Make noise. Get noticed.

Spike

What you do at BlackWing: Make Noise. Get Noticed.

Hometown: North Woods.

What you do for fun: Make holes.

Music you like: Percussion.

Favorite food: Termites.

Special expertise: Entomology. Forestry. Pneumatics.

Why you get out of bed and come to work: “Chicks dig woodpeckers.”

Jonathan Butts

What you do at BlackWing: Help bring amazing ideas to life.

Hometown: Kansas City, KS.

What you do for fun: Shoot photos, play with my kids, ride motorcycles, cheer on the Kansas City Chiefs and Kansas Jayhawks.

Most interesting thing you’ve ever done: Wrestle a Bengal tiger.

Music you like: J-Pop, Punk, and Robot Music.

Favorite authors: Milan Kundera, Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury, Steven Brust, George R. R. Martin, China Mieville, Neil Gaiman.

What gets you out of bed in the morning: I get paid to learn interesting things and be creative. What a gig!

Stephanie Cooper

What you do at BlackWing: It’s my job to ensure our team delivers the best possible work — and business results — for my clients.

What you do for fun: Mini golf, snow skiing, cribbage, casino gambling, walking my 125-pound bull mastiff puppy, Gracie.

Music you like: Oldies, Janis Joplin, Jack Johnson, Guns N Roses, old country.

What gets me out of bed in the morning: The pace, the challenge, being around creative minds.

Inspiration: “The more you like yourself, the less you are like anyone else, which makes you unique.” — Walt Disney.

Favorite creative: Ragu – “Long Day of Childhood.”

Tim Hodgson

What you do at BlackWing: Buy camera stuff.

Most interesting thing you’ve ever done: Trip to Moscow in 1989, Gorbachev era.

Music you like: Wings. What else is there?

What you’re passionate about: Travel (mostly Europe), two grandkids, church and charity groups, including sponsored kids in Rwanda and India.

What you like most about our business/your job: The blend of art and technology, interesting variety, always changing/never dull.

Famous person you look like: Jack Bauer. Exactly.

Inspiration: Don VanWyck, my 8th-grade art teacher. His enthusiasm about art was contagious.

Favorite quote: “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” – Douglas Adams

Susie Murphy

What you do at BlackWing: Design Director (which means I Project Manage/Design/Produce and keep jobs flowing until they are fully baked and out the door).

Hometown: Lawrence, KS! Go Jayhawks!

Most interesting thing you have ever done: Committed to having children. It was no longer about me anymore and continues to always be interesting.

Favorite author: Rhonda Byrne.

Favorite movie(s): BoyHood blew me away (was filmed over 12 years). LOVE Patrica Arquette.

Famous person you look like: My daughter’s friend told me I that I look like Hillary Duff the other day. Maybe a mix of Hillary and Patrica Arquette. LOL

Special expertise: Interior Design, Gold Leaf (Gilding), and anything I put my focus on.

Hobbies: Home improvement, pilates, riding my motorcycle, painting and cooking.

Mitch Sieber

What you do at BlackWing: I am an Account Executive in the Seattle office.

Hometown: Snohomish, Washington.

Music you like: Pretty varied. I’ll switch from Pearl Jam to Kendrick Lamar pretty seamlessly.

Most interesting thing you have ever done: Went to the 2014 NFC Championship game. The Sherman tip game.

Favorite author: I’ve read just about everything Bill Simmons has written online.

Favorite movie(s): Inglorious Bastards, Die Hard and Pineapple Express.

Famous person you look like: A cross between a younger Brad Pitt, George Clooney and David Beckham.

Special expertise: How to be very mediocre at fantasy football.

Hobbies: I try to golf as often as I possibly can/afford.

Dara Vann

What you do at BlackWing: I help conceptualize and execute designs.

Hometown: Oakland, CA.

What you do for fun: Family time with my amazing twins!

Most interesting thing you’ve ever done: I’m pretty boring.

Music you like: Hip-hop.

Favorite movies: Early 90’s horror flicks.

Favorite book: Unlabel: Selling You Without Selling Out by Marc Ecko.

Famous person you look like: Comedian Aziz Ansari.

Inspiration: My parents; they are refugees of Cambodia and started a new life here in America.

Inspirational words:  “Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up” – Pablo Picasso.

Gary Meyers

What you do at BlackWing: Responsible for overall agency direction and creative output.

Hometown: Hermosa Beach, CA.

Most interesting place visited: Zambia, Africa.

Fun: Cycling, Pacific Ocean waves, fly fishing, cribbage, books, darts, Washington Reds.

What you like most about our business: The never-abating fascination of working with a variety of people in a diversity of businesses.

What gets you out of bed: Asphalt-black coffee.

Favorite Authors: Ivan Doig, Hunter S. Thompson, David Sedaris, Ray Bradbury, Cormac McCarthy.

Inspirational quote: “Seize this very moment — Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” — Goethe.

Favorite creative: Google and Arcade Fire. “The Wilderness Downtown.”

Kathleen Hart

What you do at BlackWing: I’m an account director in our Bay Area office.

Hometown: Oregon, Ohio.

Music you like: Folk, Alternative, 80s.

Most interesting thing you have ever done: Ran the Boston Marathon.

