Snow Crane
Creative Director
Tom and I have worked together on multiple projects within varied companies. The strengths I noticed at the start continue to shine.
He is sensitive to peoples unique strengths and his teams respond to his kindness and lack of ego. He is an extremely conscientious leader and uses his background in psychology to better understand his clients and his teams. Being a natural with people I’ve seen him comfortably navigate between being the leader, guiding the talent, negotiate with the vendor and impress the CEOs. He is as comfortable in the board room presenting as out shooting.
His talent in the visual arts be it Photography, Video or Graphics is a cut above. They way he captures light and the story behind his pieces continues to impress. When Tom creates, it’s from his honest perspective and people resonate with it.
If Tom’s name is attached to a project, it will be a success and I’m always hopeful I’ll be included!
London Reid
UX / Product Designer
I highly recommend Tom for any creative or marketing position. As a creative, Tom’s skillset is extremely impressive. From typography, to video editing, to graphic design and UX, Tom can do it all. I’ve seen him develop ideas with a broad cultural awareness, focus in on user-centric strategies, and execute creative production efficiently and effectively across teams and departments. His ability to collaborate and confidently present his ideas directly impacted our marketing campaigns and led to company-wide success.
As a marketer, Tom has a keen eye for gathering data on market trends and adapting that data into actionable strategies. He keeps his focus on where the market is going rather than where it has been. This ignited a lot of passion in me as a UX Designer because I felt confident in the direction he pushed. His direction encouraged a lot of valuable experimentation and innovation that helped our products reach higher potentials than we thought they could.
As a manager he was instrumental to my success. During our time working together I proposed we create a design system for our brands to improve design operations. He showed immediate support and helped me fine-tune the proposal and eventually helped me launch the design system which has since been instrumental in my team’s collaboration and hand-off processes.
As a coworker, Tom is great to be around. It’s a pleasure working with someone so positive, inclusive, constructive, and kind. Any idea shared with Tom is a good idea and he has a talent for workshopping ideas and developing them into something special but never takes the credit for himself. Any time I had a crazy idea, Tom was willing to lend an ear. On top of that, he also frequently did Starbucks runs for our team which is always nice.
I’m very fond of the time I had working with Tom and envious of whoever ends up working with him in the future. He’s an exceptional creative, marketer, manager, coworker, and person.
Kyle Casteel
VP Marketing
There's no telling what Tom can do, if there's a way he'll find it.
Juliette Facklam
Sr. Designer
Tom was an absolute dream to work with. He’s professional, talented, and a hard worker. Of course, many candidates have these traits l. However, I believe it’s Tom’s empathetic leadership style that sets him apart from the rest. He’s able to show compassion to his team, as well as guide them to success through his skill as a creative. I’m honored to have had the pleasure to work with someone of Tom’s caliber.
David DeMartini
President, Marketing
One of the most talented creatives I've worked with.
Q: Do you enjoy working with a team?
A: Yes, both immediate team members, and cross-departmentally. I feel that a large impact of my work is helping others do their best through process and communication improvements, not just what I do myself.
Better to have the whole machine working 2x better than one piece working 10x better.
Q: How do you handle disagreements or conflicts within a creative team?
A: It's always case by case, but the most generally useful tool tends to be company-wide strategy and objectives. It's not about who's right or who's wrong, instead checking every decision back to the higher-level goals and strategy allows for more objective conversations around disagreements.
A piece of design or a photo might be beautiful on its own, but may not convey the specific information or feelings that were strategically decided upon for the campaign. Rather than calling it a bad design or bad photo, I prefer to analyze how well it conveys our intended message, and give points of improvement from there.
Q: How do you typically approach setting the creative direction for a project?
A: Generally it begins with figuring out the root "point" of any project. Who are we talking to, and what are we trying to achieve? From there we can map out what thoughts, impressions, and feelings we're trying to convey to our audience, and strategize the best mediums and creative tactics to do so. The creative direction I give is always heavily rooted in communication goals.
Can you describe your process for managing multiple projects simultaneously?
A: Honestly, a good project management software is the most important thing here. That, and well-ironed processes and SOP documentation. Aside from that, having a good cadence of time-budgeting and prioritization meetings tends to keep it under control, and always knowing when to call an emergency prioritization meeting if there's a big shift that needs to be managed.
Q: How do you foster collaboration and creativity within your team?
A: A lot of it comes down to building good constructive team culture. I like holding "fluency" trainings to help everyone understand each other's work better. In the past, this has helped massively for me and my teams. These trainings help Designers understand the basics of how a Copywriter writes, a Photographer shoots, a Video Editor edits, etc.
