Team

Leadership

Lauren Ciesa

Founder

As President of the studio collective, Lauren provides leadership to the entire team. He’s passionate to the core about the creative process and, as a result, the talented team that comprises Ciesa collaborates to produce creative, innovative, strategic, and award-winning solutions that consistently meet and exceed the needs of their clients. Lauren’s business ethic is embedded in the culture of Ciesa, defined by honesty, integrity, hard work, and community engagement. After 40 years of delivering outstanding design communications to national and Mid-Michigan businesses and organizations, Lauren stands by the team and the work.

Kevin Liuzzo

Design Director, UI/UX, Developer

Kevin is our design technology Jack-of-all-trades. He’ll plan the design, user interface, user experience, and logic of the websites and applications we build. Kevin guides our creative team from initial client discussions through the creation of design solutions. An analytical and conceptual thinker, he offers progressive vision with characteristic humor and enthusiasm for design, technology, and culture. As web design lead, he creates the project concept and blueprint for the developers. Kevin’s industry experience includes projects in healthcare, travel/tourism, business outreach and development, education, transportation/automotive, technology, politics, child welfare, and entertainment.

Wayne Glassbrook

Web Lead

Wayne grew up in the punk rock era in up-state New York. Soon after moving to Michigan he went to school for Graphic Design with a focus on classic illustration. With the invention of the World Wide Web in the late 90’s, he was able to transition his passion for illustration design onto the digital screen. For the past 15 years, Wayne has been a professional web designer and developer, consistently learning new ways to bring his creations to life on screen. When he isn’t busy coding, Wayne loves watching movies, reading comic books, and all things super-hero related.

Nathan Houghton

Art Director, Developer

Nathan is a print and web designer/programmer and brings more than 25 years of experience to Ciesa. He applies a critical eye and his signature design style to elegantly solve complex problems on time and within budget. Nathan’s got chops — with mega skills in HTML 5, CSS 3, WordPress as well as creative applications like Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, After Effects and Premiere, which makes him our go-to guy for all things design. He develops comprehensive, fully responsive websites while preparing new, or expanding established, visual brands. He also produces videos for social media, as well as TV. He has a strong track record on projects in state and city government, tourism, healthcare, travel, festivals, music/recording, insurance, agriculture, food, entertainment, and state-level organizations.

Victor Sawicki

Graphic Designer, Illustrator

Always armed with a sketchbook in hand and a gel pen in his pocket, Victor’s creativity is fueled by his desire to capture, replicate, and build upon the natural and dynamic beauty of the real world. Prioritizing the act of physical making and the use of traditional media in his graphic work keeps his style unique, flexible, and appealing. A self-proclaimed “holistic designer,” he believes that good design can be found in anything — and that everything deserves good design. When he isn’t tucked behind a sketchbook, Victor enjoys all-weather hiking, playing video games, and caring for his many plants.

Bear Nelson

Designer

Bear is an optimist. When there are mouths, he has ears; give him time, and he’ll devise an evil scheme. He brings his heart and cherishes community. Tipped off by ideas that verge on the side of odd and engaging, he lives to learn and finds life in the details. Bear will find a way, but not the way you expect—cliché makes him fidget.

Jackie Warner

Creative and Project Services

Jackie is the kind of project manager you can only dream about. Smart, funny, uber-experienced, and completely obsessed with getting it right. If there’s an error to be found, she’ll catch it (thank heavens)! If there’s a deadline to meet, she’ll beat it! She collaborates on many projects at Ciesa, but is most notable for producing Michigan’s monthly State Bar Journal. Jackie has been working in the graphic arts business for over three decades and has established a stellar reputation as a production artist and project manager as a result of, well, crushing it for 30 years! Earned. Period. But, she’ll be the first to tell you that her education continues at Ciesa, as she’s constantly learning and influenced by the talented young designers she now has the privilege to work with. And, happily, occasionally teaching them a thing or two!

Cindy Enger

Office Manager

Cindy has been with Ciesa for over 15 years. She earned an Associate Degree in Graphic Art, Illustration from Lansing Community College. After completing her Associate Degree, she took time off to raise her family. Having grown-up working for her dad as a bookkeeper, payroll manager, and jack-of-all-trades (as she was called as she painted the exterior and interior of the building, and rewound electric motors) she found she could manage the office demands of Ciesa. Cindy is happy to let the young designers handle the fast-moving demands of the design world.