Katie is our Creative Director, our fearless leader, our boss. She founded Design in Mind in 2002 and has nurtured it into the thriving agency it is today. She loves to lead brainstorms and critiques and gives each of us the inspiration to bring our ideas to fruition.
From a young age, Katie knew she was born to create. She grew up in Oakland and spent many of her favorite moments behind an easel. A good friend once told her to “paint what you see” and since then, she has always followed her artistic vision.
As an adult, she shifted her focus to digital art. Katie studied Graphic Design and Photography at San Jose State University and worked as a freelancer for years before moving to Yahoo as a member of the Brand Creative Group. This experience positioned her well to work with companies of all sizes, but it must have been the years spent waiting tables that fueled her commitment to quality service. (right, Katie?)
Outside of work, Katie’s priority is her family. She has a big one and between birthdays, holidays, and other celebrations, it seems there’s always a reason to get together. Good food, good wine and precious memories. Katie’s son Zane was born in 2014 and her new life as a mom keeps her even busier – the hardest and most fulfilling job yet!
When there’s time, Katie loves shopping and exercise. As she says, “sports.” Whether she’s racing to the next shoe sale, making her way to the yoga studio, or simply hitting the gym, she loves staying active. Guilty pleasure? A giant tub of buttered popcorn and a movie date with her husband.
Raymond is the most affable addition to our team. He’s happy every day and tackles even the most tedious projects without complaint. But best of all, “Mr. Sunshine” gives our otherwise high-maintenance team a wingman for every occasion. Want a drink? – Yep. Try that new spot for lunch? – Sure. Stay late to help with a project? – No problem. Raymond is a copilot to whoever needs one and rallies the team when we need it most.
Not long ago, we plucked him from obscurity and his job as a Personal Banker. By day, Raymond’s creative talents had been hidden— crunching numbers to help people with accounts, loans, and credit cards—but off the clock, he spent his time moonlighting as a designer. For seven years, he helped local businesses develop their brands. (He even started working as a contractor for us!) And before joining the team full-time in February, he founded his own apparel company, Native Empire Clothing. …The standard “9 to 5” is never enough.
As a kid, Raymond’s passions were similar to what they are today. He loved drawing, but unlike most kids scribbling portraits and landscapes, Raymond thought up his first rebrands. He spent hours redesigning team uniforms he didn’t like and as early as kindergarten, effectively merged his obsession with sports with his love for illustration. As he’s developed his career, he’s remained uniquely focused on logo design and brand development.
Today, Raymond is also still a sports enthusiast. Despite being a Bay Area native, his favorite teams are the Washington Redskins and the Lakers. (…Blasphemy we will never understand.) And outside of basketball and football fandom, he loves to travel with his wife, explore the area for new restaurants, and spend hours binging old episodes of The Office.
Fun fact: Raymond can’t handle his caffeine. A tall, one-espresso, sugar drink from Starbucks will keep him up all night. Amidst coffee addicts, this is his fatal flaw.
Jenna is our “Veggie Monster.” Every day, her desk becomes a tower of tupperware containers as she nibbles her way through several rabbit meals. She eats more greens in a day than most of us see in a week and plans her menu as thoroughly as she plans our schedule.
Jenna is our Project Manager. She works with our clients to set the expectations for each project, sort through the nitty-gritty details and ensure that we meet our deadlines. …She keeps us busy! But Jenna also fills another role on our team. As Content Strategist, she helps review, write and edit the content for many of our projects.
Jenna’s background makes her uniquely suited to fill her dual-role on our team. She earned degrees in Communication and English at Santa Clara University and went on to study Graphic Design. Her passion to create (and more so to write) dates as far back as early childhood. She was given her first laptop as a youngster and toted it everywhere, starting an anthology of short stories and poems that has spanned a lifetime.
The early years of Jenna’s career were spent as a designer at a web development agency and later, at a technology start-up. But in both cases, she transitioned her role to focus on project strategy and management. Now, her design background is an important tool in discussing projects with our clients.
Outside of work, Jenna enjoys daily kickboxing and yoga workouts, hosting parties and traveling as much as she can. But she is best known for two things: an incredibly eclectic taste in music and extreme Vegetarianism. Fun facts: She has attended 17 concerts in the last 8 months and was forced into a “green” diet by a rare allergy to protein. She spends a lot of time in the kitchen, experimenting with recipes that help redefine what food means to someone with her condition.
Daryl is meticulous. While his nickname “Designated Daryl” certainly stems from his reputation as a safe ride home from any party, it’s equally applicable to his scrupulousness. Daryl is our point-man for anything technical. Numbers, spreadsheets, diagrams and specs are his forte.
Daryl fixes the unbroken. He loves to build and takes things apart just to put them back together again. Even as a child, he was a little MacGyver. He built his own toys from scrap materials and quickly learned improvisation is half the battle. “It’s how I got creative,” he says.
At work, he approaches projects the same way: If something isn’t working, how do we fix it? And if it is, how do we make it better? His brain is an index of calculations, solutions and for fun, useless facts. But the best side effect of his maniacal need for order? A very organized Dropbox.
Daryl earned a BS in Graphic Design, but even before he began his formal education, he had an extensive knowledge of design software. He was self-taught, but beyond proficient, as his second career demanded the skills.
That’s right, his second career. Daryl is a workaholic—by day, a graphic designer, and around the clock, a professional photographer and cinematographer. He spends most weekends shooting weddings and events and rarely emerges from behind the screen or lens.
