambitions and real stakes. The only version of this community that ever appeared in the news was crime and drugs. We wanted to show what it actually looked like.
We shot the whole series on Canon DSLRs in natural light, at a time when every other reality show was slick and staged. Spanish dialogue and Spanish-language music ran throughout — rare on mainstream American TV at the time. The New York Times called it elegant and genuine. The cast was commended by their local congressman for how they represented their community.
It grew to 900,000 weekly viewers. It changed how the genre was made.
An OOH/transit campaign introduces the cast and a mobile app gives users a GPS guided walking tour of Washington Heights, narrated by fan favorite, Ludwin.
In 2008, I started cutting up old skateboards and turning them into handbags. I made every piece by hand. No factory, no agency, no budget.
The brand found its people without advertising. Pink carried one. Cameron Diaz carried one. Tony Hawk gave bags to his wife, his mother, and his ex-wife. None of them were paid or pitched.
Then I produced a two-city traveling art exhibition and charity auction. I gave blank decks to Shepard Fairey, Barry McGee, Os Gemeos, Mike Giant, Persue, Steve Caballero, and Jason Lee and Chris Pastras of Stereo Skateboards — artists I genuinely admired — and asked them to paint. We fabricated every finished board into a one-of-a-kind bag. The show opened at Lab101 Gallery in Culver City and traveled to Powerhouse Gallery in New York. Proceeds went to Adaptive Action Sports, the nonprofit founded by Amy Purdy. Sponsored by Stereo Skateboards, etnies, and WE clothing.
Got covered. No publicist. No paid media. Just something worth writing about.
Brand identity · Community platform · Industry advocacy · New York · 2020–2023
When New York legalized cannabis in 2021, I wanted to understand it — not casually, but completely. The regulations, the licensing process, the equity questions, who was going to get access and who was going to get shut out. I spent three years learning it seriously.
What I found was a community of people — entrepreneurs, advocates, former operators from the underground economy — who were all trying to navigate the same complicated, politically charged process with almost no reliable information. So I built a platform for them.
The platform launched as the Uptown Cannabis Coalition, rooted in the Washington Heights and Inwood communities where I lived. As the audience and mission expanded citywide, it evolved into MarySays — a name that said what it was. A voice that cut through the noise and just told you what you needed to know. We grew to 3,000 followers through interviews with industry insiders, in-person education events, and honest, useful information at a time when almost none existed.
I also advocated publicly for fairer licensing rules — particularly for people from communities most affected by decades of prohibition who were being systematically excluded from the industry they'd helped build. And I designed brand identity and packaging for cannabis companies trying to do it right: credible, considered, and built for a category the world was still figuring out how to take seriously.
The platform didn't become the business I'd planned. But it became something I'm proud of — a community that trusted the information it was getting, and a body of brand work that proved you could bring real craft to a space most people were still treating as a novelty.
Why is Citi sponsoring the Olympics? Simply because these athletes, just like business owners, parents, or retirees, are Americans who constantly try to make progress towards their larger goals. And Citi’s goal is supporting American progress, wherever people compete for something better.
Agency: Jeff Weston (ECD), Arturo Aranda (CD), David Bourla (CD), Everett Ching (AD), Tim Yuen (CW), Keiji Ando (AD), Derek Shevel (CW), Said Farad (AD)
The classic challenge, "make our brand relevant and fresh but we have no money to really change the stores or anything".
We had to make Foot Locker appeal to a younger audience and sneaker heads. We created a series of ads that spoke directly to these connoisseurs and was more street and less celeb than Foot Locker has been in the past.
Revamping the stores was out, so we decided to bring limited edition shoes to the streets in cargo container pop-up shops. Art and music are both part of the sneaker culture so a streaming music app which is powered by Pandora allows you to listen to music playlists based on your favorite sneaker.
When was the last time you thought about the Port Authority? Probably when you were stuck in traffic on the GWB and pissed. so we invite people to go ahead and BLAME THE PORT AUTHORITY.
There is no pulling the wool over they eyes of New Yorkers, so we come right out and admit the unavoidable fact that while we’re fixing the stuff that needs to be fixed, it's gonna suck.
Signage in work zones will take the steam out of their anger, and direct them online for more info. The landing page will give New Yorkers exactly what they are looking for, a straight answer and a place to speak their minds. And a mobile app will help guide people through their weekly commutes.
With summer coming we encouraged people to love their shape in a way that only Crunch could.
Starbucks hated ads, but wanted ads. We tried to make ads that didn't feel like ads but fit into the coffee culture that starbucks was creating.
Classic American brand meets a classic American slacker. A marriage made in comedy heaven.
A small mobile company from Mississippi with some amazing service and even better stories. We also had to create product ads that showed customers they had the latest technology. Being able to use "Black Diamond" in a commercial was too good to pass up.
Digital is coming! Digital is coming! With sales of film plummeting, Polaroid wanted to inspire industry professionals to fall in love with film all over again.
Volkswagen was a great way to start my career. A brand people wanted to love and a client who knew the best way to make that happen was to have fun.
