I spearheaded the expansion and organization of Benjamin Moore's B2C and B2B online properties and social media design system, driving enhanced user experiences and brand engagement. Notable achievements include:+ Implemented a Figma Design System utilizing Figma's variables feature, resulting in a remarkable 75% reduction in number of components' variations. Streamlined design tokens, dimensions, padding, and margins across five viewport breakpoints while maintaining responsive design standards.+ Led the design of the 2024 COTY (Color of the Year) page, employing in-depth research into color philosophy and layout patterns. This initiative contributed to a significant engagement increase of over 20% compared to the previous year and a notable reduction in bounce rates.+ Designed the GUI and user journey flows for Benjamin Moore's Color AI Tool "Ask Betty," enhancing user interactions and satisfaction.+ Conducted comprehensive design research for multiple projects, analyzing customer support tickets and data analytics insights and conducting user interviews to inform decision-making processes and optimize user experiences.+ Designed a detailed and very nuanced Color Chip that comes in a short ~∆2 of the actual color that it represents, a significant effort for color matching. + Help expand accessibility by utilizing several tools to assess, analyze, and provide UX and UI solutions for any accessibility criteria and issues that surfaced throughout the development and implementation of the many components and templates, all in adherence to ADA and WCAG requirements.

+ Conceptualize creative and production of user experience design and visual design solutions+ Analyze data and insights to synthesize evidence and set problem definition+ Lead A/B tests + Building of new metadata and data schemas+ Building taxonomies and asset libraries for text, visual or motion assets+ Build asset workflows and process workflows+ Plan user experience workflows, journey maps, and guide user research through user observation+ Plan, manage and execute Customer and Experience Design (CX + UX)+ Create, manage and implement project plans across product innovation, product design, marketing, creative production, and engineering teams+ Plan and develop web infrastructure including cloud technology, Augmented Reality (AR), Internet of Things (IoT) through collaboration with the technology, engineering, and interaction design (IxD) teams.+ Plan marketing campaigns in coordination with the executive leaders, graphic design, and production teams through Marketing Platforms+ Collaborate with key subject matter experts across editorial and creative teams to plan and execute projects+ Plan Information Architecture and implement (AI + I/O), data-driven interaction, data visualization through data-driven solutions, and Artificial Intelligence (AI)+ Facilitate Design Thinking workshops through Innovation and Digital Product ManagementNüpolitan creates engaging human-centered experiences taking into consideration circular design, efficiency, and atomic design practices. We improve our clients' brand awareness, corporate culture, messaging, and content in continuous collaboration with our clients. We follow a conscientious design process and make strategies that place our clients' goals as a directional compass while focusing on real problems based on research and data evidence.

+ Day-to-day responsibility and ownership of the User Experience across exciting new project(s) for major clients.+ Champion design thinking approaches, including workshops and co-creation sessions to ideate, validate and drive forward innovative design+ Responsibility for planning, conducting and synthesizing appropriate research to dive into the customer mindset and effectively communicate your insights to ensure the wider team can apply this knowledge+ Work alongside members of our visual design team to co-create new designs, taking a specific lead on information architecture, functional components and ensure accessibility is considered throughout+ Confidently communicate and present work, helping to take clients on a evidence-based journey of design to build consensus around the conceptual strategy+ Work directly with our Creative Director and Project Manager and other team leads to establish UX initiatives to continuously improve the company’s offering.+ Provide subject matter expertise to information architecture, taxonomy, and primary site navigation decisions, with a strong voice in final decisions+ Own and enforce the project’s Design System using Figma+ Prioritize and plan user interface optimization tests, usability, competitive audits, heuristic evaluation, and client’s business goals+ Drive data-based decisions leveraging web analytics, customer satisfaction, transactional and system performance data+ Challenge assumptions and engage others in dialogue to resolve issuesAs Senior UX Designer, my role was to springboard user journey maps and analyze data to focus on specific creative design solutions for the client’s goals. Using competitive audits distill the core advantages other competitors may have with the client’s objectives and KPIs. Once the analysis and synthesis were gathered I helped craft three different creative directions which were presented to the clients for their approval and selection.

+ Provide subject matter expertise to information architecture, taxonomy, and primary site navigation decisions, with a strong voice in final decisions+ Partner with Brand, Customer Insights, Content, SEO, and Analytics teams to monitor and influence the delivery of Brand for digital, public, and authenticated customer experience+ Own and enforce the Design System integrated with AEM (Adobe Experience Manager content management system)+ Prioritize and plan user interface optimization tests, e.g., A/B, Multi-variant, usability+ Drive data-based decisions leveraging web analytics, customer satisfaction, transactional and system performance data+ Work within existing design styles and conventions, and to prioritize function over form to meet critical deadlines while still providing end-user delight+ Provide regular communication and presentation to stakeholders, clients, related teams, and agency partners on findings and recommendations+ Challenge assumptions and engage others in dialogue to resolve issuesAs a contracted Senior User Experience Designer, my role was to partner with Deluxe's Business Product Owners in capturing process flows and UX requirements for diverse web and e-commerce projects. It was an active role in Usability Testing and preparing Functional and Visual Design documentation. The position supported the creation of Communication Materials, Deluxe's Design System using AEM (Adobe Experience Manager), and Business Readiness activities.

