In baseball terms, I’m what you’d call a utility player. In slightly more explicit terms, I’m a maker of cool shit. I’ve parlayed my background in film, television, and comedy writing into a fun and fruitful career in advertising first as an art director, then copywriter, and now creative director.

My work has been seen and written about on all corners of the internet. From sports sites like Bleacher Report, SI, and FOX Sports; to industry publications like AdWeek, Fast Co, AgencySpy, and Muse by Clio; to design sites like Brand New, ESPN’s UniWatch, and Monotype.

Along the way I’ve had some great client partners in just about every industry imaginable. The biggest beer brands on the planet including Bud Light, Coors Light, Miller Lite, and Corona; countless brands within the J.M. Smucker and YUM! Brands families; the NBA and MiLB; and even government campaigns for the Colorado Departments of Transportation and Public Health.

I love working with and mentoring young creative teams, which in 2019 led me to start the Denver Ad School. It sounds cliché, but helping students start their careers helped invigorate my own. The energy in those classrooms when we’re all brainstorming together is the most pure fun you can have in advertising and always reminds me why I got into this business in the first place.

Before advertising I spent my formative years as a comedian and filmmaker. For nearly a decade I wrote and performed at improv comedy theaters all over Chicago including The Second City and iO Theater, was (briefly) a headline contributor to The Onion, and began creating content at UNLV film school before content creation was even a thing. I still stay busy in my free time by writing and developing pilots and screenplays with my content partners (that’s Hollywood lingo for “best friends”) who are all working actors, comedians, and directors.

Everything that happens in my day job pales in comparison to the times I get to listen to 80s new wave/post-punk with my daughter or throw BP to my son. But after they’ve both gone to bed, I’m off to work on various side projects with my Sennheisers on and Carbon Debut turntable spinning. If you thought late 90s, early 00s punk and ska music was dead... then you’re right. My collection of nearly 1,800 vinyl records is just proof that I can’t move on.

In my career I’ve been a…

Creative Director, Copywriter, Art Director, (Amateur) Sports Designer, Comedy Writer, Actor, Filmmaker, Teacher, Business Founder

SHOOT ME AN EMAIL
jessealkire@gmail.com