Ed Aranda
Creative Leadership / Art Direction / Design
ABOUT
Multi-disciplinary creative leader with 16+ years experience building successful brands in competitive markets.
Technical chops to match, I’m equally comfortable getting my hands dirty as I am leading a skilled team. Roll the dice and you might find me concepting campaigns, directing shoots, making mood boards, designing a logo, or writing CSS code. Strong coffee, great typography, and a roll of film give me life.
Senior Art Director, 1-800-Flowers.com / 2021–Present
Wow, I’ve been busy! Updates coming soon.
Art Director, Health-E Commerce / 2017–2021
What I Did In This Role
Lead and mentor a nimble, dedicated team of designers
Provide daily critical feedback and creative direction across all marketing channels
Work closely with dev, product, and e-commerce teams to solve UX challenges and enhance on-site experiences
Strategize and execute monthly seasonal and promotional campaigns in alignment with marketing calendar
Oversee design strategy for email marketing program, consisting of daily broadcast messages and a full suite of personalized trigger campaigns
Define and communicate how brand vision is expressed through design
Iterate and test creative assets to optimize performance
Manage creative vendor relationships, workflows, and budgets
Partner with sales team to provide monthly marketing and UX support for our network of B2B partners
Key Accomplishments
Scaled in-house design org from one full-time graphic designer to an efficiently built team of six passionate creatives
Collaborated directly with VP of Brand & Content and CMO to build and nurture a creative culture within the organization
Led development of new visual identities for FSAstore.com and HSAstore.com, industry leading e-commerce sites specializing in pre-tax health shopping
Re-engineered all internal processes and workflows to improve communication and agility
Championed the importance of quality product photography and led initiative to transition away from dependence on vendor-supplied imagery
Built relationships with third-party photo vendors – developed strategies and solutions for producing proprietary photography of all products prior to launch on-site
Managed all internal design aspects of a complex site re-platform initiative, working with agencies and freelance designers to accelerate time-to market – launched successfully and on time
Business enjoyed nearly 300% revenue growth under my creative leadership
Art Director, Media Direct Creative / 2012–2017
Responsibilities & Accomplishments
Led a small but dedicated team of designers to innovate for a clientele of over 30 top-tier brands in the outdoors industry
Provided daily critical feedback and creative direction
Worked directly with client-side marketing leadership to understand their needs, brainstorm ideas, and provide creative vision
Directed in-studio and on-location product and lifestyle photography for annual catalogs, ad campaigns, new product launches, and brand development
Oversaw and assisted in the creation of 20-30 consumer-facing catalogs each year
Developed successful visual identities for several industry-leading brands
Led agency rebrand effort, developing custom proprietary typeface, “Media Sans”, logo, website, and marketing collateral, all still in use today
Enjoyed steady growth and healthy client base comprised of industry leading brands
Consistently won new accounts by prioritizing quality, creativity, and innovation
Key contributor to growth of creative branch through artistic vision, mentorship, and standards for excellence
Senior Graphic Designer, Media Direct Creative / 2009–2012
Responsibilities & Accomplishments
Everything listed below under “Graphic Designer”, plus…
Worked with VP of Creative to hire and mentor two additional designers
Began to carve a niche out for myself as a brand/logo design specialist
Designed concepts in winning bid for key new account, TenPoint Crossbow Technologies
Designed winning brand identity concept for the fledgling Wicked Ridge Crossbows – Wicked Ridge has since grown to become one of the industry’s most well-known and trusted brands
Spearheaded investment in superb quality product and lifestyle photography, planned and built full service in-house photo studio
Trained design staff in studio and outdoor photography techniques, empowering team to unlock new levels of excellence in their work
Graphic Designer, Media Direct Creative / 2007–2009
Responsibilities & Accomplishments
In-house design and copy writing support for full service media agency operating in the outdoors industry
Design concept and execution of monthly print advertising campaigns
Supported agency clientele with wide variety of creative requests – logo and icon design, print advertising, brand collateral, annual catalogs, trade show graphics, product packaging and photography
Worked with VP of Creative to bring in new projects and build new client relationships, setting the stage for steady annual growth
Core Skills
Creative Team Leadership
Concepting
Brand Development
User Experience (UX) Design
Logo Design
Typography
Responsive Web Design
Studio Photography / Photo Direction
Video Editing & Motion Graphics
Advertising
Catalog Design/Layout
Product Packaging
Studio and Lifestyle Photography
Copywriting
Pre-press/Print
Software
UX / Graphic Design & Web Development
Adobe Creative Cloud
Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD
Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Lightroom, After Effects, Adobe Premiere
HTML, CSS
Generative AI: MidJourney, Adobe Firefly, ChatGPT, DALL-E
E-Commerce & CRM
Salesforce Commerce Cloud
Salesforce Page Designer
Listrak
Narvar
Wordpress
Productivity & Project Management
Monday.com
Basecamp
Trello
Asana
Google Workspace
Microsoft Office 365
Slack, MS Teams
“Ed’s one of the best Art Directors I’ve worked with. He has superb branding skills, video editing chops, and a really great analytical mindset to back things up. He’s also a good mentor to younger creatives! If you’re looking for an Art Director/Design Director person, definitely go with the one that can passionately talk about that one letter in that one typeface. For hours. And it’s this guy if that wasn’t clear.”
— Kevin O., Senior Copywriter