Hi, I’m Cortney.
I’m an IxD living and working in beautiful San Francisco, CA. I'm a champ at distilling complex user problems into simple, functional, beautiful solutions. If you’re looking for a designer who loves creating for new and emerging technology, then you’ve come to the right place.
Currently, I’m freelancing and working on some pretty amazing digital projects with some smart and fascinating folks. In my not-so-distant past, I’ve worked with some awesome agencies and creative teams. I know how to think BIG—I’ve conceptualized and executed digital projects for Fortune 100 brands while working in fast-paced environments under tight deadlines. I’m resourceful—I can provide strategic insight and design solutions for projects of all colors, shapes and sizes.
I'm always happy to talk about creative opportunities, whether freelance or full-time. You can find me just about anywhere but I reply fastest on LinkedIn and email.
Also, if you’re in the Bay Area looking for a pub trivia team member with a wealth of knowledge about Star Trek—specifically the Original Series, The Next Generation, DS9 and Voyager—I’m available.
Client Roster
Work History
2011 – Current
Clients: Reebok International, United Airlines, Sprite, Microsoft, MSN, Bing
Of late, I’ve been working as a freelance art director and designer across multiple disciplines from print to UX. Most recently, I've been working as T3's lead creative on the new Allstate.com site which is still in development. Previous to that, I helped concept and create digital campaigns for United Airlines with New York–based McGarry Bowen. I also worked extensively with Reebok on a number of their product launches.
Travel and Volunteering
In 2011, a dear friend of mine founded Mission McNeill – a non-profit organization in Peru that brings sanitation systems, running water, school improvements, and educational materials to impoverished children in rural villages in Andes Mountains. Compelled to help, my partner and I designed the organization’s brand identity, built their website and created their print promotional materials before buying a one-way ticket to a small mountain village where we lived and worked for several months.
While there, I helped assess and evaluate the needs of numerous communities to establish budget and estimate impact, build educational toys and materials from scratch and found objects, and art direct and develop a budget-conscious style and resource guide for center interiors that was colorful, conceptual, and sustainable. I dug a lot of holes, mixed a lot of cement, measured a lot of materials, and managed to communicate in some form of mutilated Spanish. You can read about the organization at MissionMcNeill.com. You can also watch the videos we made in the projects section.
But before all that, in 2010, I sold almost everything I owned and traveled to Southeast Asia for some cultural immersion and volunteering. I got lost in China, rode motorcycles down the Vietnamese coast, bathed an elephant named Boun Nam in Laos, befriended a monk in Siem Riep, got a nasty case of Delhi-belly in India, and climbed to Mt. Everest Base Camp in Nepal. While traveling I also gave lectures and guidance to advertising students at a university in Hanoi and volunteered with The Trailblazer Foundation where I helped build water filtration systems for poor, rural communities in Cambodia. You can browse my (mis)adventures and experience some TMI moments at HappyFunTravels.com.
2008 – 2010
Senior Art Director
Clients: Sony, Microsoft, MSN, Bing, Macerich, UGO
Drumroll, at the time of my employment, was a small agency of 10-15 people. Working at a small shop definitely has its benefits. I had complete control of my projects from concept to completion and was able to oversee every single stage of the process. With less hands on deck comes more responsibility. I was routinely involved in concept development, design, production, client presentation, digital strategy and planning assistance for a wide variety of interactive projects for new and existing clients.
As a senior creative, my individual responsibilities were greater in both number and scope than in any of my previous positions. I became well-versed in designing for CMS output and dynamic content integration, concepting and creating for complex social experiences as well as constructing user-flow charts and complex functional specs. Additionally, I guided and directed the creative work of our junior designers.
In addition to the normal responsibilities of a Sr. AD, I was also deeply involved in overall strategy for our more high-level projects. Our development of strategic solutions and team-oriented problem-solving has set the tone for a company that has seen substantial growth since its humble beginnings.
My day-to-day involved a working technical knowledge of Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, HTML, CSS as well as a strong technical understanding of Flash, Front-end development, native CMS, and Facebook’s API capabilities. While at Drumroll, I worked on clients like Sony, Microsoft, MSN, Bing, Macerich, and UGO.
2004 – 2008
Art Director / Senior Art Director
Clients: Marriott, MTV, John Deere, i3, JCPenney, AZJeans, MSN, Universal Studios, UPS
T3 was my first agency experience. My role encompassed the usual AD responsibilities – concepting and designing experiences for a variety of interactive mediums; collaborating with copywriters to establish and enforce on-brand messaging; creating detailed storyboards for both video and rich media experiences; working alongside rich media and front-end developers in order to ensure efficiency and pixel perfect execution; engaging and overseeing production artists throughout the creative and production processes; art directing numerous product and lifestyle photo shoots; coordinating with account teams throughout the project lifecycle; designing well organized presentation decks and presenting creative to clients at all project phases. Additional responsibilities included writing and designing detailed functional specs for a wide range of interactive experiences from online forms to complex user interfaces; providing design guidance and mentorship to junior ADs and designers; working closely with IAs during the development of vital UX components like user flow and site map creation.
It was at T3 that I learned how to think about and design for the newly budding social webscape. I brainstormed and helped develop custom branded applications that yielded record user engagement times. While collaborating closely with my development team I continued to refine and adjust my methods of strategy and design as ‘social’ continued to progress and develop.
My day-to-day skill set included a working technical knowledge of Photoshop, Fireworks, Illustrator, HTML, CSS as well as a strong technical understanding of Flash, Javascript, and Facebook’s API capabilities.
2002 – 2004
Multi-disciplined Designer & Web Developer
As the lead digital and print creative for the largest university bookstore and retailer in the US, my role included a wide range of responsibilities including designing and coding Web site splash pages, designing and coding promotional emails, photographing product for the company Web site, designing and maintaining branding and promotional messaging for customer-facing Jumbotron, designing and writing for a variety of print projects like in-store and POS signage, direct mail, flyers, newspaper and magazine ads, billboards and large banners.
My day-to-day skill set included a working technical knowledge of HTML, CSS, Javascript, Photoshop, Illustrator, QuarkXPress, InDesign, Fireworks, Dreamweaver, print production processes, the Co-op’s proprietary CMS.
2001 – 2002
Web Design & Development Intern
iMediaPlus
Internship as a full time student back when companies simply wanted “an internet presence”. Responsible for the design, architecture and maintenance of e-commerce websites for mid-sized sports retail companies.
My day-to-day skill set included a working technical knowledge of HTML, CSS, PHP, Javascript, Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, and Dreamweaver.
1999 – 2003
University of Texas at Austin
B.S. in Interactive Advertising