How did Young Guns get on your radar?

I first learned about Young Guns in design school. I believe that was the same year that Bráulio won. In general, I was always enamored by the award and super impressed by all the winners.

I tried telling myself that accolades didn’t really matter at the end of the day, but in reality, it’s always very special to be awarded for your talent and hard work.

How did you end up in the creative field?

My design career started on Myspace using a cracked version of Photoshop CS3 and making layouts and photo edits for girls I was trying to impress.

Why did you decide to enter this year?

With this being my last year to apply, I figured I finally had the right amount of work to showcase the breadth of my interests. My partner Jordan was very encouraging and pushed me to apply even though I was feeling unsure of my ability to break through.

If it wasn’t for her, I might not have done it at all.

You only get to submit six projects. How did you decide what made the cut?

This process took quite a long time for me and was a great lesson in curation. I’ve sat with this work for so many years that it was only appropriate for me to approach it with a completely new perspective.

I made sure to include the pieces that really defined me despite them being older or me being sick of seeing them. I also decided to include more personal work than I initially anticipated and have fun with writing the descriptions.

“It was a great lesson in curation.”

What was your reaction when you found out you won?

I was sitting on the couch with Jordan at home when I got the email. We were both in the throes of the workday, so I wasn’t able to process it right away, but once we closed our laptops, we immediately went out for margaritas and tacos.

In what ways does where you’re living right now inspire your creativity?

I attribute all of my success to making the leap and moving to Brooklyn all those years ago. Like most of us who reside here, I came here with no friends, no money, and a shit ton of passion for being a key member of the design community.

Over the years, I’ve built a beautiful network of creatives who have become close collaborators and lifelong friends.

Now that you’re a part of the Young Guns community, are there any past winners you look up to and admire?

So many to name, but immediately I think of Elizabeth Goodspeed and Bráulio Amado. Bráulio is the most prolific graphic designer of our generation. He’s our Paul Rand as far as I’m concerned.

I’ve had the great pleasure of becoming friends with Elizabeth who was gracious enough to nominate me for YG this year. Her work as a designer and writer is investigative and confident. I admire her commitment to challenge our community to think more about why and how we do what we do.

If you could create a new Young Guns tradition, what would it be — and why?

Let’s do a big ol’ picnic in Central Park.

Name a creative/professional dream project that you have yet to fulfill.

Would love to work on a NIKE campaign, maybe for a team like ISPA or design a signature logo for an athlete. A24 also comes to mind because I’ve always wanted to work on film titles.

My dream is to work at Rizzoli and make historic art books for the rest of my life.