Meet The Team

Catherine Sowder
Catherine Sowder

President

Sean Sowder
Sean Sowder

VP Sales, Co Owner

Rebecca Adkins
Rebecca Adkins

Accounting Administration

Patrick DuPaul
Patrick DuPaul

Installer

Meghann Kraus
Meghann Kraus

Production Support

Lori Rapach
Lori Rapach

Senior Project Manager

Lainey Weix
Lainey Weix

Graphic Designer

Kurt Svec
Kurt Svec

Graphic Department Manager

Kris Poole
Kris Poole

Project Manager

Jenny Crawford
Jenny Crawford

Project Manager

Jeff Bradfield
Jeff Bradfield

Production Specialist

Cat Saari
Cat Saari

Project Manager

Brandon
Brandon VanHouten

Vinyl Production

Anthony Johnson
Anthony Johnson

Project Manager

Allison Fenske
Allison Fenske

Graphic Designer

Ryan Haen
Ryan Haen

Production Manager

Trevor Butkiewicz
Trevor Butkiewicz

Exterior Project Manager

Joet Raso
Joey Raso

Graphic Designer

Ryan Cotton
Ryan Cotton
Amanda Hillyer
Amanda Hillyer

Catherine Sowder

President

What You Like About Your Work: My team. The creative energy in the office. The brainstorming sessions to bring a complex project to completion.

Experience: 23 YEARS

Notable Achievement: The growth of our business from our 400 sf basement to a 10,000 sf building.

Favorite SDDI Project: Either the west end, Alina hospital or Elan west end apartments. Both projects were vast and complex.

Hobbies/Passion:  Being outdoors and being active. Bonus if my family is doing it with me.

Motto/Favorite Quote: Nothing should ever be a crisis, just a question of “what’s the solution”

Walk-up song: “24k Magic” by Bruno Mars or “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC

Favorite sports team: Whatever team my kids were playing on.

Sean Sowder

VP Sales, Co Owner

What You Like About Your Work: I enjoy working with our team at SDDI to help customers with their environment through branding and unique graphics.

Experience:I have been in the graphics industry for 29 years.

Notable Achievement: I have been a part of many great projects around the Twin Cities. The one that gets the most talk is the Hewing Hotel. I loved helping create a new Iconic landmark for years to come.

Favorite SDDI Project: My Favorite ongoing project is working with Twin Cities Orthopedics, They are creative, open to new ideas and have a great team to work with.

One fun fact you want people to know about you: I really don’t like Country Music, I’m an 80’s Metal Head.

Hobbies/Passion: Hiking with my family, Travel, and riding my Triumph Motorcycle

Walk-up song: Enter Sandman, Metallica

Favorite sports team: Vikings

Rebecca Adkins

Accounting Administration

What You Like About Your Work: I enjoy working with numbers and solving problems.

Experience:1.5 years

One fun fact you want people to know about you: I am a HUGE Disney fan; my favorite character is Winnie the Pooh.

Hobbies/Passion: I enjoy traveling with my husband, crafting, cooking, volunteering with HopeKids.

Motto/Favorite Quote: “Everything happens for a reason.”

Pets: Yes, 11year old black lab named Orion and 6-year-old Golden Doodle named Gus Gus.

Favorite sports team: Minnesota Wild

Patrick DuPaul

Installer

What You Like About Your Work: I am fortunate enough to be in a new environment, meet new people, and make our customers happy almost every day.

Experience: 2 YEARS

Notable Achievement: I am the person who installed all the signs and graphics at the TCF bank stadium and Guthrie theater.

Favorite SDDI Project: Probably Bayada Healthcare in Cherry Hill, NJ.  It was a fun project with a lot of custom decorative elements, and everything went relatively smoothly.

One Fun Fact You Want People To Know About You: Bob Stinson, founding guitarist of the Replacements, demanded that I play his guitar my first time on stage and acted as my guitar tech when I was too nervous to properly tune it.

Hobbies/Passion: I’m a spoken word performer, singer-songwriter, and guitar player.

