After graduating from Parsons School of Design as an Illustration major, DJ made the not-so-very-far leap to graphic design. Here is a true short story: After a sleepless night of preparing for a last-minute job interview, he stuffed all of his original drawings into a portfolio and accidentally left them all on the uptown #6 train somewhere between Union Square and 86th St. (By the way, he never got the job). With no portfolio or job to speak of, he hit the school’s computer lab and gave himself a crash-course in Illustrator and Photoshop, which ultimately landed him an entry-level web-designer position in two weeks time. Was it fate? Destiny? Or maybe just a booming job market on the verge of collapse? Perhaps, all of the above.

After a short tour of the NYC dot.com circuit, he was hired as an Art Director at Euro RSCG Life, where he began his longstanding professional relationship with the Health Care industry. Here he helped launch web sites for such notable brands as Lipitor, Protonix, and Viagra.

In 2001, he and two other partners launched an interactive ad agency named Creative Priority, which eventually grew to 35 employees at its peak. At Creative Priority, DJ served as a Managing Partner and Executive Creative Director for such clients as ING DIRECT, Novartis Oncology, Wyeth, Pfizer, Roche, NYMEX, Hairclub for Men (yes, that irony was not lost upon him), and CitiGroup among numerous others throughout its six year lifespan.

It was at this agency where relationships were forged that make up the core of his Creative Shop today: Haddad & Partners.

With a passion for all things interactive, in late 2006, DJ moved on to launch an independent design and consulting company, with a focus on bringing cutting-edge design and user experience to the pharmaceutical and financial sectors. That independent project has evolved into the current Haddad & Partners, where we have since branched out to other industries and have increased our capabilities far beyond design and animation.

DJ used to enjoy movies and art galleries, but this whole “baby thing” has been a real hardship to his social calendar and Netflix queue. He now spends the majority of his “spare” time at the dog park or playground with his son Dylan, his wife Marissa, daughter Eviana and his dog Zoe in Fairfield, Connecticut.