“Breakthrough branding doesn’t come from playing it safe. It comes from making bold creative choices, building characters people love and telling stories that stick.”

For more than 25 years, Dave has built a career out of proving breakthrough creative ideas give brands an unfair advantage. As Founder and Executive Creative Director of Zookeeper, he’s been trusted by ABC, Nike, Adobe, Team Coco, Fox Sports and other world-class brands to lead the creation character-driven animation and branding that sticks in culture and moves audiences at scale.

A creative executive and entrepreneur, Dave has navigated every side of the production lifecycle — from writing copy for Nike’s global retail launches, to directing animated shows for Conan O’Brien and NBC, to pioneering real-time animation for networks in partnership with Adobe. At Zookeeper, he’s spent over two decades proving that great creative isn’t just delivered — it’s engineered through fearless collaboration, sharp strategy and the right dose of breakthrough technology.

Under his leadership, Zookeeper has:

• Directed and produced animation for primetime shows like Revolution, Dracula, Million Second Quiz, The Wall, and Game of Games on NBC, along with projects for ABC, Fox Sports, and TBS.
• Co-directed a hybrid live-action/animation project for Team Coco’s Comedy Club, producing 26 minutes of original, binge-worthy animation in under three months that racked up hundreds of thousands of views on Snapchat.
• Helped Adobe’s Advanced Product Development Team beta-test emerging real-time animation tools, leading to speaking engagements at San Diego Comic-Con, IDEA Sports Conference, CTN Animation Expo and Adobe Live.
• Championed 3D face-tracking and audio-driven animation workflows, producing the first-ever animated appearance of the Philadelphia Flyers’ mascot, Gritty, sparking half a million impressions overnight.
• Developed and pitched eight original animated IPs to major networks and streamers including FX, Quibi, Nickelodeon, TBS and Adult Swim.
• Directed the creation of over 100 brand identities and logos, including multiple Logo Lounge award winners, with full brand systems and style guides.

Before launching Zookeeper in 1999, Dave cut his teeth at Nike, where he was lead writer for multiple NIKETOWN and NIKESTORE openings around the globe that included London, Berlin, Melbourne, Las Vegas, Honolulu and Miami, crafting brand storytelling for athletes like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Andre Agassi. His career began in the pressure cooker of ESPN, cutting hundreds of highlight reels under crunching deadlines for SportsCenter , NHL2Night and NFL Primetime.

A graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, where he also captained the hockey team, Dave later continued his creative education at ArtCenter, Otis and the Pacific Northwest College of Art.

When not replying to your latest email, you’ll find Dave chasing a hockey puck, blasting a golf ball deep into the woods or hanging out with his dog, Puck.

Born in Oakridge, Oregon, Isaac Holk grew up in the shadow of vast skies and dense forests, where curiosity and creativity were part of daily survival. Days spent sketching animals, exploring trails and inventing imaginary worlds laid the groundwork for a lifelong pursuit of visual storytelling. What began as filling sketchbooks with creatures and scenes evolved into a career that bridges illustration and animation, with a range as adaptable as it is distinctive.

Since joining Zookeeper in 2007, Isaac has specialized in creating versatile, character-driven work for a wide variety of projects, from broadcast spots and commercial campaigns to long-form series and brand-driven storytelling. His illustration style shifts fluidly from clean, vector precision to painterly texture, always tailored to the story at hand. In animation, he moves seamlessly between 2D motion in After Effects and fully realized 3D environments in Blender—bringing concepts to life with equal parts artistry, technical fluency and a craftsman’s attention to detail.

Isaac’s work is defined not just by his adaptability but by his ability to listen closely to the needs of a project and find a style or solution that feels inevitable for the audience. Whether he’s designing for a commercial, animating for a series or creating hybrid assets that blend 2D and 3D worlds, he approaches each assignment with the same curiosity and resourcefulness that first took root in the Oregon woods. That balance of craft, versatility and imagination continues to define his work while always evolving—making him a cornerstone of Zookeeper’s creative team and a trusted collaborator for clients who want their ideas to resonate.

Steven learned the craft of animation in its most tactile form—drawing frame-by-frame with pencil on paper. That foundation in traditional 2D gave him an instinctive sense of timing, movement and character that now drives every project he touches. Over the years, he’s evolved into a multidisciplinary creator, equally at home with After Effects motion graphics, stylized 3D built in Blender and immersive environments crafted in Unreal Engine.

Never content to operate in a single lane, Steven approaches animation as equal parts craft and problem-solving. Whether it’s breathing life into characters for a series, building assets for games, or delivering kinetic visuals for advertising, his work blends technical fluency with a willingness to experiment. He’s collaborated with studios like ShadowMachine and Wide Right Interactive, bringing stories to screens large and small while navigating the demands of different pipelines and styles.

A believer in learning across mediums, Steven continues to expand his creative toolkit—sometimes by mastering complex software, sometimes by chasing personal goals like painting in gouache. This drive is grounded in his academic path, which began with a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and later a B.A. in Animation, Interactive Technology, Video Graphics and Special Effects from California College of the Arts—an education that fused artistic foundations with technical expertise. It’s this balance of adaptability, curiosity, and respect for the fundamentals that makes his work feel both precise and alive.