After graduating from the School of Communications at Boston University, Dean started out as a copywriter at a New York ad agency. There, he met his first art director partner, Sherry Scharschmidt, with whom he would later collaborate on Tuck Me In.

Dean lives in White Plains, New York, and used to tuck in his own three children with a bedtime story whenever he could make it home from work early enough. They’d ask him to spontaneously make up stories pitting the three of them against witches and monsters —whom they’d eventually thwart. A tough audience, they never let him to tell the same story twice.

After Dean’s kids were grown, and long after he and Sherry had first worked together, the two creative partners were reunited at another ad agency, where they came up with the idea for Tuck Me In.

In advertising, like architecture, experimenting with new and different configurations of elements can lead to interesting ideas, hich is exactly what sparked the notion of using book pages as blankets.

Suddenly, Dean and Sherry were t years old again—having fun developing a new project together.

When he’s not creative directing at ad agencies, Dean enjoys playing and composing for piano, creating original designs for ceramics and stained glass, and whenever possible, swinging in a hammock at the beach.