Our Team

Jay Cranford

Chief Creative Officer/Partner

As the chief creative officer, Jay is responsible for making sure every clients’ creative ideas, across all media channels, effectively engage and connect with the desired target audiences.

Jay attended the University of Pennsylvania and later graduated magna cum laude from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville with a degree in economics. He immediately began his advertising career in Los Angeles, working on the Toyota account at Saatchi & Saatchi. Jay then spent nine years with TBWA/Chiat/Day where he crafted the launch campaign for Sony PlayStation and created results-getting campaigns for some of America’s best-known brands, like Energizer Batteries, Nissan, Jack in the Box, Reebok, ABC Television, Unocal, Minit-Lube, and Quaker State Motor Oil.

Jay’s work has appeared in such prestigious shows as the Cannes International Advertising Festival, the One Show, the London International Awards, the Obies Outdoor Awards, the Radio Mercury Awards, Creativity Magazine’s Advertising Annual, Archive, the AAAA O’Toole Awards and the National ADDY Awards competition.

His experience includes Arkansas Parks and Tourism, Stamp Out Smoking, Hot Springs, Oaklawn Racing & Gaming, Centennial Bank, Arkansas State Police (Click It Or Ticket), University of Central Arkansas, ABF, Kum & Go, Road Runner, Tyson Foods, JB Hunt, Terminix, Meineke Car Care Center, TCBY, Snap-On Tools, SportClips, Pollo Campero, Texas Department of Insurance, Arkansas Economic Development Commission, Iowa Department of Economic Development, the Houston Airport System, Riceland Foods, Baptist Health, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, and The Oxford American.

Ross Cranford

Copywriter/Partner

A 1990 graduate of Georgetown University, where he earned a double major in Government and Fine Arts (studio), Ross wrote screenplays and interned with the “King of the B Movies” Roger Corman in Los Angeles before signing up with the Clinton for President Campaign in 1992. As a member of the Clinton Administration, Ross was a Presidential appointee in the United States Department of Commerce focusing on legislative and budget issues for NOAA.

Ross returned to Little Rock and joined CJRW in 1995, working on nearly every account the agency serviced over the last two decades, helping to generate billions of dollars in revenue and results for clients such as Alltel, First Commercial Bank, Metropolitan National Bank, the Arkansas State Fair, St. Vincent’s Health System, the Central Arkansas Library System, the Clinton Presidential Center, Arkansas Game and Fish, the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame, Visit Hot Springs, the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism, and Oaklawn Racing & Gaming.

Ross has won countless advertising awards including three Best of Shows at the Arkansas ADDYs, many Regional ADDYs and two National ADDYs— most recently for the country’s best poster campaign promoting the 2014 live racing season at Oaklawn.

Chris Cranford

Cinematographer/Photographer/Partner

Chris has been working in the film/video industry professionally for almost twenty years—seven of which he served as Creative Director of Jones Film Video.  While working with Jones Film Video, Chris was responsible for directing, photographing, and editing TV campaigns and videos for clients such as Arkansas Parks & Tourism, Oaklawn Racing and Gaming, Stamp Out Smoking, Centennial Bank, University of Central Arkansas, Clinton Presidential Center, Hot Springs, and Riceland Foods, among others. His latest reel can be viewed at this link.

In 1994, he graduated magna cum laude from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema-Television and returned home to Little Rock to direct his own independent feature film in 1997, Sagittarius. He has also directed and produced his own independent feature documentaries and worked on many others. 
Chris has worked for clients in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco including national projects for Kellogg’s, McDonald’s, the U.S. Army, A & E Network, The History Channel, Walmart, and Mozilla’s Firefox web browser. His work has garnered many awards over the years, including local Best of Broadcast ADDY awards three years in a row (2012-2014), and in 2015 his photography won a National Addy award. His photography has been featured in gallery shows in San Francisco, Oregon, and New York City, including winning first place in an international photo competition sponsored by Soho Photo in New York in 2013.

Byron Buslig

Art Director/Illustrator

Born in the Philippines, Byron was raised in Houston until moving to El Dorado, AR. Recently, Byron graduated from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock with a degree in Studio Art with an emphasis in Graphic Design and Illustration. His illustrations have been featured numerous times on the University of Arkansas campus and during the Art in the Park event for UALR. He won the “Designer of the Year” award during the Arkansas College Media Awards (ACMA) in 2015 along with numerous other awards in the design and illustration categories.

