Lead Visual Designer & Interim Art Director
PROJECTS – 2021 – 2023
Brand Refresh
In collaboration with Luke Perkins, Austin Smoltz-Saenz, Amanda Lucaj the Brand Team built upon elements of a brand redesign from 2018. We expanded the color palette, refreshed the logo for increased contrast and clarity and updated fonts among other things. The product of which made the Vacasa brand ready to introduce to a wider audience during the companies IPO. The sum combination of these changes was overwhelmingly positive for brand recognition, consistency and awareness.
Vacasa Logo History
Vacasa Logo Horizontal
Vacasa Logo
Vacasa rebalanced Logomark
Vacasa Primary Color Palette
Vacasa Secondary Color Palette
Vacasa Brand Color Usage
Vacasa Website Header Specs
Vacasa Typography
Vacasa Icon Set
Vacasa Icons Reversed
Vacasa Large Eichler Illustration
Vacasa GuestWorks Postcard
Vacasa Bi-fold Brochure
Austin, TX_Lifestyle_22.11.09-115
Vacasa IPO Day
Photo and Video Shoot
As Vacasa grew we were able to collaborate with talented Photographers in amazing locations. I had the pleasure of Directing a photo and video shoot in Austin, TX along with the talented Reneé Hoogs. The purpose of the shoot was threefold. First we needed custom photos for the Real Estate team, second we wanted to show more of the guest experience in a home and third we wanted examples of our smart home technology in context.
Figma Email Template Library
Vacasa sends hundreds of thousands of email to homeowners, guests, employees, prospects and vendors. In addition there were numerous email backend setups behind the scenes. It resulted in very little brand consistency and quality control. Seeing what the product design team had accomplished with Figma libraries and components it made a lot of sense to switch the brand team over to using Figma for all email design needs. Developers loved the new setup as they could grab what they need faster and with more confidence they have the latest design styles and image assets.
Illustration Libraries
Hundreds of illustrations in all imaginable file types and sizes were built by the Brand Team and a few brave freelancers. These were available as Figma components, Adobe Libraries and Google Slide decks. They were used in Product Design, Marketing, Sales, Employee Experience, Social Media and so much more.
Slide Deck Templates
Early on at Vacasa I created, gained approval, trained teams and maintained robust design libraries and templates. The efficiency compounding effect resulted in 30% decrease in designer time to complete a project. This efficiency cascaded through other departments who could also used these templates and get what they need to run an ad or send a sales PDF 50% faster than if they submitted a design request.
Office & Vehicle Signage Guidelines
As Vacasa grew, it became essential to create guidelines for local office signage, interior office signage and vehicle. Combining these three things I created an organized PDF guideline that covered the most common signage uses.
What people are saying
Mike joined the creative team at Vacasa and immediately got to work on the Vacasa brand. Tapping into his diverse experience Mike elevated the creative output of the team working on large projects ranging from corporate guidelines, templates, brand icons, digital, print, and out of home advertisements to name a few. In addition to his own workload Mike managed designers giving them creative direction on projects both large and small. Mike's experience is vast with the ability to work on a strategic level and then down to crafting creative executions. He would be a welcome addition to any team.
Mike is a great designer. He has a great eye and the kind of solid, consistent work ethic found in top-level performers. I'd work with Mike again in an instant. There’s a few things that really made Mike stand out. He’s highly organized and attentive to detail – he moved the TurnKey design team from small/startup to a more structured, organized and mature design team. He articulates the decision-making that goes into his design and engages in thoughtful and reasoned debate. He elevates everything he works on, and is consistently iterating to make the brand, ad, brochure etc better every time he touches it. He’s got strong secondary skills as a user experience practitioner. At TurnKey his mailer campaigns consistently achieved improved results with every round of design.
Mike is an incredibly talented professional, with an amazing wealth of experience in branding, visual design, and optimization. Every project he worked on, Mike basically knocked out of the park. I loved collaborating with Mike at Kahuna, where he brought the company's visual design game from a crawl to a sprint. On top of all of the high quality work that Mike produces, he's just a fantastic person to be around and work with. He completely embodies the Kahuna philosophy of "always be helping," and does so with a genuine heart and a friendly smile. I would jump at the chance to work with Mike again!
Creative. Analytical. Problem-solver. Team-player. All these describe Mike to a T. But beyond his skill as a designer (which is exceptional) and his ability simply get things done (which is invaluable), Mike is quite simply someone who’s fantastic to work with. He cares deeply about his work and his team, always goes the extra mile, and (perhaps most importantly) has a fantastic sense of humor. Any company would be lucky to work with Mike. I know I certainly was!