Agency
We create visual brand experiences that engage people, excite the senses, and inspire our inner awesome.
Xhilarate was founded by a team of experts across strategy, design, digital, employee engagement and photography. Each of us brings over 25-years of branding experience across a range of industries. Our core team builds and evolves brands through experiential branding, interactive design, immersive storytelling and cultural engagement.
Navigators of Bespoke Brand Brilliance
We help our clients to stand out, enabling them to communicate to their respective target market. We create human centered experiences that transform brands, grow businesses and make people’s lives meaningful through fresh ideas, culture, innovation and technology to create original and unique experiences. We have united with organizations large and small with wide ranging budgets and timelines and our single, focused demand is to do great work…always.
- Storytellers
- Cheesesteaks
- Bespoke
- Makers & Shakers
- Digital Artisans
- Begetters
- Caffeinated
- Inquisitive
- Philly Proud
- Spin Doctors
- Crudités
- Corporatey
- Slackers & Hackers
- Formulaic
- Demolition Experts
- Hypnagogic
- Mundane
- Florida
Company Growth
Ecstatic Clients
Cups of Coffee
Pixels Pushed
Discover Our Innovative Team Culture
Xhilarate emerged to alter the narrative and introduce a refreshing perspective. Our aim at Xhilarate is envisioning winning clients’ hearts, minds, and souls. Through engaging, effective, and thoughtful visual communications, we celebrate our shared collective experiences, fostering impactful connections and inspiring transformations.
![Russ Napolitano Russ Napolitano](https://xhilarate.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Agency_Profile_Image_Russ.webp)
Creator of Opportunities
![Russ Napolitano Russ Napolitano](https://xhilarate.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Agency_Profile_Image_Russ.webp)
Lainie’s background is diverse, having worked in branding, banking, and the music industry has solidified her experience in business development, account management, brand strategy, agency operations and financial management. She uses her unique background when she approaches each project, both large and small, to customize a strategic, creative, and cost effective approach while paying attention to detail. She has partnered with clients such as Sony Music, Nestle, Wegmans, CVS, and Hi-Tide Dispensary. When Lainie is not partnering with her client’s to solve their challenges, she is traveling around the world or can be found in a glass blowing studio.
![Lainie Zwecher Lainie Zwecher](https://xhilarate.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Agency_Profile_Image_Lainie.webp)
Head of Customer Wow
![Lainie Zwecher Lainie Zwecher](https://xhilarate.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Agency_Profile_Image_Lainie.webp)
Lainie’s background is diverse, having worked in branding, banking, and the music industry has solidified her experience in business development, account management, brand strategy, agency operations and financial management. She uses her unique background when she approaches each project, both large and small, to customize a strategic, creative, and cost effective approach while paying attention to detail. She has partnered with clients such as Sony Music, Nestle, Wegmans, CVS, and Hi-Tide Dispensary. When Lainie is not partnering with her client’s to solve their challenges, she is traveling around the world or can be found in a glass blowing studio.
![Michael McDonald Michael McDonald](https://xhilarate.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Agency_Profile_Image_Michael.webp)
Dream Alchemist
![Michael McDonald Michael McDonald](https://xhilarate.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Agency_Profile_Image_Michael.webp)
Michael’s quest for perfection is unmatched. It shows in his craft. It shows in his passion to use design to change the world. And although his ideas often manifest as pixels or picas, they begin and end in the real world. Grounding every project in research, Michael seeks to spark emotion—through color, use of space, unique user interaction, and visual storytelling. He understands the impression great brands make and the power that yields. And he does it all with focused, self-demanding humility.
![Zave Smith Zave Smith](https://xhilarate.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Agency_Profile_Image_Zave.webp)
Chief Inspiration Officer
![Zave Smith Zave Smith](https://xhilarate.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Agency_Profile_Image_Zave.webp)
When the Tinman asked to have a heart, we’re pretty sure he wanted one like Zave’s. A consummate professional photographer, Zave captures hearts and emotions to bring out the good in people—on camera and off. His life is an assignment. And that assignment is to spark ideas, to make people believe, and to shine a spotlight on the story. Zave has a voice all his own, but listens like no other. His point of view is grounded, yet his passion soars. With sharp business instincts and with an ever-questioning attitude, he epitomizes the essence of Xhilarate.
![Ryan Bonner Ryan Bonner](https://xhilarate.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Agency_RyanB.jpg)
Brand Wizard
![Ryan Bonner Ryan Bonner](https://xhilarate.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Agency_RyanB.jpg)
Ryan, a seasoned brand strategist with over a decade in agencies, merges research and storytelling to craft winning market strategies. His award-winning work spans clients like the National Wildlife Federation, American Red Cross, and Penn Law. Based in Philadelphia, he enjoys countrywide road trips with his partner, Huckleberry, a three-year-old golden retriever.
![Scott Blue Scott Blue](https://xhilarate.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Agency_Profile_Image_Scott.webp)
Ministry of Copy
![Scott Blue Scott Blue](https://xhilarate.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Agency_Profile_Image_Scott.webp)
Built on more than 25 years of experience Scott is focused on brand and content strategy. His literary and storytelling expertise have catapulted game-changing organizations such as American Express, Deloitte., Priceline, Sanyo, NBC and TIME to the forefront of the markets they serve. In the non-profit arena he has collaborated with the likes of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, The Orange County Philharmonic Society and New Classrooms. Scott holds a master’s degree in communications from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a bachelor’s degree in media communications from Asbury University (Kentucky).
![Darcy Grabenstein Darcy Grabenstein](https://xhilarate.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Agency_Profile_Image_Darcy.webp)
Punctuation Prodigy
![Darcy Grabenstein Darcy Grabenstein](https://xhilarate.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Agency_Profile_Image_Darcy.webp)
Darcy has had a lifelong love affair with words. Her career began at a major metropolitan daily, and she still gets an adrenaline rush from deadline pressure. She “defected” from newspapers to the world of advertising/marketing/PR, crafting copy for clients including M&M/Mars, Nabisco, Johnson & Johnson, Lenox and Lagos. Darcy brings journalistic curiosity to every project, for content that engages, informs and, ultimately, converts.
![Ryan Schlegel Ryan Schlegel](https://xhilarate.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Agency_Profile_Image_Ryan.webp)
Director of Kerning
![Ryan Schlegel Ryan Schlegel](https://xhilarate.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Agency_Profile_Image_Ryan.webp)
Creating engaging design solutions across print and digital, while working with amazing people, is my style of design. Over the course of 20 years in the industry I’ve been fortunate to do just that. I’ve helped clients and agencies big and small brand and re-brand large-scale corporate identity systems across a range of industry verticals.
Core Values Our Cultural Foundation
At the heart of our ethos lie four pillars that define who we are: courage, empathy, trust, and our craft. We believe that courage fuels innovation, pushing us to explore uncharted territories. Empathy binds us, forging connections with those we serve, ensuring their needs are not just met, but understood. Trust is our foundation, earned through transparency, reliability, and unwavering integrity. And in our craft, we find purpose and passion, honing our skills to perfection. Together, these values form the tapestry of our identity, weaving a story of creativity, authenticity, and unwavering commitment.