He started the designck studio in February of 2002 after serving as Vice President and Creative Director for Cullinane Design, a firm focusing on Wall Street financial and technology companies. At Cullinane, he transformed their practice from a print shop into a full service interactive design studio, resulting in two American Graphic Design Awards for both web and CD-Rom design.

In 1993, he began his career in South Africa where he founded Cover Up Designs which served clients in the entertainment industry such as EMI, Virgin, the WEA Group, and Gallo Record Company. During that time, he garnered three nominations for South African Music Awards for best album package design.

When he’s not serving clients, he’s serving the community. Charl gives much of his time to pro-bono initiatives in the Gay & Lesbian community. He created the original design for the Freedom to Marry campaign website. He also designed the website for the Yungchen Lhamo Charitable Foundation which raises money for the people of Tibet.

2011 marked his sixth year as a participant in Braking the Cycle, a 275 mile, three-day bike ride which raises money for HIV and AIDS services for the LGBT Community Center in New York City. He also recently collaborated on the redesign of the Braking the Cycle logo.

When he’s not at his keyboard, you’ll find him haunting the live music venues and record shops of NYC, hosting house concerts, riding his bike, taking care of his neighbor’s cats and spending time with his partner and their two cats, Sebastienne and Arnold.

Partners
Charl has a long-time partnership with Green Apple Marketing providing design services and creative direction for many of Green Apple’s clients. Green Apple also brings marketing and branding expertise to designck.