WE’RE NOT BASHFUL

Jina loved designing. So much so that the Hawaii native migrated to New York City and spiraled up, rising to VP, Creative Director at the New York office of Saatchi & Saatchi. There, she helped to shape strategies for numerous brands. You may have heard of some of them: Tide, Folgers, American Express, Pepsi, Cheerios… The problem: Creative Directors at worldwide agencies don’t get time to design.

In 2008, wanting much more hands-on creativity and with an eye on the wide-open, ever-evolving web, Jina followed her passion and co-founded e9digital. Now, she gets to design as much as she wants, while still being able to shape the overarching brand strategies and solutions.

Web designers have a unique set of skills. They have to be highly digital and detail oriented, but also capable of thinking out how to compartmentalize information, so that your company’s story is presented both logically and in a visually compelling way.

Tim was born as one of these people. When he was an infant in Kansas, he made it known that he wanted bolder crib colors. We will skip his happy youth until university, when he went to Fort Hays State in Kansas City and received a BSc, already firmly on the informational design and web track.

After graduation, he worked for Plattform Ad Agency in Lenexa, KS where he worked on digital ad campaigns. We know that at some point he materialized again in New York City, because we hired him.

Now he designs amazing websites for our clients. He knows a massive number of programs that enable this. In his spare time, he enjoys making music, participating in sports and taking “road trips,” having visited 40 of the 50 states. Unfortunately, now that he’s working for us, these trips have come to an end. Our clients like his work too much.

Growing up in Pittsburgh, PA (but traveling often), Jason has always had an interest and involvement in the creative community. Whether it be the fine arts, film, design, music, food, or reading/writing, it was inevitable that he would follow that path into the professional world. After studying at La Roche University in a nationally recognized program for Graphic Design & Communication, Jason immediately entered the magazine/publication world. This allowed him to hone his designer skills. Being heavily involved in his community also opened up Jason to a world of artist expression through shows, concerts, movies, tastings, fundraisers, and other events. As he moved into director/leadership positions, Jason found his true calling in terms of management and organization (an art in itself). His industry knowledge only made this transition all the easier.

When Jason isn’t working with his e9digital team and clients, he is often times on the move. Usually to visit his brothers who live across the country—from New England to Denver and San Francisco. Jason also loves to ski on the North American mountain ranges and attend pretty much any music and food festival.

Jesse’s claim to fame before working age (and the internet) was being able to recite pretty much any line from all Mel Brooks films. His foray into the ad biz came working as a Jr. writer for Mr. Mad Man, Jerry Della Femina. He cut his teeth on brands like Speedo and the NY Mets. Jesse eventually spread his creative wings and headed to G2, where he honed his radio (what’s that?) skills on Kraft and Campbell’s soup. He also dabbled in the media promo biz, working on ABC News and GMA. From there, Jesse jumped into yet another ad acronym, QSR (Quick Serve Restaurants) at Saatchi & Saatchi, where he led the creative on Wendy’s—especially on helping to launch the Baconator. At Integer, Jesse had a chance to work on the pharma trifecta: Direct to consumer, direct to physician, and formulary. Then as luck would have it, Jesse shared the same Saatchi world as Jina Kiem, who offered him the role of Creative Director at e9digital.

“For me, working for e9digital is a constantly evolving tapestry of creative opportunities with all sorts of interesting clients. And hey, they like Mel Brooks films too. Life has come full circle.”

The pursuit of a degree from Pittsburgh Technical Institute brought our designer Jordan out of the backwoods of Pennsylvania (bet you can‘t pronounce “Dubois” like the locals) and into the complicatedly wonderful world of web design.

His design career started at the age of 14, when he first coded a website and began designing art for local bands’ albums and shirts. He’s upgraded since then, and now spends his days designing and developing websites (after he’s been sufficiently caffeinated, of course).

As a musician, Jordan understands harmony. Lucky for us, that understanding extends beyond his ears to his eyeballs because when it comes to knowing how to find harmony between the creativity and logistics of web design, he just gets it. While he usually prefers the creative freedom of design, he also appreciates the structured nature of coding to tell him when something is wrong, and how he can make it right.

When Jordan isn’t designing for e9, he’ll probably be recording music from one of the many instruments he plays, chillin’ with Chief and Fievel, his cat and rat (yes, from “An American Tail”), or challenging an unsuspecting bystander to pinball. While Jordan admits that his pinball playing skills are not yet at “Wizard” level, we let it slide because what he lacks in pinball skills, he makes up for in web design. And that’s kind of important, we suppose.

Travis: Not a math geek. That said, he is partial to differential equations, and prefers to think of math as the logic that runs the universe. By pure coincidence, math was one of his majors, along with new media and computer science (and a minor in literature).

Like any non-geek, he revels in improving the elegance of his code. Meticulousness aside, he embodies a departure from the stereotype—exhibiting a bullheaded pragmatism that serves our clients well. (See, coding makes sites work well.)

Travis’ high-profile projects have included enterprise-wide eCommerce applications, and work for an array of non-profits and Fortune 500 companies, among them Comedy Central.

To sum up, he’s a guy that grew up on a farm. “You might say I have a normal farmer’s work ethic, crossed with a tendency toward the obsessive.”

Why does Cheney have two job titles? Because she’s too dang talented for just one. Seriously, though — when she’s not designing, managing, and just generally gracing every one of e9’s projects with her creative genius and steadfast efficiency, you can find her playing multiple instruments, painting, sketching, ripping through novels at breakneck speed, and winning slam poetry competitions. Talk about multi-talented.

If that’s not enough to make it apparent that Cheney devotes her life to creating beautiful things, her background serves as proof. She began pursuing her passion of becoming an architect in high school before, like many voraciously left-brained people, deciding she wasn’t the biggest fan of the math component. She eventually found the perfect fit in graphic design, which she studied at Pittsburgh Technical College.

If you happen to be lucky enough to catch Cheney on the phone, don’t forget to say hello to her cat, Pangur Bán, who spends all of Cheney’s phone calls standing on her lap with her paws around Cheney’s neck, for constant encouragement and moral support.