Favorite author: Tom Robbins.

Favorite movie(s): Breakfast Club, Dirty Dancing, The Martian.

Famous person you look like: Amy Adams (so I’ve been told but I don’t see it!).

Special expertise: Carrot cake maker.

Hobbies: Running, hiking, skiing, volleyball.

Guilty pleasure: Right now, watching Scandal.

Tim Taricco

What you do at BlackWing: Everything and anything digital.

Special expertise: WordPress guru.

What you do for fun: Little League baseball coaching, craft brew tasting.

Most interesting thing you’ve ever done: Lived in Copenhagen for 5 weeks in 2006 with my wife and 2 young boys.

Other skills outside work: Home improvement, technology guru.

Music you like: Anything but country.

Favorite movie: “Shawshank Redemption.”

Hobbies: Facebook. Technology exploration.

What you like most about your job: The team environment.

Famous person you look like: Stephen Colbert.

Inspiration: “One more thing.” — Steve Jobs.

Gina Markovich

Hometown: Tacoma, WA.

After work fun: Theatre, spa time, love doing VO on old-time radio shows.

Music you like: Anything with a good beat.

Food you like: Indian, Vietnamese.

What you’re passionate about: Animal rights.

Famous person you look like: Kristen Vangsness (so I am told).

Words to live by: “What’s done cannot be undone.” – Shakespeare, Lady McBeth Act 5, scene 1, 68.

How you picked the creative industry to work in: I was truly inspired in high school when I joined the yearbook committee.

Guilty pleasure:  Binge watching.

Charlie Worcester

Your role at BlackWing: Listener, critical-thinker, problem-solver, firefighter, occasional miracle worker.

Music: Pink Floyd, hip-hop, 90’s grunge, Pink Floyd, classical, 80’s pop, Pink Floyd, blues, indie rock, and Pink Floyd.

What you’re passionate about: I’m a long-time, long-suffering Seattle sports fan.

Hobbies: None, I’m a parent.

What you like most about our business/your job: The challenge of a really good marketing problem, and collaborating with great people to find a solution.

Creative inspiration: I find inspiration everywhere. There’s an explosion of incredible art, film, design and music online — you just need to know where to look.

Steve Wilcox

What you do at BlackWing: Lead and grow our San Francisco office.

Special expertise: I use my strategic thinking and deep knowledge of cross-channel marketing to help my clients look great to their bosses.

Hometown: Sherrill, NY, which when I lived there was the smallest incorporated city in the United States.

What you do for fun: Netflix “binge watcher” and self-made cook.

Food you like: Give me a cassoulet, and I’m good to go.

Favorite author: David Sedaris kills me.

What you like most about your job: I love people. And the fact that creative ideas come from everywhere.

John Kennedy

What you do at BlackWing: Pipeline builder.

Hometown: Brooklyn, NY.

Favorite Movie: “Goodfellas.”

Music: 80’s alternative.

Food: Thai.

What you’re passionate about: Family.

Hobbies: Travel, food, wine, beer, sports.

What gets you out of bed in the morning: Seeing the ideas that come from our team and the creative output that develops from those ideas.

Inspiration: My parents. My dad is first-generation American and my mom immigrated from Ireland. They made raising four children look easy, opened our eyes to the world, and gave us the best education they could afford.

Sharan Ochsner

What I do: Collect money, dole out money.

Hometown: Howard Beach, NY.

Favorite music: Classical, classic rock.

Favorite Book: The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein.

Inspiration: “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. We must learn to see the world anew.” — Albert Einstein.

Favorite Ad of all time: Mean Joe Green Coca Cola Superbowl Ad.

Willem Buys

What you do at BlackWing: Creative production, internal IT (“Willem, my mac is so slow”).

Hometown: Amsterdam.

What you do for fun: Bike riding, urban exploration and stair hiking.

Most interesting thing you’ve ever done: Spent a summer in a Spanish love commune.

Music you like: Downbeat, groove, dub, reggae.

What you’re passionate about: Common sense.

What you like most about your job: The smell of an early morning crisis, followed by calm analysis and, eventually, an elegant solution.

Favorite creative: “A dramatic surprise on a quiet square” – TNT Television.

Kristen Roe

What you do at BlackWing: I help bring creative concepts to life.

What you do for fun: Cook new vegetarian recipes. My favorite: kale and brussel sprout tacos.

What you’re passionate about: My family.

Little known fact: I went to beer school at Budweiser in St. Louis.

What gets you out of bed in the morning: Getting to use both my creative and analytical sides every day in a fun environment with great people.

Inspiration: “Nanakorobi yaoki” – Japanese proverb meaning fall seven times and stand up eight.

Mary Kate Baker

What you do at BlackWing: Client services. Daily communication with clients in a wide range of industries, from espionage to power plants to healthcare.

Hometown: Nashville, TN.

Most interesting thing you’ve ever done: Lived in Vienna, Austria.

Other skills outside work: Interior design, baking.

Favorite food: Fried anything.

Famous person you look like: I’ve been told Julia Roberts.

Inspiration: No question – my mom. She raised four kids while working full time in a very demanding position. It sounds so cliché but she is my support system and role model.