Showcase & Discover Creative Work

Dave Salanitro is an accomplished creative professional whose 29-year tenure comprises architecture, the fine arts, graphic design, and publishing.

As founder and the creative force behind the prolific Oh Boy agency, his clients spanned from the Fortune-ranked to the entrepreneurial. He conceived of and brought to market Oh Boy Artifacts--a brand of upmarket paper products and housewares that premiered to raves from his peers, the trade, and the public.

Reviews for Salanitro's extended portfolio are no less favorable. His work has been called "as intelligent as it is elegant" and "at once sophisticated though without pretense, informative and accessible, and witty--if not laugh-out-loud funny."

He has lectured at University of San Francisco and University of California Berkeley, among other notable academic venues and trade events. As an instructor at Academy of Art University's MFA School of Graphic Design, he taught students to embrace and exemplify the creative intellect--Salanitro's conviction that design is not strictly visual. More properly, it is the instinctual and intellectual pursuit of novel, effective strategies manifest visually and otherwise. Read Less

I am an effective leader in the studio and a strong mentor. My experience has reenforced the maxim: Teach by example; I am willing and able to roll up my sleeves and join in the effort. I build reciprocal environments where learning is its own reward, as is exemplary work. In turn, the greatest beneficiary is the bottom line.

I am an always-well-prepared, practiced, and nimble communicator who is comfortable and effective interacting with corporate clients from C-level executives to management--for that matter, to an unfamiliar public.

I bring to both the drawing board and the boardroom creative and business acumen rarely ascribed to the same mind.

I founded and built from inception to international recognition Oh Boy, a $3.5M per annum, 18-person agency with offices in San Francisco and Manhattan. The company exceeded 200 percent net financial growth for each of its first four years, thereafter, on average, 25 percent increases. It managed client marketing budgets, aggregate and on average, in excess of $15M per year. HOW magazine named the agency one of "Seven Red Hot Firms to Watch," citing "Salanitro's keen business sense, forthright manner, and outright chutzpah [as responsible for] catapulting the agency into the big leagues of the competitive San Francisco design market."

I conceived of, designed, and built a notable brand; a successful marketing program; and functional supply, sales, and distribution channels for Oh Boy Artifacts, a brand of upmarket paper goods that gave rise to appreciative audiences throughout North America and Europe. Artifacts fully recouped costs and began operating in the black within six months of its debut. (No small feat considering the substantial monetary investment in its premiere 65 SKUs.) In little more than two and a half years, with nearly 100 SKUs, I sold to Chronicle Books exclusive license to design and distribute a middle-market line based upon the original designs. Read Less

I hold 245 commendations for design excellence, among them, highest honors in the Mead, Potlatch, and Black Book AR100 annual report shows. I am the recipient of numerous ADDYs, including the National Silver prize for Oh Boy Artifacts, for which I was also awarded 10 Best in Show honors--two at Artifacts' New York and London debuts.

My work has been featured in 116 national and international dailies, periodicals, and volumes. It is included in the permanent collection of the Denver Art Museum. Read Less