AI made the work faster.
But it made my bar higher.
AI made the work faster.
But it made my bar higher.
AI made the work faster.
But it made my bar higher.
I'm a creative director. Over twenty-five years, most of it leading teams inside companies where the work has to clear legal, six stakeholders, and a deadline that already passed.
I started in advertising at DDB and FCB, running HP's consumer work with fifteen designers and writers under me. At Digitas I was lead art director on American Express's global online award-winning campaigns: cards, entertainment and culture, Tribeca, Broadway, the US Open, Amex Presents.
eBay Enterprise was a rescue. They'd decided to shut the affiliate creative department and most of the staff was already gone. I was asked if it could be saved and said yes. I rebuilt it around one standard and a 20-person team in Costa Rica I'd worked with before, and it shipped for 30-plus clients at a level the company hadn't seen from it.
Then a decade at Citi. I proposed an in-house studio after management saw what I could produce alone, built it from zero with three people, and ran it at half the cost and half the time of the vendor quotes we benchmarked against. I also put the first AI creative tools into production there, on a global training series that had no studio, no shared equipment, and presenters in six time zones.
I've been independent since August 2025, back to making things. Most of my work now runs through a pipeline I built in Figma Weave: Midjourney, Firefly, Runway, Kling, Higgsfield, Seedance, with HeyGen, ElevenLabs and Descript on the side. The tools got faster. The bar didn't move. I can still tell when a generated frame is impressive and bad design at the same time.
For fun, I'm a published photographer and a Croatian cookbook author.
I'm a creative director. Over twenty-five years, most of it leading teams inside companies where the work has to clear legal, six stakeholders, and a deadline that already passed.
I started in advertising at DDB and FCB, running HP's consumer work with fifteen designers and writers under me. At Digitas I was lead art director on American Express's global online award-winning campaigns: cards, entertainment and culture, Tribeca, Broadway, the US Open, Amex Presents.
eBay Enterprise was a rescue. They'd decided to shut the affiliate creative department and most of the staff was already gone. I was asked if it could be saved and said yes. I rebuilt it around one standard and a 20-person team in Costa Rica I'd worked with before, and it shipped for 30-plus clients at a level the company hadn't seen from it.
Then a decade at Citi. I proposed an in-house studio after management saw what I could produce alone, built it from zero with three people, and ran it at half the cost and half the time of the vendor quotes we benchmarked against. I also put the first AI creative tools into production there, on a global training series that had no studio, no shared equipment, and presenters in six time zones.
I've been independent since August 2025, back to making things. Most of my work now runs through a pipeline I built in Figma Weave: Midjourney, Firefly, Runway, Kling, Higgsfield, Seedance, with HeyGen, ElevenLabs and Descript on the side. The tools got faster. The bar didn't move. I can still tell when a generated frame is impressive and bad design at the same time.
For fun, I'm a published photographer and a Croatian cookbook author.
I'm a creative director. Over twenty-five years, most of it leading teams inside companies where the work has to clear legal, six stakeholders, and a deadline that already passed.
I started in advertising at DDB and FCB, running HP's consumer work with fifteen designers and writers under me. At Digitas I was lead art director on American Express's global online award-winning campaigns: cards, entertainment and culture, Tribeca, Broadway, the US Open, Amex Presents.
eBay Enterprise was a rescue. They'd decided to shut the affiliate creative department and most of the staff was already gone. I was asked if it could be saved and said yes. I rebuilt it around one standard and a 20-person team in Costa Rica I'd worked with before, and it shipped for 30-plus clients at a level the company hadn't seen from it.
Then a decade at Citi. I proposed an in-house studio after management saw what I could produce alone, built it from zero with three people, and ran it at half the cost and half the time of the vendor quotes we benchmarked against. I also put the first AI creative tools into production there, on a global training series that had no studio, no shared equipment, and presenters in six time zones.
