A few facts stories about Frank
First Principles
Constant improvement (thankfully)
As a baby I cried a lot. It never got me anything but hiccups and a sore throat so I learned to stop. My friends and clients are grateful. Constant improvement is a lifelong process.

I apply it to my design as well.

Early Influences
The first book that taught me about design
As a child I spent afternoons in front of my bedroom mirror practicing magic tricks guaranteed to baffle and amaze my friends. Funny how the results were always less than advertised. But I learned three things that stayed with me.
The value of delight
Do something that people don’t expect. Create a moment. Delight in design comes from details and interactions that acknowledge the user as a human.
The value of clarity
Clarity and delight are linked. People need to know what they are looking at and what to expect will happen. This is necessary to fool them in magic, and to delight them in design.
The front and the back
A magic trick has two parts: the effect (what the audience sees) and the method (what the magician does). In magic and design, the important thing—what matters—is what the audience sees. How it is done is irrelevant.
Audience matters
Stories communicate meaning
The latest science says the human brain is hard-wired for story. What I know is that entertainment generates the ultimate analytic. People laugh or they don’t. People cry or they don’t.

I spent ten years creating interactive entertainment for Warner Brothers, Discovery Channel, WGBH, Game Show Network, and others. My first of many awards in Boston (MITX) was for an online sharable promotion for Tim Burton’s The Corpse Bride involving a digital Ouija board with mysterious messages.

I learned how to engage an audience and how to reward them.

Brand
Design is a business strategy
When I began as a freelance designer, I worked with a company that didn’t understand design. They brought me in to do some “coloring” on their website and promotional materials. That's what they called it. For them, design was decoration. This turned out to be a common corporate attitude.

The new understanding of brand has changed all that. Apple and Nike have changed all that. Design is a differentiator. A competitive advantage. It’s not just about identification, it’s about conversation. It’s about designing moments and spaces for people to connect with a product and with a company.

Connection leads to satisfaction, and satisfaction leads to success.