Headstand Media LLC was formed in October 2007 by Randal Birkey and the Dillon Kane Group, located at 333 West Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois.
Randal Birkey
Web Strategist
312.768.7450
Randal began his early career as a freelance illustrator in 1980, creating custom architectural illustration and technical illustrations for customers nation-wide for 16 years. He founded BIRKEY.COM as an illustration portfolio site in 1996. By 1999, he has transitioned into web design and merged his creative web practice with a software development firm located in Chicago’s western suburbs where he managed the growth of the BIRKEY.COM division for eight years. He sold his partnership in that business in 2007 and started Headstand Media as a web 2.0 chicago-based web design company. In July of 2009, BIRKEY.COM became Randal’s illustration portfolio site again.
Benjamin Nelson
Creative Strategist
312.768.7451
Benjamin joined Headstand Media with a background in web user interface and experience design with firms such as ClickCommerce, ShopLocal.com and freelance experience as Someday Soon Design. While at ShopLocal, Benjamin was part of a creative team that developed the Digital Punch TV vlog, a digital video viral marketing campaign which gained some notable traffic on YouTube and other video blog sites. Benjamin is also a musical director, teacher and improv actor with Second City.
Kyle Williams
SEO and Technology Specialist
312.768.7452
Since 1997, Kyle has been creating content driven sites with a focus on revenue generation from advertising, and search engine traffic. What started as a hobby, selling strategy guides for a popular video game through the Amazon.com website, lead to the development of Survive Outdoors, Inc., an informational portal on various wilderness survival topics. At Headstand Media, Kyle will combine his experience in search engine marketing with Web 2.0 methodology to further enhance and grow client businesses.
Matt Ritsman
Web Designer and Producer
312.768.7453
Matt joins Headstand Media with experience in web, multimedia and print design. His college experience included film-making within a degree in Studio Art and Communications. In previous jobs he has worked on projects for Sara Lee Corporation, United Stationers, Northwestern University and the American Bar Association.
Tim Schwaar
Programming and Technology Specialist
Tim has many years of Microsoft and database technology programming experience in the architectural, engineering and property management markets. He has also worked as a lead developer on programming teams at Abbott Laboratories. Tim helps Headstand Media manage our Microsoft based customer sites as well as provides general programming and technical customer service and support.
Derek Taylor
Web Design and Technology Specialist
Derek graduated from the University of Illinois and began a web design career in 1997. In the years since, he has worked for clients including Microsoft, LaSalle Bank and CARS.COM. Derek assists Headstand Media and customers in the area of open source PHP and mySQL development on a project by project basis. One of Derek’s current projects is: http://www.chitowndining.com
Taylor Birkey
Copywriter/Editor
From the moment he could dot his I’s and cross his T’s, Taylor has been writing. At age 6, a short story he wrote was published in the local paper—launching his “official” career. Throughout his childhood and into high school, he continued writing stories and poems. In college he edited his university’s annual literary journal, Parnassus, and graduated from Taylor University with a Bachelor’s Degree in English.
Since then Taylor has been writing on a freelance basis for a number of clients, including Elegant Packaging, C. Grant & Co., the Willow Creek Association, plus Headstand Media. This work has included marketing copy, product descriptions, articles, newsletters, and search engine optimized web copy. Taylor also writes a blog (www.refusingtoacquiesce.com), and publishes music and film reviews for the online webzine, Stereo Subversion (www.stereosubversion.com).
Amy Wolgemuth Bordoni
Copywriter/Editor
Amy has held various positions in video production, project management and publishing before leaving the cubicle for a full-time gig as a freelance writer in 1997. A quick study and a creative yet on-point wordsmith, Amy has made many Headstand Media and Randal Birkey clients happy with a new voice for their web-based communications.
In addition, Amy has worked as a scriptwriter and producer for companies and universities throughout the Chicago area, and has had extensive experience writing case study and training copy for Motorola’s and McDonald’s corporate intranets, packaging copy for Kraft Foods and Quaker, and catalog copy for Hammacher Schlemmer. She’s also the author of Learning Online: An Educator’s Guide to the Internet published by Simon & Schuster and A Rookie’s Guide to the Internet published by Radio Shack.
Headstand Media is extending this combined expertise and partnership experience to serve public and private organizations and corporations with a wider range of creative and technology solutions, strategic web consulting, Web 2.0 integration, project management and search engine optimization services.