Advisory Board

Michael Bartalos’s design work has appeared in a wide range of contexts from Swatch watches and U.S. postage stamps to Giro bike helmets and broadcast spots for Target. His focus is on visual identity, branding, environmental graphics, publication design, illustration, photography, and digital marketing in all forms. Bartalos has held full-time Art Director and Senior Art Director positions at Meta, Brainrider LLC, and Visa, helping their in-house design teams reach their potential and deliver excellence to clients.

Based in San Francisco, he is also the California Academy of Science’s first Affiliate Artist and a grantee of the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists and Writers Program. He was a Stanford Fellow at SOMA Summer in Mexico City in 2013 and Graduate Fellow at the Headlands Center for the Arts in 2014. He is former Chair of the San Francisco Center for the Book’s Imprint Committee and currently serves as Co-Director of ArtMadeHere.org.

Bartalos attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Pratt Institute (BFA), and Stanford University (MFA). His design and illustration work is online at cargocollective.com/bartalos, bartalos.com, and dribbble.com/bartalos.

Interview with Michael: Crafting the Perfect Portfolio

Deniz Coker has over a decade of experience in the digital media and entertainment industry, has worked on multiple Emmy/award-winning productions and has been a member of the Television Academy. After attending the Parsons School of Design and New York University, Deniz worked in film and TV production. He later became an interactive producer at 21st Century Fox, and later The Walt Disney Company, where he helped run a creative studio producing original branded content and interactive advertising.

Deniz has supported top brands launching Super Bowl spots, marketed major theatrical releases, and won awards for innovating a few industry firsts. He presently runs Deniz Coker Productions, a small but thriving creative company servicing the entertainment industry.

Interview with Deniz: Showcasing Your Creativity to Employers

Jessica Layton is a photographer who draws viewers into earth’s wildest places. Her work centers on environmental impact from the development and expansion of the Western United States. She is the recipient of the European Leica Prize. Her work has been exhibited internationally at the Photographers’ Gallery (London, UK), Bunkier Sztuki (Krakow, Poland), Folkwang Museum (Essen, Germany), Rayko (San Francisco, CA) and has completed residencies at the Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris, France), the Wyspa Institute of Art (Gdansk, Poland) and Pepperwood’s Dwight Center for Conservation Science (Santa Rosa, CA). Layton received her MFA in Photography from Royal College of Art, in London. Some of her commercial clients include Norcal Public Media, Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center, American Heart Association, and 1100 Architect Firm. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Interview with Jessica: What Aspiring Photographers Need to Know

Jeff Greco is a multidisciplinary creative who uses technology to make change. Jeff grew up in Northern California, attended Boston University’s College of Communication, and spent a few years working on Conan O’Brien’s shows in Los Angeles. He joined Blue State Digital as a Senior Web Developer during the 2012 campaign season, and later moved to Chicago and served as Engineering Manager at the Obama Foundation. Throughout, Jeff collaborated on interactive music videos and brand projects with directing partner Eli Stonberg under the nom de plume fourclops ::), notably directing the music video for Portugal the Man’s single “Feel it Still”.

After producing highly interactive live streaming events for brands like Old Spice and Audi, Jeff and Eli founded Hovercast in 2018 to further develop their platform for real-time interactivity. Hovercast has since helped raise millions of dollars for campaigns including Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders, and It Gets Better, and partnered directly to create content with tech and entertainment companies like YouTube, Comcast, Amazon, Facebook and Reddit. Jeff has a BS in Film & Television, Boston University College of Communication. Jeff lives with his wife and two kids in Chicago where he enjoys the public library, 3d printing, and electric scooters.

Interview with Jeff: Leaning into Empathy and Problem Solving

For the last two decades, Keara Fallon has led Metrik, an independent design studio based in the Potrero Hill district of San Francisco. She has a wealth of experience working with startups to corporate Fortune 500 clients in all aspects of strategic product design development. From her early career at CKS Group (Apple) and USWeb (Mattel, Shockwave) and then developing her own clients at Metrik (Sony, Yahoo, Motorola, Skype, Realtor.com), she has a keen sense of how to lead a team through a streamlined process of transforming business goals into intuitive and engaging customer facing solutions. Her consultancy has been a strategic force working with clients locally and internationally in the fields of Architecture, Big Data, Biotech, Cloud, Enterprise, Infotainment, Legal, Lending, Messaging, Mobile Platforms, Music, Real Estate, and Telecom. She is known for my work with Sony, Motorola, Skype, and Virtustream (Dell/EMC) and more recently, UnitedLex for helping to solve their next-gen Legal product strategy and design challenges. To learn more about her project work, visit http://www.metrik.com/projects.

Interview with Keara: Entering the UX/UI Design Field

Leslie McDougall is a graphic design practitioner, educator, and a connector of creatives. She has designed branding systems, packaging, products, and communications for major brands, including Cargill, 3M, MacPhail Center for Music, Spice Islands, The University of Minnesota’s College of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resource Sciences, MindWare, Schwan’s. Her design and illustration work has been recognized by Communication Arts, Graphis, How, and Print. Since 2918, Leslie has been an adjunct professor at North Hennepin Community College. In 2023, she began teaching at the University of Minnesota’s College of Design in the School of Graphic Design since 2023. Leslie has been a volunteer co-chair of AIGA Minnesota Design Camp® since 2019, a premier event and the largest regional design conference in the country. Held annually, the immersive 3-day conference features nationally recognized designers, workshops, studio tours, and activities. Leslie holds a Bachelor of Science in Applied Arts and Design from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California. To view her portfolio, visit https://www.leslie-mcdougall.me.

Interview with Leslie: Conveying Your Values in Your Portfolio