Resume
Creative Director with experience in art direction, design, photography, messaging, brand identity, marketing and strategy. Recognized and awarded for my creative approach producing compelling campaigns across multiple platforms including traditional, experiential, social and digital. Expertise with creative strategy, guiding the creative vision through data driven requirements and connecting with targeted audiences.
Self Employed
Creative Director, Consultant
2020 – Present, Greater NYC Area
Provide organizational research, listen, advise, solve problems, and create value. Present brand, language, and design solutions. Utilize design thinking to assess organization goals, mission and how to best express brand communications. Encourage employees to be user-centric on all design decisions, help them fully understand it’s impacts on brand and company success. Employ a solution-based approach and prioritize user empathy.
Recent clients: Rutgers University SECD Program, LENOWISCO Health District, Lee County Health & Wellness Coalition (LCH&WC), OmniScience AI.
ScholarChip®
Director of Creative Services
2010 – 2019, Hicksville NY.
Leading the creative branding and marketing team with a priority in generating leads and growing our customer base, increasing revenue over 300% in my tenure. Our marketing efforts have been rewarded with the largest school district in the country, NYC-DOE, becoming our newest client. ScholarChip is a growing software technology company specializing in campus operations; financial services, identification, attendance automation, school safety services and is the national leader in providing smart ID card solutions to K12 and Higher Ed.
Oversee all aspects of design, and creative execution for every ScholarChip project.
Develop standards for company brand communications.
Work with Inbound agency and Public Relations.
Directly involved in every engagement to ensure our creative services exceed expectations and that our work communicates brand message to our targeted audience.
Design solutions are user centric and scalable.
Conceptualized and designed a new brand identity for ScholarChip: created corporate web-site, all marketing support materials and implemented a new brand strategy. Launching online advertising campaigns, email marketing and content marketing campaigns along with print campaigns.
Develop digital advertising campaigns directed at potential customers, track analytics, generate new contacts and leads that result in new customers.
Projects include: direct mail campaigns, email blasts, internet advertising, print advertising, brochures and product literature. Create and maintain social media content and campaigns. Present In-house designs, marketing proposals and concepts to CEO, CTO and President CFO. Determine best direction to proceed on marketing initiatives, coordinate company resources and set production schedules.
Harman international®
Senior Art Director
1999 – 2009, Stamford CT.
Premium consumer electronics industry leader and automobile OEM supplier of high-end brands such as JBL, Harman Kardon and Infinity. With a global work force of 14,000 Harman now generates over four billion dollars in annual sales.
Lead creative within Harman Marketing and Design Center, an 18 person in-house advertising agency that develops and maintains corporate and consumer brand identity.
Developed the look, language and feel of Harman’s foremost brands: Harman Kardon, JBL and Infinity. Was active, on a daily basis, in the creative direction, brand evolution and positioning.
Provided creative direction for layout, photography and website architecture, design and development. Involved in every aspect of project from initial brief to launch. Projects include publication advertising campaigns, packaging design, trade show exhibits, direct mail, product displays, high-end brochures, P.O.P., and website design. Designed email blast program to educate dealers, partners, customers, and employees about new products, awards, reviews, and press releases.
Extensive experience handling a variety of clients through various levels of communication from internal C-Level executives to independent contractor. Assisted in the design of uniquely targeted consumer products along with brand presidents, executive marketing directors, global product managers and marketing managers.
Discussed creative direction and presented concepts to Harman Brand Managers. Worked remotely with European, Asian and California offices. Became account lead for Harman Europe and Asia which led to a department workload increase of 50% and promoted the use of in-house services at a tremendous cost savings.
Collaborated daily with department art directors, production designers, copywriters, editors, web designers, photographers and traffic managers to evolve our brands and increase brand awareness.
Created consumer websites for JBL, Infinity and Harman Kardon brands, through in-house collaboration, achieving 200k+ savings from outside fees.
Mentored team members and oversaw their promotion.
OTHER RELEVANT EXPERIENCES
Advertising and Sales Promotion within Omnicom Group. Clients: Dannon, British Airways, Macallan Scotch Whisky, Lever Brothers and General Foods. (Agencies: Alcone Marketing, Sims Freeman O'Brien. Also Ted Colangelo Associates, Clarion.) Creative Services Consultant. Agencies and In-house: East West Creative (NYC), The Guild Group (Westchester, NY), Harman Consumer Group (LI, NY). Responsible for creative vision, concepts, layout and design.
EDUCATION
School of Visual Arts, B.F.A. New York NY.
TRAINING
Art Directors Club seminars. Art Directors Club “Big Brand Talks.” Click NY’s digital advertising conference. Mindleaders courses: Essentials of Communicating; Managing Change, Motivating Others, Understanding Leadership, Business Communication. INBOUND-2018 Boston Convention Center, immersive Inbound sessions.
SKILLS
Expertise in Adobe Creative Suite, Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft office, CRM tools (HubSpot), MailChimp, Google Ads and Google Analytics. Intermediate skills in Wordpress and PandaDocs.
AWARDS
American Package Design Award (5).
American Graphic Design Awards (28).
In-HOWse Design Award. How magazine (1).
American In-House Design Awards (27).
OTHER
2008 Published in In-House Design in Practice by Cathy Fishel, Infinity Car brochure design featured on p. 104.