In 20 years as a strategic marketer and designer, Katie Bush has successfully brought dozens of complex products to market for technology pioneers such as Opsware, Virtual Instruments, Teradata and Bluebox. KBD clients include many of the notable companies in Silicon Valley and many of the VCs who fund them. Before founding KBD in 2000, Katie held positions as Design Director for Michael Patrick Partners in Palo Alto, CA and Marketing Design Director for the Hi-Tech Group of CMP Media in San Francisco. She holds a BFA degree from Georgetown University, and serves on the boards of a number of non-profits.

Laura Isgrigg, CPA, MST brings over 13 years of experience in the fields of taxation and accounting focusing on small businesses, high net worth individuals, and non-profits.  She has experience with various types of taxation, including income, sales and use, and tangible property. KBD is lucky to have her handle all of our billing and financial issues. Laura received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in accounting from The College of William and Mary and a Masters of Taxation from American University. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Working around all these right-brained creatives, someone has to carry the left-brain load. As Director of Operations, Gretchen comes to us with 25 years experience in the communications industry. With a broad background in process and creative support, she makes sure all the tools are in place to keep the data flowing. Her experience for both large and small firms has given her keen insight into total project management and tracking lost costs.

Gretchen holds a BA in Public Relations, a minor in Business, and a bonus minor in Biology that she puts to good use on that ever so random occasion a question arises on the topic at Pub Quiz on Tuesday nights.

When she’s not working, she can be found frantically feeding her right-brain by reading, rowing, attending as many concerts as time and space will allow, and is currently tackling the concertina as a new year’s resolution for 2018.

Originally from the quaint fishing village of South Freeport Maine, Jacob has made a home in Louisville for the last five years. He has worked predominantly in show business, including a few years on tour with Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, but most recently at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Actors provided opportunities beyond his duties as Wardrobe Manager and his determination led him to a role as Annual Fund Manager. After years in non-profit and ready for a new challenge, he made the move to KBD in August of 2016.

At KBD, Jacob draws on his vast array of skills to balance the big picture with the finite details of day-to-day tasks. From managing schedules and upgrading infrastructure to refining best practices and optimizing work flow, he works to ensure the firm has what it needs to be the best it can be.

Outside of work, Jacob enjoys spending time with his wonderful husband. Together they enjoy traveling to visit family and friends, antiquing and cooking a la Julia Child.

A native of Louisville, KY Shahla joined KBD in fall of 2015. A lover of all things creative, Shahla began her career in the BFA program at the University of Louisville, and is a self-taught front-end developer specializing in WordPress.

Having worked at a number of Louisville’s top-tier agencies as both a designer and developer, Shahla brings with her a passion for design, especially for the web – as well as a love for colors, fonts, CSS and cats. An entrepreneur at heart Shahla has helped a variety of start-ups with creative branding and identity to help take their businesses to the next level. Shahla is the co-founder of the Louisville chapter of Girl Develop It, whose mission is to create a unique and hands-on approach for women interested in programming.

In the rare times Shahla is not working, she enjoys experimenting with code, playing music, obsessing over Game of Thrones, and tormenting playing with her cat, Chloe.

Growing up in the Louisville area, Marie attended IU Southeast and graduated from the BFA program in 2008.

Before joining KBD, she worked at agencies in the Louisville area for international accounts such as Brown Forman. She has also worked extensively in the public sector to further economic development and job growth within the Commonwealth. Marie’s background includes writing and advertising—both picked up during her tenure in the newspaper industry after graduating from college.

Branding is what Marie loves to do most. Her love of illustration, color and clean typography fuel her designs and are tailored to any company’s messaging platform for seamless integration. When she isn’t hard at work, she loves to spend all her time (and money, consequently) on home improvement projects with her husband, Jeff and adorable fur baby, Bailey Rae Puggleford Adams.

