Work Portfolio

Here are links to some of my favorite content that I've made in the course of my work!

Blogs

As part of my work at Nakee Butter, I was assigned to write new entries for the company blog. I started by talking about the ingredients of the food we produced, and afterward I was given pretty close to free reign to write about whatever I felt would fit the business, its perspectives and its customers. 

• "Wherever We Go, There We Are"

I was asked to write a piece that, in so many words, walked a very fine balance following the presidential election last year, and touched on the anxieties spawned by that divisive season. I chose to approach both normal and neutral. Tying it back to the company's mission and its love for its home city felt like a natural way to remind people of the common love of community we all have.

• "Discussing Adult Austism Awareness Day"

I am proud to be a person on the autism spectrum. It enables me to look at the world from a different perspective, and through my writing and other creative ventures, provide that same new view to others. This blog was in part about that, and in part about dispelling some of the falsehoods that tend to swirl around autism and those diagnosed with it. Every person with the condition is different, but we do face common hurdles. This blog made it far enough that we received some kind and interesting email feedback, including from a law firm. 

• "A Different Kind of Independence"

One of America's many nicknames is The Great Experiment, and I went into that a bit in this  Fourth of July blog that also touched on how the American Dream is in essence an experiment as well, and a type of independence from corporate cubicles, although not without cost.  I'm very proud of this piece, as the son of two brilliant entrepeneurs who have inspired me every day of my life to reach for the stars.

There were also blogs where I talked about things like Detroit's Eastern Market and its importance to  the business and community,  tips on working from home and a multi-part series on maintaining one's mental health through meditation and building personal resilience.

CBR Articles

There are a few fun pieces in there, and I enjoyed using the pulpit of the popular site to help elevate awareness of some interesting new films and concepts in them. I used this job to expand my cultural horizons a bit, and learn more about different genres and ideas that I hadn't explored before.

• "Gary Oldman May Be Retiring, and Leaving Behind an Incredible Legacy"

I will gladly fight all comers on top of this hill: Gary Oldman is the best actor working. At the time of writing this one, there were murmurs in certain circles that he was considering retirement, and I wanted to exposit on his many, many great performances as a tiny tribute to a titan who did so much to inspire me personally. 

• "An Upcoming Film Might Be The Next Great Dystopian Sci-Fi Story"

This one simply came from me watching the trailer for this movie on YouTube, reading some of the press for it and being utterly enamored with its visual style. It's my dream that at least one person ended up seeing and loving this movie because they read my piece about it. 

• "Netflix's Endless Cancellation Cycle Creates a Long-Term Problem"

I wrote this one right when people were really starting to get burned out by Netflix's one season and done approach to television, and I think it hit a nerve in a good way because of that. I did some really interesting research for this piece, almost getting to pretend to be a journalist for a hot minute, and I had fun analyzing why the company's approach was faulty beyond reason. 

Social Posts

There's a lot of work I did across various social media platforms for Nakee Butter, among other clients. I wanted to share a few of my favorites, but I also wanted to mention how much more I'm able to do now. I learned from the process and experience of making these, and what I can do next will only be better!

• An interview series with the Nakee founders

• Advertising an upcoming Eastern Market event

• An edit with the wonderful Moo Deng

• Writing the captions for the blog links and other posts on LinkedIn

• Of course, the May the Fourth Be With You post! 

Ad Designs

At one point, I was also working on a few designs that sadly weren't implemented in the campaign of a tech company. I really like how the work turned out, though, so I've anonymized it and shared it below:

Personal Projects

As part of my love of all things movies, I've made a hobby of seeking out autographs from some of my favorite actors, directors and special effects creators. I've used Canva to create customized cards for them to sign; several of them have requested additional copies for their own use, or written notes thanking me. These signed cards are some of my most prized possessions; here's a few of the the ones I've designed: