Who?
Hi. I'm Mike. I'm a designer based in Canada.
I specialize in media and publishing, online and in print, but if you like what you see—whatever your area or project—consider saying hi back →
What I bring to the table
“Mike is the glue that holds the team together.”
- Duncan Clark, CCO, Postmedia.
“Mike was a well respected and beloved member of our team. He is a strong communicator and works well with cross-functional teams. He is able to explain technical things in simple terms, is calm under pressure and always quick to find creative solutions to challenges. I loved working with Mike and would highly recommend him.”
- Amy Gibson, Digital Product Director, SJC.
Hard numbers
3 years at one of Canada’s largest privately owned communications companies, St. Joseph Communications, working on web products for 13 award-winning media brands.
7 years of product design experience in print media designing books, covers, posters, layouts, and promotional materials.
11 years in creative industries, making things independently and in collaboration.
Me, myself, and you
It's my privilege to bring quality and expertise to the products I work on but, in my opinion, the most valuable experience I have is as an advocate and mediator. Whether I’m working with a whole department, a small team, or just you, connection is the basis of everything we make.
A few of the tools I've used
CSS
HTML
Javascript
MJML
Ableton Live
Adobe Suite
Affinity Suite
Figma
FileZilla
Docker
OpenVPN
Sketch
Slack
Tunnelblick
Universal Type Client
VSCode
ADP
Amazon KDP
Asana
Campaign Monitor
Ceros
Confluence
Darwin CX
Elementor
Formstack
GitHub
Google Suite
IngramSpark
Issuu
Jira
Katalon Suite
Litmus
Meta Business Suite
Monday.com
Pelcro
Piano
Ready Mag
Salesforce
Splice
Shutterstock
Tailwind App
Wordpress
Workvivo
How I work
What I've worked on
Frontend development, user interfaces, natural language processing, narrative design, web design, newsletters, promotional media, books, and magazines.
Alyssa Obi Art
Canadian Business
Chatelaine
Châtelaine
Design Diffusion
Elyse Jocelyn Photography
Emory University
FASHION Magazine
FCI Accelerated Solutions
Flare
Government of Canada
HELLO! Canada
Ibbotson Memorial Field Trust
Lagrange Consulting
Maclean's
Milton Keynes Literary Festival
Pink Distortion Music
Quill & Quire
Raconteur Literary Magazine
Rogers Media
St. Joseph Communications
TEACH Media
Today's Parent
Torontoist
Toronto Life
Toyota Canada
University of Alabama, Birmingham
Walmart Canada
Where Canada
XMJ Productions
Product Design?
If you're familiar with the publishing industry you might be wondering why I'm talking about product design when I work on layouts and print media too.
In my experience the modern product design process works shoulder to shoulder with print. Advertising goes beyond a single ad campaign, magazines go beyond a single issue, and media goes beyond digital and analogue; your story transcends its format so why shouldn't your process too?