Hi! Thanks for stopping by. Here’s my life story.

When adults used to ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I never understood why “everything” wasn’t an acceptable answer. I guess it’s easier if you can define yourself as being one thing, but that wasn’t something I ever wanted to do. There were so many things to be!

What have I been? I’ve been a farmer and a 4-H’er. I’ve cleaned pig stalls. I’ve worked retail. I was an amateur radio operator. I’ve been a night manager of a computer repair parts department. I’ve been an acquatic landscaper. I’ve parked cars. I’ve waited tables. I’ve been a bartender. I was the sysop of a BBS. I’ve gone door-to-door raising money for environmental causes. I’ve been a printer. I’ve written direct mail selling somewhat questionable work-at-home opportunities. I’ve been a corporate fundraiser for an art museum. I’ve been a tech columnist and magazine writer. I co-authored the first book about the Web in 1994. I coined the term “egosurfing” which made it to the Oxford English Dictionary.

But most of that was just me getting warmed up. My real career started in 1996 when I partnered up with Richardson, Myers, & Donofrio, a Baltimore-based ad agency to start what was arguably Baltimore’s first web development firm, Carton Donfrio Interactive. At first CDI was just me, but I soon added an intern and a project manager and things really began to take off. We built digital experiences for a bunch of big brands including Rubbermaid Commercial Products, Armstrong, BG&E, The National Association of REALTORS®, Air Products & Chemicals, and the American Institue of Architects. As things grew, I spread my wings and served on the American Association of Advertising Agencies’ naescent New Media and Marketing Committee, gave a bunch of talks at major conferences during the dot-com era, and wrote a book about the crash that ended that crazy time. Along the way we merged CDI and RM&D to form Carton Donofrio Partners.

But while things were going well on the business front — we weathered the dot-com crash and post-9/11 recession by staying away from volitile consumer brands and focusing on non-profits, higher-ed, and B2B clients — I was continuing my lifelong interest in academic pursuits by acquiring my doctorate in Communication Design at the University of Baltimoire. I had written 8 books on various tech topics by this time (see my publications for a complete list). I had always been interested in exploring how technology was changing communication and culture, but I wasn’t planning on leaving the ad biz. But then I got an email from my doctoral advisor with an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.

He’d left the University of Baltimore a year before to go to Philadelphia and head up a new school at the University of the Arts. He’d heard on the academic grapevine that Philadelphia University, a 100+ year-old institution that’d started out at the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science, was looking for somebody to found a new design school. He thought I was qualified and urged me to apply. I did. And I got the job. I became the founding dean of the Phildelphia University School of Design + Communications and a full professor at the university.

I had the priveledge and joy to work with some amazing people at PhillyU getting the school going. I built partnerships with other schools at the university, constructed bridges with other institutions in the area, and helped land a major donation from a major benefactor, an alumnus who’d become a successful San Francisco-based entrepreneur. But after a couple of years I realized that academic administration wasn’t for me — I think the term “herding cats” was coined to describe the job of being a dean— and started to explore moving back to Baltimore and getting back into the ad biz.

As fate again would have it, my life pivoted one more time on a phone call. I had reached out to a former employee (and early CDI-er) who I hadn’t talked to in years just to find out what was going on back in Charm City. “Great timing!” he told me, “we’re starting a new company! You need to come down here to talk to the guy who’s going to be our CEO!”

So I did. And out of that meeting idfive was formed. In many ways it was a “getting the band back together” moment: three out of the four people who were starting the new venture were people who’d worked with me before. They’d named the company “idfive” because they wanted to start a company based on the philosophy of “informed design,” believing that design should based on evidence, not on what what was “cool” at the time or ephemeral design trends. It was a philosophy I was completely behind and not coincientally the same principle I developed when starting up CDI.

I was in.

The new company officially started in December of 2004 but I wasn’t able to join until March of 2005 after wrapping up my duties at PhillyU. Like all new ventures we took a few months figuring everything out, initially focusing on financial services clients due to the connections our CEO had, but after about a year or so I landed us a couple of big university marketing accounts and we gained some solid financial footing.

Over the years, idfive has grown from the original five (strangely enough not the origin of our name) to over 50 employees today. My role has morphed over the years, although I’ve always been the driving force behind new business as well as roles ranging from Creative Director to Chief Strategist to my role today as Vice President of Growth & Innovation. We’ve thrived focusing mostly on higher education, non-profits, healthcare, and iconic local brands and have become arguably one of the most prominent higher education marketing and web development agencies in the US.

Of course, my story wouldn’t be complete without a few detours. As idfive grew, I took a detour into higher education for three years, splitting my time between the agency and the University of Baltimore where I ran the Center for Digital Communication, Commerce, and Culture. In that role I had the honor and priveledge of getting to do some pretty amazing things, starting up a Rapid Prototyping lab, co-directing the DoD-funded Cyber Discovery Camp ( a residential summer camp where high school students got to learn about cybersecurity and robotics), teaching both undergraduate and graduate students, and advising the President and the Provost on the impact of new technology on higher education.

Today, as VP of Growth and Innovation at idfive I focus mostly on business development and continue to help shape the direction of the company I’ve been with for nearly two decades. Outside of work I wrangle new AI tools to make art with my wife Claire through our somewhat tounge-in-cheek Merrymount Arts Ccouncil (the extra “c” is for “culture” or “cool” depending on when you ask us), offer questionable advice and life lessons to our three girls, hunt for cool rocks, craft walking sticks, create disturbing collage out of old magazines and vintage cookbooks, write lyrics and provide voice “talent” for our band Sprong (you can find many of our songs on our YouTube channel), provide somewhat-innefective emotional support to our neurotic black cat Boo, record an occasional episode of our podcast The Squib, and attempt to patch up our 100-year-old house before it slides down the hill we live on.