He has worked with clients such as Sanshee, Nippon-Ichi, Sentai Films, and Arkansas Hospice Foundation.

Keri Speer

Art Director

Keri joined Cranford Co. in 2022 after graduating from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design. While a student at UALR, Keri interned in the graphic design and marketing department of the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, where she contributed to the rebrand of the new and upcoming art museum. Her design work has been featured in the Windgate Art Gallery at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the Sechrest Art Gallery at High Point University. Along with her enthusiasm for graphic design, Keri also enjoys photography, and in her free time, explores Arkansas with her film camera.

Amy Frazier Turpen

Media Director

For the last twenty years, Amy Frazier Turpen has worked at Arkansas’s largest advertising agencies planning and buying hundreds of millions of dollars in media for many of the state’s largest companies. Now she’s joining Cranford Co. to expand the three-year old creative communications company’s scope of services to include in-house strategic media planning and buying.

“Media is currently one of the most innovative and creative fields in the world of advertising and marketing,” said Turpen, “From traditional platforms like TV, radio, outdoor, and print, to digital and social networks like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter, the way we reach consumers with our message changes almost on a day-by-day basis. I could not be more pleased to be joining forces with the region’s recognized leaders in strategic creative communications to add in-house media to their full-service capabilities.”

Across the last two decades, Turpen has been the lead media strategist for clients including Arkansas Parks & Tourism, CHI St. Vincent, Visit Hot Springs, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, Arkansas Department of Heritage, Arkansas Scholarship Lottery, and many more. “We pride ourselves on giving our clients direct access to the top talent. And we’re thrilled that like-minded experts want to come and work with us,” said Jay Cranford agency partner and chief creative officer. “The timing was perfect to add Amy’s incredible depth of experience and knowledge to our team, bringing a whole new area of expertise our clients needed.”

“We’ve all worked with Amy in senior leadership positions at other agencies over the years, “said Emily Reeves Dean, Director of Brand and Social Strategies. “The addition of Amy to our team of leaders at Cranford Co. gives our clients the most experienced and well-rounded communications lineup in the state. As I’ve always said, it doesn’t take a huge team to create extraordinary results, just a smart team.”

Brandi Childress

Senior Media Planner Buyer

Brandi brings more than 15 years of media experience to Cranford Co., implementing large-scale digital and traditional media campaigns for some of the Arkansas’s largest accounts — such as Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism, Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield, Baptist Health and Central Arkansas Honda Dealers.

She values research and enjoys staying on top of digital media trends and usage. Planning and negotiating impactful media buys while maintaining good working relationships with media vendors has always been a priority for Brandi.

After graduating from Arkansas State University with a degree in Radio/TV, Brandi quickly realized that media was a perfect fit for her skill set. As a native Arkansan, Brandi relishes the great outdoors and spends many weekends exploring nature with her family.

Tyler Cobb

Video Editor and Motion Graphics Designer

Tyler is a highly skilled video editor and visual effects artist with over 20 years of experience in the advertising industry. A native of Arkansas, he received his degree in Visual Effects and Motion Graphics from The Art Institute of Colorado in 2006.

After graduation, Tyler returned to Arkansas and began his career at Jones Film Video in Little Rock, Arkansas where he started designing graphics and editing commercial TV spots. He quickly gained a reputation for his ability to create visually striking content that effectively promoted the clients’ products and services. 

Tyler returned to Colorado in 2014 to join HDNET Movies as a Promotions Editor. He worked on a range of projects for the network, including movie trailers and promotional spots.

In 2018, Tyler joined Full Scale, a Colorado-based design and packaging agency, where he quickly rose to become the Director of Digital Media. In this role, he collaborated with a team of designers and photographers and oversaw the creation of a wide range of content, including animations, commercials, corporate videos, website development, and social media campaigns.

Tyler joined Cranford Co. in June 2022 as Video Editor and Motion Graphics Designer, bringing with him a wealth of knowledge and experience. He is a valuable asset to the team and is known for his ability to take on a wide range of roles, from directing to editing to compositing.

In addition to his agency work, Tyler has also worked on a variety of independent projects, including music videos and short films. He is proficient in video production software, including Adobe Premiere, After Effects, Cinema 4D, and Photoshop. He is known for his attention to detail and ability to bring complex concepts to life through his visual storytelling.