The Game Of Money

This project might single-handedly be the most ambitious project I've ever taken on, and its origins go back about 13 years ago.

When I was a page designer at the Deseret News, I started working with an incredible woman named Cindy Richards. Her department would produce newspaper inserts for Utah classrooms that were fun, playful, and educational. One of these inserts was The Game of Money, sponsored by Mountain America Credit Union. The section was essentially the same content as it is today, but students would fill it in with a pencil as a classroom activity. This was my first introduction to Sharon Cook, the former Vice President of Marketing at Mountain America Credit Union, as well as many people I still work with to this day.

In 2023, the Mountain America marketing team wanted to revisit this project, as the Deseret News had stopped production of a daily paper, which unfortunately including this insert. The idea was pitched to make this a fun interactive website/game. Considering my storied history with the project, I gleefully undertook the task with excitement.

The result is an engaging and fun web-based game, filled with nearly 100 separate designs, beautiful illustrations and, full interactivity. The financial education team at Mountain America presents this in classrooms around the state and have recieved a lot of great feedback. It was awarded Utah Business' Innovation Award in 2025, and it might be one of the most important projects I've worked on in my career.

The illustrations were done by a fellow designer at Mountain America by the name of Erik Pavik, and I undertook the task of all the design, coding, and implementation. Prototyping and initial design was all done in Figma, and then coded from scratch with HTML/CSS and javascript for the functionality. I then worked with the web team to make sure it passed all necessary security and complaince standards and was optimized for viewing on all types of devices.

Rivalries

This was a 30 second TV spot I worked on for Mountain America Credit Union, featuring BYU's Kody Epps and University of Utah's Cam Rising. The assignment I was given originally was just to provide some graphics for a TV spot, but after diving in more into the project and collaborating with the incredibly talented Michael Butler, I quickly realized that the concept would really only work if the graphics included were accurate and up to the standard of a legitimate television broadcast.

After I was given the keyed footage, the project was now completely in my hands. I started building an After Effects project that contained all the graphics seen in the spot, including a virtual set. I knew Mike had a specific vision into how he saw this in his head, and I did my best to try and replicate that. I spent hours researching TV graphics to see how information was presented and animated.

I also built various marketing collateral that coincided with the spot, including digital ads and transit wraps, as shown below.

Mountain America 2024 Annual Report

One of the reasons I love my job as a designer at Mountain America Credit Union is it allows me to be bold, and every so often pitch an idea that's equal parts crazy as it is ambitious. I have a long history of designing publications, but I knew I wanted this one to really stand out. When the idea was eventually approved, I was excited to start working out the all the details.

I initially had the idea of using a die cut of the eagle from the Mountain America logo on the cover, but knew there would be some potential issues we would have to work through. I worked closely with our wonderful printers at Sunn Lithographing to ensure the cut was even possible, as well as creating the custom die, deciding on the weight of the paper and the placement of the staples. This ensured the large cut wouldn't make the cover page flimsy or easily damaged.

The end result was a stunning piece that really made the Mountain America brand stand out, and is one of projects I'm most proud of to date.

Guiding Our Members Forward

When I started out at Mountain America in 2019, how the marketing department would communicate with branches on current campaigns was a informal email to all branches with bullet points and details. As we continued to grow and the amount of material out of the marketing department exponentially increased, we needed succinct way to communicate this information to branches.

What resulted was a monthly email and sharepoint landing page that featured all the pivotal information the branches needed to know that was easy to digest, informative, and on-brand. This included mockups of branch assets and up-to-date rates and promo codes.

The email and sharepoint site were designed to be succinct and user-friendly, providing the most accurate and up-to-date info on all the campaigns currently in market. We have recieved a lot of great feedback from branches, and the analytics show that it has been a vital resource for Mountain America branches.

Mountain America Insurance Campaign

When I was assigned this project, I had been very inspired by old split-flap displays used in airports and train stations, and I thought it could be a visually interesting way to display artwork for a marketing campaign.

Many designers tend to shy away from work that is tedious or repetitive, but for some reason it's an environment that I thrive in. I knew this project would be a lot of work, but the end result made it all worth it.

This project made use of an After Effects plugin called Element 3D, which allows you to import and manipulate Cinema 4D files directly in After Effects. It was very tedious at times, as we had over 90 LED boards to display the message, all at different dimensions and specifications. So to speed up the process, I setup an Adobe XD document with all the different sizes, and a very patient and amazing designer on my team named Erik Pavik helped me resize the artwork for all the boards. Then it was a matter of fitting the artwork to a board with the correct amount of panels for the varios ratios, and rendering it all out.

In addition, there were several print and digital assets that extend the reach of the campaign, as pictured below.

Just Burgers

Just Burgers was a resturant established in the City Creek location of Harmons with chef Aaron Ballard, serving a limited menu featuring only hamburgers and fries. Working directly with Aaron and the City Creek location, I pitched the name and established all the branding, inlcuding menus, signage and uniforms. This was a fun one to work on and I love walking into the City Creek Harmons and seeing the giant sign hanging on the wall. Not to mention the wagyu burgers might be the best in Utah.

Balance Transfer Campaign

The Balance Transfer campaign has always been a tricky campaign. How do you market balance transfers in an interesting/creative way that's engaging and visually appealing to consumers, while making the cash back rate the primary focus? We tried a few concepts in years prior with fun messaging and imagery, but with this one, we wanted to get back to basics and make the messaging bold and prominent, while creating something that is striking visually and on brand.

The result was a simplified campaign using 3D card mocks created by Randy Moroz and featured well-known and recognizable local landmarks in states Mountain America operates in. We spent a great deal of time perfecting the type treatment to really push the rate in a way that stands out in the market.

Business Lending Campaign

This campaign was pitched to help increase awareness around Mountain America's business banking services, and we wanted to feature a few actual business owners who have a history with Mountain America. I pitched the general concept and worked with a very talented photographer named Aaron Cornia to get shots of three local business-owners. I helped in setting up the shoot and art direction as well as designing all the print and digital assets.

The result was an incredibly effective campaign that brought awareness of the business banking services Mountain America offers, as well as spotlight three unique business owners and their stories.

It is also my debut as a stock photography model. Yes, you saw that right. I'm the blurry worker on the right-hand side of the following shot, bringing pivotal presence and charisma to the campaign as a whole.

Harmons Smoker Wrap

This project was a one-off task where we got to re-wrap an existing BBQ Smoker used by the West Valley Harmons store. It was so much fun to see the end result, and also lended itself to be a great excuse to get smoked brisket and turkey legs for lunch on the daily.

I wanted to design something that was unique and eye-catching, and featured branding that could be used in scaling up in the future. We used an exisiting die cut and very exact specifications to produce the wrap.