The most recent FT position I held before committing fully to OOPSpam was as a UX/UI Designer at Trinity Insights with offices in Philadelphia and Rochester.
The position involved collaborative remote design sprints with my UX team which considers both UX and UI.
This ideation kicked off the creating of prototypes for solutions, which was primarily in Sketch. Next I created the A/B or Multivariate test plan, and used inVision to properly mock up the experience a user would have based on their device. After the goal number of sessions were performed in the test, we analyzed the results with quantitative user behavior data. This step is primarily done by the account strategist but I gave input and insight as well. Based on the results our team decided if the changes should be implemented permanently, tossed, or if a revised test should be created. Sometimes these tests were on the simple side and others are more complex. Tests can be on any section of a page, including global, Product Description Page, Product Listing Page, Cart, Checkout, and Homepage.
Some partners I worked with:
Unclaimed Baggage
Sur La Table
Wine Enthusiast
Di Bruno Bros
Aspen Dental
OOPSpam is a privacy-forward anti-spam API. It’s a successful bootstrap startup which has a subscription model. I have been part of the small team since the beginning.
I developed the logo + branding, as well as the UI and some UX for the website/product. I have also developed custom branded illustrations, slide decks and help with copywriting.
Little Eye
UI, Logo, Branding, Copy
Fresh new design for Little Eye, the entity my partner and I work under for one-stop-shop web projects. We’ve made several products and held clients over the years, from web redesigns, food blog transfers, and general helpful things related to hosting and maintenance.
Usually I just stick with the visual design but this timeI did the HTML/CSS to put this site together.
Hip My Trip
Product design, management, branding, marketing, production.
From 2017-2019 I ran a successful project, Hip My Trip which was creating custom designed maps for people to remember their sentimental trips.
This was an all encompassing project- starting with the ideation and including branding, website, and marketing.
What made my maps unique was showing the actual route- so the organic shape of the roads/train tracks/etc. I use this organic shape in the branding to reinforce the uniqueness and value of Hip My Trip.
Marketing was primarily through social media- sharing travel-related content while also sharing maps I created for others and their travel stories. Hip My Trip's Instagram shares images from customers' trips to create a community around the love of travel and geography.
The Caspian Post is Toronto-based media company which shares stories and perspectives of the Caspian Sea region.
Starting with pencil sketches we worked through which symbol would connect the region, and not be too tied to one culture vs. another. In Azerbaijani the word ‘nahish’ means ‘motif’. In may rugs along the silk road trading route, whether they were Turkic, Persian, or originating from some where else, there are different motifs a part of rug designs which symbolize different things.
This square spiral symbol is present in many rugs and symbolizes running water, and life. It also works on its own if the viewer doesn’t know the whole backstory of ‘nahish’, as it resembles a wave in water.
We wanted a classic but modern typography. Something that works to be timeless but also doesn’t look like a direct copy to a current news organization.
After creating the branding guide which included alternate patterns, colors, typography, web styling, Social Media, swag, and letterhead, I also created a series of maps which matched the branding.
My role was the branding and custom vectors. Note the actual news website shown in the mockup was built and designed by a third-party agency. I did some web styling consulting for the post pages.
NARGIS MAGAZINE
Feb 2021, Issue 79
”Fashion as Art”
Baku, Azerbaijan
NARGIS is a trilingual (Russian, English, Azerbaijani) fashion and lifestyle magazine based in Baku.
6 pages of custom illustration/art direction.
Each of these compositions are based off runway shows from fashion designers who span different cultures, part of NARGIS’s theme this month of “Immigrant.”
Images of runway models were provided, and the rest was up to me.
This was a fun challenge to create several pieces all clearly a part of the same theme, but uniquely different too. Imagery was often inspired by the cultural backgrounds of the designers but sometimes backgrounds were simply inspired by the fashion pieces themselves.
If you’d like creative editorial content like this please e-mail me at danielle@loopandlaurel.com.
