Jesse Thomas

Jesse is most at home when he is making things happen for clients or traveling the world in search of all things cool. Jesse continues to learn from and collaborate with others locally and internationally. Jesse has worked for big firms and big brands; with startups, small shops, and agencies. Jesse has collaborated with a number of known, rising, and out-right-talented people. Jesse has created brands for clients and for himself. Jesse is an active thought leader of the DC social media scene.

Jesse is an innovator, designer, visionary, entrepreneur, collaborator, leader, teacher, and eager learner. And, in each of these roles, a special title that clients, colleagues and friends continue to give him remains true across the board – Jesse is an “Idea Guy,” which he views as both an honor and a responsibility. Whether Jesse is designing a t-shirt or a flash animation, he always pushes the limits and explores new things.

In addition to contributing to a number of permanent positions, Jesse also runs his own burgeoning design firm: JESS3. Through JESS3, Jesse and his team service the short and long term design, branding, interactive and new media needs of his clients. Currently, Jesse is serving as the Creative Director for Busboys & Poets, DC Snacks, College Tonight, Casa Kimball, Drumbums, Unsung Designers, Old Dominion Brewhouse, Origin5, Sova Espresso and Wine, Clementine Cafe, Ellwood Thompson’s Local Market and The Boss Group. Jesse has also worked for a wide range of clients in a number of roles, ranging from The Huffington Post to Facebook. Additionally, Jesse has collaborated with Grey Worldwide, Nclud, Facebook, Mindshare Interactive, Heritage Foundation, DC Real Estate, Susan Davis Intl, Digitaria, DCI Group and Forum One Communications to help them better service their own clients; including Frontier Airlines, Gateway Computers and Discovery Channel. Some interesting projects; Bus ad for Old Dominion Brewhouse, wrapping Paper for The Boss Group, busstop ad campaign for DC Snacks, organizing and mc’ing an event for Facebook, social network top to bottom for College Tonight, mural for Busboys and Poets, liquor bottle for Rio Cachaca, collages for coworkers loved ones, and a presentation in Arabic for the Saudi Arabian embassy.

In a permanent capacity, Jesse has recently been a member of AOL’s elite Experience Prototype Lab (“XPL”). While on the XPL Team, Jesse contributed to the team’s goal of providing “research, methods and models” to assist AOL in gaining a “more detailed and relevant understanding of users' increasingly complex lives” while also inspiring the “development of innovative products and business concepts. Jesse was able to contribute to and learn from the team’s “rapid-fire approach” that was applied to everything from research and creative brainstorming to actual design and prototyping. While a member of the XPL team, Jesse aided in the visualization of solutions that could be “communicated, demonstrated, tested and ultimately implemented” across the AOL brand. Jesse worked on projects including KOL, AOL TV listings and AOL news. Jesse spearheaded the design and strategy behind the group’s blog.

Prior to AOL, Jesse employed a range of design- and consultant-based skills at two of Washington DC's premiere PR firms, Ogilvy Public Relations World Wide and Qorvis Communications. While at Ogilvy, Jesse art directed the 360 Digital Influence team providing both information architecture and design services for clients such as Intel, Lenovo, BP and DuPont. Before Ogilvy, Jesse helped lead the charge in developing the Creative Services Division at Qorvis Communications. The department has since grown into a 15+ person team. Jesse won a best b2b site Addy award for his work on Studley.com in 2005 and a bronze SABRE Award in 2006 for the Smithsonian Latino Center's website design.

Jesse is an active with a number of technology and entrepreneur groups as both a leader and participant, including: Facebook Developer’s Garage, Art Directors Club, AIGA, Public Relations Society of America, Startup Weekend, DC Technology Group, NextDC, BarCamp DC, Social Media Club, and Refresh DC. Additionally, Jesse is both a disciple of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), as well as has had the honor to work closely with its CEO, Andy Sernovitz, to act as a designer/consultant with Andy and his Gaspedal label.

In terms of participation and contribution to the design, entrepreneur and communications communities at large, Jesse continues to seek out new opportunities while developing and maintaining current relationships. Most recently, Jesse was selected by the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) to represent the United States on a team of 8 designers at the Icograda congress held in Havana, Cuba. Jesse’s art was displayed as part of the Sharing Dreams program in the Centro Pablo in Havana. Jesse has also occupied the member/designer space for the AIGA by developing and creating a branded mini site for a studio tour event in early ‘07, and branding the holiday party in late ‘07, as well as collaborating on other key projects. Jesse designed the DC Art Directors Club website. Jesse participated in Startup Weekend DC which was an event in which a group of local entrepreneurs got together over the course of a weekend and created a business; Hola Neighbor a Social Network for condo communities.

Jesse never stops learning, he reads lots of blogs, and continues to take classes whenever and wherever possible. Most recently he attended an advanced actionscript workshop in Aspen, Colorado at the Anderson Ranch with Joshua Davis. Jesse identifies talent wherever he goes and learns as much as he can from whoever will teach him. If you get Jesse talking about business or social media.. he might not stop talking.

Public speaking is one of Jesse’s favorite things to do. Jesse continues to speak at industry events in DC and NYC, covering topics on everything from User Experience to Cool Hunting to Branding. He has most recently presented at Pecha Kucha, iStrategy Labs, BarCampDC, and a "Lunch n Learn" talk to Advertising.com executives. In April 2007, Jesse was both a sponsor, workshop leader and conference organizer at Podcamp NYC, leading a seminar on "Blog Design" and assisting the conference director in designing the PowerPoint template for all the presenters to use.

Jesse has also held a number of successful solo and group art shows both in Arlington VA, Havana Cuba, Washington DC and New York City.

Jesse is always looking to collaborate with other like minded geniuses, send him an email at jessethomas@jess3.com. Or the best way to get his attention is to check out his blog at jess3.com/blog and comment on one of his posts. Jesse does twitter but he likes facebook better, you can find him there. Jesse likes phone calls and face to face meetings just like everyone else. You should call him at +01 571 213 4308, he answers his cell phone most of the time.