Jeff is available for hire
Hire JeffJeff Zimmerman
Verified Expert in Design
Designer
Location
New York, NY, United States
Toptal Member Since
August 22, 2022
Jeff is a visual storyteller who weaves classic, digital, and environmental media into immersive brand experiences. For nearly two decades, he has partnered with organizations and their communications groups to conceptualize brands and bring them to life.
Portfolio
Work Experience
Principal and Creative Director
2009 - PRESENT
Freelance
- Established in-house agency's New York design office to create a tailored experience for global banking and markets investment bankers at Merrill Lynch.
- Expanded relationship with the senior vice president, marketing to fund three additional design, production, and traffic consultants over two years at Merrill Lynch.
- Partnered with art procurement to conceptualize, produce, style, and art direct photographs for potential 20% savings over stock photography at Merrill Lynch.
- Restructured highly visible Global Trading Guide to provide more functionality and daily brand marketing. Success with the 2012 guide resulted in a 20% print budget increase to $150,000 in 2013 at Merrill Lynch.
- Developed and activated a modern and versatile visual identity system for Voices for Justice annual galas held in 26 locations worldwide for Human Rights Watch.
- Overhauled annual report, a flagship in the organization's communications campaign, sent to thousands of major donors for Human Rights Watch.
- Transformed concepts for Barnes & Noble and Cornell Tech to full visual systems in under four weeks each, including written brand guidelines.
- Crafted a targeted 3600-square-foot conference exhibit in just six weeks to raise advisor interest in the Merrill Lynch one platform.
- Overhauled design for highly-visible Merrill Lynch research reporting is published more than 300 times daily.
- Conceptualized three visual directions to align DIRECTV creative with AT&T's entertainment brand strategy.
Technologies: Adobe CC, InDesign CC, Illustrator CC, Photoshop CC, After Effects CC, Landing Page Design
Creative Director
2019 - 2020
Skillsoft
- Activated the new 2020 brand identity in a compressed six-week timeline through COVID-19 together with marketing leadership.
- Coordinated with a branding agency to establish visual execution standards and brand governance for the new 2020 visual identity.
- Partnered with executive and sales leadership to craft narratives and visuals for eight high-end keynote experiences.
- Assisted with and eight-week conversion of a 5,000 in-person attendee conference to a digital, worldwide experience in response to COVID-19.
- Harmonized creative direction and verbal messaging within the new 2020 strategic direction as an innovative leader on the content marketing team.
- Led graphic designers, video production designers, and digital creatives across three worldwide locations as mentor and coach.
Technologies: Adobe CC, InDesign CC, Illustrator CC, Photoshop CC, After Effects CC, Asana, Agile
Art Director
2005 - 2009
FTI Consulting
- Promoted from junior designer to art director in under 24 months. I was the most senior creative on the east coast for three years.
- Improved profitability by 15% by establishing new processes that identified and quantified out-of-scope work for timely billing.
- Enabled the creative director to establish west coast office by demonstrating the ability to work independently and manage multiple projects.
- Managed the development of a $600,000 clean energy mobile exhibit on a condensed eight-week timeline while the creative director was out of the country.
Technologies: Adobe CC, InDesign CC, Illustrator CC, Photoshop CC
Education
2000 - 2004
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design
Rochester Institute of Technology - Rochester, New York