Our Culture

Cultivating a Culture of Purpose.

We believe that design is an impact multiplier that can help organizations doing good to do better.

Eric Ressler

Founder & Creative Director

Lisa Benson

Business Strategist & Development

Brian Jensen

Designer

Matt Steele

Content Strategist

Zack Spear

Developer

Tiffany Secondary

Tiffany Jones

Producer

Brett Johnson

Designer

Cosmic Dscf3492

Cosmic Dscf3481

Ryan McGibben

Marketing Strategist

Our Location

Nestled between the redwoods and the ocean, Santa Cruz has a legacy of creativity, innovation, and activism. We’re inspired by our environment every day and channel that energy into helping organizations with a social purpose thrive.

Cosmic Exterior Night — Our studio in the heart of Downtown Santa Cruz

Cosmic Exterior Night — Our studio in the heart of Downtown Santa Cruz

Sunset Steamer Lane — Sunset looking out at Steamer Lane

Music keeps our creativity flowing

Studio Playlist

Khruangbin
Bon Iver
Loyle Carner
Chaz Bundick Meets The Mattson 2
Dave Matthews Band
Townes Van Zandt
The Dead Weather
Mac Demarco
Vintage Trouble
Vulfpeck
Drake
Broken Social Scene
The XX
Tigers Jaw
Animal Collective
Skepta
Descendents

Culture Beer — We keep local craft beers on tap to celebrate successful launches

Culture Beer — We keep local craft beers on tap to celebrate successful launches

Talia Culture Page — Our studio dog, Talia, reminds us to step away from the screen every once in a while

Talia Culture Page — Our studio dog, Talia, reminds us to step away from the screen every once in a while

Powered by caffeine in many forms

Caffeine Intake Breakdown

Our Principles

01

Impact

We transform passion into something practical. Our approach is to be brave and daring, so that you stand out, your passion shines through, and your marketing efforts are thoughtfully crafted to achieve results.

02

Intention

Strategy is our guiding star. We start every project with a strategic phase to ensure that our actions are well-informed and that we’re pursuing the most effective approach to reaching your objectives.

03

Integrity

We take personal pride in the work we do. Our standards for honesty, clear communication, and follow-through are very high. We say what we mean, mean what we say, and hold everyone accountable for achieving excellence.

04

Kaizen

We strive to continuously improve. Our boundless curiosity leads us to steep ourselves in the latest advances in technology, marketing, design, and social purpose branding to remain informed, progressive, and relevant.

05

Balance

We live balanced lives. Our four-day work week keeps us focused, calm, and available for new experiences that keep us creatively fueled. As a result, we are able to see the big picture while concentrating on the details.

06

Empathy

We’re all human here. Life throws us all curveballs at times and we are happily supportive when everyone’s treated respectfully. We find that clarity, open-mindedness, positivity, and a sense of teamwork are critical to overcoming obstacles.

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Learn about how we can help you reach your goals.

Our Services

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Eric Ressler

Founder & Creative Director

Experience

As our Creative Director, Eric has extensive expertise in brand development, strategy, extension, and maintenance. Over the years, he has delivered complex web and brand projects for local Santa Cruz organizations through international brands. These projects have given him in-depth experience with both minimal and large, content heavy websites. A self-taught photographer and cinematographer, he's the man operating the camera on our photo and video shoots. He's also one of our primary video editors and colorists. His musical background frequently comes into play during post-production.

Interests

Design, Branding, Typography, Photography, Video & Film, Music, Technology, Outdoor Exploration, Climbing, Surfing.

Background

Hailing from San Diego State University, Eric launched Cosmic in 2007 and has been helping organizations launch, pivot and re-invent themselves ever since. He's led the strategic growth of Cosmic - keeping it small, responsive, professional and fun. In addition to his personal contributions to each project, Eric keeps an eye on overall strategy while ensuring that Cosmic consistently provides high creative value and achieves our clients' goals.

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Lisa Benson

Business Strategist & Development

Experience

Lisa leads our business strategy and new business development. She's helped Cosmic grow from a solopreneur studio at Santa Cruz coworking hub NextSpace, to an 8-person full-service creative agency. She combines her decade of financial management with the aesthetic sensibilities she honed at the Art Center College of Design to provide a unique perspective on business strategy.

Interests

Zen of Modern Business Strategy in the new economy, Exceptional Communication, Vampire Hunters, Kick-Ass Heroines, Cool Hunting, Classic Blues.

Background

Born into a business family, Lisa's been an entrepreneur since she could pronounce it. She followed up stints in the UCSC Theater and Art Center College of Design Film departments with 15 years in finance and business consulting in multiple industries.