Motto/Favorite Quote: Life is like a sitcom: No matter how zany the misunderstanding, things always work out in the end.

Walk-up song: Fight the Power ~ Public Enemy

Pets: Two cats and one love bird.

Favorite sports team: South Park Cows

Meghann Kraus

Production Support

What You Like About Your Work: Every day is different and there is always something new for me to learn.

Experience:Since April 2025

Favorite SDDI Project: Delivering a set of wall panels to Maidson, WI. I swung by to see baby goats in the front lawn of a nearby manufacturing building before heading back to Minnesota.    

One Fun Fact You Want People To Know About You: I’m a mirror image identical twin! I’m left-handed and my sister is right-handed, our eye prescriptions are opposite, etc.

Hobbies/Passion: Crafting, cozy video games, building model kits, and working in my garden

Motto/Favorite Quote: I’d rather ask a silly question, than feel silly for having never asked the question in the first place.

Pets: Two rabbits, Meatball and Rufous

Favorite sports team: Out of familial obligation, the Packers. The team I actually follow the most is the MN United.

Lori Rapach

Senior Project Manager

What You Like About Your Work: What I enjoy most is that every day presents a new challenge, forcing me to be resourceful and develop my industry knowledge.

Experience: 13 YEARS

Notable Achievement: o Honing in on organizational skills to refine and improve the ability to structure, plan and execute tasks efficiently. Managing workloads to meet deadlines and prevent burnout. Breaking down complex projects into smaller, manageable tasks and setting clear goals. Clearly communicating expectations, deadlines and deliverables to ensure effective positive outcomes.

Favorite SDDI Project: Creating and implementing new signage for projects based on customer needs / feedback to ensure brand consistency, regulatory compliance, and high-visibility impact.

One Fun Fact You Want People To Know About You: I enjoy traveling overseas for immersive experiences in new cultures, such as trying local foods, navigating new environments, exploring historical /local architecture and creating new friendships.

Hobbies/Passion: Spending time in nature with mindful movements and intentional connection to decompress / reset – allowing the mind to let go of distractions and the body to release tension.

Motto/Favorite Quote: Be happy with what you have while working for what you want.

Walk-up song: Eye of the Tiger

Favorite sports team: MN Vikings – for social connections, supporting local team / city and because purple is in my color wheel.

Lainey Weix

Graphic Designer

What You Like About Your Work: I enjoy the creative aspects of my job, as well as designing things that challenge my knowledge.

Experience: Working Since August 2026

Notable Professional Accomplishments, Awards, or Recognition: I’ve received several compliments from people we work with in the industry, and it always makes my day.

I have received a Challenge Coin from the Prior Lake Police for designing the banner for the Polar Plunge.

Favorite SDDI Project: Designing the Polar Plunge banner for Prior Lake. I enjoyed the creative process of designing the banner as well as participating in the plunge with my coworkers.

One Fun Fact You Want People To Know About You: I like birds.

Hobbies/Passion: Bird Watching

Motto/Favorite Quote: “Birds always sing after a storm.”

Walk-up song: Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd

Pets: I have two kitties that also like to watch birds.

Favorite sports team: I do not watch sports, but I will say, “Go birds!”

Kurt Svec

Graphic Department Manager

What You Like About Your Work: I like the people I work with.

Experience: 7 YEARS

One Fun Fact You Want People To Know About You: I never got wisdom teeth.

Hobbies/Passion: Golf

Walk-up song: All My Friends by A Day to Remember

Favorite sports team: The Wild

Kris Poole

Project Manager

What You Like About Your Work: I love turning simple environments into an expressive and creative experience.

Experience: 11 years in July

Notable Achievement: I streamlined and organized the Farmers Insurance online store account post launch, creating an efficient end to end process from ordering through shipping.

Favorite SDDI Project: I’d choose the Cargill project; it stood out because I love opportunities where we get to shape the entire environment and create a cohesive experience throughout the space.

One Fun Fact You Want People To Know About You: I’ve lived in 3 different countries; US., Greece and Bulgaria.

