About Me

Hi, I’m Nathan, a graphic designer, creative director, and community builder based in Sacramento, California.

For me, design has always been a form of communication. It is a way to take an idea, feeling, or story and turn it into something people can see, understand, and connect with. Whether I am developing a brand, photographing an event, designing a campaign, or directing a larger creative project, I am interested in how visual communication can bring people together and give communities something they can identify with.

That belief has shaped much of the work I do today.

I currently work as a Lead Creative Director with Sacramento State’s SASEEP program, where my role extends across graphic design, photography, video, branding, and campaign development. Working across different forms of media has taught me to think beyond individual deliverables and consider how everything works together to communicate a larger message.

I am also the founder of (sight), a creative studio built around giving developing designers opportunities to work on real projects, collaborate with others, and grow through experience. Building (sight) has pushed my interest in design beyond simply creating things myself. I want to create spaces where designers can learn from one another, contribute their own perspectives, and use design to support organizations and communities around them.

my design journey:

My relationship with graphic design started almost by accident. Going into my freshman year of high school, I signed up for a graphic design class simply because I needed an elective. I did not expect it to become something I would build my life around, but I quickly fell in love with it.

I became deeply involved with the design program at my high school, eventually completing all four levels of graphic design and serving as a teaching assistant for three upper level graphic design classes. Being able to help other students while continuing to develop my own skills gave me an early appreciation not only for designing, but also for sharing knowledge and helping other creatives grow.

By my senior year, I had started freelancing. What began as an interest in a high school elective became an opportunity to work with real people, solve real problems, and learn what it meant to create work for someone beyond myself. I have continued freelancing ever since. Over the years, that work has allowed me to explore many different areas of design. I have worked across branding, UI/UX, campaign design, print, digital media, one-off graphics, photography, videography and other forms of visual communication. Moving between mediums has helped me understand that the final format can change completely while the fundamental purpose of design remains the same: communicating something to someone.

My education gave me the opportunity to explore that idea even further. I began my college journey at Sierra College before eventually transferring to Sacramento State, where I completed the Graphic Design program. Throughout that journey, I developed my understanding of typography, branding, publication design, visual systems, and communication design while becoming increasingly interested in the thinking behind the work.

I began asking different questions. What is this design actually trying to say? Who is it speaking to? How does someone experience it? What makes them care? How can separate pieces work together as one system? Those questions continue to shape the way I design today. I believe good design does not exist in isolation. It interacts with people. It can make information easier to understand, give an organization an identity, make someone feel represented, create excitement around an event, tell a story, or help turn a collection of individuals into a community.

That last idea has become particularly important to me. As my career has developed, I have become increasingly interested in community building through design. I still love sitting down and creating something myself, but I am equally interested in what happens around the work: bringing designers together, mentoring other creatives, developing visual systems, leading projects, and creating opportunities for people to contribute their own ideas.

Today, my practice sits at the intersection of graphic design, creative direction, visual storytelling, and community building. It started with an elective class I took because I needed to fill my high school schedule. I could not have known then how important design would become to me, but I have been designing ever since. And I am still learning, experimenting, and figuring out where it can take me next.