My brain is my brain and
I take it everywhere.
That is not a metaphor for work-life balance. It is an explanation for how the work actually gets done.
Scenic design, an MBA, a fantasy novel read on vacation, the conversation with a stranger at a bar. Everything goes in. The work comes out of all of it.
Sixteen years at one brand is unusual.
In a market where most people move every two, I chose the opposite: go deep, build something that lasts, and learn what brand coherence actually requires at the operational level, not just the strategic level.
The brand was Princess Cruises® — a premium global cruise line. Eighteen ships. Ninety-four countries. The full scope of what brand strategy means when you are accountable for the guest experience from the moment someone sees an ad to the moment they disembark, and everything in between.
I started in creative in 2010, became a strategist in 2016, then a Director in 2023. I led the brand platform development, the in-house creative buildout, the ship design manifesto, the content infrastructure overhaul, and the team-leadership practice — including Blue Sky / Blue Ocean Sessions, the creative-leadership forum I launched in fall 2025.
There is a combination of capabilities that is rarer than it sounds.
Most people are wired strategically or creatively, not both. Most understand brand as a marketing function rather than as the connective tissue between what a company is, what it says, and what people actually experience. Most have not had to make brand decisions that hold across eighteen ships, four global markets, and a production output of thousands of assets per year.
Strategic rigor, trained creative instinct, and an operational track record at global scale. Each one makes the other stronger.
Underneath those three runs a fourth thread: a long-standing academic interest in psychology, sociology, and art history — the substrate that shaped my MBA consumer-behavior concentration and that shows up in every psychographic brief I have written.
In April 2026, Princess Cruises announced the closure of its Los Angeles office. The offer on the table was relocation. I declined.
Los Angeles is the choice. I am not leaving a brand I love because something better came along. I am building the next chapter on my own terms, in the place I already chose.
I am looking for an organization where the depth of commitment goes in both directions.
Three degrees. Five agencies. Sixteen years.
- BA, Scenic / Production Design — UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television
- AS, Graphic Design — Art Institute of California, Los Angeles
- MBA, Marketing — UCLA Anderson School of Management
- Certifications — IDEO U Leading for Creativity · Landmark Self Expression and Leadership Program (Coaching and Head Coaching)
- 16 years — Princess Cruises, Carnival Corporation · Director, Brand Strategy & Creative (title at departure)
Agency, in-house, and freelance work, 2002–2010 — across nearly every category. Of the five agencies I worked at before Princess — Motta, Mosaic, JWT Inside, Kern, and Lunchbox — only Kern is still in business.
Let's talk about what you're building.
I am based in Los Angeles, available for in-person, hybrid, and fully remote engagements. hello@ohdanib.com