George puts the 'born' in Born & Bred. Back in 2017, the agency was a wild dream of his. Since then, the company has grown wild with ideas, people, and bad British accents aimed at his expense.

Culture constantly occupies George’s mind, amongst a million other things. But for him, a company creates meaningful work when people feel purpose in what they do. If the team thrives, so will our output.

Prior to Born & Bred, George worked at agencies in London, Oxford, and San Francisco. There he gained extensive experience amongst multiple industries—including global brands like Samsung, Diageo, and L'Oréal. Working on these legacy brands helped George discover his vision: to bring soul and energy back into design.

“I never thought it would grow to the team we have today. Watching our family develop, seeing new people start, and adding new diverse perspectives—it's pretty special to me.”

Leading strategy and new business, Kyle Merwin makes up 50% of the founding team at Born & Bred. Kyle first linked up with his future partner, George De'Ath, in 2017 as B&B's first Strategy & Growth Consultant. After a few successful collaborations together, George asked him to be the Chewie to his Han Solo for this Millenium Falcon of a company he was building. Kyle accepted with zero hesitation; and the two have continued to create and grow brands at hyperspeed ever since.  

Prior to B&B, Kyle was a ground-floor employee (#18) at the cannabis-tech startup Eaze.  At the intersection of growth and brand, Kyle created and managed programs that grew Eaze to over 1 million deliveries without the use of paid digital channels. A few of these programs include: college brand ambassadors, content (SEO, Video, Social), white-label brand creation, and the Eaze Insights Report series—which was the company's #1 driver of awareness and  covered by the New Yorker, New York Times, Forbes, AdAge, and dozens more.

Fun stuff: Kyle was born in La Paz, Bolivia but grew up in Marin County. He is a proud graduate of UC Berkeley (Go Bears!) and is a huge Giants & Warriors fan (sorry, not a football guy). Kyle loves Hip-Hop, beach vacations, Hazy IPAs, Popeye's Chicken, and making people laugh.

Lyndi Priest, original location unknown, is the Creative Director at Born & Bred, and has been professionally designing since 2008. Before graduating from the Academy of Art in San Francisco, she began her design career working in art galleries for fun and designing in marketing firms for trade.

With a background in film design, high-end retail, web design, and branding, she's mastered the balance of prolific experimental work and commercial branding. She enjoys film, cuisine, black, and walking around in the rain. Current whereabouts are also unknown.

You want words? This ACD's got ‘em: Xylophone, Eureka, Platypus. Consider those freebies. But words are only a small, vital part of Ryan’s vision to create holistic brands that stand out at every level. Because this writer doesn’t just have an eye for design—he has two.

Ryan was actually born and bred in San Francisco. Something you can hear him both boast and complain about. After graduating from UC Berkeley, he was on track to be a lawyer. Until he said, “I Object!”—pun obnoxiously intended—and made the career jump into branding. Whether it’s for Nike, Microsoft, or any business, for him, seeing something that came from his brain out in the wild never gets old. That’s what he wants to help create here—a team that produces inspiring, unique, daring work that we can point to proudly in public. 

Sun: Sagittarius 

Moon: Gemini

Rising: Pisces 

Amanda is a fashion creative and extroverted connector. As a hybrid in business and design, she grew up in the Ad & Marketing world partnering with design leaders as their business partner and creative producer. 

From Mon-Fri, she is the Sr. Account Director for B&B, executing the logistics behind the vision of design. On evenings and weekends, she is the host and producer for Creative Morning FieldTrips. She loves colorful textiles, interior design, and architecture.

Bill is interested in opportunities where he can offer both technical dexterity and innovative thought—always with the goal of demonstrating how sophisticated production is a critical part of design. As a production strategist, production designer, production manager, and mechanical artist, Bill has an uncommon knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite and an eagerness to share it.

Bill has over 20 years of experience creating press-ready mechanicals for complex packaging products—and along the way has acquired the foresight required to prevent mishap. Bill transforms conceptual artwork into structurally sound mechanicals and extension systems by way of thoughtful strategy and technical acuity. Constantly swiveling between 4000% magnification and the big picture, Bill creates precisely constructed files and the artful processes in which they flow.

