Creative director, graphic designer, and photographer are a few titles Santa Cruz creative Ted Holladay throws around these days. With a career spanning over three decades, Ted has an extensive and diverse portfolio, from big names like Apple, Microsoft, and Dell to local names like the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, First Friday Santa Cruz, and Martinelli’s.

Ted’s passion for design and print media started when he was young. Inspired by architecture and photography, he began his quest for a career at age 16. Ambitious and hungry to learn, Ted landed his first job as a typesetter at a traditional printing shop in Pennsylvania. The first Mac computer had just hit the market, and desktop publishing was in its infancy. Ted’s dad bought him a Macintosh SE for $2,000 in the late 1980s, and his career was born.

Encouraged by his parents and bosses, Ted landed his second job at a local service bureau scanning and outputting film. Ted’s days were filled with attending school, working two jobs, and playing around on his Mac, finding creative ways to produce graphics on the screen. Ted reflects, “I would draw stuff on tracing paper and tape it to my screen, go into MacDraw or MacPaint, and draw the picture with the cursor. There were no scanners, so I would just figure out how to do things.”

Later, he went on to work at a newspaper in the ad department, which led to work at a design agency as a graphic designer, art director, and creative director simultaneously.

As technology advanced, so did he, teaching himself the Adobe Creative Suite and becoming one of the first designers to produce a book in InDesign and bring it to print as a PDF. After lots of moving around in his young life, Ted found Santa Cruz and opened his design studio, Studio Holladay, 16 years ago. He also worked as a creative director for Liquid Agency in San Jose, opened a West Coast office for Hirshorn Zuckerman Design Group, and took on various other contracts working on projects for large companies.

Ted says working for himself and being his own boss is where he thrives, finding the most freedom and inspiration in his work. A self-proclaimed jack-of-all-trades in design, Ted says working for himself and being his own boss is where he thrives, finding the most freedom and inspiration in his work. A self-proclaimed jack-of-all-trades in design, Ted has a style that lives outside of all the boxes. His ability to focus on brands, he says, allows him to create from a perspective other than his own. “I’m going to do the brand’s style and do it well.” From rebranding to creating new brands from scratch, Ted has a full project bank. Far from a “onenote designer,” he keeps his work interesting by taking on a menagerie of projects—billboards, books, packaging, product design, logos, websites, video games, photography, and even interior design gigs.

One of Ted’s favorite design projects was creating the 150th anniversary book for Watsonville-based apple juice company Martinelli’s. The book project allowed him to flex his many design muscles, acting as a project manager, creative director, graphic designer, and photographer. The project lasted many months and consisted of organizing and photographing150 years’ worth of bottles, packaging, ads, and company memorabilia. The result was 220 pages that started with an older aesthetic and progressed into a modern style, reflecting the company’s changes over the years.

Ted has always had a love for photography. Shooting for over 30 years, he’s played with both classic film and digital cameras. His favorite is the Leica M9. His skills landed him work as a photographer for Verve Coffee Roasters and Edible Monterey Bay, but one of his passion projects, impact.831, was a business resource website focused on local businesses that made a big impact on Santa Cruz culture. In each profile, Ted’s artistic photos gave viewers a visual tour of the featured business. His ad campaign for the website won a national Eddy Award in 2013

Currently, Ted is working on a host of projects for both local Santa Cruz businesses and national companies from his studio in Felton and studio shop on the Westside in Santa Cruz. He also volunteers as a guest design instructor in local high school classrooms. On his desk is a presentation deck for Arts Council Santa Cruz County, rebranding for lighting and furniture company Illuminée, and a website redesign for Rep-Cal, a reptile nutrition brand. His ability to morph into any brand’s style vastly contributes to his success as a creative director and designer, but his passion for local business and entrepreneurial heart is what makes him shine.

studioholladay.com
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#2 Holladay | Gifted Grower Cannabis 

#4 Holladay | The Old Wrigley Building 

#5 Holladay | Santa Cruz Museum of Art History