Sam Martin

Activist, Brainstormer, Designer, Explorer, Foodie, Idea generator, Journalist, Producer, World traveler, Writer/Editor

Over a long and varied career in publishing and marketing, I have discovered a passion for helping brands and business leaders tell their stories. In each of my previous rolls in the design, digital publishing, and consulting industries, I have seen how honest, well-crafted stories and thought leadership can be a powerful driver of business and brand awareness. I look forward to helping Gensler craft compelling stories and reach new heights as the firm's editorial director. My professional discipline was heavily informed by my early career as a full time writer. I have authored nine books of non-fiction including The Curious Boys Book of Adventure and Manspace: A Primal Guide to Marking Your Territory. My writing has appeared in Dwell, Metropolis, GOOD, and others. I was also the ghost writer for A Fine Line: How Design Strategies are Shaping the Future of Business by Hartmut Esslinger, the founder of frog design and a legendary industrial designer. I've given talks at TED University in Oxford, Pecha Kucha in Austin, the Thinking Digital conference in Newcastle, England, and the Folio: Media Next conference in New York. Before my freelance career, I traveled the world, starting in Europe, Central America and Mexico before making my way to Fiji and Australia, where I worked for cash in a coffee shop to pay for my way to Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, The Philippines, and Nepal, at which time I bought embroidered T-shirts to sell in Camden Market, London, to buy a plane ticket to Montreal where I caught a train to Thunder Bay, Ontario, which is where I started planting trees. 80,000 of them later, I ended on the side of a mountain in northern British Columbia and decided it was time to come home. My poetry has been published in Borderlands: A Texas Poetry Review and The Santa Barbara Review.

I believe in the power of storytelling and community through content of every kind. I'm passionate about media strategy, print versus digital, publishing, editing, writing, and architecture.

Content Strategy, Digita Media, Digital Strategy and Creative Thinking, Thought Leadership, Writing & Editing

Working with tools and building things.