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Don Mikush Principal
After a brief stint as a mechanical engineer, Don discovered his true calling at the age of 27 and returned to school to study design. Since founding M Creative in 1996, he has designed and directed identity, interactive and collateral projects for corporations and nonprofit organizations large and small. When he's not jamming on his fiddle to Old Time Music at Phipps Store or tending to his cabin in Ashe County, Don is responsible for business development and overseeing our strategic and creative work. He holds a degree from the School of Engineering at Duke University, and he completed his graduate work at the College of Design at North Carolina State University.
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Mary Jamis Client Strategist
Mary provides the strategic muscle necessary for effective communication solutions. Before joining M Creative in 2003, she was Director of Communications at Salem Academy and College and spent thirteen years at Long Haymes Carr Advertising (now Mullen). Mary has successfully led marketing and design efforts for major foundation and education clients, as well as statewide non-profit organizations. Mary, who attended Hiram College in Ohio before earning a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from Kent State University, is a founding member of The Women's Fund of Winston-Salem. She lives with her partner, 6 horses, 3 dogs, and 35 cats on their farm in Davie County.
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Amanda King Senior Designer
Amanda is our senior designer responsible for the art direction and design of major print and interactive projects, although she easily could be talked into salsa dancing on a beach in Mexico. She has received multiple CASE awards, including both National Gold and Bronze, and her work has been recognized by PRINT, the ADDYs, AIGA, the Council on Foundations, the Healthcare Marketing Report and Marketing Healthcare Today. Amanda was valedictorian in high school and went on to the College of Design at North Carolina State University, where she graduated early and with honors. Occasionally you'll find her getting dirty while camping with her boys, or obsessively working out at the gym, just in case the salsa dancer idea works out.
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Jon Hyland Senior Designer
Jon hails from the Bull City of Durham, North Carolina. A graduate of Colgate University with a Master's degree from the College of Design at North Carolina State University, Jon has taught English in Japan, sold cheese in Rhode Island, shoveled snow in Colorado and cycled from Nice to Madrid — all the while perfecting his skills in identity, print, motion and interactive design. Jon is making an effort to ride his bike to work more often, so give him a shout out if you see him making the long quarter-mile trek.
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Lisa Kirkman Project Manager
Lisa joined M Creative in 1998 as print production manager and helped transform our fledgling design firm into a full service agency with her many years of print expertise and freakish organizational skills. As project manager and mission control central, Lisa manages client expectations and internal workflow, coordinates schedules and budgets, and generally makes your day and ours a lot easier. When not servicing the heck out of our clients, Lisa rides miles on her bike to raise funds for Multiple Sclerosis research, builds Habitat houses, and raises two lovely daughters with her police officer husband (who's just a little intimidating when the boyfriends come calling.)
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Stephen Young Creative Writer
Stephen Young writes. Letters to his grandmother, apologies to his wife, silly songs for his son. He's written travel diaries from Paris, Venezuela, and the broken-down lane of the New Jersey Turnpike. As far as unpublished novels, yes, of course, and he forgives anyone inclined to hear this and groan. After graduating from UNC Chapel Hill, Stephen hauled lobster traps off the coast of Maine, tilled manure into various North Carolina gardens, taught a few minutes of high school English, and once nearly died (yes, really) in a disastrous experimental drug study. He now feels fortunate to have less troublesome employment finding and arranging the right words for MCreative projects.
