Redefine Remarkable
Rethink the agency experience.
Our team is one of the most versatile you’ll find in a small agency.
(And now we get to be yours!)
Tackling topics from matrimonial law to hair care products, our talented crew brings decades of experience in corporate marketing departments from some of our region’s top companies. We run a lean core team and have built relationships with amazing writing, design and videography pros across various industries to partner with top talent for specific projects, while keeping costs low for clients.
We’re honest and hard-working, yet playful. Detail-oriented, yet creative. Fun and funky, yet obsessed with getting it right.
Meet Our Core Team
Susan Paff
LEAD STRATEGIST & FRACTIONAL CMO
“A lot of businesses forget there is a culture behind their brand and those values are their foundation in marketing. Ideality exists to celebrate that discovery and convey your unique story to the world.”
With her roots in writing and a passion for tackling exciting customer challenges, Susan founded Ideality Communications in 2009 to help small businesses achieve large-scale marketing goals.
She began her career in Pittsburgh-area public relations and marketing before migrating into journalism at the Pittsburgh Business Times. After working her way across research, reporting and editing positions, she got the PR itch again and wanted to focus on telling the unique stories of nonprofits and smaller businesses who lacked the luxury of internal marketing departments.
Whether creating a “moo-tiful” logo for a local dairy or rebranding an established, successful legal practice with a fresh, modern style, Susan embraces every business challenge as if it were her own. This marketing ninja will cut straight to the essence of your brand and punch out impactful communications strategies to help you connect with your target audience no matter if it’s while leading her internal agency team through projects or supplementing client teams as a fractional CMO.
Susan knows every client project inside and out, with a firm grasp on the gritty details and her eyes focused on overall brand strategy. In addition to creative leadership, she manages all aspects of quality control and assurance including project timelines and budget. She’s always the final editor, the last line of defense, with a back pocket full of red pens. Nothing makes her happier than a squeaky-clean finish.
Susan is a firm believer in mentoring other women and girls, especially recent high school and college grads looking to break into the industry. She is a founding member and steering committee advisor of the philanthropic giving circle Inspired Women, a board member on CERESA and a member of North Sewickley Presbyterian Church’s outreach & communications committee. She is an active volunteer at school and sports activities for her kids as well as volunteering her skillset for anything needed to support the local fire department where her husband is a life member. (Phew – We’re exhausted just typing it all!) With all this on her plate, Susan has well learned the need for balance and credits cooking as her healthy release!
Daria Kovacs
CREATIVE MANAGER
“One of the designers I admire most says great design is born of simplicity and clarity. I take that to heart, designing to tell your story through clean, strong imagery.”
Her title may say “creative manager,” but that’s only because we had to try to encompass all that Daria does in one tiny title. In reality, it would take a multitude of monikers to describe our fabulous, immensely talented graphic designer. She’s a rare breed, what those in her field call a “disciplined creative.”
What does that mean? She harnesses the chaos from our brainstorming sessions and manipulates it in a goal-oriented way. She unleashes creativity in pursuit of eye-catching motifs while staying uber-focused on reinforcing the brand. She designs both to meet immediate needs and protect the brand long term.
With experience working for a book publishing company, at Giant Eagle and as a freelancer, Daria’s versatile work has garnered multiple accolades. Over more than 15 years, Daria discovered her niche; she likes simple, clean, clear, yet visually appealing designs. Her enthusiasm for photographic arts and experience directing off-site photoshoots showcase Daria’s skill in balancing quality presentation with efficiency and effective brand messaging in photography and video.
At Ideality, her passions fit perfectly into our project roster. We greatly appreciate Daria’s attention to detail and her quick turnaround on projects, all while creating compelling designs reflective of our clients’ needs. She’s great at deciphering what a client is envisioning even when a client doesn’t know yet. That sweet spot is especially important as part of an agency serving a multitude of clients across various industries. Daria just gets it — plain and simple.
Think Daria’s creativity is only linked to the computer screen? Not so! Like most creative souls, her artistry is interwoven into everyday life. She dabbles in photography (her two kids and beloved Rottweiler make great subjects), sewing and DIY house projects. And, she loves to cook and bake from scratch too. So, she definitely eats up projects revolving around food concepts (but hey, who doesn’t, right?)
Jennifer Davis
MEDIA & MARKETING MANAGER
“I’m a label reader – interested in how companies describe their products and services. Making yours stand out through well-written copy is what I’m all about.”
Writing and editing are always at the heart of what Jen does. Five years as a print reporter after college taught her to present information in a correct, concise and captivating way. And, there’s no better place to learn the importance of meeting deadline than a busy newsroom.
Jen spent the early 2000s at Allegheny Health Network, first crafting marketing plans and writing for the web, consumer education pieces, annual reports and print, radio, television and direct mail campaigns before shifting her focus to boosting the network’s media relations efforts. As senior media relations specialist, Jen built relationships with journalists, editors and producers to secure positive news coverage for the health network’s seven hospitals.
In 2016, Jen and her family made a bold move across the pond to London, England. Somehow, moving nearly 4,000 miles from Pittsburgh landed her a virtual gig at a southwestern PA-based company! Jen crafted copy, proofed layouts and managed projects for Ideality, while drinking in Britain’s tea and culture with her husband and two kids. But crumpets could never trump pierogies for the long haul. After making her 2019 Brexit, Jen remained part of our team and loves the opportunities Ideality gives to flex her creative content muscles and fierce brainstorming skills.
Trying to figure out how to sell a line of red hair dyes in a world where blondes usually have all the fun? Need to help reporters explain the intricacies of a new tax law change? Leave it to Jen to find a less “taxing” way — See what we did there?
Maggi Potts
WRITER & COPY EDITOR
“Everyone has a great story to tell, but they don’t always know what it is. I love discovering the story behind every brand, and finding the best way to tell it to build an emotional connection with their audience.”
A skilled content writer and copy editor, Maggi has spent nearly two decades as a storyteller — first chasing down leads and meeting deadlines as a newspaper reporter and then covering the lifestyles of Pittsburgh’s rich and fabulous as editor of a local lifestyle magazine. Full-time motherhood gave her the chance to volunteer her time with her school’s PTA to create fun and engaging newsletters that transformed back-to-school nights and field days into viral media sensations (well, at least in the school Facebook group) and garnered Pennsylvania PTA’s “Most Outstanding Newsletter” award in 2021.
Now she brings her magic to marketing, working up press releases, e-blasts, social posts and more for Ideality’s wide range of clients. No matter the writing, Maggi’s perspective remains: Connecting with your audience begins and ends with a clear, compelling story.
When she’s not crafting content (or playing chauffeur to her three active kids) Maggi’s usually crafting something else — she’s a skilled knitter and crocheter and loves working on projects in her 110+ year-old home.
Erin Marie Yourd
Freelance Graphic Designer
“Design is essential due to its fundamental nature, but it will land on a spectrum of good to bad. I am here to make sure it is GREAT.”
As a freelance graphic designer, Erin Marie’s hands are busy creating all manners of design and art: from branding development to newsletter creation to social media campaigns to wedding suites and ad generation. After completing her Bachelor’s degree at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Erin developed layouts, ads and illustrations at a Pittsburgh magazine. Moving next to corporate in-house advertising, she created campaigns on a much larger scale and learned to juggle multiple projects on different timelines, with varied resources and diversified teams.
We love multi-tasking mavens at Ideality, so we’re completely thrilled to add Erin’s decades of experience to our creative team. We call on her if needed as projects dictate, and she eagerly jumps right back in.