Getting to know Abe is fairly easy. Just go ask him. Being open, social, and friendly is part of his nature and this extends to his work. As a project manager, Abe loves to bring order to the chaos, while maintaining a level-head. He made the jump to the agency world after spending years in the tech industry as operations and project manager.

Originally from Korea, he’s made a home here in San Francisco for the past 8 years and can be found out socializing with friends, at the gym playing pickup basketball, or scouring the SF streets to fulfill his foodie adventures.

Known as the ‘vet’ of Born & Bred, Anastasia became B&B’s first employee as a senior graphic designer in 2018. The Russian-born designer came to America for three main reasons: her passion for nature, to work with the Latin alphabet, and, of course, a love story.

Besides just being a graphic designer, Anastasia serves as a printmaker, an illustrator, a copywriter, a production designer, and sometimes even a scientist. The reason for having this diverse skill set, as Anastasia explains it, is her secret ability to quickly pick up new techniques and passion for learning.

Working at an agency has allowed Anastasia to look inside all possible industries and learn about other peoples’ jobs through her projects. In her tenure here, she has already worked with a technological coffee brand, a florist boutique, and learned how bioengineering works for a hangover cure. If you’re interested in getting in touch with her, we recommend searching the local nurseries on weekends. She’ll be there talking to the plants.

Eloquently crass, Mariel is hell-bent on shifting paradigms with sharp words and slick design. She once convinced a jehovah’s witness to listen to Black Sabbath as a means to connect with non-believers. 

A sweetheart from the South, she bar-tended her way through her BFA, fascinated with the human condition on the rocks. After graduating from Savannah College of Art & Design she translated her interest to long form journalism, freelancing for Inked Magazine, and Vice Media, among other hip publications. 

Adapting her love of the craft to more shootable executions, Mariel joined the marketing world in Miami, where her bilingual upbringing appealed to brands like Hertz, KFC, and anyone looking for solid messaging with cultural cues. She’s versatile. Pitching health & wellness by day and drumming in a death doom band by night, contradictions excite her and make the whole 9-5 thing worthwhile.

An Huang is a Taiwanese designer and a boba devourer. With a background in Sociology, An struggled to put the theories she learned into practice. So she took a quick detour to the US to study design. Because for her, design is a practical, hands-on way to helping the world become a better place.  

That self-described “naive” idea still inspires An today. Her design works to unveil ideas and notions that are worth spreading and noticing. And even if it doesn’t , An knows prettier things make people happier in their everyday life. 

Outside of design, An enjoys musicals (current top three: Hamilton, Wicked, and Miss Saigon), karaoke with friends, and playing the piano on a cozy weekend morning.

After years of slinging toast at bougie diners, Victoria joined Born & Bred. There may not be any bread here, but she fits in nonetheless.You can normally find her pacing by the coffee machine, scouring Pinterest on the couch, or hoarding $5 fancy pens just to scribble all over her own hard work. Her most prized possessions include her doggo Rossi, her wine key, and her ever-growing collection of NSFW dad tees that she wears to work anyways.

Victoria loves to play with type and layouts—getting her inspiration from punk posters, hand-painted signage throughout the city, and the magazines she finds in the Japantown bookstore. She likes to pretend that she’s active on the weekends; but actually, she’s sunken into her couch, talking to her dog like he’s human, and starting Game of Thrones finally. We know... it’s going to be a while.

Niv is a dumpling connoisseur and senior designer at Born and Bred. She has been scribbling on walls since 91' and has since made a career out of character illustration, storytelling, and brand design. Niv worked as a designer in India for leading clients such as Unilever, PepsiCo, and P&G before moving to New York City for her masters at Pratt Institute.

During the week, Niv can be found either commuting into the city or at work. And on the weekends, Niv is usually wandering fancy neighborhoods in San Francisco looking at beautiful homes, while eating Dumplings and drinking chai. She is fluent in 4 languages but her favorite pastime is putting on an American accent—her favorite word is 'Hamburger’.