Hobbies/Passion: Outside of work, I’m passionate about animals and nature, I love diving into immersive gaming worlds to explore and level up, and enjoy planting and nurturing colorful gardens.

Motto/Favorite Quote: Life is my college, may I graduate well and earn some honors.

Pets: Yes, Joey, the cutest chihuahua in the world.

Jenny Crawford

Project Manager

What You Like About Your Work: • Every day is different

Experience: 3.5 years (almost 4)

Notable Achievement: Figuring out the production tickets that we use at SDDI 😊!

Favorite SDDI Project: Image Trend – consisted of several projects and phases and getting to know the clients because of the extended time we spent with them.

One Fun Fact You Want People To Know About You: Only had 33 people in graduating class

Hobbies/Passion: Cook and entertain and spend time with family.

Motto/Favorite Quote: You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Wayne Gretzky

Walk-up song: “Golden” K Pop. I’m having a moment with this song!!

Pets: 11 year old yellow lab

Favorite sports team: Iowa State Cyclones

Jeff Bradfield

Production Specialist

What You Like About Your Work: Fun place to work and great people

Experience: 2yrs 8 months

Favorite SDDI Project: Baird projects. Seem to change it up with something new or challenging

Hobbies/Passion: Outdoors, Hiking, Travel, woodworking

Pets: Yes-Chichi, a small dog from a rescue

Favorite sports team: Minnesota Vikings

Cat Saari

Project Manager

What You Like About Your Work: I like working on a wide range of projects and completing a variety of logistic and creative tasks every day.

Experience: 2+ YEARS

Notable Achievement: Signage for Jack Link’s manufacturing plant in Georgia and Blue & Lime Apartments and creating an internal photo database.

Favorite SDDI Project: Blue Apartment’s signage refresh. It presented many unique challenges, but it all came together beautifully thanks to careful surveying and great work from the whole team: graphics, production, and installation.

Hobbies/Passion: I’m passionate about textile crafts, fantasy books, and learning new skills like woodworking.

Walk-up song: What’s Up? By 4 Non Blondes

Pets: I have a cat named Frankie (named after Rocky Horror’s Frank-N-Furter). She’s a menace and we love her.

Favorite sports team: Whichever one my compatriots are rooting for!

Brandon VanHouten

Vinyl Production

What You Like About Your Work: I enjoy working with simple vinyl in various colors and seeing an idea come to life in new ways every day.

Experience: 3 YEARS

Notable Achievement: Seeing how far I’ve come taking on new challenges in not only vinyl but installing various signs and monuments with each one being different and a fun way to learn.

Favorite SDDI Project: Lumibirds wall mural of the city, a project that involved printing a vinyl city landscape in a paint splotch design, where I weeded out the design and helped install it. I loved the idea and design of the project and enjoyed seeing it come to life.

One Fun Fact You Want People To Know About You: Growing up me and my dad would travel the US and take on high adventure challenges like peaking popular mountains in New Mexico, to sailing in the Caribbean through the hot days and stormy nights.

Hobbies/Passion: Outside of work I enjoy anything related to cars and the automotive industry, weather that’s building my own cars or attending car shows/meets to keeping up with the automotive trends across the world.

Motto/Favorite Quote: Love what you have because comparison is the thief of joy

Walk-up song: Rock You Like A Hurricane by Scorpions is by far the best walk-up song.

Pets: One cat named Roo.

Favorite sports team: The future super bowl Champions, Carolina Panthers. It might just be a few more decades.

Anthony Johnson

Project Manager

What You Like About Your Work: I have the opportunity find solutions for new projects and build professional relationships.

Experience: 7 YEARS

Favorite SDDI Project: My favorite project was within my first year at SDDI Signs. It was simple, but taught me a lot of lessons in patience, diligence, and creativity. The primary sign was a simple set of exterior halo-lit channel letters. However, the process, in this particular case, is what first encouraged me to think out of the box, resulting in a successful project and a continued business relationship with the client.

