UCDA Design Summit

Ben Bilow is a graphic designer and creative director living and working in Chicago. Ben is senior creative director for mStoner, a digital first agency specializing in strategy and design for higher education. Prior to joining mStoner he was a designer and art director for Columbia College Chicago's award winning in-house creative office designing everything from way-finding and viewbooks to environments, websites, and advertising campaigns.

Today, Ben leads the Design and User Experience team at mStoner, working with institutions big and small to reveal great stories that drive discovery and enrollment. His clients include Brandies University, Rush University, University of Rochester, The Colburn School, Mills College, Austin Peay State University, Saint Louis University, and the Drexel University Law School.

For Ben, design is a process that starts with getting to know your audience. Figuring out what matters most to them and learning to anticipate their needs.

Nicholas Briggs, lead creative and founder of Global Business People, has spent the last six years working as a global creative consultant, photographer, and videographer.

Blending an education in Journalism and Mass Communications, and a career in branded advertising and marketing across a myriad of industries, Nicholas has built a global and niche design studio that focuses on telling authentic stories, while highlighting stories with purpose.  

He has also worked for, and been published in, numerous publications in Bhutan, including Yeewong magazine, Bhutan's first ever women's and lifestyle magazine. He has also won the 2015 Applied Arts
Photojournalism Award - Canada's premier visual communications publication - for his work throughout the remote areas of Bhutan.

Nicholas has produced campaigns across nine countries, most recently for an educational study abroad client in July 2016. The campaign took him around Mongolia and China. From nomadic settlements across the Himalayas, to busy streets of high tech Asia, Nicholas has participated, documented, branded, produced, and led multiple educational experiences.

He has used design, storytelling, and creative solutions to leverage the experiences into extended campaign narratives. He's used design to connect with people around the world, from traditional yak herders in Ladakh, students around the world, to leaders of industry in finance and biotechnology.

Nicholas was a panel speaker this past June titled "Storytelling and Your Agency," hosted by MAB Managing an Agency Business.This past January, 2016, Nicholas was invited to lecture and lead a workshop at Carnegie Communications, an annual marketing conference for educational institutions. The presentation was centered around authentic branding and the power of video utilized to tell an engaging story.

Danny Gregory was born in London, grew up in Pakistan, Australia, and Israel, and graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University. He spent three decades as one of New York’s leading advertising creative directors and has created award-winning, global campaigns for clients like Chase, JPMorgan, American Express, IBM, Burger King, Ford, Chevron and many others.

Through his books (Shut Your Monkey, Art Before Breakfast, Everyday Matters, The Creative License, etc.)  and in the several large online communities he oversees, Danny has shown thousands of people how to ignite their inner artists, embrace their creativity, and tell the stories of their lives. From Boston to Beijing, people who haven’t drawn since grade school have picked up the creative habit and have gone on to publish books of their own and show and sell their artwork.

Danny is a co-founder of Sketchbook Skool, a video-based art school designed to inspire creative storytelling through illustrated journaling. Sketchbook Skool encourages its global community of over 15,000 students to draw and keep a sketchbook regardless of skill level.

Here’s the main thing he wants you to know about him: “I love making things and helping other people to find their way to doing the same. I hope you will join me.”

Hayes Henderson first served as designer and later art director for Long, Haymes, & Carr—now Mullen Advertising—developing print communications for Hanes, Wachovia, Planters-Lifesavers, and Nabisco.

He left the agency in 1991 to pursue a career in illustration. Work included cover art for Newsweek, Utne Reader, Business Week, various other promotions and publications such as David Carson’s Beach Culture and Raygun magazines, as well as corporate clients including CNN, American Express, Lufthansa, and Coca Cola.

In 1994 Henderson, along with Troy Tyner, launched Henderson Tyner Art. In 2001 he partnered with Brad Bromstead to form Henderson Bromstead Art. HBA’s work included campaigns for Levi Strauss, Lowe's Home Improvement, Red Hat, Hanes Brands, Champion Apparel, Krispy Kreme, Microsoft, Wake Forest University, Habitat For Humanity, United Way, and Triad Health Project.

In 2011 Hayes became executive creative director and later assistant vice president of Creative Communications at Wake Forest University after he and his studio’s team were recruited to become the university’s Creative Communications team. Since joining WFU, his group has developed initiatives in support of admissions and recruitment, advancement and donor experience, university publications, and development of the university’s current $600M capital campaign.

In addition to HBA’s nearly 200 design awards and inclusion in over 20 books on graphic design, Henderson has served as lecturer and juror for a variety of organizations including UCDA, AIGA, The Art Directors Club of California, ADDY Awards, CASE Awards, the Art Director's Club of Washington, and the 2003 Communication Arts Design Annual.

Hayes lives in Winston-Salem with his wife Elizabeth and their children, Pierce and Livi.

Jeremiah Barba is the digital marketing manager at Up&Up, a higher ed marketing agency in Greenville, South Carolina. His path into marketing began with his love of writing and the arts, and it's taken him to Hawaii, Pennsylvania and back to his Carolina roots. Before Up&Up, he worked on the marketing team at a K-12 HR software company in Philadelphia, managed marketing at an independent school on Oahu, and wrote a great many travel pieces (without the travel) at a content marketing firm in Greenville. His continuing mission is to spread the good word about Up&Up through content marketing, conferences, speaking opportunities and beyond.

Outside of work, he loves wandering downtown Greenville with his wife and two sons, getting involved with his church, and watching food documentaries way too late at night.

Jeremiah tweets from @jeremiahdbarba. For more about Up&Up, check them out on Twitter @upandupagency and Instagram @teamupandup.