Understanding each other role on the team helps everyone stay in touch with original direction better, and keeps the creative machine running more smoothly. It also makes it easier to promote up from within the team, as its easier to tell who can handle a wider scope of responsibility across the different disciplines of the creative department.
Q: How do you stay updated on industry trends and best practices in the creative field?
A: A combination of dozens of industry newsletters, a strong creative network, and being an observant consumer. Every trip to the grocery store, every ad I see, every bit of packaging I get my hands on is field research. It's a curse, but it's so useful that I wouldn't turn it off if I could.
Q: How do you encourage and support the professional development of your team members?
A: The fluency meetings I mentioned earlier are a big help. I've had past employees thank me for those as they've progressed in their careers. I also like to bring a level of career coaching to my 1on1 meetings with my team. We go over their short and long-term goals and I help them refine their vision for their career path.
Often times people just need clarity on what options they have and how their skillset aligns. Some graphic designers dream of being a Creative Director, others dream of still being a Graphic Designer, but for Apple or Nike. There are different tracks for different people.
Q: How do you prioritize tasks and manage time effectively in a fast-paced creative environment?
A: Usually identifying the driver behind each requested deadline, then referencing the overall company goals and strategy to give some kind of pseudo-numerical value to the priority of each task. Good communication throughout as always. If a project needs to be deprioritized due to company priorities, then its crucial to communicate that to the requester and help them understand. If that de-prioritization is losing the company enough money, then it may be time to outsource or expand the team.
Q: How do you typically approach setting the creative direction for a project?
A: Generally it begins with figuring out the root "point" of any project. Who are we talking to, and what are we trying to achieve? From there we can map out what thoughts, impressions, and feelings we're trying to convey to our audience, and strategize the best mediums and creative tactics to do so. The creative direction I give is always heavily rooted in communication goals.
Q: How do you ensure that the creative work aligns with the overall goals and objectives of the organization or client?
A: When creative direction is my responsibility I always invest time at the beginning of the process to meet with stakeholders and understand the real root of our objectives. From there, being extremely clear and communicative to my team so that everyone understands not only what they're doing, but why they're doing it as well.
Q: Can you share any innovative approaches or techniques you've implemented to enhance the creative process?
A: It really depends on the company, but I've gotten good at diagnosing and curating processes for different organizations.
It usually takes meeting with people from adjacent teams and departments, and a few good, long meetings over a whiteboard. I wish there were a magic simple trick, but in the end it usually just comes down to being a good listener who can keep track of the needs of many different parties.
Often times processes are created to benefit just one department, or understanding the context of one problem. But being able to trace the entire flow of operations and identify inefficiencies or room to re-order, enhance, or streamline things is a delicate art.
Q: Can you provide examples of how you've successfully incorporated feedback from clients or stakeholders into a creative project?
A: When I led the 2022 rebrand for Lander, it was a very heavily communicative process. I'd never worked in the outdoor industry before, so I knew I needed to draw information and "industry sense" from those who had been in the field longer than I. I was frequently meeting with key people throughout the company to better understand their views, their pain-points, and their hopes for the new brand.
I've invested a lot of time into being able to have creative conversations with non-creatives. It's a vital part of the job, and really helps getting out of the 'creative echochamber'.
Q: How do you measure the success of a creative project or campaign?
A: Ideally, with as much data/analytics as possible, balanced with a good amount of context. If we don't have numbers to work with, it's all about how well our work was able to communicate the intended message, info, and feelings.
Q: What do you think sets you apart as a candidate?
A: I believe I lie in a sweet spot for this role. I'm seasoned, having lead many teams and dozens of employees, but not so seasoned that I'm stuck in my ways. I've done great work at high levels, but I know my best work is still ahead of me. I'm adaptable, and get along well with people at every level of an organization. I put strategy & people first, and ego, semantics, and personal agendas aside.
In the end I know the dotted line between branding and revenue, and I can work with anyone to better leverage my work to help the bottom line.
I also have a fairly unusual multidisciplinary background. I'm not just a designer who ranked up to oversee an entire creative team. I've personally sat in most roles of a creative team as a Designer, Photographer, Videographer, Editor, Copywriter, Project Manager and 3D Artist.
This allows me to really mentor and advocate for anyone on the team. I don't pick favorites and I see the value in everyone's role.
Here are some kind words from a few of the talented people I've had the pleasure of working with.
Here are some kind words from a few of the talented people I've had the pleasure of working with.