Ryan Shafer Email & Phone Number

Italy

Remote

Amsterdam Area, Netherlands

Greater New York City Area

Managed and led a team of 15+ Art Directors, Visual Designers, and User Experience/Product Designers to deliver a spectrum of experiences across a range of devices and platforms.Key Successes & Responsibilities ⁃ Established the first, user-centered design team⁃ Increased MTV's web traffic by 3x, while reducing 60% of experience debt⁃ Part of a team that pitched a new strategy to the COO of Viacom, Tom Dooley, leading to a multimillion dollar investment back into our team⁃ Transitioned a poorly organized, desktop focused website to an architected, future-friendly responsive platform across multiple brands⁃ Redesigned how Design, Technology, and Product teams worked together to deliver better products and experiences⁃ Built a “show, don’t tell” design culture that produced quick, disposable prototypes to test with users, clarify team/executive discussions, and streamline development⁃ Developed a culture of ideation diversion/conversion via facilitated team design sessions⁃ Established design research methodology in collaboration with MTV’s research department- Taught the team on how to present and evaluate design work as it aligned to business goals⁃ Crafted relationships between TV marketing and interactive design departments to create a stronger, collaborative design organization⁃ Established a consistent, cross platform (TV, Web, App, Social) brand strategy and aesthetic⁃ Managed a large departmental budget that supported freelance design, software & equipment, team education and outings, etc.- Negotiated legal contracts and payment terms for consultants and licensing deals

Greater New York City Area

Managed and led a team of 8 visual designers, whose goals was to improve the quality of design while assisting the organization's drive to turn around business and create amazing content for our audience.Key Successes- Promoted to Vice President of User Experience and Design, expanding role to include LogoTV and CMT brands- Helped build new online event called the O Music Awards leading to new sponsorship opportunities- Recipient of Webby Award in the Fan/Celebrity category for the O Music Awards⁃ Streamlined our ad sales design process that reduced overhead and delivered on internal business and client needs⁃ Crafted relationships between TV marketing design and interactive design departments to create a more collaborative design organization- Partnered with production, technology and project management to rethink and streamline the design process in support of major events, such as the Video Music Awards and The Movie Awards- Worked with our Social team to help grow and develop MTV's social personality and presence- Negotiated thoughtful solutions to complex brand and business challenges with clients such as American Express, Mars and Yahoo

Greater New York City Area

Managed and art directed a team of visual designers, whose goal was to build the online presence of a focused, up and coming entertainment platform focused on the LGBT community.Key Successes- Promoted to Design Director - MTV & VH1 Digital- Collaborated with Vice President and Design Director of On-Air Creative to develop digital brand- Partnered with Vice President of Technology to define design strategy execution or modifications to solve technical/time issues- Hired and managed project-based design vendors- Worked with project managers to plan and schedule the design portion of large initiatives- In collaboration with production, I worked to ideate, information architect, and develop new products- Explored divergent ideas for product solutions using wireframes and/or prototypes- Developed new strategies for company goals with Vice President of Multiplatform Development, Vice President of Online Ad Sales, Vice President of Creative,Director of On-Air Design Director and Director of Technology

Greater New York City Area

Lead designer for new TV channel and online presence focused on the LGBT community.Key Successes- Promoted to Art Director - LogoTV- Lead designer for all digital design initiatives- Established online design aesthetic and site styleguide- Developed XML driven Flash components to display realtime poll results for television and web- Collaborated with front end developers to craft and execute designs- Hired and managed freelance designers and photo editor

Greater New York City Area

Design team member of MTV's digital music store, URGE, a competitor of Apple's iTunes Music Store.Key Successes- Worked under an art director to design icons, graphics, buttons, in-store page and customer outreach email layouts- Designed, drew and painted over 50 tiling headers to illustrate genre personality- Developed applescripts to process MTV and VH1's vast artist image libraries, completing production in 6 days instead of the 3 months originally scheduled

Greater New York City Area

Lead designer and video editor for a botique production company with experience in documenting real estate development project and television spots for telecommunications and banking.- Designed and animated motion graphics for a range of video production projects- Edited multiple broadcast quality commercials- Collaborated with color correcting technicians, on-line editors, sound recordists and editors to take off-line edits to final, broadcast-quality output- Designed and animated HTML and Flash based websites for internal and external clients- Designed small run, print projects for internal clients- Worked on location as a videographer, sound recordist, and production assist on a variety of sizes of productions- Interacted and collaborated with clients in meetings, reviews, off-line edits, film & video productions.

Greater Boston Area

In-Game Graphic Designer for a startup game company focusing on making music more accessible and fun to play with friends. Key Successes- Hired after a summer internship- Worked under the Art Director to design/animate looping texture maps for FREQUENCY, a Playstation2 music video game- Designed, animated, edited a promotional video for FREQUENCY to be shown to investors and consumers to create interest in the game- Designed graphics for a prototype game for Disney