Christine Walker
Verified Expert in Design
Designer
Atlanta, GA, United States
Toptal member since January 18, 2018
For over the past two decades, Christine has helped startups and Fortune 100 companies with award-winning designs. Her broad range of skills allows her to collaborate within cross-functional teams throughout all stages of a project to execute on a client's vision. Christine's biggest strength is in the integration between design research, brand experience, and design strategy for SaaS and web-based products and services.
Work Experience
Founder
Verse Brand Strategy
- Dynamically ideated, planned, and designed innovative ideas to assist founders and CEOs to develop or level up new products and brands using design thinking and lean methodologies.
- Hired, coordinated, and collaborated with cross-disciplinary teams to sell, scope, plan and execute nearly 100 clients with their design experiences.
- Coordinated and presented proposals, budgets, briefs, timelines, and projects to clients, stakeholders, and executive teams.
- Planned, conducted, and facilitated discovery workshops and research to assist with the innovation and validation of new products and branded experiences using design thinking and agile methodologies.
- Integrated information, data, and critical thinking into relevant and actionable insights, strategies, and roadmaps to design brands, products, and designed experiences.
- Led the conceptualization, wireframing, and design of branded experiences using human-centered visual, UX, and UI tools, processes, and methodologies.
Design Strategist
352, Inc.
- Solved complex business challenges by applying lean and sprint-based methodologies through workshop facilitation, user research, insights sharing, prototyping and testing, positioning and go-to-market strategies.
- Defined and created roadmaps that guided the execution of innovative strategies for new business opportunities or customer experiences.
- Planned and conducted primary and secondary research including, but not limited to, script writing, recruitment, stakeholder interviews, workshop facilitation, and qualitative/quantitative data distillation.
- Crafted and developed insight-driven personas, journey maps, strategic frameworks, prototypes, wireframes, and iterative testing.
- Made recommendations to clients and project teams based on a balance of desirability, feasibility, and viability of new market opportunities for startups and Fortune 500 companies.
Creative Director
AmeriCU Credit Union
- Led the strategic planning, creative execution, and implementation of new corporate-wide brand standards and processes which resulted in 20% decrease in resource spending and an average 30% increase in revenue and member acquisition goals.
- Creatively directed and designed small- and large-scale projects across multiple marketing touch-points and mediums, including digital, print, and traditional distribution channels.
- Curated, led, and managed cross-functional teams to create and execute on creative business initiatives, from conception to completion, for small to Fortune 500 brands.
Senior Visual Designer
Stressdesign
- Collaborated alongside the CEO to implement and execute on project scopes for digital and printed experiences with B2B and B2C regional and international clients.
- Was entrusted with a number of projects and responsibilties due to the fact that I was the longest-standing creative lead at the company.
Adjunct Professor
Syracuse University
- Collaborated with departmental heads and key professors to create curriculum and teach students design industry-related concepts, tools, and methodologies.
Visual and Interaction Designer
MRA Group
- Designed and developed human-centered, conversion-optimized digital and printed medium for complex organizations in adherence to corporate brand guidelines. These clients include FAO Schwartz, Welch Allyn, Sallie Mae, FedEx Kinkos, ADT, and others.
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Graphic Design
State University of New York at Fredonia - Fredonia, NY, USA
Certifications
Product Management
Udemy, Inc.
Skills
Tools
Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Sketch, Google Docs, InVision, Figma, Adobe Creative Suite, Adobe Dreamweaver, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Office, Airtable, Slack, Apple Keynote
Languages
Visual Design Language, HTML, CSS
Platforms
Web
Industry Expertise
Education
Other
Adobe Acrobat Pro, Product Design, UX Audits, User-centered Design (UCD), Workshop Facilitation, Discovery Workshops, Human-centered Design (HCD), Design Thinking, Ideation Workshops, Wireframing, Visual Design, User Interface (UI), User Experience (UX), Competitor Analysis & Profiling, Personas, Stakeholder Interviews, Customer Discovery, Scope Structure, Project Management, Market Segmentation, Quantitative Research, Qualitative Research, Journey Mapping, Decision Trees, Brand Development, Brand Standards, UI Audits, Web App UX, Web App UI, SaaS Design, Branding, Product Strategy, User Research, Design Strategy, PowerPoint Design, Responsive Layout, Responsive Web Apps, Responsive Web Design (RWD), UX Research, Prototyping, Digital Product Design, Market Research & Analysis, Interaction Design (IxD), Information Architecture (IA), UX Analysis, Validation, Ethnographic Studies, SaaS, Agile Product Management, UI Design Standards & Best Practices, Sprints, Agile, Facilitation, Interface Design, Roadmaps, B2C, eCommerce, Card Sorting, Logo Design, Web Design, Design Language, B2B, Content Management Systems (CMS), Annotations, Asset Preparation, Customer Development, Mood Boards, Discovery, Stakeholder Management, Digital Branding, Rebranding, Landing Page Design, B2B Lead Generation, Sitemaps, User Profiles, Nonprofits, User Roles, Digital Brand Identity, Responsive Design, User Journey Maps, Sketching, Usability Testing, Generative Research, Google Design Sprints
Experience
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