Though he doesn’t sleep much, Daryl still manages to find time for cycling, archery and occasionally joining us for happy hour (food). But don’t worry! He’ll keep chugging along. Though Daryl has never had a drop of alcohol, he’s already consumed a lifetime supply of Red Bull!
Amos walks through the door a bundle of energy. A “people person” through and through, he brightens the office and has a natural knack for sales. He charms prospective clients with a friendly smile and good faith, and though he may technically be a salesman, he never seems like he’s selling anything. It’s a talent.
Amos’ has nearly twenty years of experience in sales and business development. He’s worked for companies like Advanced Discovery, Atlas ESI Management and Apple, and has filled a range of positions. Some were more technical (he studied mechanical engineering in college) and others purely focused on client relations. But in all cases, his natural ability to communicate and interact has paved his path.
Amos is also an entrepreneur. He started two local businesses that fused his interest in people with his passion for fitness. The first was a private training gym called BodyWorks. Amos has a degree in Sports Medicine and loves to help people get fit and healthy. Later, he opened a shop called “State Bicycle Campbell” where he built and sold beautiful fixed-gear bikes.
To top it off, Amos also has an eye for design. Not only was he heavily involved in the branding of his own businesses, but he’s now an important source of feedback for our team. Seasoned salesman, serial entrepreneur, fitness guru and artistically inclined—a bit of a phenomenon, really.
Amos’ hobbies are extremely active. Beyond working out and training others, he likes cycling, golf, tennis, snowboarding, volleyball, jumping out of planes …anything that keeps him moving. He has, however, been banned from “extreme” sports. By whom? Katie.
With Amos an active part of the team, Design in Mind is officially a family business. Katie and Amos are happily married, committed to the success of the company and busy raising our little mascot. Just over a year old, their son Zane has given Amos his greatest coaching gig yet.
Kelly keeps our office well-caffeinated. During her first week, she resurrected our coffee pot and naturally assumed the role of "Coffee Crusader." Since she came on board, our team's consumption has seen a steady rise. The pot is always half full, with a good jolt just in reach. Someday, we may even share the same enthusiasm over a new roast or join her in drinking it black.
Tackling each day well-fueled, Kelly loves the challenge of design. She claims Illustrator as her best friend ("Vector over pixels any day!") and is fascinated by a seemingly simple graphic's ability to represent ideas and entities much larger. Previously, Kelly worked as the designer for a local congressional campaign and as a Studio Designer at a real estate agency. Joining our team has brought her into a bigger design world, where every project is vastly different—a new adventure, requiring a new strategy. She's loving it!
Kelly graduated Magna Cum-Laude from the Art Institute of California but has always explored creative spaces. As a kid, she collected box sets of art supplies—training herself to color inside the lines while naturally beginning to think outside of them. With growing curiosities, her family also taught Kelly to sew. She sorted through rooms full of fabric and learned her earliest lessons in color, texture, and pattern. Before ultimately focusing on Graphic Design, she even earned an AA in Fashion Design.
Outside of work, Kelly spends a lot of time with her fur-babies, Rudy and Dolly. They're big, muscly dogs (a bandogge and pitbull) and while one likes to snuggle, the other rarely settles down. Kelly also enjoys girl time—bottomless mimosas, impulse shopping and dance parties—and road trip adventures with her boyfriend. Her quirky, fun-loving personality fits our team like a glove and we are thrilled to have her.
Fun fact: Though you might never guess it, Kelly absolutely loves gangster-rap. Her first music purchase was Notorious B.I.G. on cassette. …Growing up, her mom was a gospel singer in a traveling music group. That must be where she gets it.
Jady joined us last Summer as a talented intern. She dove right in and quickly adapted to our pace and process. In just a few short months, she helped us work on a range of projects—presentations, massive marketing campaigns, and new brands—and when summer ended, we couldn’t let her go. While she’s working toward her BFA at the California College of the Arts, she’s also commuting back and forth from the city and keeping her place on our team.
Jady was a bit of a nomad growing up. She was born and raised in Taiwan, but moved around with her family quite a bit and spent years in Portland and Singapore. She came to the United States for college and has been here for almost six years. In Asia, art careers aren’t nearly as valued and though she happily followed her passions across the globe, she does go ‘home’ as often as she can.
As a kid, Jady collected books. And today, she can still stare at them for hours in amazement. Book covers are essentially a single image meant to reflect the value of the pages within. They must stand out on a shelf, amongst a sea of others, and entice people to pick it up and look deeper. The same is true of most design projects and it is with that spirit that Jady stays fascinated by her work. Not surprisingly, she dreams of one day focusing on package design—her own creations decorating shelves, much like her beloved books. For now, she gets the same thrill from seeing her designs printed, presented, or fighting for attention on social media.
Outside of work, Jady’s favorite activities run the gamut. She loves staying in bed all day to binge-watch tv shows—Game of Thrones, House of Cards, Narcos, etc. And then when she’s feeling too cooped up, she escapes on long bike rides to the Golden Gate Bridge or Sausalito. She also combats the long hours of screen-gazing with activities like hiking, rock-climbing and nighttime photography. Life is about balance and a good dose of adventure for every long day of lazy.
Fun fact: Jady often brings a lunch but if poke is an option, it’s game over. Our “Poke Princess” is obsessed. If it’s walking distance from where the rest of us are going, you can bet to see a bowl in her hands. Raw fish and avocado…we found her weakness.
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