3 Cities. 1 Mission.
The Agents of Deckhand are on their way!
When it’s Show time, it’s GO time.
Meet Deckhand’s team of top designers playmakers and coordinators, who are currently
traversing the globe helping our clients put on their biggest shows to a global audience.
The Lead
J. Scott Shanks - Senior Creative Director
Scott—a stickler for good design and
having the correct fonts loaded on your show machine, is a veteran of big-keynote theatrics. He runs a tight ship—to him fonts aren’t an afterthought, they’re mission critical.
Scott will find that rogue Arial font, shame it into Helvetica compliance, and personally escort your slides back to typographic integrity—all with his trusty Mac book and an unimpressed glare.
The Pointman
Brian Kenney - Creative Director
Brian is our Creative Director from Chicago, whose design chops are as deep as the city’s pizza. He tackles challenges with a disarming sense of humor, but beneath that levity is a meticulous design surgeon who will dissect your work—and you’ll be
the better for it.
At Deckhand he knows that getting the story right is everything: whether you’re preparing for an IPO, mulling over a keynote address or engaging employees, Brian is instrumental in crafting best-in-class decks.
The Technician
Meena Vempaty - Designer/Motion Graphics
Meena is the unassuming designer who treats slide decks and milkshakes with equal reverence — she’ll prototype a slide deck between sips of strawberry, all while quietly musing over the perfect pan-sear. Mild-mannered and focused, she solves problems like a paid assassin with a spatula: precise, patient, and inexplicably fond of metadata.
Don’t be fooled by her calm demeanor; her toolkit includes a surprising mash-up of technical know-how with anime-inspired creativity, she’ll debug your file and then redesign your hero slide with the ‘pop’ of
a Shōjo manga-zine.
The Professional
DJ Schamber - Senior Designer
DJ is a dependable agent who treats pizza like a food group and waves like personal challenges. A native of Hawaii, he meets problems the way he meets the surf — paddles hard, times it perfectly, and rides whatever comes at him. No slide deck is too gnarly; if he can survive rogue waves, he can definitely handle your busiest event.
When he’s not turning chaos into calm, you’ll find him bombing San Francisco hills on his skateboard, secretly hoping a stray slide deck will cross his path.
The Secret Weapon
Steph Chen - Senior Designer
Steph is the human version of a perfectly aligned slide—calm under pressure, fast on the edits, and always cohesive. She flies through deck revisions like they’re
a warm egg tart, hands out stickers like confetti, and never misses a deadline.
When Steph shows up on site, the chaos does an immediate about-face — laptops stop limping, coffee cups align vertically, and clients breathe a sigh of relief.
What we’re hearing…
“Thank you for a beautiful show and your willingness to just jump right on in and really elevate the keynote
- it was awesome!”
Betsy Fox
Senior Event Manager - Google
“You consistently met
all our needs on the creative and the timelines, and many times blew past expectations
on both. All that, with such a friendly partnership!”
Alison Maloney
Director, Brand Design - Snowflake
Working with Deckhand means, we can scramble our tactical team across the globe (or domestically) to support your next big engagement.
I’m ‘Agent 0086’ but you can call me Lane. Contact Deckhand below to learn more about our B2B services so you can get the benefit our design agents.
