HOWDY,

Ever since I was a kid, my favorite toy was a sketchbook. Long car rides? I'd be in the backseat drawing whatever popped into my head — or trying to perfectly capture the look of my favorite movie and video game characters. That moment when a drawing was almost finished and I knew it was good? Nothing beat that feeling.

And honestly, it still doesn't.

I'd always dreamed of using my creativity for my job, and helping people while doing it. I just wasn't sure how that would actually work. So I went into college as a nursing student. Something safe, secure, and impactful.

About three weeks in, I realized I'd made a drastic miscalculation. I dropped it almost immediately.

I decided to say screw it and just do what I was most excited about: design. I fell back in love with creating. Paintings, sculpture, digital — didn't matter. I was just happy to be doing it again.

In 2020, still in school and with some forced free time on my hands, I started my own t-shirt company. I was printing shirts in my tiny bedroom and walking down to the post office to ship them myself.

After a while, it became clear I didn't actually love running a t-shirt business. I loved building the brand. That's what got me excited — not the shirts, the brand behind them.

So I pivoted. I went deep into learning everything I could about brands and how to build them. I started designing with more intention. Picked up projects here and there for friends and family, then eventually made the leap to building bigger brands for real businesses.

But I still felt a little unfulfilled. I wanted to hold my work in my hands and watch it actually play a role in a founder's success — help make their dream a real thing, not just a nice-looking one.

That's how I fell in love with food and beverage. I wanted my work to help people as much as possible, and in food and beverage, a strong brand isn't a luxury reserved for the big guys. It's essential. That felt exciting in a way nothing else had.

So that's where we're at today. Running my own studio from home, with my wife, my son, and our two dogs around me.