Portfolio
Modernizing a Legacy Brand
Hatching Results is recognized nationally as the premier provider of professional development for school counselors. By 2023, however, the company’s visual identity had not evolved alongside its reputation. The original logo, created nearly 20 years prior by the founder’s niece, had deep sentimental value but was showing its age.
I led a rebranding process to modernize the logo and formalize brand standards while respecting the company’s history.
READ THE CASE STUDY - Learn more about The Challenge, The Process, and The Results.
Reworking an Email Newsletter
When I joined Hatching Results, our monthly newsletter was overloaded with content to the point of not driving clicks, heavily text-based, and less effective on mobile. I led a redesign that introduced a more frequent yet leaner cadence, stronger visual hierarchy, and concise copy tailored for busy educators. The refreshed format made it easier for readers to get to content quickly and teased out more clicks to resources and events. After the first year, open rates grew to a 49% annual average and click-through rates grew to a 9% average.
READ THE CASE STUDY - Learn more about The Challenge, The Solution, and The Results.
Automated Event Attendee Confirmation Emails with Zapier
Challenge: Event attendee confirmation emails are ineffective, not reaching group orders due to registration platform limitation. Attendees confused, multiple staff overwhelmed by inquiries.
Solution: Built a DIY-ish email workflow using Zapier + Ticket Tailor + Mailchimp. Confirmation emails automatically send to each attendee with option to send specific info based on registration questions. (standard, speaker, sponsor, etc.)
Result: Fewer contact form inquiries, better attendee experience. Used for all virtual events and saved $15K-$20K when applied to in-person national conference and avoided need for more expensive software.
Stories of Impact: Douglas County School District (CO)
Published June 2025 | Written by Alec Church
A feature article capturing Douglas County School District’s multi-year journey to implement comprehensive, aligned school counseling services across 90 schools. The story follows the leadership of Dr. Kelli Smith, whose districtwide initiative reframed school counselors as data-driven educators and strategic partners in student success.
Scope: Translated a 12-minute conference talk into a polished, narrative-driven client success story; consulted with applicable leads from the Hatching Results team
Voice & Tone: Candid, energizing, and approachable
Result: Reinforced Hatching Results’ role in large-scale district transformation work and amplified a client voice that bridges leadership, advocacy, and practical implementation
READ THE FULL STORY - Video of conference talk is included! (Recorded by 3rd-party vendor.)
Stories of Impact: Kamehameha Schools Hawai‘i
Published July 2025 | Written by Alec Church
A feature-length story capturing a multi-year school counseling redesign partnership between Hatching Results and Kamehameha Schools Hawai‘i. The story balances strategic messaging with cultural nuance, highlighting identity-affirming school counseling practices and measurable impact for Native Hawaiian students.
Scope: Fact-finding conversations with program leads and reviewed clients published academic journal articles
Voice & Tone: Reflective, values-aligned, educational leadership-focused
Result: Positioned Hatching Results as a trusted, equity-focused leader in school counseling systems
A Message From the San Diego Convention Center to the Comic-Con Community
Comic-Con is an international phenomenon and the largest event held at the San Diego Convention Center. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Comic-Con was canceled for the first time in the event’s 51-year history. We sought to make a short, heartfelt video message to the attendees of the event during the lead up to Comic-Con@Home, the virtual event that took place instead. The final product I created was inspired by superhero film trailers. This resonated strongly with the Convention Center’s Comic-Con audience, garnering over 58,000 views on Twitter with almost a thousand retweets and many remarks proclaiming the video moved them to tears.
Social Campaign: Our All-Star Staff
I had a feeling that the Convention Center could have strong engagement from highlighting individual people who work at the building. Many of them have interesting personal stories and one of our messaging goals was to humanize the building. After doing some testing, I confirmed my theory that simply posting one photo of one person had the potential to get our audience commenting and sharing, especially on Facebook and LinkedIn.
It all came together for our 30th anniversary, in which our department created a physical exhibition to display to our stakeholders. I had one-on-one conversations with individual employees from many different parts of the Convention Center and took a photo of them happy at work. Each of these was used in the staff appreciation component of the exhibit, which I planned to re-purpose for social channels in the weeks after the anniversary.
View a compilation of the individual photos and their stories in a Facebook album.
Note: The portraits of Levy and Speedy were taken by an outside vendor, Auda & Auda, hired as part of the 30th anniversary.
Customer Testimonials for 30th Anniversary Celebration
We knew many months in advance that part of the Convention Center’s 30th anniversary was having a large 500-person luncheon. I was tasked with creating a 5 to 7-minute emotive video in which we heard from the clients behind some of our biggest events and highlighted the achievements of our staff. I produced the majority of the project, worked with important clients and much of my inspiration was to utilize unused or re-purposed footage from previous projects.
Note: While I took many of the photos in this video, some of the best are from an outside vendor, Auda & Auda, who was hired as part of the 30th anniversary.
Your San Diego Convention Center
A 5-minute corporate video targeted at stakeholders. The video gives a brief rundown through some of the basic questions a San Diego resident may have about their convention center.
I conceptualized this entire video. I wrote the script, directed the voice-over and edited it all together. Most of the footage was taken from previous Convention Center projects (some of which I filmed). The animations in particular, were initially created by a former colleague, but I customized and re-purposed them for this video. The primary video audience was on Facebook. A blog post on the video was also published.
Watch Six Months of Sails Pavilion Renovation in Five Minutes
This massive editing project involved more than two hours of time-lapse footage from two different cameras of the San Diego Convention Center’s largest infrastructure project in its history. Read the blog post for more info on how this video was created.
This video was awarded First Place in the Video / Photo Essay category at the San Diego Press Club’s 2018 Excellence in Journalism Awards.
My Photography
Comic-Con 2018: Event Highlights Video
I filmed and edited this two-minute highlights video at Comic-Con International, the Convention Center’s most famous event.
This video’s primary audience was on Facebook.
A Medical Meeting 24 Years in the Making
A story I wrote about a prestigious event with a 24-year-long journey to its debut in San Diego. The event also had a staff component that I covered in the story. Photos were taken by me, and I supplied the copy used in the graphic designed by a coworker.
Hosting an Out-of-the-Box Convention
I created this video featuring Rip Rippetoe, President & CEO of the San Diego Convention Center Corporation, along with the meeting planner for an enormous convention.
This video’s primary audience was on Facebook.
A Look Back After 29 Years: The Architect and the Bricklayer
A challenging project. The story of the Architect’s daughter and the photos provided by the Bricklayer were initially separate items, but I was assigned to combine them for one story to be published on the Convention Center’s 29th anniversary.
Story/Video Combo: The Art of Catering
This blog story/video combo explores the amount of work that goes into feeding 6,500 people over 4 days in one giant room.
I created this time-lapse video. I gathered all the information and wrote the story. I was also at the large banquet and took the photos that appear in the video.