Meet TSD a strategic team designed to exceed industry standards for quality and customer service experience.
About Us
For over 20 years, Top Shelf Design has been crafting innovative solutions that empower our clients to stand out. Our success stems from the deep, collaborative partnerships we build between our clients and our dedicated team.
Meet the Team
Kathryn Kiel
President
Kathryn is the owner and president of Top Shelf Design. Her objective in founding TSD was to create an agency focused on trust and responsiveness. As a result, Kathryn continues to serve in a key relationship management role as a liaison between our clients and the design team.
Her skill in business process, passion for customer service, and commitment to quality execution is a testament to her strong track record of helping our clients’ initiatives succeed. She is the driving force that ensures our high standards of professionalism and accountability are met on each and every client project.
Kathryn’s path to leadership is as dynamic as her personality. A dancer through her formative years and into high school, she’s always balanced discipline with creativity. As a teenager, she even logged 20 hours as a pilot-in-training—an early sign of her adventurous spirit and dedication to mastering new skills.
She is also an avid tennis fan and plays regularly, having competed in the National Championships in San Diego in 2023. Her competitive spirit carries through to her professional work, where she brings the same drive and focus to every client engagement.
In addition to her role at TSD, Kathryn serves in an active role on the board of the Me Fine Foundation, a nonprofit with a mission near and dear to her heart. Prior to launching TSD, Kathryn served as Senior Vice President for InterSolutions, Inc. She holds a Bachelor of Science from James Madison University and a Master of Business Administration (MBA).
Gregg Hurson
Partner / CTO
Gregg is partner at Top Shelf Design and our chief technology officer. He serves as the primary architect for web development, ensuring a smooth process that is predictable, practical and delivered on-schedule. As team lead, Gregg also acts in a thought leadership capacity, anticipating client concerns and addressing them in white papers before a project and in development advice during project completion.
A self-described “lifetime computer geek,” Gregg has been glued to his keyboard since he was 12. He studied graphic design at Northeastern University and grew his web development expertise by freelancing and working for a design firm in Boston. Gregg joined the Top Shelf team six years ago and has pushed our development capabilities with his dedication to precise web structures and his zeal for teaching. He has accumulated a massive library of coding techniques and enjoys making beautiful design work, beautifully.
Monica Ampolini
Lead Designer
Monica has experience in print design, branding and so much more. She has been in love with art and design for as long as she can remember. She has a BA in Graphic Design from North Carolina State University and brings many years of experience to Top Shelf Design. Monica views all graphic design as art and is in love with the ever-changing nature of the design. In her free time, Monica is a passionate baker and crochet master. Go pack!
Andrew Fogle
Lead Designer
Andrew Fogle is a graphic designer, photographer, videographer and creative professional in Cleveland, Ohio. He has over a decade of experience as an adjunct professor at Cleveland State and Kent State Universities, alongside roles as a marketing coordinator and graphic designer for various nonprofits and companies.
Andrew holds an Associate of Applied Science in Graphic Arts and Web Design from Sinclair Community College, and both a BFA and MFA in Visual Communication Design from Kent State University. With a blend of creativity and technical expertise, Andrew is passionate about transforming ideas into impactful visuals aligned with your goals.
Our History
It all began at a kitchen table for us. A couple of precocious entrepreneurs who dreamed up an idea to create the marketing and design firm we always wanted to experience from the client side. A strategic team designed to exceed industry standards for quality and customer service experience.
We’re an agile group of talented marketers who enjoy helping our clients do better at what they do in life. We’ve established a collaborative and supportive workplace where we care about each other and strive each day to push the limits of our creative and technical innovation.
And here we are, 20 years later, having completed thousands of projects for more than 3,100 clients. Our vision to create new opportunities for expanding our clients’ success has enabled our staff to grow as professionals and people.
Top Shelf Design is currently headquartered in Washington, D.C., with team members working remotely from Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, and South Carolina.Thanks to award-winning work on behalf of clients across the spectrum of business and industry, we’ve become a respected leader in design and integrated marketing. And to this day that kitchen table remains in our studio to remind us of where it all began.