Art Director > SENIOR ART DIRECTOR
Cardinal Financial Company
Aug 2021—Present
I focus on brand strategy, marketing concepts, and digital experiences. I collaborate to create concepts, strategies, and results. And I lead a team to ensure ideas are upheld, best practices are met, and expectations are always surpassed.
Conceive and implement concepts, guidelines and strategies in various creative projects and oversee them to completion.
Lead brainstorming/creative sessions to generate ideas while reviewing and providing strategic oversight to their direct creative teams.
Translate direct marketing objectives into clear creative strategies while providing clear art direction for deliverables.
Lead and direct the creative team in the production of all marketing collateral, recruiting materials, website assets, presentations, social media content, and ad hoc requests.
Ensure visual communication and brand standards are met while pushing and refreshing what is expected.
Oversee stakeholder pitches and proposals; while routinely meeting with peers and upper management to explain campaign strategies, creative execution needs, and/or proposed solutions.
Review work, troubleshoot and provide feedback to creative teams.
Manage tight turnaround timelines and strict deadlines while keeping the team motivated and engaged in the work.
Collaborate closely with copywriters, UX designers, and digital teams to ensure a cohesive and unified brand narrative across all channels.
Drive the evolution of brand systems, visual identity, and templates to support scalability and efficiency across the organization.
Establish processes that streamline project intake, creative review, and delivery, fostering a more agile and responsive creative workflow.
Senior Graphic Designer
Cardinal Financial Company
Aug 2019—Aug 2021
Possessed a deep understanding of the company’s brand strategy to deliver compelling, user-focused design in collaboration with fellow designers, copywriters, and developers.
Successfully refreshed the entire brand identity to modernize the brand by updating the logo, color palette and typography. Developed a new 100+ page brand book, new package design, a UI framework and updated creative strategy & positioning.
Designed production-ready assets, icons, ads, presentations, and on-brand materials for both internal and external application.
Mastered a highly-organized and efficient project workflow to execute in the direction and requirements of a project scope without compromising quality or deadlines.
Strategic and thoughtful design workflow to serve multiple brand identities and meet audience needs.
Key contributor for .coms, intranet and micro-sites, social and digital media content creation, traditional and printed collateral, signage, display and event needs.
Transformed low-fidelity sketches to hi-fidelity pixel perfect mockups for our Sr. UI/UX Designers in XD and Figma.
Served as the team’s point of contact during production and/or planning stages with outside agencies, printers, and vendors.
Senior Graphic Designer
Peoples Home Equity
Apr 2017—Aug 2019
Led the company towards a clearer sense of brand, provided a wide-range of marketing tools and resources tailored to areas of need, and built genuine and meaningful relationships to support change.
Partnered with the Creative Director to coordinate a brand overhaul and build a comprehensive marketing strategy.
Developed foundational brand elements and messaging to achieve a more modern and personable identity in an increasingly tech-forward market.
Educated key stakeholders and enforced the adoption of new brand guidelines company-wide through online trainings and ongoing audits with freelance designers stationed throughout the country.
Launched the company's first-ever CRM system, followed by an online office storefront complete with swag and business suite assets.
Graphics Specialist & YMCA of the USA Brand Ambassador
YMCA of San Francisco
Oct 2009—Apr 2017
Shaped the YMCA of San Francisco’s rebrand through the development of thoughtful design solutions and educational team resources.
Provided design support to 14 branches and over 120 program sites, translating marketing objectives, fundraising visions, and seasonal campaigns into compelling design.
Served as the YMCA of San Francisco’s brand ambassador for the YMCA of the USA working closely with marketing teams to communicate brand needs and prioritize updates to meet brand audit deadlines.
Partnered with the Financial Development Department and Executive Board Members to design for, plan, and execute multi-million dollar fundraising events.
Facilitated environmental branding projects in partnership with branch executives, contractors, and vendors (design and signgage selections, production efforts, and installation).
Developed Adobe Creative Suite trainings and templates for marketing staff.
Honed an exceptional knack for building staff, vendor, and community relationships.
Skills
Branding
Identity Development, Brand & Style Guides, Logo Design, Icon Design
Digital Design
Graphic & Visual, Banner & Native Ads, Websites & Landing Pages
Traditional Design
Brochures, Print Ads, Marketing Collateral, Packaging, Exhibition & Booth Design
Project Management
Asana, Vendor Relations, Agile and Waterfall Workflow
Design Software
Adobe Creative Suite: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign; XD, Zeplin, Figma
Communication & Marketing Tools
Zoom, GSuite, Hubspot, WordPress, MailChimp, Canva, Flipsnack