One Fun Fact You Want People To Know About You: I am a musician. I play piano and bass guitar.

Hobbies/Passion: I like to write music scores for short films and play piano at church and local events.

Motto/Favorite Quote: Life is a journey. Enjoy your success and learn from your failures. Either way, keep moving forward.

Walk-up song: My walk-up song would be something uplifting, fun, and fast, like “Happy” by Pharell.

Pets: Two cats; a Siamese named Quincy Jones, and an Orange Tabby named Otis Redding.

Favorite sports team: Minnesota Vikings

Allison Fenske

Graphic Designer

What You Like About Your Work: I enjoy working within real world constraints and coming up with creative solutions

Experience: Working since April 2024

Favorite SDDI Project: It was fun to refresh the wall graphics in the SDDI bathrooms with a new design.

Hobbies/Passion: Finding new crafts & growing my CD collection.

Motto/Favorite Quote: Do it scared

Walk-up song: All These Things I’ve Done – The Killers

Pets: Two cats, George and Smokey

Favorite sports team: Milwaukee Bucks

Ryan Haen

Production Manager

What You Like About Your Work: I get to use my creativity, sign knowledge, and technical skills to help the SDDI team create physical items.

Experience: 18 YEARS

Notable Achievement: When I was a Project Manager, I handled projects with a few of the largest MN based companies, 3M, Valspar, and Cargill.

Favorite SDDI Project: I couldn’t pick just one. First would be Baird. It started over 10 years ago with SDDI providing wall graphics and window film for the remodel of their offices in Milwaukee, but it continues to multiple locations across the US with some unique, artistic pieces. And the second project would be the conference room tables at SDDI. They were challenging to build, but I was able to use my creativity and technical skills to create one-of-a-kind tables that are used every day by the SDDI team.

One Fun Fact You Want People To Know About You: I have been to all six US Disney Parks in one day.

Hobbies/Passion: Disney (mostly the parks and history), watching movies, and going on drives.

Motto/Favorite Quote: “I can never stand still. I must explore and experiment. I am never satisfied with my work. I resent the limitations of my own imagination”. – Walt Disney

Walk-up song: The Bullfighter by Luke Bell

Pets: 1, my peace lily, Frank

Favorite sports team: MN Timberwolves

Trevor Butkiewicz

Exterior Project Manager

What You Like About Your Work: Working in exterior its really fulfilling to be driving around the metro area and see signs you helped come to life, especially at night when their lit up.

Experience: Working since November 2023

Notable Achievement: Just in general coming from a previous role in banking risk and control, this was a much different position and being able to adjust and have success I am grateful for.

Favorite SDDI Project: Blue and Lime, largest project I have completed, one part of the project included blue and green LED light bars that are really cool, bonus it is in the Lyn-Lake neighborhood of Uptown MPLS where I lived for 4 years.

One Fun Fact You Want People To Know About You: I’d say I am a pretty decent cook, love to come up with recipes using leftovers and get creative.
(funny/less professional I once ate 4 chipotle burritos in a day)

Hobbies/Passion: Love to exercise, run or walking the dogs outside. Hanging out with friends and family playing darts, catch phrase, any yard game.

Motto/Favorite Quote: No but Ryan Holiday’s books have many I am a fan of.

Walk-up song: Kenny Loggins – Danger Zone

Pets: Yes, 2 cats 2 dogs (Floyd, Ellie, Waffles and Bean)

Favorite sports team: The Green Bay Packers are my life

Joey Raso

Graphic Designer

What You Like About Your Work: Making spaces come to life.

Experience: Working since June 2024

Favorite SDDI Project: ImageTrend, because there was a lot of creative design involved with that project.

One Fun Fact You Want People To Know About You: My grandpa played baseball for the Chicago Cubs.

Hobbies/Passion: Trout fishing, hiking, camping, home projects, video games, and creating art.

Motto/Favorite Quote: Every dog has their day.

Walk-up song: Moment of Truth by Gang Starr

Pets: 1 dog.

Favorite sports team: Minnesota Twins & The Saint Paul Saints