Hylink is the largest independent digital advertising agency in China. When I met them, the company was building a presence in Los Angeles with the hopes of expanding into the broader North American market. Initially, I was tasked to design and develop their international marketing website, but eventually, I was brought in as their first design hire to oversee creative direction and design for all of their business initiatives.

Having designed and developed websites for most of my early career, being asked to tackle the agency's first international website in whatever manner that I envisioned was a joy. I wanted to use this opportunity to learn an entirely new, customizable CMS, so I chose to build the website on Craft. After the website was built, I led the pitches for the majority of our early business initiatives in design and art direction—especially for Brand USA, which was our premiere pursuit at the time.

We ended up winning the business pitch for Brand USA valued at over $2 million, which—coupled with the business presence that we had built in Los Angeles along with the efforts that we were placing into New York—allowed us to secure funding through the next year. Furthermore, we were able to close and secure an additional 2-3 business deals with my creative direction across industries in travel, robotics, and lifestyle goods.