+ Estimate complexity and effort for new functionality and enhancements to existing functionality+ Provide subject matter expertise to information architecture, taxonomy, and primary site navigation decisions, with a strong voice in final decisions+ Partner with Brand, Customer Insights, Content, SEO, and Analytics teams to monitor and influence the delivery of Brand for digital, public, and authenticated customer experience+ Own and enforce the Design System integrated with AEM (Adobe Experience Manager content management system)+ Prioritize and plan user interface optimization tests, e.g., A/B, Multi-variant, usability+ Drive data-based decisions leveraging web analytics, customer satisfaction, transactional and system performance data+ Work within existing design styles and conventions, and prioritize function over form to meet critical deadlines while still providing end-user delight+ Provide regular communication to stakeholders, clients, related teams, and agency partners on findings and recommendations+ Provide presentations to supervisors and top executive management+ Challenge assumptions and engage others in dialogue to resolve issues+ Use Jira, Confluence, Miro Boards, and Axure RP for UX journey maps, software development, challenges, and task managementAs Senior UX Designer, my role is to partner with Business Product Owners in capturing process flows and requirements. It is an active role in Usability Testing and preparing Functional and Visual Design documentation. The position supports the creation of Communication Materials and Business Readiness activities.

+ Conceptualize creative and production of user experience design and visual design solutions+ Set design strategies for marketing materials and branding+ Create visual diagrams and pitch decks+ Build asset workflows and process workflows+ Plan user experience workflows, journey maps, and guide user research through user observation+ Plan, manage and execute Customer and Experience Design (CX + UX)+ Create, manage and implement project plans across product innovation, product design, marketing, creative production, and engineering teams+ Plan and develop web infrastructure including cloud technology, Internet of Things (IoT) through collaboration with the technology, engineering, and operations teams.+ Plan marketing campaigns in coordination with the executive leaders, graphic design, and production teams through Marketing Platforms+ Facilitate Design Thinking workshops through Innovation and Digital Product ManagementAs Design Partner, my role at NBV was to lead the design strategic planning and advise NBV investors and partners on leading design practices, brand awareness, data visualization implementation, pitch decks, and collateral material to empower the products and services that our portfolio and organization operated. Natural Bridges Ventures (NBV) is a Strategy Venture Management firm. Launched in Silicon Valley by a team of seasoned entrepreneurs and executives, it taps into and operationalizes disruptive innovation from global hubs to targeted ecosystems around the world. With offices in the San Francisco Bay Area, East Coast of the US, Europe, Israel, LATAM, and Australia, NBV supports innovators and their disruptive technologies by accelerating their growth and consolidation into larger global markets, leveraging the team’s operational experience, and adding talent and financial resources to their ventures.

As a photographer, I have developed light manipulation and composition skills to produce editorial, fashion editorial, commercial and professional portrait images, some of which have been published in photography books and magazines:+ North Dakota 24/7 by Rick Smolan and David Elliott Cohen+ SE7EN Magazine's first issue+ Off Track Planet premier issue+ From House To Home several issues+ Better Home & Living several issuesIn the fashion and modeling industry, I have worked with model and agency look books and portfolios. In professional portraiture, I have experience in both in-studio and outdoor shooting. I have been professionally capturing photos since 2001 and have had principled photographic education since 1991. Whether alone or with a professional talent network, including makeup artists, fashion designers, models, photography assistants, light technicians, and wardrobe stylists, I can take the role of Director of Photography (DP) at any time or share and collaborate with other DPs to conceptualize and make any concept happen.I have led photography training courses and workshops for other photographer professionals, amateur photographers, and young photography enthusiasts in the academic and educational realms. I have taught Advanced Photography and Photojournalism classes at North Dakota State University and the ND Skills and Training Center. At the university, I helped outfit a photography studio and lab for students and faculty.