Phen is a passionate and creative designer with a dynamic background. Born into a typical southern military family, Phen grew up in a diverse array of countries and U.S. states which embrued him with an appreciation for travel and learning.  At 11, his grandmother fostered his love of art and design while living in Paris.  Now with 18+ years of Adobe Creative Suite skills under his belt, Phen has honed his design eye into a passion for clean design in multiple disciplines including print, web, video and audio. He believes that design must have purpose, serve a function and above all be beautiful. 

Phen joined KBD in the Spring of 2018 after several years in industrial design and has relished the opportunity to help craft design for emerging tech companies. 

When not at work, Phen can be found on his yoga mat, enjoying sports and playing Nintendo with his son. 

Who is Wes Yonts? Wes is a complex personality, as are most of the small breed of modern day renaissance design virtuosos…

Born and raised in the bluegrass state, Wes moved to Louisville from Lexington, Kentucky, where he cut his teeth as an in-house designer at several companies including Big Ass Fans and Sleep Outfitters. After graduating from the University of Kentucky (go Big Blue!) with a degree in Journalism and Studio Art, Wes spent his mid 20’s working odd jobs all over the country, including managing a service station near Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park, producing political junk mail on an island outside of Jacksonville, Florida, and as a white-water river guide in Tennessee. He joined KBD in 2018 and brings a broad skillset to the team, including experience with motion design, illustration, production design, UI/UX, web design, lettering, marketing and more. When not working he can be found puttering around Louisville in his 1972 Buick Skylark (her name is Emily) or trying to find new places to eat tacos.

Danii was born and raised in Central Indiana by all non-creative types of people, who all supported her creative spirit and ways of life. However, before stumbling into the Indianapolis Ai, she never truly understood what all encompassed the world of graphic design. Danii brings 7+ years of design passion and a maker’s lifestyle. Not only does Danii love the world of design, she loves the world of crafting and making anything by hand.

Danii has loved working on seemingly complex projects, but turning them into simplistic designs that anyone can understand. Danii joined KBD in our later winter months, but has already had the pleasure of working with many of our great clients like ForgePoint Capital, Microsoft, and University of Louisville.

Danii enjoys traveling, antiquing, hanging with her boyfriend and pup, and sleeping in on the weekends.

Olivia manages the web team at KBD, working with clients to ensure that the build of their sites is a painless process and that their sites continue to grow post launch. Olivia has previously worked as a developer at IBM and as a UI/UX designer & developer at UPS. A graduate of Georgetown University, Olivia studied Computer Science and Theatre & Performance Studies, and she spent an unhealthy amount of time exploring the Smithsonian’s and historic homes & gardens of DC as an undergrad.

She’s cutthroat at a game of Scattergories and religiously observes her 10 step Korean skincare routine. Also of note, Olivia has memorized every episode of The Office and is a firm believer that we are living in the golden age of television.

Loves music, dogs, coffee, stinky cheese, reading plays, dive bars, tours of old houses, and Chicago style hotdogs. In that order.

If lost, Olivia will likely be found at Please & Thank You devouring a chocolate chip cookie, in a theater, in her bed binge watching GoT (again), at Barre3, or wandering an antique mall.

Originally from a small town outside of College Station, Texas, Stephen has made Louisville his home for the past 6 years. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Sam Houston State University, a Master of Divinity from Southern Seminary, and recently completed a bootcamp in Front-End Web Engineering from The Iron Yard. 

When Stephen is away from work he enjoys hanging out with his wife, Jackie, playing trains with his oldest son Soren, and peek-a-boo with his youngest son, Brooks. He also enjoys Crossfit, movie soundtracks, reading, camping, (good) coffee, and cooking.

Born in Iran, Ali moved to America in 2009 and joined KBD in 2017. A self-starter with a love for coding and learning, Ali began his career by learning front-end development, with a focus on WordPress. Prior to KBD he interned at SMM Creative and had the opportunity to experiment with different aspects of front-end code, putting his knowledge into action. 

As a Junior Developer at KBD, Ali specializes in developing front-end designs in WordPress, and working on account-based marketing on platforms such as Marketo, HubSpot and MailChimp.

In his free time, Ali enjoys being in nature, listening to music and modding Skyrim. He also loves to pester his professional tuna taste tester, Peter the cat.