Dani Nordin is the founder and principal designer of the zen kitchen (not to mention the one that does most of the cooking). She has over 10 years of experience designing award-winning work for small to large businesses and non-profits. In her life before the zen kitchen, Dani did stints as an admin assistant (with a penchant for MS Access), freelance designer, prepress operator, copy shop supervisor, and three summers going door to door for Clean Water Action, where she honed her ability to communicate important issues and inspire others to act on them.
the zen kitchen team
the zen kitchen is comprised of our head chef, Dani Nordin, and a flexible network of independent sous chefs that bring experience in copywriting, Drupal development, e-commerce, marking strategy and public relations. Sous chefs allow us to scale up to any size project and provide agency-level work without adding the overhead you'd expect from large agencies.
Her work has appeared in such publications as Rockport’s LogoLounge III and The Big Book of Green Design (now out from Crescent Hill Books), and she’s been quoted in articles in HOW Magazine, CNN Living and others. She is also an accomplished writer and public speaker on the subjects of social media, green business, and design. You can read her musings on entrepreneurship and work/life balance (almost) weekly on the DWC Dish.
In addition to training to be a Vinyasa Flow yoga teacher, Dani also occasionally spends time as a tradeshow booth babe, karaoke diva, gardener, urban homesteader, aspiring poet/novelist, amateur chef and avid reader. Currently, she's in love with the work of Jhumpa Lahiri and is attempting (unsuccessfully) to complete a novel.
Leah has 14 years of experience working in client-facing roles in a variety of industries. A recent MBA, she’s delighted to be using her training to help interesting companies expand their businesses. She enjoys working with clients to address their unique marketing, branding, and design needs.
Leah's industry experience includes: e-commerce, software, web-based assessment, website monitoring, employee perks programs, and employee benefits programs. Her background includes working in software, publishing, and e-commerce. She's worked in sales, client service, and marketing departments.
For 5 years Leah served as a Contract Photographer at Framingham State College for their Alumni Publications. She covered gallery openings, theatre, guest speakers, sports and alumni events. Currently Leah is a member of a photography club based in Worcester, MA and enjoys working on professional photo shoots around New England. Leah's darkroom is currently used to cultivate another passion--she uses it to grow seedlings for her garden when the need for photo chemicals became a thing of the past!
Among Leah’s other talents, she is responsible for maintaining the zen kitchen’s social networking presence. You might run into her at a Greater Boston-area networking event, or online talking about her organic garden and off-the-grid vacation home in rural Maine.
Feel free to reach out to Leah with ideas for blog topics, or if you have an upcoming project to discuss. Leah can be reached at leahg@tzk-design.com.