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Brian Jensen

Designer

Experience

Brian's the designer we turn to for brand extension and evolution. He's excellent at envisioning brand usage and application in new ways. A fan of impactful design, Brian produces work that is clean, elegant, and consistently on-brand. Brian has worked on a diverse array of web projects, and has helped extend brands into digital applications for a variety of industries and demographics. He even pitches in on video projects, providing us with motion graphics.

Interests

Design, Branding, Travel, Cooking, Typography, Homebrew, Simplicity, Coffee, This American Life, Sweaters.

Background

Growing up in San Jose, Brian graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Design Studies from San Jose State University. Brian focuses on how design influences and shapes all forms of culture.

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Matt Steele

Content Strategist

Experience

Matt brings 20+ years of experience as a writer and photo & video producer/director to the table. A natural storyteller, he delves deep into companies and organizations, learning their industries, markets, competitors, and differentiators in order to tell their stories in words and pictures. He works tirelessly to define and refine brand messaging and establish voice across web and marketing collateral. A strong advocate of short and long-term content strategy, he clearly defines the goal of each piece of content, either written or visual.

Interests

Copywriting, Brand Messaging, Video Direction & Production, Black Tea, NPR, Vintage Trouble, Semi-pro Tabletop Gaming.

Background

A film geek out of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Matt's career began in Hollywood. Over the past two decades, his writing branched into marketing, brand messaging and web content development.

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Zack Spear

Developer

Experience

Zack's our Front-end Development expert. He geeks out on creating pixel-perfect implementations of our team's designs. With extensive knowledge in modern web technologies, he builds sites on Craft CMS, and uses HTML, Twig, Sass (SCSS), JS, Vue JS, and other modern scripting languages to create a responsive front-end for our websites. Zack is also our in-house source for tasteful interaction design, animations, and delightful details that result in unique web experiences.

Interests

Orlando City Soccer Club and Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e.V. Dortmund, Compact Point and Shoot 35mm Film Cameras, TV show binging, Pop-punk & Hardcore, Foreign & Domestic Film from Edgar Wright to Wes Anderson, Travel.

Background

Born and raised in Florida, Zack's quickly acclimated to California living. Front-end developer by day. Front-end developer by night. More than just a dev pro, he works some After Effects magic on the side.

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Tiffany Jones

Producer

Experience

After spending over ten years in film production, a friend who owned a design agency convinced her to move out of film and co-found a coworking space in DC, serving as both Community Manager and a Project Manager for the agency. She leveraged that experience to become the Tech & Ops Manager of a growing coworking company in California, overseeing employees in 8 different locations while managing special projects. She’s a champion of efficiency and streamlining processes. A diehard about branding, user experience, and telling compelling stories, she brings a combo of a techie and creative, compassionate brainpower to our team.

Interests

Film, Design, Branding, Yoga, Scuba, Beaching, Traveling, Hiking, Camping, Playing Sports, Cooking, Laughing

Background

Tiffany picked up her Bachelor of Arts degree in Film Production from Biola University. Her career began in film and television starting at just 16 years old, where she began working her way up from lowly PA, to Editor, Production Manager, and Line Producer.

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Brett Johnson

Designer

Experience

A flexible designer with a clean, modern aesthetic, Brett’s also able to design in a more playful and humorous style when appropriate. With an eye for details, he’s guided by the broader concept and strategy of every project, aiming to empower users to accomplish their goals with digital products.He’s passionate about executing impactful designs that help people, and improving communication between a brand and its audience.

Interests

Design, Mountain Biking, Skating, Family, Travel, Games, Coffee, Photography, TV Binge Watching

Background

A Santa Cruz native, Brett holds a BA in Media Studies with a minor in Computer Science. He enjoys all aspects of a design project from brand to UI/UX, and really digs creating icons and illustrations that support brands.

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Ryan McGibben

Marketing Strategist

Cosmic Dscf3481

Experience

With over a decade of experience managing websites and developing strategic marketing campaigns, Ryan has considerable experience executing in both B2B and B2C business models. He makes sure we’re thinking through our outreach strategies and is constantly on the lookout for new opportunities to connect us with, and support, social purpose brands.

Interests

Cooking, traveling, exploring the outdoors, surfing, volunteering at Idea Fab Labs, NPR driveway moments, stand-up comedy, classic movies, experimental art, Bay Area sports teams.

Background

A Santa Cruz native, Ryan was educated in Audio Science at SAE Expression College, in Emeryville, CA. Before starting at Cosmic, he spent four years leading the marketing efforts at an audio software company where he managed an international team of designers, developers, and content producers. There he handled digital content, web projects, and eventually served as the Director of Operations. His expertise in digital marketing dovetails perfectly with the strategies we develop for our clients.

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