Brendan Bolton-Klinger Email & Phone Number

Los Angeles, CA, US

Global

Helping companies "Go 0 to 1", "Turn it up to 11", "Come to Jesus", and "Navigate organizational growing pains" for the past decade. Operating as "Director", "Lead", or "IC".

As the Primary UX Director on all account workstreams, my focus was on improving the user experience across various key areas of Optum's large product ecosystem and helping them to build innovative new products. Project highlights include: Creating a modular “Portal” to house Optum’s 500+ digital tools; Creating a richly-featured custom telehealth.

Helped Refersion, an affiliate marketing platform, mature their product and develop their Design department and Design System Library as it scaled from a 10-person team to a team of 50+, while getting acquired by Assembly (who reached a 1BN valuation shortly after).

Multiple projects, including initiatives for Amazon and Free The Work. My work contributed to the award-winning “Free The Work” initiative, aimed at ensuring equal opportunity for women and other underrepresented creators in the advertising world, empowering them and their bids on commercial projects.

Projects across the entire product ecosystem (Student, Parent, Teacher, Tutor, Assessments, Curriculum, etc…). My work broadly focused on helping to redesign various product experiences to align with digital best practices for this massive digital education platform. Later, toward the end of my tenure, I focused on concepting many of the new pieces of.

Greater Los Angeles Area

Taught multiple sections of "User Experience II" at UCLA, remotely and did several mentorships with students, helping them transition into successful UX careers.

Worked directly with the CEO to define and create the first iteration of their product, which was the first-ever nationally-offered “digital life insurance”. It was later acquired by MassMutual.

Greater Los Angeles Area

Product and Design leadership, responsible for research, design and product definition at this B2C text messaging startup, focusing on "Sales and Support with Text. " We got into Y-Combinator before this project eventually wound down and the band broke up.

Honey.is

I co-founded Honey.is, focusing on improving workplace communication and productivity. My role was coming up with the initial concept, pitching it, and then collaborating with additional founders, and then finally transitioning to become and advisor. Acquired by BambooHR 2022.

Los Angeles

I worked with senior clients and department leads at HUGE to define project strategic goals and managed UX on various projects, as well as rolling up my sleeves doing design work whenever possible.

New York City Metropolitan Area

I created and managed the newly formed UX department in the New York office of EURO RSCG, working on various accounts, including leading the global redesign of Volvo.com. (Racked-up some serious frequent flyer miles.)

New York City Metropolitan Area

I served as the Lead IA on numerous accounts at Deutsch, defining interactive media and UX best practices in the growing UX department. Learned a ton about advertising and marketing.

Greater New York City Area

Taught "Introduction to Interaction Design" in BFA Design program

New York City Metropolitan Area

As the 4th hire in the new NYC office, I designed and produced multimedia websites, games, and moving image content at Deepend, which was named the most creative studio in the world by AdAge in 2001. (Lots of Macromedia Flash - ha.)

Bachelor Of Arts (B.A.)

Mfa, Interactive Media