Super.com

Building a new fintech brand that's already saved our users $200M and generated over $2B in sales. 

As the founding Executive Creative Director for Super.com (reporting to CMO), I lead all brand design and marketing creative, own website design and development for Super.com, direct the production of multichannel campaigns, and lead organic social media content for the nine-figure brand.

Some things I do with my amazing in-house team of 10 FTEs (expands to 25+ with contract and PTEs):

• Provide estimates for projects and manage schedules, assign work, review all creative, provide feedback, manage team resources, and coordinate team activity

• Manage relationships with dozens of freelance creators, vendors, and agencies to 10x our team's output

• Build and maintain relationships with XFN partners and department leads across Product Marketing, Growth Marketing, Biz Dev, Product Design, GMs, Engineering, and C-Suite

• Work with product designers to ensure our brand assets, identity and personality are expressed through the Super app and various products (iconography, illustration, animation, Lotties, photography, voice, etc.)

• Hire and mentor a world-class team of creative talent from industry leaders like Nike, Apple, Meta, Okta, Disney, TBWA\Chiat, and more

• Set quarterly strategy and goals for our team as a shared support group facilitating every department and vertical

• Expand our brand identity (visual and verbal) across multiple channels and touch points, scaling our design and illustration systems within Figma and Webflow so we can move fast

• Create content for all social media channels, including TikTok, Instagram Reels and Stories, YouTube/YT Shorts and LinkedIn. Over 50 million impressions in first year of activation.

• Produced 2023 SuperBowl ad for TV (Fox) to support launch of new Super app

Executive Creative Director

Publicis Sapient

Our team worked on a complete UX / UI design overhaul of the Mayo Clinic's public-facing website and patient portal.

Our responsibilities:

Building progressive new brands and helping reposition the world's most prominent companies through experience design.

My role:

• Leading design objectives and raising the level of craft, innovation and impact of our work
• Acting as key design leadership partner for globally-recognized health care clients
• Driving the future state of experience and commerce platforms reaching consumers in 150 countries
• Working with product and engineering teams to turn strategy and design into live experiences
• Leading multidisciplinary UX, UI and digital design team towards client business objectives

Associate Creative Director

Sourcegraph

As the company's founding Brand and Creative Director (reporting to the VP of Marketing), my role was to create and evolve brand guidelines, establish processes and workflows to support various XFN teams, and build/mentor a multidisciplinary in-house brand and creative team, including design, copywriting, events, social media, front end development, and brand strategy and research for the world's leading SaaS code navigation platform.

I hired and coached a team of 10+ FTEs which includes principal designers, senior copywriters, frontend developers, social media managers, and brand strategists. I recruited my team from companies such as Apple, Meta, GitHub, Frog Design, and TBWA.

Director, Brand & Creative 

Marketing Manager and Creative Lead, Global Business Marketing 

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

As the organization's founding Central Creative Director (reporting to the Chief Communications Officer), my role included:

• Building and mentoring our in-house creative team to support cross-functional goals
• Continued expansion and refreshment of CZI brand look and feel, tone, and voice
• Sourcing and management of external agency partners on larger-scale 360º campaigns
• Develop storylines and narratives that activate and engage audiences across all initiatives
• Create memorable, measurable branded experiences and activations for all audiences
• Codify audience personas for targeted, efficient content creation and nurture programs
• Work with Brand, Social Media, and Communications teams to position CZI as a leader in the space
• Work closely with UX/UI design and product teams to ensure a holistic, brand experience
• Managed agency procurement and planning with creative partners such as Obey Giant, Pentagram, Waterproof, Blavity, and Rally

Creative Director - Brand & Design

I worked directly with our initiative partners to help identify, amplify, and scale the campaigns that fuel movements in service of lasting cultural change. We also work to help build capacity and connections within and amongst the organizations we partner with. Collaborated with Collins agency on a major rebranding initiative for our largest partner.

Responsibilities included:

• Developing comprehensive marketing strategies in support of business goals
• Creating, testing, and monitoring multi-channel campaigns
• Lead generation, including scoring/grading, list management, and nurture strategies
• Creative direction for content across funnel to activate visitors 
• Providing brand strategy for expansions and line extensions
• Identification and set-up of marketing technology stacks and best-practice infrastructures
• Guiding positioning of brands, products, and features to enable strongest audience engagement
• Conceptualizing and creating amazing branded experiences to activate multi-segment audiences
• Leading OKR processes and check-ins with measured KPI reviews and team mentorship
• Establishing highly-effective interdepartmental relationships aligned around common goals

Marketing Director, Education 

Provide consulting for various stage startups on building and growing brands, creative strategy and execution, digital marketing, marketing technology and leadership.

Council Member, Brand Strategy and Design (Startups)

GoGuardian

Inc. 5000 rank (2018): #1 fastest-growing education company (66th overall) supporting over 27,000,000 students on their learning journey.

