Brian Whitfield
Verified Expert in Design
Designer
Austin, TX, United States
Toptal member since July 22, 2019
Brian is a multidisciplinary designer specializing in brand strategy, identity, product design, and art direction. His design ethos can be defined as efficient, adaptable, and sparked with enlightenment. For over ten years, Brian's designed complete brand systems, cross-platform mobile and web applications, and creative campaigns for hundreds of brands and organizations, including Dell, IBM, Boys & Girls Clubs, Cylance, and Ford.
Work Experience
Independent Designer
Self-employed
- Created complete brand systems, including logos, brand and product naming, visual languages, colors, typography, icons, and illustration styles.
- Worked with many startups and businesses to create comprehensive design system libraries with established design principles, components, colors, typography, and more.
- Used primary design tools such as Figma, Sketch, and Abstract, while virtual meetings are handled via Slack, Zoom, and email.
- Founded a lifestyle performance fashion brand for apparel and accessories.
Senior Product Designer
SparkCognition
- Designed over five advanced UI concepts powered by artificial intelligence.
- Worked closely with the chief designer, team members, and technologists to conceptualize, storyboard, and refine design directions.
- Interfaced and presented digital design direction/experiences with Fortune 500 partners in the commercial, manufacturing, and government space.
- Designed digital experiences for PepsiCo, Koenigsegg, Ford, and Dubai RTA.
Senior UI Product Designer
Dell
- Led and collaborated on more than three cross-platform mobile apps (iOS and Android) and more than five web apps.
- Built several design-system-component libraries that supported multiple products.
- Designed brand identity systems (logos, app icons, colors, and so on) and advanced UI concepts.
- Facilitated and assisted UX methods, including journey map creation, user flows, empathy maps, and various user-centered design practices.
- Worked on multiple products simultaneously: on cross-functional teams consisting of designers, developers, UX researchers, marketing, and project managers.
- Conducted design and user research, including UX audits, heuristic analyses, and competitive analyses.
- Utilized my digital agency marketing and advertising experience to prepare and write copy for product pages and landing screens.
Multimedia Designer
TKO Advertising
- Crafted over five brand identities, logos, and illustrations for digital products and events.
- Designed over ten websites, visual design systems, and custom icons and illustrations for businesses and organizations in tech, retail, entertainment, government spaces.
- Assisted in the front-end development of responsive and SEO-driven websites.
- Designed over ten marketing campaigns, which included animated web banners, custom formatted emails, posters, and flyers.
- Worked closely on a cross-functional team of art directors, illustrators, designers, and developers to strategize, ideate, and output branding, copywriting, motion, web, print, and video.
- Enhanced photography so that they would be ready for print and the web.
Student Marketing Designer
Texas State University
- Worked with over 25 different student organizations to create marketing materials to increase student engagement—while adhering to university brand guidelines.
- Built upon and scaled the design of legacy print and web applications.
- Designed and developed custom landing web pages for the university website.
Design and Web Consultant
Boys & Girls Clubs of America
- Redesigned and developed a regional website via a custom WordPress site.
- Implemented a CMS (WordPress) with analytics and SEO.
- Designed and handled the copywriting for over ten marketing campaigns.
- Designed extensive identities for over 15 regional events.
- Created ambient signage mockups for campus buildings.
Multimedia Specialist
Northwest Vista College
- Designed and assisted the front-end development of two web applications: HOLA, an academic advising site newly enrolled students could complete for course credit, and NVCVT, an interactive virtual tour for prospective students and visitors.
Education
Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Communication Design
Texas State University - San Marcos, TX, USA
Associate in Applied Science Degree in Multimedia Technology
Northwest Vista College - San Antonio, TX, USA
Skills
Tools
Figma, InVision, Adobe Experience Design (XD), Adobe Creative Suite, Sketch, Trello, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Slack, Microsoft Office, Miro, Adobe Dreamweaver, Affinity Photo, Adobe CC, Axure RP Pro, Zeplin, Jira, Airtable, ProtoPie, Adobe After Effects, Affinity Designer, SketchUp, Blender, Autodesk 3ds Max
Platforms
Axure, Big Cartel, WordPress, MacOS, Windows, iMac, PC, Web, iOS, Android, Mobile, Visual Studio Code (VS Code)
Languages
HTML, CSS, Markdown, JavaScript, Visual Design Language
Industry Expertise
Consumer Products, Events, Apparel & Accessories, Marketing, Music, Games, Fashion
Other
UI Design, Logo Design, Wireframing, Prototyping, Sketching, Visual Design, Style Guides, Design Systems, Web Design, Icon Design, User Interface (UI), Graphic Design, App Icon Design, High-fidelity Mockups, High-fidelity Prototypes, Low-fidelity Mockups, Low-fidelity Prototypes, Graphics, Product Design, Branding, Design Research, Iconography, PowerPoint Design, Color Palettes, Mood Boards, Brand Guidelines, Visual Brand Guidelines, Design Principles, Design, UX Design, Typography, Type Design, Documentation, Illustration, User Experience (UX), eCommerce, Mobile Web Design, Responsive Web Design (RWD), Data Visualization, User Research, Interaction Design (IxD), Print Design, Creative Direction, Art Direction, Style Frames, Mobile Design, UI Audits, Journey Mapping, Sitemaps, Print, Event Branding, Event Collateral, Collateral Design, Networking, IT, UI Components, Patterns, Mockups, IT Infrastructure, Icon Sets, Abstracts, MacBook, Company Naming, Logotype, Font Design, Theater & Performing Arts, Push Notifications, Dashboards, Enterprise, Pattern Design, Web Development, Brand Identity, jQuery, Colleges & Universities, Virtual Tours, Brand Design, Packaging, 3D Modeling, Collateral, Writing & Editing, Mobile App Design, IT Support, Dell EMC, Brochures, Promotional Leaflets & Flyers, Higher Education, University, T-shirt Design, Responsive Design, Game Design, Django, App Design, Wire, Conceptual Design, Fashion Design, Vector Logos, Custom Logos, Identity, Visual Identity, Design Language, Design Libraries, SaaS, Web App Design, Visualization Design, Motion Graphics, Motion Design, Animation, Brand Strategy, Editorial Design, UX Branding, Brand Systems, Presentations, Web Marketing, SMS Marketing, Analytics, Data, Artificial Intelligence (AI), UI Prototyping, Rapid Prototyping, Video Presentations, Web App Testing, Creative Briefs, Motion Interaction, Digital Art, Digital Illustration, Naming, Marketing Design, Mascot Design, Agile
Experience
Tools
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