Clifton Alexander
OWNER, CREATIVE DIRECTOR
A mountain boy originally from southern California, Clifton came to the Midwest to attend the esteemed Kansas City Art Institute. After working for several local agencies in creative roles, he founded REACTOR Design. He has appeared on national television, been featured in countless publications and guided the studio to more than 200 design awards. His philosophy that there’s no point in designing something unless it’s awesome permeates the soul of REACTOR and helps the drive to achieve better results for clients. Clifton was honored as a Rising Star by KC Business Magazine and the firm was named one of the Kansas City’s top 25 small businesses from Thinking Bigger Business Media.
Although he prefers the much warmer and more consistent weather that SoCal offers, he and his wife Holly have chosen to remain in Kansas City because of the vibrant creative community and the fact that it’s an amazing place to raise their three awesome kids!
Sydney Deitz
LEAD DESIGNER
Sydney, though many call her Syd, has always been overly curious and loved to ask questions. Having never heard the term graphic design before, this curiosity led her to exploring the topic in a high school class. She fell in love with typography, the amount of problem solving that design took, and how much she still had to learn. Discovering that her favorite class could also be a career path, she took this drive to learn more with her to the University of Kansas. There she immersed herself in everything she could from learning about branding, texture, and icons to KU basketball and Lawrence’s Sylas and Maddy’s ice cream. She recently graduated with her BFA in Design, and soon after connecting with REACTOR, she knew that there was no better place to start her career at.
When Syd is not designing, you can normally find her going out to eat, picking her cat, Paco, up like a baby or enjoying the hot sun.
Lilly Swanson
DESIGNER
Lilly has mastered more than just the pen tool. She has been creating since she was able. Whether it be drawing, painting, sewing, you name it. Being a lifelong learner, Lilly is always looking for new ways to challenge herself. Once she stumbled upon the graphic design program at JCCC, it was game over. Design became the perfect mix of creativity and strategy. She quickly fell in love with branding, being able to create visual solutions and stories, and be immersed in the finite details as well as the overarching ones. After countless late nights, and somewhere around 1,500 cups of coffee (she did the math), she had received her AAS in design from JCCC, recognition from AAF, and excitement for the next step in her career,
AKA Reactor!
When Lilly isn’t designing…she’s probably still designing. But, when she’s not doing that, you’ll find her painting, thrifting, spending time with friends, or binging true crime or a show with at least 5 seasons.