About + Testimonials

Originally from Pittsburgh, PA, I’ve been living in San Francisco since 1999. I was drawn to Northern California for its natural beauty and cultural diversity. Each year I’m fortunate to be able to spend part of the spring and most of the fall in PA.

I work in an account fashion, handling a wide range of communications, incorporating: Consulting, Storytelling, Creative & Art Direction, Design, Illustration, Photography and Video.

Contact

Clients & Commisions:

Orrick Law Firm, Founders Circle Capital, Standard Venture Co., RPS Ventures, Lightspeed Ventures, Crosslink Ventures, California Trout, Leland & Red Truck Fly Fishing, Dean Rath / OUM Accounting, ShoreTel Inc., Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, Sherpa Foundry, Old Navy, Aramark, Eat'n Park Hospitality, Pittsburgh Penguins, Marcus Shelby Orchestra, MartiniBird Events, Seven Elements Design, FWD.us, Porto Franco Records, Elevate Capital

References:

MARK DEMPSTER
Partner, Founder / Founders Circle Capital & former Marketing Partner / Sequoia Capital

Paul is not just merely capable with each of the visual communication disciplines that a brand might need, he's exceptionally talented with all of them.

If you have a project that necessitates an integrated marketing communications package—logo, branding guidelines, web design, illustration, photography, videography —Paul can be as expansive as needed. All of it woven together into a compelling visual narrative that is often very challenging to achieve when trying to orchestrate a handful of specialist agencies.

As venture firms go, ours is a start-up business. We're no different than the venture-backed founders who travel through the early milestones in their journey towards building enduring companies. Partnering with Paul through the first three generations of our brand identity and branding communications was both creatively on point and logistically painless. Furthermore, Paul possesses such a first hand intimate knowledge of our business and communications style that, in between each generation, he has been extremely agile in executing point projects to help us stay current and fresh in the eyes of our target audiences.

CLIFF MILLER
V.P. of Creative Services / Eat’n Park Hospitality Group

When I think of Paul Waters, two words come to mind: talent and passion.

Paul isn’t just talented, he is unbelievably talented. And I should know. He and I have worked together on hundreds of projects over the past fifteen years.

Paul is an exceptional graphic designer, constantly pushing the creative envelope with fresh, contemporary, visually stunning graphic design. In addition to his exceptional talent as graphic designer, Paul is an excellent illustrator/artist. I would be proud to hang many of his exquisite illustrations on the walls in my home. And if that wasn’t enough, Paul excels at video production, both as a videographer and as an editor. He and I have won three national TELLY Awards for videos we produced as a team.

Paul exudes passion. He is passionate about his work, always seeking nothing but design excellence.  He is passionate about his family. And he is passionate about the outdoors, not just because he is an avid hunter and fisherman; but, because he cares deeply about the environment and personally seeks ways to protect it.

In addition to all of the above qualifications, Paul is just fun to work with. And he is highly respected by all at Eat’n  Park Hospitality Group who have had the opportunity to work with him.

There is no doubt in my mind that Paul will excel in any or all new challenges and opportunities that may come his way.

JASON HARPER
Software Director / ShoreTel Inc.

I worked closely with Paul Waters to develop the User Experience for ShoreTel’s IP655 phone. The IP655 is a high-end Executive Phone featuring a large color touch screen display. Paul worked closely with the team on everything from the conceptual design of the User Interface to the refinement of the design to delivery of the final graphic elements.

The challenge of the conceptual design of the phone was coming up with a user interface that would seem modern to users of smartphones, be intuitive to use, leverage the screen real estate in ways that are impossible with push button phones, and take into account the unique characteristics of a desk phone. The designs that Paul came up with achieved all of our objectives and surpassed all of expectations.

When it came to refining the design, Paul worked interactively with the team taking into account user feedback, providing visual polish, and accommodating the complex technical restrictions of the underlying technology. The results were stunning, giving the phone a refined look that separates it from the competition. When it came to deliver the final assets, Paul was able to accommodate our unique technical requirements for the file format.

Overall, our experience working with Paul was very satisfying. Paul consistently exceeded expectations, producing designs that were far better than anything I had envisioned when I would describe what we were looking for. The combination of creativity, technical skill, and attention to detail that Paul has is extremely rare. The IP655 phone has been a very successful product and the User Interface that Paul designed has been a big part of that success.