As the company's founding Brand and Creative Director (reporting directly to CEO) my role included:

MARKETING CREATIVE
	•	Create, manage, and optimize multichannel marketing programs for multiple personas
	•	Drive positioning and messaging across website, email, events, and paid acquisition platforms
	•	Work with marketing automation tools to create nurture campaigns for multiple tiers
	•	Build full-funnel GTM campaigns and programs to drive awareness, create demand, and capture leads
	•	Lead content team to develop thought leadership and demand generation resources

BRAND DEVELOPMENT
	•	Establish brand identity and voice and ensure adherence to visual and communication guidelines
	•	Monitor brand performance across social media and deliver reputation-building content 
	•	Work with Product team for naming, brand architecture, launches, and product line extensions
	•	Study competitive landscape and report findings to exec, product, sales and marketing teams
	•	Create a holistic 360º brand experience for customers, from first touch through entire lifespan

CREATIVE DIRECTION
	•	Lead all marketing and brand creative work across digital, print, video, and 3D spaces
	•	Guide and mentor creative team in developing processes and asset management
	•	Create library of SaaS sales enablement tools and marketing collateral with regular updates
	•	Manage multiple external agencies when design, positioning, or content support is needed
	•	Provide hands-on design and art support as-needed depending on resource allocation

Google

Provided various design and illustration for the editorial team, including social media graphics for Twitter, Facebook and G+, blog illustrations and infographic design to support product launches and content marketing.

Editorial Designer (Contract)

Edmodo

100,000,000 users and growing.

Edmodo is an education technology company offering a communication, collaboration, and coaching platform to K-12 schools and teachers. The Edmodo network enables teachers to share content, distribute quizzes, assignments, and manage communication with students, colleagues, and parents. Millions of teachers, parents, and students use Edmodo to share homework, message each other, and get the best resources – all for free.

I provided brand strategy and creative support centered around aggressive user growth and engagement metrics. 

Our team helped define the vision and voice for the brand during a period of hyper-growth from small startup to education game-changer, in which we doubled in size in one year from 25,000,000 user to over 50,000,000 worldwide. 

• Created brand asset catalog for web and print marketing, and trade show experience
• Worked with cross-functional teams on marketing initiatives, new product launches, and product improvements
• Performed competitive analyses and reported findings to executive team and colleagues for implementing counter strategy 
• Advised VP of Customer Operations on brand strategy, positioning, and value propositions 
• Worked with sales team to expand user base internationally through pitch decks and positioning strategy
• Provided brand, marketing, trade show, merch, and UI design support, as well as creative direction and oversight of contractors and design interns
• Assisted Head Writer with copywriting and editing for in-product, naming conventions, social media, collateral and ad copy
• Monitored and improved visual identity, ensuring consistency and relevancy across media channels and communications platforms

Promoted from Senior Brand Designer to Senior Brand Strategist within first year.

Senior Designer

Twitter

Worked on brand strategy and creative for clients such as Adidas helping them leverage existing and emerging tools and features across the Twitter suite of advertising products. Wrote copy, tweets, designed OOH experiences and social assets.

Brand Strategist (Contract)

Award-winning Creative Director (ADDYs, Webbys, Shortys, MUSE, MarCom, AVA, IDAs, Edisons, etc.) with a passion for building and scaling creative teams and brand design systems.

For over 20 years, I have helped hundreds of clients build brand loyalty, create demand, and drive growth. From celebrity chefs to Grammy-winners, from scrappy tech startups to FAANG and Fortune 100s, my goal is to create a connected experience through data-inspired and emotion-driven brand strategy, unique creative, and targeted, clear messaging. 

By combining unique positioning and narrative storytelling with the latest in on- and offline marketing techniques, the companies I work with experience successful product launches, rapid user growth, higher share prices, stronger brand equity, customer loyalty and activation, and word-of-mouth buzz. 

My personal mission is to help make the world a better place and see everyone in it have an equal opportunity to reach their fullest potential in life. I'm fortunate to work with companies that allow me to follow my passion of helping others find and achieve theirs.

🚨 Hey startup founders: What is a Fractional Creative Director, and why do you need one?

Your growth startup doesn't need a full-time Creative Director yet, nor does it need to start building an in-house creative team, after a Series A or even Series B round.

Why?

You probably don't have a strong brand narrative yet.

You may not have solidified product-market fit.

You probably aren't profitable yet.

You need to prioritize engineering and product roles at this stage.

This is where a Fractional Creative Director comes into play. Instead of sucking up resources with W-2 headcount (insurance, equity, 401k, equipment, other perks, etc.), you hire a contract CD who provides brand and creative strategy in addition to access to a network of freelance creatives and subcontractors.

The result is your company gets all the benefits of solving the immediate needs you have (brand refresh, robust brand guidelines, design system, brand narrative, marketing creatives, business templates, website redesign, etc.) without being stuck with a longer-term investment in FTE headcount.

Once you get closer to positive EBITDA, or close a middle to later-stage funding round, you can reconnect with your FCD if you enjoyed working with them and open discussions around bringing them on full-time to scale a team. This way, you can continue to focus on scaling product and growth without the large overhead of an in-house team that was hired too early, while also preventing the need for possible layoffs during that tenuous in-between stage.

Want to learn more about fractional creative teams? My DMs are open, and I'm available for free intro calls so you can learn from what I've seen during my 20 years in the biz. 👍

Tommy Pesavento

I'm SUPER excited to share that the Super.com Creative Team is a finalist (again) for not one, but TWO Shorty Awards this year! One for our new website redesign, and one for a TikTok post that went pretty viral (10M+ views). Woo-hoo!

Congratulations to the entire team including Darina Voloshina, Joey Chu, Trevor Hacker, Liz Belte, Brigitte Najarian-Mier, Jessica Cook, & Kelsie Wilson for their innovative work 🎉👏

As finalists, we can win the Audience Honor, which depends on your vote! Help us spread the word and vote for our campaign before April 30th! Big shout-outs as well to our fantastic Webflow development agency partner, Zabal Media for helping bring our zany website vision to life.

Learn more and vote for our work if you're so inclined: (links in comments below)

#shortyawards #shortyawardsfinalist #teamappreciation  #website #socialmedia #tiktok

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