The nature of the beast
The nature of the beast
TENTAKL is the freelance identity of Ross McCord, a designer and marketer based in Aptos, California with 20 years experience in the industry – from hi-tech to low and everything in between. Ross is a good-hearted family man (happily married with 4 kids) with a love for heavy metal, whiskey and all things geek.
What they experienced...
What they experienced...
"I have worked with Ross for the past [4] years and he has been nothing but professional and on point with all of our business interactions. When you have someone who is creative and passionate about what they do it makes the process so much easier. This is just the beginning of our business relationship and I cannot wait to move onto bigger and better projects."
JOHN COLANERI // HGTV, Ellen's Grand Design, the BUILD UP
"Ross is so much more than just a great designer. He has his finger on the pulse of the market and is always looking to the newest and latest technology and social media advancements. This makes him so invaluable in our marketing efforts. He takes that knowledge and creates innovative and stunning boxes, web designs, collateral, videos, you name it, he does it all. The big plus to his work is that it is extremely effective at getting our message across translating to greater revenue. All this is great but the topper is that he is so easy to work with. His flexibility, openness for change and new ideas, and thick skin make him a real bonus on my product teams. His enthusiasm and fun attitude, coupled with his wit make working with him a pleasure."
PAULINE SHUMAKE // Apple Inc. // Smith Micro Software
"I've worked with Ross on countless projects. Everything from magazine ads to product packaging, to web design. He has always delivered on time and consistently exceeds expectations. Ross is a pleasure to work with and offers a sense of humor and lack of ego that promote teamwork and success with every project he's on. I highly recommend Ross for his design sense, and skill set."
STEVE YATSON // ProductOps Inc. // Smith Micro Software
"I've worked with Ross closely [...], and consider him one of the most valuable and talented designers I've ever worked with. He always comes up with unique visual solutions for the project at hand, and he does it quickly. Did I mention he was fast? Ross also manages to make most of his coworkers laugh out loud on a regular basis, and puts in the extra effort to get the job done on time. He is a real team player, and is always there to support a fellow designer when the workload is large and the hours are long. I consider Ross to be a good friend and someone I can trust—he is one of my favorite coworkers and I would highly recommend him. Any team would be lucky to have him."
ALLISON HALEY // Designer
"After working remotely with Ross on internal design projects, we collaborated on a discovery team charged with developing a user interface for a complex interactive television project at a leading southern California health care provider. After interviewing over 100 managers and executives, Ross created and presented solid concepts that became the foundation for the deployed (and widely praised) user interface. Since then, we've worked with Ross on interactive tv projects and digital marketing campaigns. Rock solid design. Clear as glass about schedules and dependencies. Reliable. Understands and respects requirements. A great guy to have on your team."
TOM STITT // Aperial Corporation
[Ross] created our company's marketing image from scratch before the company even opened for business. We only gave Ross a general idea of who we were and how we hoped to be perceived. We gave him total artistic freedom to turn that minimally defined brand image into a complete portfolio of graphic art, corporate brochures, all the printed materials needed to run a business, signage, advertising, and a website which is the envy of our industry. The results are stunning. We have been extremely successful in our first several years of business and our marketing materials, graphics and website are as fresh and powerful today as they were on Day 1.
Sure, my partners and our amazing staff earned this success, but Ross' invention of our "look" has contributed hugely to our credibility as a sophisticated state-of-the-art builder. It has done wonders for our recruiting buzz and the development of our cultural image. That's a pretty massive accomplishment for even the largest marketing graphics companies. Ross did it all as a start-up company himself. He takes our success personally and that, in addition to his incredible vision and skills, makes all the difference.
ANDREW MEADE // Meade Construction Group