I marketed my hometown to the whole world.

My work with the McAllen Economic Development Corporation began in 2015 with a brochure. It grew into a creative consultancy that stretched from brand strategy and board presentations to documentary filmmaking, international trade-show graphics and the shirts on my neighbors’ backs. I was helping my hometown introduce itself to the world.

McAllen had an extraordinary story: American manufacturing, direct access to Reynosa’s maquiladora industry, an interconnected workforce and supply chains that crossed an international border. My challenge was to make that complexity immediately understandable—and make people feel the possibility behind it. I wanted an investor overseas and a teenager down the street to see the same thing: a future worth building here.

The original publication demanded far more than arranging photographs around statistics. I gathered research, developed maps, organized economic information, interviewed South Texas College’s Carlos Margo and photographed him for a workforce-training feature. I brought a journalist’s curiosity and a designer’s eye to material that had to persuade people making enormous decisions.

That editorial foundation expanded into MEDC’s Community Profile, recruitment presentations, website copy, infographics and advertising. Working with the team’s researchers and technical staff, I translated workforce figures, infrastructure, industrial parks and quality-of-life information into a clear business proposition. I carried it through Illustrator layouts, PowerPoint slides, print-ready publications and digital assets—giving the recruitment team a coordinated arsenal of persuasive material.

I created Made in McAllen around the question every unfamiliar audience needed answered first: Where is McAllen? The locator-map identity built the answer into the brand. Its Texas silhouette and patriotic palette made the city’s American identity unmistakable as NAFTA was being renegotiated and companies were reconsidering North American trade.

The name had a double life. Manufacturers could read it as a promise of production; residents could wear it as a statement of identity and pride. I designed the 2018 launch around an initial 1,000-shirt run, compared vendors, coordinated samples and sizing, and built a giveaway that asked people to share what made them proud to be Made in McAllen. A shirt became a miniature billboard with a person inside it.

I extended that personality into social graphics, animation, advertising, embroidery artwork, gifts and merchandise. Even the mayor could become a larger-than-life ambassador for the campaign. The idea was simple enough to recognize in a second and flexible enough to travel almost anywhere.

For the 2018 U.S.–Japan Council conference in Houston, I created the Japan-specific presentation video for Mayor Jim Darling’s address to hundreds of Japanese investors and industry leaders. I shaped an emotional narrative around McAllen’s development, Japanese investment and the possibilities of binational manufacturing. Geography became a story about partnership.

China required its own creative toolkit. I filmed and edited a South Texas College workforce video, refining the mix of adult training and industrial robotics for the intended audience. I also produced a lifestyle and recruitment video that connected factories and logistics with the everyday experience of living in McAllen.

Working with MEDC and Proline Distribution Services, I developed enormous trade-show backdrops, maps, logistics diagrams, presentation screens and collateral. I coordinated translated text and Chinese typography, adapted artwork to changing production specifications and pushed for language that would make the Third Coast concept memorable. After moving to Los Angeles in 2019, I kept the international work moving remotely. The campaign crossed borders; so did my working day.

International recruitment was only part of the assignment I saw for this brand. Young people growing up in the Valley also needed a compelling picture of what their hometown could offer. I expanded Made in McAllen through a feature documentary featuring young entrepreneurs and local perspectives, presenting the city as a place to begin a career and build a future.

Film gave the economic-development story a human pulse. People could see ambition, work and possibility in the faces of their neighbors. Alongside promotional films, testimonials and workforce stories, the documentary gave MEDC a way to speak beyond a spreadsheet. I could make a business case with data, then make it matter through people.

Across the engagement, I moved between creative direction and hands-on execution: writing, design, photography, video, social publishing, advertising coordination, vendor sourcing and board presentations. I monitored regional business and trade news, developed publicity and company stories, prepared production files, checked proofs and helped keep MEDC’s communications active and consistent.

That breadth was the value. I could follow a thought from the first sketch to the final shipment, then translate it into a film, an advertisement or a presentation for a completely different audience. Working with Keith Patridge and MEDC’s leadership, recruitment and research teams, I gave a complicated regional proposition a recognizable identity and a substantial body of work to carry it.

I gave McAllen a bigger stage: a brand its residents could wear, a story its recruiters could tell and a creative language that could travel from a local classroom to an international conference. I helped my hometown show up with the confidence of a place that had something extraordinary to offer.