Creative Director.
Designer.
Bonfire Builder.
Hi! I’m Cody Roussel. I’ve been a designer for nearly 20 years, a leader for 8, and a creative for as long as I can remember. Ever since I could hold a crayon I was drawing my favorite cartoon characters, I have photographic proof.
As I got older, the tinkering started. Taking apart my bike with my grandpa. Building treehouses in the woods. Drawing plans and creating tools for the ultimate heist that never happened. Creativity was never just about what I could put on a page. It was about figuring out how things worked and making them better.
As a teenager, my friends and I joined in on the tradition of building bonfires on Christmas Eve, look it up. But we weren’t satisfied with the typical teepee shape everyone else built so we constructed wildlife, historical buildings, and other things that nobody expected. It took coordination, problem solving, and convincing a group of teenagers to care about structural integrity. Looking back, that was my first experience leading a creative team toward a shared vision. I just didn’t know it.
It also gave me an appreciation of making with my hands, something that’s easy to lose in agency life. When it came time to choose a profession, my love of creativity and practical thinking lead me naturally to design. That’s where I’ve been since.
Using creativity to solve problems isn’t just my job. It’s how I’ve always operated. I’m constantly looking for new or better ways to reach a goal, especially when it comes to my clients. Being a Creative Director has required me to pull from not just my professional experiences, but from everything that came before it.
Outside of work, I try to pass those same instincts to my kids. Showing them that there’s never just one way to build a bonfire.
How I Work
I think in systems, not just deliverables. Every project in my portfolio started with the same question: what are we actually building, and how to we make sure it holds up. My process follows a framework I call AWE.
Align
Nothing gets built until everyone agrees on what we're building and why. I get clear on the goals, the audience, the competitive landscape, the competitive landscape, and where things actually stand before a single asset gets made. No guessing. No finding out halfway through that we were solving two different problems.
Wonder
Good ideas need to be tested before you commit to them. I prototype concepts and messaging directions fast, so we find the strong idea before we've spent a month building around a weak one. This is where I push for something nobody expected instead of settling for the shape everyone else in the category already uses.
Evolve
The work only gets better if I'm honest about what actually happened once it was out in the world, not just what we hoped would happen. I stay close to the results, keep what worked, and rebuild what didn't.
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