I've been independent since August 2025, back to making things. Most of my work now runs through a pipeline I built in Figma Weave: Midjourney, Firefly, Runway, Kling, Higgsfield, Seedance, with HeyGen, ElevenLabs and Descript on the side. The tools got faster. The bar didn't move. I can still tell when a generated frame is impressive and bad design at the same time.
For fun, I'm a published photographer and a Croatian cookbook author.
Clients:
Clients:
MyWork
MyWork
MyWork
Brand Systems
Campaigns
Product Design
Motion & Video
AI Production
In-House Teams
Project Callouts
Project Callouts
Project Callouts
Citi In-House Studio
Citi In-House Studio
Every piece of high-stakes design at Citi went out to agencies, at agency rates on agency timelines. I proposed building the capability in-house, then built it from zero. Three people. Between us: credit cards, investor decks, mobile and web, brand, print, motion, illustration, an internal photo studio, and global event environments down to the signage and apparel. At that size, systems are the only way the math works, so we built the templates and libraries that let every request start from something instead of nothing. Half the cost and half the time of outside vendors, benchmarked against real quotes. I ran it for almost a decade.
Every piece of high-stakes design at Citi went out to agencies, at agency rates on agency timelines. I proposed building the capability in-house, then built it from zero. Three people. Between us: credit cards, investor decks, mobile and web, brand, print, motion, illustration, an internal photo studio, and global event environments down to the signage and apparel. At that size, systems are the only way the math works, so we built the templates and libraries that let every request start from something instead of nothing. Half the cost and half the time of outside vendors, benchmarked against real quotes. I ran it for almost a decade.
Citi Open Banking
For the first time in its history, Citi was opening its tools up to external developers. I led visual design and experience on the Developer Hub, the platform that made that shift real. The core principle was simple: don't describe the APIs, show what developers could build with them. We organized the site around end-to-end customer journeys, built a full sandbox testing environment directly into the product, and gave serious real estate to partner success stories. Launched with roughly 6,700 users and kept adding hundreds of developers month over month.
Citigold
Citigold
Citigold
Citi's highest-value clients were stuck waiting — trades went through a financial advisor, and approval could take hours while markets moved. I led design on the rebuild, working across an internal team and two external agencies to ship a single coherent product. The new app gave clients real-time investing, a portfolio-first dashboard, and end-to-end wealth management, with the advisor still one tap away. Results: 95% cost reduction vs. the old workflow, roughly 2,500 new clients at launch, hundreds of thousands of daily active users, and a 75% drop in brokerage approval time.
Citi's highest-value clients were stuck waiting — trades went through a financial advisor, and approval could take hours while markets moved. I led design on the rebuild, working across an internal team and two external agencies to ship a single coherent product. The new app gave clients real-time investing, a portfolio-first dashboard, and end-to-end wealth management, with the advisor still one tap away. Results: 95% cost reduction vs. the old workflow, roughly 2,500 new clients at launch, hundreds of thousands of daily active users, and a 75% drop in brokerage approval time.
Citi's highest-value clients were stuck waiting — trades went through a financial advisor, and approval could take hours while markets moved. I led design on the rebuild, working across an internal team and two external agencies to ship a single coherent product. The new app gave clients real-time investing, a portfolio-first dashboard, and end-to-end wealth management, with the advisor still one tap away. Results: 95% cost reduction vs. the old workflow, roughly 2,500 new clients at launch, hundreds of thousands of daily active users, and a 75% drop in brokerage approval time.
Citi Open Banking
Citi Open Banking
For the first time in its history, Citi was opening its tools up to external developers. I led visual design and experience on the Developer Hub, the platform that made that shift real. The core principle was simple: don't describe the APIs, show what developers could build with them. We organized the site around end-to-end customer journeys, built a full sandbox testing environment directly into the product, and gave serious real estate to partner success stories. Launched with roughly 6,700 users and kept adding hundreds of developers month over month.
For the first time in its history, Citi was opening its tools up to external developers. I led visual design and experience on the Developer Hub, the platform that made that shift real. The core principle was simple: don't describe the APIs, show what developers could build with them. We organized the site around end-to-end customer journeys, built a full sandbox testing environment directly into the product, and gave serious real estate to partner success stories. Launched with roughly 6,700 users and kept adding hundreds of developers month over month.
