Businesses frequently combine Marketing and Communications into the same position (aka “MarComm”). As a result, many people falsely assume that Communications and Marketing are interchangeable words meaning the same thing. They don’t.

Sure, they both fall under the umbrella of Outreach and Engagement, requiring strong written and collaborative interpersonal skills. They also share the common goal to inspire target markets to take action. However, these two critical roles in business can veer off in alternate directions, requiring different outlooks, priorities, strengths, skill sets and vocabularies. Clearly not one in the same, both are required for success.

During my recent visit to Derry-Londonderry and West Belfast in Northern Ireland, I learned a tremendous amount while walking around to view the politically charged street murals of the past and present. Through potent visual messaging, they fervidly expressed the ideologies of the two sides of the region’s continually evolving conflict. It struck me how the most radical views that breed war repeatedly share the same character traits, as chillingly echoed throughout the political discourse of today.

Before my visit, my understanding of the late 20th century period of sectarian violence known as The Troubles was that it was an…

One of my greatest creative influences is the legendary composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim. Throughout my 20+ year career, I continually defer to his core principles to lyric writing, as they apply to the foundation of crafting all forms of effective visual and verbal storytelling. My thoughts on how these principles apply to communications design:

Content Dictates Form

Automation and templates can be useful and efficient, especially with online communications. Unfortunately, they can also detract audiences by homogenizing content and diluting messaging.

When using templates, it is important to customize your materials so that each image and piece of text appears to have been created…

My recent journey down memory lane reminded me why being distinctive and consistent is essential when crafting creative communications that resonate with target audiences.

I was born and raised in Las Vegas, New Mexico, the largest town on the eastern slope of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains that’s an hour’s drive from Santa Fe. My hometown is a pretty eclectic place for its small size of 14,000 residents. It has two primary town centers with coinciding rival school districts. West Las Vegas includes the Old Town Plaza (as featured in such movies as Easy Rider and No Country for Old…

During my recent return visit to Great Britain, I couldn’t help but continually feel history’s transformative impact over the past two decades since I lived in central England.

In the mid-late 1990s, I attended the University of Warwick, on the border of Coventry, a West Midlands industrial city, and Warwickshire (pronounced War-ic-sher), the historical, pastoral home-county of Shakespeare. While I have been back to London and the UK several times over the years, this was my first visit retracing the steps of one of the most illuminating and transformative periods of my life.

Coventry and Warwickshire are the opposites of…

Often times a story begs to be expressed through the integration of visual and verbal means. This infographic I created exemplifies how designing language can enhance its understanding.

I often share this visual with my students when they are learning how to push though the struggle of creative crisis – which is one of the greatest lessons learned in art school.

When applying it to business, this graphic helps illustrate who I’m able to best help. Those with the openness to learn and grow tend to be either beginners learning the tools of the trade or those who have survived…