Meet Mike - ITN Publishing's Director of Design & Special Projects

Hi, I'm Mike. I'm bad at writing about myself but here we go...

Let's just acknowledge how awkward this is for a second.

Writing about yourself is weird. Every designer knows this. We can spend three weeks obsessing over someone else's brand story and then completely fall apart when someone says, "so tell us about you." Suddenly you're staring at a blank document wondering if "I like fonts" is enough. Then, you close the laptop, find a snack, and seriously consider whether you can get away with just posting a picture of your dog instead.

I do not have a dog. That was a hypothetical. Moving on.

I checked on the fonts thing too, by the way. Not enough.

Here's what's actually true about me: I'm a husband first, a dad second, and somewhere after that, a guy who really loves movies and video games and has strong opinions about both that nobody asked for. My faith holds all of it together, not in a bumper sticker kind of way, but in a quiet way that shapes how I see everything.

I teach, which I love more than I expected. There's something about being around people who are still figuring out who they are creatively that genuinely energizes me. They haven't gotten cynical yet. I try to learn from that.

I also watch way too many movies. Like, an unreasonable amount. If you bring up almost any film from the last 30 years, there's a decent chance I've seen it twice and have thoughts.

That's mostly it, honestly.

I'm just a regular person trying to do meaningful work, be present for the people I love, and occasionally beat a video game before my kids do.

So far, two out of three.