Mark Shanks, a native Marionite and Ball State graduate, brings his extraordinary talents home to the community he grew up in. With over 20 years in the business, Mark ran his own agency in sunny Central Florida for more than 10 years and has worked as lead Creative Director for some of the larger Indianapolis and Fort Wayne agencies. Over the years, Mark has been instrumental in working on such international accounts as The Marriott, Zimmer, Domino's Pizza, Nautique's Boats and eBay.
Being the proud father of Zach (age 14) and Briana (age 12) has taught Mark that one the most important things in life is family. He enjoys giving back to his community by getting involved in various Main Street Marion events, the Grant County Young Professional Network and sitting on the Walkway of Lights and the Marion Urban Enterprise Association boards as well as serving as this year's Chairman for the United Way of Grant County. He enjoys golf, traveling, the Colts, racing, movies, comedy clubs and may be spotted at a Jimmy Buffet concert with a few of his fellow Parrothead Club members.
Mark says "at CreativeFuel Design, we're passionate about our work. We like to learn our clients' business inside and out, see how their product is made and really understand their customers. This way, we can develop a meaningful message that begins to build that all-important brand identity in their marketplace. We like to think of it as a partnership. Their success is our success. A consistent look and image across all medias is a powerful thing because it creates a memorable experience for the viewer. That's branding!"
Aaron Pratt, a graduate of Indiana Wesleyan University's nationally known art program, is pleased to be a member of the Marion community and CreativeFuel Design. A Wisconsin cheesehead by birth (ironically allergic to cheese), Aaron brings his skills in graphic design, computer saavy and website development to the table for CreativeFuel's clients.
When not surgically implanted to his computer in the CreativeFuel office, Aaron enjoys watching cartoons, venturing to unique locations with girlfriend Heather and being sarcastic. If you're unlucky, you'll find him singing karaoke on weekends. Aaron serves on Lead, Inc.'s All Things Chocolate committee.
Andrea Vermilion has worked for over 13 years in the non-profit world. Most recently, she was on the development teams of WIPB-TV (PBS)/Ball State University, The Grant County YWCA and KIDS HOPE USA. In these organizations, she held administrative positions that required her to do marketing and community outreach.
As our project Liaison, she meets with our clients who need support in defining and/or translating their mission and vision into marketing tools. Her years of experience as the "client" of marketing agencies, such as CreativeFuel Design, enables her to play the bilingual, go-between for the client and the creative geniuses here in the office-she speaks client-ese and creative-ese.
