Steve
believes good design should have both contemporary elegance and lasting
appeal. He brings a fresh
approach to design for technology and web companies, softening the sometimes
sterile nature of the high-
tech world through the inuences of his early work in the retail and
hospitality sectors. Steve was mentored
by well-known designer Mauricio Arias and has comfortably managed designers,
art directors, photographers,
vendors, contractors and printers over his 16-year career. With excellent
studio and typography abilities, as
well as skills in multimedia development, Steve strives for a balance
of strong conceptual thinking and solid
execution of design fundamentals. His experience encompasses print,
web, environmental, packaging and
promotional design with a specialty in corporate identity and branding.
In
1995, Steve started his career at Arias Associates, Palo Alto, immediately
after graduating from Cal Poly
San Luis Obispo with a B.S. in Applied Art & Design. He worked under
Mauricio Arias and Karin Byrant on the
redesign of the look-and-feel of Pottery Barn, which won the firm San
Francisco Ad Club’s 1997 “Agency of
the Year“ award. Steve also contributed to the firm's award-winning
work for Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts.
In
1997, Steve became senior designer of Arias Associates, directing a
team of three other designers and
managing the daily affairs of the office. One of the highlights of this
experience was developing a 30-page
brochure announcing the $50-million renovation of the Westin St. Francis
Hotel in San Francisco. The piece
received numerous awards and was featured in several top design publications,
including Graphis Brochure.
Steve's
technology work began as art director of branding for marchFIRST, where
his creative work was
influential to the development of the new Alta Visa brand identity,
launched in 2000. He also designed the
identity and co-led the design of the Web site for Work.com, a joint-venture
between exite@home and Dow
Jones. Later, as senior designer for Apple Computer, Steve was responsible
for maintaining Apple’s offline
presence in their new concept stores. His collateral, environmental
graphics and packaging work was
approved directly through Steve Jobs and helped Apple successfully launch
the stores.
Steve
ventured out on his own having clients such as Cisco, Siebel, Rasvia
Systems, Entrisphere and
the San Francisco Film Arts Foundation. Steve’s identity and Web
site designs for Rasvia Systems helped
them launch the company and secure a second round of funding. For Entrisphere,
Steve's redesign of
their logo and Web site moved the company from their previous "start-up"
image to a more established
telecom company, which was later bought by Ericsson.
In 2006, with wife Dawn Mortensen, Steve launched the collector community
web site Micurio.com.
Self-funded and on their own, they materialized their idea of an interactive
site where all types of
collectors could organize, share, buy and sell collectibles. Through
the experience of planning, creating
and marketing Micurio, Steve gained first-hand knowledge of the Web
2.0 community. When venture
funding dried up in 2008, Steve returned to working in design.
As senior designer for teen site Gaia Interactive, Steve built online
modules for games and created
landing pages. Working closely with writers and UI designers, Steve
was responsible for promoting
virtual goods
as well as creating designs for sponsorship pages and ongoing promotions.
Steve's most recent position is creative director at Affymetrix, a biotech
firm in Santa Clara that
specializes in supplying technology for gene research. Steve has been
responsible for the development
of six major advertising campaigns as well as the day-to-day responsibilities
of an in-house design
department. He manages execution of the corporate brand in all collateral,
advertising, online
marketing, trade show graphics and packaging.
Steve
maintains strong connections with the Bay Area design community. He
often works with his
wife Dawn, a copywriter and marketing manager. They live in Santa Clara
with their two daughters.