Insight-driven strategy & design

James Pettus

Executive Creative Director, Founder

After working at a number of top design studios, James decided it was time to break out and build his own company with a mission to 'make work - less like work' for both the client and agency side. His approach, surround himself with a small group of talented, prolific people who share a love for rollin' up their sleeves, digging in and getting their hands dirty in the design process.

With a deep background and obsession with design, James oversees the agency's business as well as orchestrating teams of strategy, design and dev professionals for client work. When you get the team 'right', you bring genuine enthusiasm and talent to a client’s business and momentum to their careers.

An award-winning designer, James has guided clients and brands through projects of all shapes and sizes - including complex corporate repositioning and acquisition assignments. His greatest design achievement to date, designing a company where people look forward to Monday mornings and happy clients keep coming back.

Tom Stecko

Strategy & Account Director

Tom brings a particularly unique perspective to Pettus Creative having worked on both sides of the agency/client fence. Prior to landing at Pettus Creative, Tom led a large in-house creative team at one of the top U.S. health insurance companies. As Head of Creative Services there, he led both day-to-day operations as well as managing major corporate rebranding initiatives. Tom carries with him a ton of experience as well as a killer gut instinct to ensure projects hit the mark aesthetically and strategically.

At Pettus Creative Tom leads the strategy & planning practice while also acting as the main client point of contact. In an industry filled with jargon and fluff, Tom offers the perfect no-nonsense, to-the-point mentality a smart brand needs.

And trust us, it makes a huge difference when your key contact on the agency-side not only understands your client-side issues, but has walked in your shoes.

Lucas McHale

Creative Director

Always hungry for a challenge, Lucas' career has evolved from traditional concept & design, to UX/UI design, to front-end dev, to motion design/production. If you ask him, it makes perfect sense - learn what you don’t know but wish you did - and always, always stay curious. Having been the hands-on-the-keyboard-doer for so long, he brings the right mix of ‘what’s possible given the constraints’ and a ‘now let’s break some rules and make it better’ approach to a project. Prior to landing at Pettus Creative, Lucas was a Creative Director at a mid-sized ad agency, working on some big-sized clients. He has experience leading creative teams in both the B2B and B2C client worlds.

As a Creative Director at Pettus Creative, Lucas oversees design & production on client projects as well as remaining hands-on in the creative process day-to-day. The consummate skeptic, he brings the background and perspective to turn a problem inside-out and uncover new thinking.