about me | hello and welcome to my site. i'm a print designer/art director and photographer. i split my time between insane nyc and the placid middle of nowhere. i'm the art director for opera america, the national service organization for opera, and have been their print designer since 2002. i love weekend road trips, seeing live music, brunching, reading anything i can get my hands on, getting worked up over yankee games, and losing staring contests to my evil cat, vern.

about my photography and collage work | i love to take pictures and experiment with color, texture, and mood. some of my images are exactly what i saw when i pressed the shutter, while others have been manipulated and/or combined with other images to evoke what i see in my mind. i'm equally inspired by the urban and the natural. i have a lucky knack for being in the right place at the right time and have pictures of barack obama, sonic youth and the yankees 2009 world series win to prove it.

i have been an invited regular contributor to nyctaper.com (one of pc magazine's top 50 blogs of 2009) and wnyc's culture hub. i've shot for opera america, silhouette eye studio, symphony space and the anthology film archives. my photos have also been published on gothamist, the village voice, the italian indie-rock webzine ondarock.it and in various opera publications including opera america magazine.

about my design work | while i'm a full time designer, i occasionally do some freelance design work. some past and present clients include: glimmerglass opera, act 1 tours, the national kidney foundation of northeast new york, modern/nostalgia, johnstown public library, american college of veterinary surgeons, jewish community center of greater washington, symphony space and anthony leo's beauty and esthetics studio. i have also done design work for the national endowment for the arts and the national performing arts convention.

about the name "cake & ale" | when i was coming up with a name for my site, i knew i wanted it to be something that was truly me. when i was little, my dad gave me the nickname "cake" and my last name (ehle) is pronounced "ale". it seemed i had found the perfect name in "cake & ale". but just to be sure, i googled it and was pleasantly surprised to find that it is a pretty common phrase in the u.k. in fact, "cakes and ale are synonymous with the good life". perfect!