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About

Designer, builder,
systems thinker.

I'm a marketing and digital experience leader based in Des Moines, Iowa. My career has been a deliberate pursuit of the hardest problems at the intersection of creativity and technology.

Tim Mehlhorn

Who I am

I've spent the last decade doing work that doesn't fit neatly into a single job title — part strategist, part systems builder, part creative director, part engineer.

My career has been a deliberate pursuit of the hardest problems at the intersection of creativity and technology: how do you make complex systems accessible to non-technical teams? How do you build campaigns that are both beautifully crafted and rigorously measurable? How do you grow a team without losing the quality that made the early work great?

Those questions still drive me.

Background
The non-linear version

I started as a graphic designer and photographer. I studied design and built my technical chops alongside it — learning to code not because I had to, but because I wanted to understand how the things I was designing actually worked.

That curiosity led me from agency work in Dubuque to marketing and web development roles in Des Moines, and eventually to F&G, where I've spent the last five years growing from Multimedia Designer to Manager of Digital Experience. Along the way I've built design systems, automated production workflows, owned martech budgets, founded a UX team, and presented marketing strategy to the C-suite.

The through-line in all of it: I find broken things and fix them at a systems level — not just symptom by symptom.

  1. 2010–2015

    Web Developer / Designer

    Resnet · University of Wisconsin–Platteville

  2. 2015–2017

    Web Developer & Campaign Analyst

    FenceTalkDigital

  3. 2017

    Digital Strategist

    FenceTalkDigital

  4. 2018–2019

    Developer

    Two Rivers Marketing

  5. 2019–Present

    Multimedia Designer → Creative Technologist → Senior Creative Technologist → Digital Experience Lead → Manager, Digital Experience

    F&G (Fidelity & Guaranty Life)

How I think
Strengths & working style

Over the years I've taken a handful of personality assessments with different teams. I don't take them as gospel — but they've given me useful language for things I already knew about myself.


CliftonStrengths

Top 5 themes

  1. Ideation Connects seemingly unrelated ideas; energized by conceptual problems
  2. Learner Continuous improvement; the process of learning excites more than the credential
  3. Intellection Introspective, analytical; appreciates depth over breadth in conversation
  4. Input Collects information, ideas, tools, and relationships compulsively
  5. Futuristic Energized by what could be; naturally casts forward


DiSC + True Colors + 16Personalities

Working style

DiSC places me firmly in the C (Conscientiousness) style: detail-oriented, quality-driven, and willing to ask the uncomfortable question when something doesn't add up. I don't leave things half-finished.

True Colors gives me 62% Green — a process specialist who works best with autonomy and clear standards. I build systems because I genuinely love the elegance of a well-designed process.

16Personalities calls me INTJ: the Architect. That one stuck.

Outside the office
Making things is the through-line

Visual artist

I'm a practicing painter and photographer. I have a self-published coloring book on Amazon, a 4×16-foot ceramic tile mural installed at the University of Wisconsin–Platteville, and a body of abstract paintings that had a solo show at Monk's Kaffee in Dubuque. My photography has been in galleries, exhibitions, and a national photography contest.

See the creative work →

Community work

  • Walk MS — Volunteer event photographer across 4 years and 2 cities (Platteville 2012–14, Dubuque 2015)
  • PechaKucha Dubuque — Designed posters for 7 volumes; event photographer
  • Rebuilding Together — Volunteer (2022, 2024, 2025)
  • Boys & Girls Club of Central Iowa — Volunteer photographer, Talent Show (Dec 2023)
  • Hurricane Maria Benefit for Puerto Rico — Poster design (2017)

What I'm looking for

I'm interested in marketing leadership roles where I can own strategy, develop a team, and build something that lasts. I'm particularly drawn to mission-driven organizations where the work connects to something bigger than a quarterly target.

If that sounds like where you're building, I'd like to hear about it.