+ Design and develop web strategies and UI based on best practices of human-focus design for the entire university.+ Plan and develop the structure and framework of the web presence and its information architecture (UI, IxD, UX.)+ Design and produce assets and interactive products such as CD-ROM, flash-based interfaces and navigation, data structures (DB organization) and code development.+ Strategic development, design, and implementation of digital and printed marketing campaigns.+ Strategic development, design, and deployment of new media ventures.+ Create and design printed collateral materials for the department of Publication Services (brochures, posters, postcards, stationery).+ Create standards-compliant web sites through clean code (XHTML, CSS, AJAX).+ Create accessibility compliant websites (508/WAI).+ Information architecture, User Interfaces (UI), and Experience Design (UX)+ Content management systems (CMS) planning and strategies.+ Search engine optimization and search engine marketing best practices and consulting.I have imparted the importance of simple and clean design, and led several classes and workshops. Helped write syllabi for many new courses in interaction and web design, while covering areas in Design Thinking, UX Design, Web Design, Photography, Graphic Design, and Adobe SW Training at various universities and colleges, including MSUM, NDSU, NDSCS, Skills & Training Center, UJ. I taught and mentor students in the areas of photography, web design, interactive design, multimedia, motion graphics, and video; Several classes in XHTML, CSS, Adobe Creative Suite, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe DreamWeaver, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Digital Video, Digital Photography, Motion Graphics, Design Systems.

+ Create and direct a design lab where students, faculty, staff, and professionals collaborate through interdisciplinary teams was the first part to bring a design thinking culture and methodology to North Dakota State University. + Lead our design lab to implement a makerspace and hackerspace environment, IDeaspace.+ Use various practice verticals of User Experience Design (UX) to bring interdisciplinary collaboration to the campus community to spark divergent ideas to empower solutions. + Create several marketing campaigns and collateral material for in-house promotion and external partners.+ Plan, manage and execute mobile and web applications as stand-alone elements or as part of a campaign.+ Design and develop visual presentations and collateral material for in-house projects, broader-scope campus-wide campaigns, and other non-profit community organizations.+ Mentor students, faculty, and staff to build divergent thinking as an innovation catalyst.+ Design, manage and execute content management systems to host four different websites that serve thousands of parents, students, faculty, and staff.Considering the five tiers of Design Thinking, we make sure to not only practice the design methodology, moreover to build confidence through rapid-prototyping and radical collaboration, which helps people provide solutions that otherwise would be hidden or held back.As a facilitator and hands-on mentor, I have helped engineers, developers, communicators, marketers, advertisers, scientists, combine knowledge and energy to create a vibrant synergy that transcends human-centered design and constructs a robust mindset and philosophy to have a positive impact and create solutions that are innovative.

+ Lead the direction of NDSU DCE Mobile App and Website by managing and facilitating atomic design systems, including brand identity, brand voice, UX, UI, and aesthetic consistency and coherence across the entire organization.+ Continually strive to inspire and motivate the team while elevating the brand, innovatively and consistently.+ Bring a design thinking process to the department's product discovery, exploration, user research, user experience, and brand development.+ Demonstrate deep knowledge of best distance education practices and industry trends, while identifying innovative opportunities for growth.+ Lead, mentor, and empower the department's interdisciplinary team (designers, developers, marketing, content writers) by creating a positive environment for experimentation and embracing failure.+ Lead and facilitate design sprints and design thinking sessions between faculty, students, and staff. + Explore robotics, augmented reality, application development, software engineering, data visualization, and more to promote academic instruction and the organization+ Design presentations that are clear and easy to understand for instructional design courses, college-level courses, and organizational pitches+ Ensure all designs follow accessibility and inclusivity standards defined by WCAG and ADA+ Continually improve my knowledge and craft while sharing with others to empower the team and build robust skills

+ Develop design language, signature design elements, and brand assets that define the Office of Distance and Continuing Education, and deliver these across a wide variety of form factors.+ Manage and allocate resources and training to the team of visual designers and marketing coordinator.+ Assist in the creation and distribution of reports and data visualization infographics+ Support the marketing team on projects as defined and the Distance and Continuing Office Executive Director.+ Plan, design, and produce instructional design systems to support online video and courseware in connection to syllabi and faculty.+ Work across programs to define, maintain, and evolve the tools, processes, and communication around asset management.+ Brainstorm with marketing leads to identify advertising and marketing asset needs+ Coordinate multiple assignments and projects around the development of marketing strategy, digital and social media advertising initiatives.+ Plan, manage, and deploy technology infrastructure and system(s) to bring podcasts and enhance podcasts to students, faculty, and staff.+ Assemble and maintain audio/video studio for the creation of podcasts and online video.+ Stay on top of emerging trends in order to continuously recommend new ideas/concepts/tactics and formulate innovative strategic plans.+ Design marketing and collateral materials to promote courses and aid in the marketing and advertising efforts of the Office of Distance and Continuing Education.We deployed successful marketing campaigns that reached and many times exceeded their target metrics, as well as won several Addy awards due to their visual design and content. We created and developed a feature-full mobile app suite that consisted of 10 mini apps all-in-one that kept track of bus routes, course schedules, school calendar, resources bookmark, QR reader, materials safety data sheet, and important school contacts; a full 7000+ page CMS-driven website.

