Professional Experience

Designer, Illustrator, Creative Director | Austen Design (Freelance) | 2015 - Present

✷  Founded and operate a design studio serving musicians, filmmakers, alternative brands, and technology companies, delivering brand identity, web design, illustration systems, and product design from brief through launch

✷  Designed websites for a Sundance alum’s feature film (directed by a 2026 Oscar-winning producer) and a James Beard Award-winning soul food restaurant, with clients regularly coming through referrals from Google, agency, and arts industry networks

✷  Created marketing activations and visual assets for Billboard Top 100 touring acts via The Syndicate, including hand-lettered signage, scenic painting, SFX makeup, and art direction at major music festivals

✷  Work spans digital and physical surfaces: responsive web design, product UI, brand systems, print collateral, environmental graphics, merch, packaging, and illustration systems built as scalable Figma component libraries

✷  Built SEO-optimized e-commerce websites in Webflow, Shopify, and WordPress for small businesses, with sites ranking on page one of Google for target search terms

✷  Developed brand identity systems end-to-end for 30+ clients across music, entertainment, hospitality, wellness, and LGBTQIA+ businesses, including logo design, color systems, typography, brand guidelines, and digital asset libraries

✷  Created custom illustration systems, iconography, and visual storytelling assets for product launches, marketing campaigns, and editorial content

✷  Mentored junior designers through portfolio reviews, design critiques, and one-on-one coaching, helping multiple mentees land their first design roles

✷  Designed and produced social media content strategies, campaign creative, email templates, and paid media assets across Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn

✷  Managed concurrent projects across multiple clients, balancing creative direction with hands-on execution in a fast-paced, autonomous environment

✷  Currently accepting new clients, message me <3

‍

Senior Product Designer | Google (via the agencies Monks and Revery) | 2024 - 2025

✷  Designed high-level concepts combining Googler HR, IT, payroll, and facilities support into one agentic AI chat interface, consolidating multiple internal ticketing systems into a unified conversational experience

✷ Led the design of an employment history timeline feature for Google employee profiles, creating responsive component patterns across iOS, Android, and web that surface career progression and organizational context

✷  Built a comprehensive design system based on Material 3 for Google Merchant Center’s Guidance, Insights, and Framework team, including component specifications, usage guidelines, and design token workflows

✷  Created internal brand identity for cross-functional teams, including animated logo, newsletter templates, and Google Slides presentation systems

✷  Developed interactive prototypes and animated GIFs to demonstrate product functionality to stakeholders, accelerating alignment across product, engineering, and leadership

✷  Created internal brand identity for cross-functional teams, including animated logo, newsletter templates, and Google Slides presentation systems

✷  Clients include Y Combinator Startups, Billboard 100 Musicians, a Sundance alum's feature film, a James Beard Award-winning restaurant, and over 30 brands across tech, entertainment, and hospitality

✷  Developed interactive prototypes and animated GIFs to demonstrate product functionality to stakeholders, accelerating alignment across product, engineering, and leadership

✷  Designed UX/UI for notification management and guidance card interactions within Google Merchant Center, improving how merchants discover and act on platform recommendations

✷  Collaborated cross-functionally with PMs, engineers, UX researchers, and stakeholders to align design solutions with business goals and technical constraints

✷  Created design system documentation covering component specs, accessibility standards (WCAG 2.1 AA), responsive breakpoints, and implementation patterns for engineering handoff

✷  Participated in Google’s AI Paper Club, studying reasoning models and emerging AI research to inform design decisions for AI-powered product features

‍

Senior Web Designer | dbt Labs | 2023-2024

✷  Sole web designer for the $4.2 billion-valued data analytics unicorn backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, owning web design across the full marketing site, developer documentation, learning platform, and email marketing

✷  Developed and maintained a scalable web design system from the ground up, building foundational design tokens through complex responsive patterns that served 50+ marketing pages

✷  Created 70+ custom illustrations, diagrams, charts, blog images, and iconography, building a component-based illustration system in Figma that maintained visual consistency across all web properties

✷  Led the design side of a CMS replatforming from Netlify to Sanity, designing each component and page template so that marketers and content strategists could build fully designed pages independently using a modular page builder

✷  Built comprehensive design system documentation in Notion covering component specifications, design token structure, grid systems, typography scales, color semantics, and responsive patterns

✷  Led the website brand update, reskinning all design system components to reflect evolving brand identity while maintaining backward compatibility

✷  Collaborated cross-functionally between design and web engineering teams, working directly with stakeholders, content strategists, and front-end engineers in weekly design-to-code reviews

✷  Applied user-centered design principles and lean UX methodologies to iterate on web experiences, using analytics and heatmap data to inform layout and content hierarchy decisions

‍

Senior Designer | Nymbus | 2020-2022

✷  Delivered complete brand identity systems on a monthly cadence for 8+ digital banking platforms, each including logo, color system, typography, marketing website, pitch deck, and UI kit

✷  Contributed to $750K+ in new business through client-facing brand presentations, pitch decks, and stakeholder collaboration that directly influenced deal closures

✷  Created and maintained multi-brand design systems in Figma, ensuring visual consistency and accessibility across marketing sites and product interfaces for each banking brand

✷  Mentored junior designers through weekly skillshare sessions, establishing design critique processes and collaborative feedback loops that elevated team output quality

✷  Served on the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Board and led company-wide Pride initiatives, advocating for inclusive design practices across product and brand work

✷  Designed end-to-end product experiences for consumer-facing banking platforms, balancing conversion-focused design with accessibility and user trust

✷  Created impactful sales presentations, digital ad campaigns, and marketing collateral that supported business development efforts in a rapid-release environment

‍

Visual Designer | Armature Works | 2019-2020

✷  Designed brand identity, websites, menus, signage, and marketing collateral for 22+ restaurant and hospitality brands within a premier food hall and event venue generating $1M+ monthly revenue

✷  Designed a Wi-Fi captive portal and newsletter signup flow that collected thousands of email signups in its first week of launch, building a direct marketing channel from scratch

✷  Led a brand collateral refresh that directly contributed to measurable increases in event bookings, walk-in traffic, and social media engagement across the venue’s channels

✷  Built a website contact form that dramatically increased weekly event inquiries compared to the previous phone-only booking process

✷  Created motion graphics, social media content, and promotional video for live events, including seasonal campaigns, charity events, and venue programming

✷  Directed photoshoots and created set pieces for brand campaigns, managing visual content creation across photography, videography, and styled shoots

✷  Managed 30+ simultaneous projects across restaurant concepts, event marketing, and venue branding, balancing fast-turnaround requests with ongoing brand development

✷  Reviewed resumes and portfolios as part of the hiring process for junior design candidates

‍

Graphic Designer | