the team

  • joe smaldone | co-owner

    how do you write your own bio? I’m from Geneva, NY. I received a bachelors in sports management from Ithaca College in 2013, and a masters in sports admin from UNC Chapel Hill in 2015. from there I basically threw my degrees in the trash, decided I wanted to be a graphic designer and moved all over with Frank to figure out how to make that happen. we stopped in Tampa to work for the Bucs, Houston to work for the Astros (and steal a WS), and NYC to work for Barstool Sports. after spending 3 months in NYC I decided it was the worst place on earth and went full-time remote in Charlotte, NC. I spent 7+ years working for Barstool before turning Frnk full-time in 2023. is that a good bio?

  • frank | co-owner

    frank is a 13 y/o german-sheppard, husky mutt that was rescued around Ithaca, NY in 2012 when he was just 1 year old. shortly after he was rescued, he found his way to me via a ‘free dog’ ad on craigslist. since then he has been my best friend. he co-founded frnk design co. and took on the role as the face of the company because I thought I could exploit him for profit. frank is a good boy and enjoys swimming, bully sticks and driving me insane.

  • anonymous art friends

    throughout my career I have met, worked with and became friends with a ton of amazing designers and artists. when turning frnk design co. full-time, my hope was to run it as a true studio and utilize the connections I had made over the years. if I’m at capacity with projects, or if a project needs a particular skill that an anonymous art friend excels at, i’ll tap into them and work with them on that project. they are all amazing at what they do, and allow frnk design co. to provide even more to our clients.