Designing for clinics who care.

An extra creative team, without hiring one.

Their CMO had an internal team handling the everyday work, but inevitably, something bigger, different or simply unexpected would land on her desk.

That’s where I came in.

I worked directly with her as an independent creative partner, taking on special projects her team didn’t have the bandwidth to tackle and carrying them from the first conversation through finished production.

No two projects looked quite the same.

An annual report could be followed by a brochure, a stack of business cards, postcards, presentation binders or materials for an upcoming event.

I designed booths and giveaways, created printed communications and developed original illustrations for their design library so the organization had a growing collection of visual assets to use beyond a single project.

The variety was part of what made the relationship work. I knew their organization and visual language well enough to jump into something new without needing a long runway every time.

Sometimes design means standing next to a printing press.

This work was very hands-on.

I regularly met stakeholders on-site to present concepts, hear their feedback and work through ideas together. Once a project moved into production, I worked directly with printers and attended press checks throughout San Diego.

There’s something wonderfully unforgiving about watching your work come off an actual press. Color, paper, finish, folds, alignment. The tiny decisions suddenly become very real.

And I wanted those details to be right.

The best contractors stop feeling like contractors.

Over time, the relationship became less about individual assignments and more about trust.

The CMO knew she could hand me something her team couldn’t take on, introduce me to the people involved, and trust me to figure out what it needed, present the thinking, work through the details and get it across the finish line.

I wasn’t there every day.

I was there when they needed me.