If you meet Jake you’ll be drawn into his calm demeanor right away.  He’s friendly but has a focus that is perfect for his role as the Production Manager here at TWA.

Explore

Jake grew up in Mammoth Lakes, a ski town in the Sierra Nevada range in California.  In 2006 he moved to Bozeman to go to school at MSU.  After four years there he started working at some places in Bozeman before landing with us a few years ago.

Jake comes from a creative background, so it’s not that surprising that he’s working at a creative agency.  He grew up in a family of photographers and his dad’s work as a photographer allowed him to see a lot of the country.  These days he does a lot of exploring on the river with his fly rod, enjoying nature and relaxing.

Knowledge is Power

When he’s back here at the office, he’s responsible for producing all the graphics that get picked up, shipped out, or installed.  He also helps to maintain the facility and equipment inside.  A favorite saying he has is, “printers run better when properly maintained.”  When most customers think of printer problems they might think of a paper jam or being low on toner.  When we have a printer problem, it’s going to take 6.5 hours for the repair guy to come, charging us $1500/day + parts.  That’s why it pays to have patience and knowledge with the machines.  Instead of just getting frustrated, Jake seeks to understand why something is happening and fixes it himself.  One of our big printers was effectively out of service when Jake came on board, and the other was hit or miss.  Now both are running generally well (in part, because they are maintained well).

Jake’s favorite film is The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, perhaps the most famous of the three films that make up Sergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy.  “My dad used to watch a lot of Westerns, and most people are either John Wayne guys or Clint Eastwood guys.  I’m a Clint Eastwood guy.”  If you haven’t seen this movie, you should, as the shootout scene at the end has inspired countless knock-offs and homages.

Keep Exploring

Despite having spent most of the last decade in Bozeman, Jake’s managed to get out and see the world as well.  In 2014 he made it to Durban, South Africa, working on a project with a doctor in Michigan to develop fair trade avenues for a group of artisans.  They would take discarded materials like phone wires and grass and turn them into saleable items.  In 2017 he went to England on a family trip: an aviation photography workshop.  His furthest travels have been to Australia, a trip he took back in high school in 2004.  It was his first time outside the US and he was really impressed by the “no worries, mate” culture of the Aussies and has even taken that saying on himself.

Perhaps what makes working with Jake most enjoyable is that he has a student’s mindset.  He considers himself a jack of all trades, master of none, which leads him to believe that there’s always something to learn or get better at.  That’s an attitude we strive to keep with all our customers as well.  No matter how many wraps we’ve done or installations we’ve accomplished, we try to come to each job with the attitude we can always learn something new.