SNOW BLACKWOOD

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

MAGIC: Snow grew up surrounded by family artists, studied art & design and is an artist + graphic designer herself. For 20+ years she’s focused all that creative energy on delivering powerful messages that elevate businesses and nonprofits, small, medium and large.

PROOF: Snow has worked her magic as Creative Design Manager for Papa Murphys, as designer for Willamette Week and as Publication Savior* at Oregon Home Magazine. Now her vision guides the team at SBD as we create compelling concepts & designs for a multitude of varied clients.

FAME CLAIM: Snow started at Oregon Home Magazine as a temp Art Director. But the ailing publication was about to fold, and she had the skills to resuscitate it. Quickly rising to Associate Publisher, then Creative Director & Editor, she rebranded OHM, developed issue release parties, increased ad sales by 300%, took the mag from 2 to 4 issues per year & hired great staff from competing organizations. (*Her title, Publication Savior is unofficial, but apt.)

HOW SNOW WORKS LIKE A MOTHER FOR YOU: Snow sees beyond what is to what could be and then uses her creative vision + business skills to take you there.

NICKY CONNERS

PROJECT MANAGER/DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGIST

MAGIC: You know those folks who balance multiple spinning plates on sticks? While doing a bit of juggling on the side? Nicky does that with our many whirling projects while she juggles all the creatives’ assignments. And when she’s not herding cats to keep your project on track, she’s devising effective digital campaigns.

PROOF: Nicky’s done marketing and PMing for a lot of businesses for, oh, a long time – starting with a string of cool coffee/juice shops, moving up through retail stores, then onto ACE Hardware, where she was Digital Marketing Director for 7 Montana stores. (ACE Hardware is consistently rated #1 in its category in Entrepreneur Magazine’s Franchise 500®.)

FAME CLAIM: Character-forming adventures often begin right at home. As the oldest of 5, Nicky grew up as the alpha kid, running her younger sibling pack, making sure they toed the line and made it on time, even becoming adjunct family chauffeur to whisk the sibs to sporting and other events. So stepping into corporate team management and, now, SBD team leadership was a natural for her.

HOW NICKY WORKS LIKE A MOTHER FOR YOU: Nicky was born to plan and manage; your project in good hands.

GINGI TILBURY

GRAPHIC DESIGNER

MAGIC: A lifelong aesthete, Gingi spent her childhood drawing and running through the woods. With a background as an Illustrator and a German design mentorship Gingi concocts visual messages that pare down to the essentials & present you – your brand, product, service, you name it – in a very compelling way.

PROOF: Gingi’s done this for countless Fortune 500 brands and businesses across a wide range of industries from finance and technologies to furniture and fashion. Working in print, web design, packaging, corporate identities, brand positioning and launching global products. Founding partner and Creative Director of  a boutique NYC brand strategy company.

FAME CLAIM: Packed on a whim & moved to London; ended up with an MA in Communication Design from Central St. Martins. Did it again when, after a productive 17 years in branding and design, she heard the trees calling her back and she left NYC for PDX, “to get away from brutal winters, see more nature, and explore new places.”

HOW GINGI WORKS LIKE A MOTHER FOR YOU: Whatever it takes to reach your goal, she’s not afraid to go there.

peter herring

BRAND STRATEGIST / WRITER

MAGIC: Peter packs a weird cranium for a marketing writer; he uses both his left and write brain. Why? It takes both sides of the cranial coin to create a whole value proposition. As copywriter and brand strategist he pulls from the right, concocting compelling copy and creative strategies. While the left brain pours over demo/ psychographics + other market research, plus understands the exigencies of biz – so those words and strategies remain targeted and effective for real businesses in the real world.

PROOF: Since starting his own agency in the 90’s and running it for 10 years, to 2 decades of collaborative freelance since, Peter has achieved results ­– working in all media ­– for a very large number of clients spanning umpteen industries. Tech to financial to lifestyle to architectural/construction to medical to nonprofits to lots of things on wheels. From small local to Fortune 500, national nonprofits, and international tech.

FAME CLAIM: In the mid 2000s, Peter traded his monitor for a windshield, turning his wanderlust into a six year stint as travel writer/photographer, hopping into his trusty VW Vanagon and heading all over the continent to shoot, blab with locals, conduct local brewery/winery research, and write stories that made other people want to go there.

HOW PETER WORKS LIKE A MOTHER FOR YOU: Peter has the uncanny ability to weave word spells that compel your clients and prospects to want to go where you want them to go. And do that thing you’d like them to do.

CAROLYN SABIN

COMMUNITY MANAGER / WRITER

MAGIC: Carolyn’s passion for writing and organizing began as a child. Growing up in Iowa, she could always see bigger and better things on the horizon. She moved to Oregon on a whim 20 years ago and has learned that trusting your gut and taking risks often produces the most fruitful results.

PROOF: After receiving a B.A. in Communications from Portland State, Carolyn set out to tackle the Portland media game. She’s worked for newspapers, radio stations, print publishers, film production studios, and even a sound studio and a video licensing company. She knows how to get your brand seen, heard, and connected to. You can trust in her years of bringing people together.

FAME CLAIM: Carolyn likes music. Ok, like isn’t strong enough, she LOVES music. Her love for music and sharing live event experiences has taken her to some exciting places. You may have seen her in the photo pit snapping pictures at your favorite venue or read her review of those shows or maybe you’ve been to an event she curated. She is always up for chatting about or discovering new music! Feel free to look the other way (or join in!), if you catch her chair dancing at the office.

HOW CAROLYN WORKS LIKE A MOTHER FOR YOU: When the name of the game is communication, Carolyn has the winning strategy.

TOM LUX

BRAND STRATEGIST / WRITER

MAGIC: Left, meet right. Tom possesses a rare mixture of left brain analytics and right brain creativity.  He likes facts, data, charts and syllogisms. With those at his fingertips, he writes advertising and collateral that is strategically sound and thoroughly original. Analytic, meet creative.

PROOF: For nearly three decades Tom has helped create communications for some of the biggest and best brands in the world, including Wells Fargo, Toyota, Epson, Suzuki and many more.  He’s worked in every medium, from web to TV and won multiple awards for his creative output.

FAME CLAIM: Sure, he’s biked across the country, plays a decent game of tennis and makes awesome veggie tacos, but no doubt he’s most proud of the two kids he helped raise.

HOW TOM WORKS LIKE A MOTHER FOR YOU: Tom is ready to go the distance to raise your brand awareness!