Dharma Pachner is the Founder and Creative Director of Contrast & Co., an award-winning boutique brand strategy and design driven to create strikingly different brand experiences. From industry startups to established national players, Dharma and his team have conceived award-winning brands that defy industry conventions and power their clients to stand out in the great sea of similarity. Prior to founding Contrast & Co., he has been the Creative, Interactive, and User-Experience Director at DC’s leading creative and digital agencies including HZDG and the recently acquired Chief, now known as U-Group.
In the span of his career, Dharma has reimagined and redefined brands for the most visible organizations in the world including Disney, The Department of State, Sandals Resorts, Hyundai, Seventh Generation, Newman’s Own Foundation, and Rockefeller Center. For as long as he can remember, he has been challenging conventions and exploring the undiscovered. He stumbled into this industry two decades ago as a somewhat fresh-faced young designer, and has continued to invent—and reinvent—himself every day since. In the span of his career, he has been a designer, a developer, an information architect, user experience lead, and the creative visionary behind hundreds of projects who has inspired countless others along the way.
But his best days still lie ahead, and Dharma is determined to continue to create brand experiences that leave a powerful and lasting mark in this industry. The world of branding and design will always be filled with constraints, and it is tempting to succumb to them. But real opportunity usually lies deeply buried within the insurmountable, and that is exactly the space you will find him exploring.