Through the OpenIDEO network, I facilitated and lead design thinking workshops to help our community plan, discover and make decisions about two current local challenges. OpenIDEO is a social innovation platform working to solve big challenges for social good. We've recently launched an OpenIDEO meetup in Fargo. We're a group of people who've come together through a common interest- making ideas better, together. Our group connects for deep-dive brainstorms, prototype sessions, and collaborative opportunities. For more information, check out www.openideo.com/content/meetups

+ Lead the web design production and front-end development.+ Plan and deploy the corporate sites based on proprietary CMS.+ Participate in strategic planning and production of the UI Design and IxD for our CRM tool and features.+ Craft the user journey maps and the UX plan of some of our web services.+ Design and organize the marketing materials and efforts to promote our products/services.+ Create several pitch presentations for our sales and marketing team in collaboration with the CEO, CMO, and COO.+ Design motion graphics for our products and services.I gained foundational insights working for a startup right at the center of Silicon Valley during the dot-com boom and bust which taught me how efficiency and excellence are significant attributes in the success of a company. It also taught me reliability through collaboration and responsibility to help everyone succeed. My role as New Media Designer was to create promotional materials to acquire more clients and recognition about our CRM product solutions. One of my responsibilities was helping implement HTML and CSS prototypes and frameworks for our CRM solution. Our company's growth was very significant when it increased in only three months from 13 people to 62, the success growth it demonstrated was two investment rounds and finally was acquired by Tibco. The fast pace environment, the high energy, and the many projects with very abstract technology-centric processes and development have provided me with a great asset to my career.

+ Design and develop web strategies and UI based on best practices of human-focus design for the entire university.+ Plan and develop the structure and framework of the web presence and its information architecture (UI, IxD, UX.)+ Design and produce assets and interactive products such as CD-ROM, flash-based interfaces and navigation, data structures (DB organization) and code development.+ Strategic development, design, and implementation of digital and printed marketing campaigns.+ Strategic development, design, and deployment of new media ventures.+ Create and design printed collateral materials for the department of Publication Services (brochures, posters, postcards, stationery).+ Create standards-compliant web sites through clean code (XHTML, CSS, AJAX).+ Create accessibility compliant websites (508/WAI).+ Information architecture, User Interfaces (UI), and Experience Design (UX)+ Content management systems (CMS) planning and strategies.+ Search engine optimization and search engine marketing best practices and consulting.As a new media designer in the department of University Relations, my role was to create a framework by which the Admissions Department, as well as other 80+ departments, could integrate their online efforts. Online marketing and maintenance, as well as directing the university into the information architecture the main website followed was a big part of my role.

Working in Silicon Valley during the dotcom boom gave me insight and grit about what it is like working for a tech and innovation startup. It taught me skills about efficiency and excellence and how these to play a significant role in the success of a company. It also taught me reliabilitythrough collaboration and responsibility to help everyone succeed. My role as New Media Designer was to create promotional materials to acquire more clients and recognition about our CRM product solutions. One of my responsibilities was helping implement HTML and CSS prototypes and frameworks for our CRM solution.Our company's growth was very significant when it increased in only three months from 13 people to 62, the success growth it demonstrated was two investment rounds and finally was acquired by Tibco. The fast pace environment, the high energy, and the many projects with very abstract technology-centric processes and development have become a great asset to my career.+ Lead the web design production+ Implemented the corporate site's CMS web development+ Participated and lead the UI Design and IxD for our CRM tool and features+ Developed the journey maps and UX Design of some of our web services+ Designed and organized the marketing communication efforts to promote our product+ Created several pitch presentations for our sales and marketing team+ Designed motion graphics for our product and services

+ Design and produce the front-end HTML, and back-end server-side includes creating a CMS-like system+ UI for websites and CD-ROM titles+ Interactive Kiosks design for educational presentations and promotions+ Flash animations and interactive experiences on desktops and web+ Graphic and Visual design images+ Web development through PHP and server-side includes+ Database-driven graphics and web integration+ Web server monitoring, operations, and management+ Instruction and training on how to use motion graphics and multimedia assets in courseware and web design.My principal responsibility was the design, creation, maintenance of the University's website. As my first official major role shaping the web infrastructure and content for the University, it was eye-opening and insightful to learn from systems administrators and developers about what makes an efficient framework, how websites work on the back-end, and what happens when servers get requests. Collaboration with many individuals was the basis of my day-to-day activities, and that helped me form a habit to understand how things work at a technical level to make design assets that are slim and efficient to avoid over taxing systems and the network.