BRANDING:
“Cat Video Festival”
Project while working at Hubbard Broadcasting, specifically with pop-culture station/brand myTalk107.1
Minneapolis, MN
Event design lead for this annual event, including:
-Logo
-branding system
-signage (sandwich boards, booths, stage, map, etc)
-social media design templates
-slides for pre-event
-video stills (designating cat-egories)
-merchandise
-digital and print marketing materials
-on-site interactive activities with brand
-Snapchat geofilter
The Cat Video is presented by myTalk107.1 and the St. Paul Saints (as I write this is still an ongoing annual event). I led and produced branding and graphic content for this event while working at Hubbard as myTalk’s designer, a dream come true!
You can watch the video here.
The integrated campaign was across many platforms, including but not limited to: Logo, Social Media, Environmental Signage, Website, Merchandise, Video (the stills), Slideshow, and a Snapchat geofilter.
The team that put on the hugely successful Cat Video Festival was a great at collaborating on ideas and everyone truly felt like a part of the project. There was a great deal of direct creative exchange of ideas about the user experience, environmental design and production; I am confident this is what lead to such a successful event. From the reveal on social media, to the marketing campaign leading up to the event, to the guest experience at the event, every step felt very integrated and a part of a clear brand.
I'm very appreciative to have been on the team that put on this event for our community! Especially because I LOVE cats!
Branding Package
Sweetlife Lane
White Bear Lake, Minnesota
🍭SweetLife Lane is a candy (and more!) shop in downtown White Bear Lake, Minnesota, USA. It opened in spring of 2019.
This was an all encompassing branding project starting from scratch. Designing for a candy shop- another dream come true!
Elements created:
Logo design (from hand drawn type)
Branding kit
Custom icon illustration (+ icon pattern)
Outdoor signage- mockups + files, sandwich boards leading to store entrance
Indoor mockups to help with picturing interior before actually painting the walls
Social media design- templates and campaigns
Seasonal campaigns within the brand
Web design- Customized Wordpress template (by my parter and I, under Little Eye)
SweetLife Lane has been an incredibly fun brand to work with and develop!
To be honest, I don’t have the best mockups here of all we created together. This is something I’m working on to show all the fun things we did.
This is an example of a branding package where we start from scratch and create all the elements you need to get your projects launched and running!
If you’d like to learn more about this process, contact me.
2021
Book cover concept, design + custom illustration for “Minnesota Green: A History of Cannabis in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.”
Branding Kit
Social Media
Pattern design
Because Your Health Matters is a new community health initiative by Nimo Farah and the People’s Center Clinic in Minneapolis’s West Bank neighborhood. This is an organization that holds free public events for the community and puts on a podcast about health.
I developed the logo and created the custom set of patterns.
Adding more images soon!
Note: I like to show these motions samples for a wholistic representation of my experience, however I don’t work in motion currently. The beginning of my career was at a post-production shop where I was a production assistant, mostly helping with technical and VFX projects. I was also able to work on some creative motion graphics as well.
Our clients at VOLT Studios were ad agencies in Minneapolis who represented brands such as General Mills, Cadillac, Subaru, and many more. A couple projects I worked on were used in commercials, such as swirling glittered Lucky Charms, and line animation + end tag type for when Old El Paso was introducing their burrito bowls.
While my MacBook doesn’t now have the RAM to take on extensive motion pieces anymore, I like to share this work to show my experience working at the professional level of production.
For an idea of the creative work I did in motion, feel free to view my (now seemingly archaic) reel.
Currently, I’m happy to utilize my knowledge of motion for storyboard creation. I also have done some light animation on landing pages and ads.
1. General Mills/ Lucky Charms: Animation of charms and swirl. Compositing done by Randy Gackstetter at VOLT Studios. Click here to see in full.
2. General Mills/ Old El Paso: Illustration + animation of burrito, typography. Compositing done by Randy Gackstetter at VOLT Studios. Click here to see in full.
3-5. myTalk107.1: Art Direction, graphics + animation.
