about nick

I was always told to focus on one thing, so that someday I might be great, rather than remain distracted with too many passions and settle for good enough. I never listened, and it paid off when I discovered this job called a “creative director.” I often tell people that great creative directors aren’t great at anything (except careful listening and relentless encouragement), but great creative directors are good enough at a bunch of things, good enough to make the right connections, good enough to speak all kinds of creative (and corporate) languages and always ready to learn a new one.

2017-2021

I’ve spent the last 4 years as Creative Director for an organization called The Center for Action and Contemplation that’s working to envision a future beyond the life of its founder, Richard Rohr. The organization has been around since 1987, and in order to think clearly about the next chapter, we decided to start from scratch with all the big questions. I helped guide this exploration, which resulted in new mission and vision statements, a new set of values, a user-focused strategic framework, and a published brand story book that brings all the pieces together in narrative form. A brand guide, which will include an updated logo, visual strategy, and foundational messaging, will be complete by 2022. I also built the organization’s first creative team, lead the collaboration between our creative and marketing teams, and oversee all creative production for our programs. Some highlights:

• 5 ongoing podcasts, with a sixth on the way, 2 of which reached #1 in “Spirituality” within weeks of launch.

• Book publishing/promotion: see trailer for the NYT bestseller, The Universal Christ, featured on Super Soul Sunday as an Oprah favorite video. Also, here’s a look at our target audience response to the book.

Above: Short cut of the Universal Christ trailer for social. Below: Photograph of Gigi (a colleague) that became a video meditation and book cover for Dr. Barbara Holme’s second edition of Race and the Cosmos.

• Collaboration with artist Kyle Steed: a notebook that guides people through art and meditation using the story of Jonah. See example pages below.

• Consulted on A Man of His Word, working directly with director, Wim Wenders, on the history of St. Francis, narrative structure for St. Francis story, and voice over.

• 7 multi-week online courses taught by CAC wisdom teachers: see course introduction for Mary Magdalene and a still from an upcoming course with Jim Finley.

• The Living School is a 2-year “alternative seminary" that teaches perennial wisdom and practices from many of the world’s contemplative traditions. Below is the introduction to “Dr. B” students encounter in the curriculum.

• Daily Meditations email series sent to over 400k people everyday with over 40% daily open rate. Weekly meditative videos inspired by the email content.

• Updated social identity with a focus on Instagram—highlighting “the hand of the artist”—and increased followers by 20k in one year.

• Currently laying the foundation for a documentary on Richard and his message. Just for fun, here’s some BTS that marks the height of my directorial powers.

2014-2017

I started Hank Creative in 2014 as an experiment to see if I could grab enough of the small projects from the large agencies’ share to support myself and the other freelancers around me without giving up our freedom to make what we wanted. It worked. Although both HANK and I have evolved since then, the hankcreative.com website remains almost untouched from its launch date nearly 7 years ago, in part because it represents my original vision well and also because I’ve been too busy to find clarity for its next iteration.

Some highlights from past projects:

• Rebranded The International Bluegrass Museum’s ROMP Festival resulting in a sold-out first weekend and the same in years since.

• Produced/directed short for Seattle Public Schools dual language program featuring kindergartners (reading scripts!).

• Produced/directed two shorts for Seattle Arts and Lectures annual Words Matter Gala.

• Collaborated with Olson Kundig Architects on the Tom Kundig Collection featured at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair. Ongoing design projects as HANK.studio. See below for a window into a project for a big house in CA.

Education

• Graduate of Seattle Pacific University with degrees in English Literature and Philosophy.

• Professional Certificate in Copyediting from UC Berkeley.

• Professional Certificates in Design Thinking and Creative Leadership from IDEO U.

• Ongoing racial justice training from Race Forward and affiliates.

Psychology

• Resonates with an Enneagram 4, 3 wing.

• ENFP on the MBTI

• Top strengths: Adaptability, Activator, Ideation, Intellection, and Strategic. (Strengths Finder used to be a thing).