UX Designer,
Digital Designer
Senior Product Designer
Bank of Montreal
Toronto, Ontario
December 2019 – Present
At BMO, I’m a member of an agile team building an unreleased product that serves to replace 25 year old software while retaining APIs and services from that sunsetting product. Our mission is to vastly improve the user experience while reducing time spent on technology by 60%, and streamlining data collection. I work closely with front end developers, Business Analysts, Product Owners, and stakeholders from my direct team, as well as several adjacent teams.
Primarily using tools like Sketch, InVision, and Adobe Creative Suite, I have taken the product from conception to execution, ensuring our finished product meets Design System requirements, but also serves to break from existing standards when a better solution presents itself, and integrating that into the existing system. A large part of my job involves conducting and processing research, sharing with stakeholders, and weighing the risks and benefits of both established and unproven designs to best serve a co-piloting audience (employee and customer). I also collaborate and routinely participate in critiques with fellow designers and co-workers from other teams to elevate myself and the work of my peers – and through them, the bank itself.
Digital, UX, Product Designer
Nest Wealth
Toronto, Ontario
December 2018 – November 2019
I was the lead digital designer in charge of brand management and marketing, as well as an ad-hoc member of the UX team that designed products for both B2B and B2C. I worked in a relatively flat management structure directly with developers, copywriters, automation specialists, fellow designers, and product leads in an hybrid agile/waterfall structure managed by whiteboard solutions like Trello and Jira to build major, client-facing products, and consumer facing marketing content.
Some major projects include a total overhaul of the UX and UI for Nest Wealth’s new website using Adobe XD to transition focus from B2C to B2B, a 24 page case study on a transitioning advisor, white-label digital Client Statements for major big-6 banks and advisory firms, a complete rework of the Nest Wealth brand (strategy and guidelines) creating designs in Sketch, Illustrator, Photoshop and Adobe XD. High-profile, high-stakes pitch decks for presentation to major enterprise clients using Google Slides and Microsoft Powerpoint, and building digital onboarding kits for both enterprise and independent advisors using Adobe InDesign.
Digital, UX Designer
InMoment Inc.
Toronto, Ontario
March 2014 – May 2018
I worked primarily on the visual and user-flow aspects of online surveys for large, multi-national companies, including McDonald’s, General Motors, Canadian Tire, and Tesco’s. This would include adhering to existing brand guidelines (at times in multiple markets with important differences), suggesting and mapping user experience flows that matched existing brands as well as InMoment’s best practices, and creating ad collateral for those brands.
Major projects include multiple markets for Chili’s, including Canada, United States, Asia, and Europe, developing collateral and liaising with Hawaiian Airlines directly, designing the standard for Arabic, Cyrillic, and Thai language surveys, and creating layouts for a white paper on long term customer success.
Senior Graphic Designer
Ancaster Pope
Toronto, Ontario
November 2012 – November 2013
I was the senior designer leading a team of 3 people in a pod structure. At Ancaster Pope, I worked on both web and print content for GTA-area clients including a mid-size Credit Union, a housing developer, and several charities.
My most intensive project was a housing development sales campaign, which included a 32 page sales brochure, website, and ad campaign. The project sold through in under a month. I also built annual reports for IC Savings Credit Union and Vita Community Services, as well as fundraising collateral for several special events.
Graphic Designer
ZSA Legal Recruitment
Toronto, Ontario
June 2011 – June 2012
I began at ZSA in the middle of a brand refresh, which became my main priority for the first few months. After that was launched, I began establishing new templates for routine industry advertising – finding effective ways to clearly and quickly showcase new opportunities in a set of discreet industries. I also helped launch new business lines (Accounting and Support), branding them in ways that tied them to the parent brand, but let them stand alone in their advertising and marketing.
I often worked directly with the CEO, as well as high-level executives and lawyers who were in fast-paced recruitment roles. Since this was a fast paced industry, timelines were tight, and since the design team was only two people, self-critique was essential.
Creative Designer
Snapd (SNAP Newspaper Group)
Newmarket, OntarioNovember
2007 – June 2011
Snapd (SNAP at the time) was my first career position after finishing my education. I began as a production assistant editing photos and doing some layout in their monthly franchised newspapers, but after 6 months I was promoted to Creative Designer and given the responsibility of three newspapers to design and lay out.
I worked closely with franchise owners for my assigned papers, as well as assisting others when necessary. We had a team of 30 designers on a monthly schedule that kept unusual hours at the beginning and end of the cycle. I was also assigned to the design firm that was attached to the company which serviced clients in the franchised communities who wanted more than the typical work we did for them in the papers.