Citi Open Banking
For the first time in its history, Citi was opening its tools up to external developers. I led visual design and experience on the Developer Hub, the platform that made that shift real. The core principle was simple: don't describe the APIs, show what developers could build with them. We organized the site around end-to-end customer journeys, built a full sandbox testing environment directly into the product, and gave serious real estate to partner success stories. Launched with roughly 6,700 users and kept adding hundreds of developers month over month.
ebay enterprise
ebay enterprise
ebay enterprise
eBay had decided to shut the affiliate advertising and creative production department down. Most of the staff had already been let go. I was asked if it could be saved and said yes. I rebuilt the operation around a single creative standard, streamlined workflows, and a 20+ person distributed design team out of Costa Rica that I'd worked with before. Within a short window, the unit was profitable and shipping across 30+ mid-market and enterprise clients at a standard the company hadn't seen from it before.
eBay had decided to shut the affiliate advertising and creative production department down. Most of the staff had already been let go. I was asked if it could be saved and said yes. I rebuilt the operation around a single creative standard, streamlined workflows, and a 20+ person distributed design team out of Costa Rica that I'd worked with before. Within a short window, the unit was profitable and shipping across 30+ mid-market and enterprise clients at a standard the company hadn't seen from it before.
Citi Risk Reduction: IDS
Citi Risk Reduction: IDS
Citi needed to train a globally distributed workforce on inclusive design and accessibility — but there was no studio, no shared equipment, and presenters scattered across time zones. I built a capture workflow that let them record on whatever they had and used emerging AI tools to unify the footage in post, standardizing backgrounds, lighting, and audio into a single coherent series. It was the first time AI creative tools were introduced at Citi — and it collapsed a multi-month, multi-vendor production into something the business could actually ship on time.
Citi needed to train a globally distributed workforce on inclusive design and accessibility — but there was no studio, no shared equipment, and presenters scattered across time zones. I built a capture workflow that let them record on whatever they had and used emerging AI tools to unify the footage in post, standardizing backgrounds, lighting, and audio into a single coherent series. It was the first time AI creative tools were introduced at Citi — and it collapsed a multi-month, multi-vendor production into something the business could actually ship on time.
Citi Risk Reduction: IDS
Citi needed to train a globally distributed workforce on inclusive design and accessibility — but there was no studio, no shared equipment, and presenters scattered across time zones. I built a capture workflow that let them record on whatever they had and used emerging AI tools to unify the footage in post, standardizing backgrounds, lighting, and audio into a single coherent series. It was the first time AI creative tools were introduced at Citi — and it collapsed a multi-month, multi-vendor production into something the business could actually ship on time.
Thea
Thea
Thea
In 2019 Citi was invited to respond to an RFP from Thea, a women-focused fintech challenger, and I led design across the full proposal: brand system, 38-page deck, working app prototype, card design, and launch activations. I built the visual system end to end, from the yellow palette and persona framework to the Thea card, whose personalized taglines carried the whole brand idea on the smallest deliverable in the deck. We didn't win, but the lesson stuck: when brand and product are designed by one team in one room, they don't read as consistent, they read as one thing.
In 2019 Citi was invited to respond to an RFP from Thea, a women-focused fintech challenger, and I led design across the full proposal: brand system, 38-page deck, working app prototype, card design, and launch activations. I built the visual system end to end, from the yellow palette and persona framework to the Thea card, whose personalized taglines carried the whole brand idea on the smallest deliverable in the deck. We didn't win, but the lesson stuck: when brand and product are designed by one team in one room, they don't read as consistent, they read as one thing.
What I do for fun
What I do for fun
What I do for fun
Office fun
For fun over the years we did some personality tests in the office … so why not share them!
For fun over the years we did some personality tests in the office … so why not share them!
Office fun
For fun over the years we did some personality tests in the office … so why not share them!