Marcello Grande

Marcello was born and raised in Los Angeles. Gravitating towards the arts at an early age, he became a keen observer of the ordinary and ardent student of the Hip-hop graffiti sub culture of the 80’s and 90’s. The fashion, entertainment, architecture and street culture of Los Angeles were tremendous influences in the development of his artistic style and direction of his formal training. In 1994 and again in 1995 Marcello was honored as a California Art Scholar and began the transformation from street artist to professional. After earning his degree in Experimental Animation and graphic design from CalArts, Marcello pursued work in the industries most closely tied to his early influences.

Working for record labels, film, and television studios and a few dotcom startups was a dream come true and way to develop his craft and passion for design and moving images. In 2001 Marcello was invited to creative direct the design efforts for textile conglomerate R.O.U.G.H in Germany, where he worked directly with brands including Hugo Boss, Jockey, Claiborne, Kyocera, Daimer, Fubu, Osiris, Ipath, and és shoes.

He founded WESTERNIZED in 2000 with his brother Brandon and helped to found First Person in 2013.

Marcello is an idea person; a big picture thinker who examines details under a microscope to see for himself what might not be immediately visible on the surface. Marcello searches for meaningful evidence and willfully experiments before arriving at conclusions that he can stand behind on behalf of our clients and our team.

Like everyone, Marcello views the world through his own eyes, though he never stops thinking about the way other people see things, synthesizing multiple ideas and perspectives into a cohesive voice for the audience. Marcello finds inspiration in business and technological challenges that can be solved by leveraging design thinking and creative intelligence.

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