Our Team
Meet longtime creative partners Mychal Handley & Danielle Ruse.
Mychal Handley
Partner, Creative Director
As co-founder and Creative Director for August's web and graphic design projects, Mychal Handley (she/her) loves using design to break down complex ideas and processes into accessible images and experiences. She is passionate about sharing information and resources and is constantly seeking out creative ways to present ideas to diverse audiences.
Mychal's favorite projects include partnering with mission-based, Black and POC led organizations and businesses who work to impact their communities for the better. She has more recently set her focus on accessibility and is working to incorporate accessible design into every new project.
Mychal's fresh eye and playful aesthetic can be channeled in a multitude of directions and have aided her in the creation of dozens of websites and designs for small businesses, community organizations, service providers and government agencies throughout Washington state. She is also an award-winning designer and artist, whose work has been featured in Vogue Magazine and honored by Adobe Suite.
Danielle Ruse
Partner, Communications Director
Danielle Ruse, MPA (she/her) is a communications advisor in the greater South Puget Sound and a longtime resident and arts administrator and advocate in Olympia, WA.
Danielle is devoted to increasing citizen engagement and received her Masters in Public Administration from the Evergreen State College in Public Policy. She'll work closely with your organization during your project from concept to launch, identifying opportunities to engage your audience and solutions to improve your workflow.
Danielle has coordinated dozens of statewide campaigns and projects for agencies, non profits, and mission-driven organizations, and is always eager to learn new systems and to expand her knowledge. A passionate gardener, Danielle particularly appreciates supporting environmental justice projects and working with conservation.
Danielle is serving her seventh term on the Olympia Artspace Alliance board of directors, where she spearheads grant writing and contributes to program development to serve local artists.
Our Collaborators
Meet the creative & technical talent who support our work.
Emma Holly
Contracts & Administrative Manager
Meet Emma! Emma (she/her) is the most recent addition to the August Creative team. An Olympia native and local small business owner, she is a client-turned-team-member. Emma assists with administrative tasks, contracting and billing, content editing, and onboarding. She enjoys a good latte, a quiet springtime walk, and obsessively planning the next fun thing.
Emma owns Happy Dog Institute and lives in Olympia with her family and two miniature Dachshunds, Pickle and Artichoke.
Trevor Plate
GIS Specialist, QA & Technical Support
Trevor (he/him) is a GIS specialist and detail-oriented task-manager and quality assurance tester that makes our work sparkle.
With a background in IT and computer science, Trevor is a highly skilled tester and researcher who acts behind the scenes in each of our projects. When design & content work is finished, Trevor runs through an arduous checklist of SEO and accessibility requirements and reviews our work with a fine-tooth comb.
Passionate about global politics and human rights, Trevor also provides financial training and education for refugees in King County through a non-profit organization. He is also an inspired creator and poet, and regularly shares his work in publications nationally.
Reid Corzatt
Developmental Consultant
A skilled writer, copyeditor, and developmental consultant, Reid (he/him) is a partner at a leading Washington consulting firm, The Athena Group, and also works as an advisor for our nonprofit and government clients.
Reid has worked with a variety of CRM and database programs, and excels at humanizing complex internal systems. He provides proofing and quality assurance testing for client reports, proposals, project budgets, and grants.
A life-long reader and former bookseller, Reid is fascinated by language and etymology. He holds an advanced editing certificate from the University of Chicago as well as a language fluency accredidation in Hungarian. Ask him about his unique passion for Hungarian literature and translation and his developmental editing projects.
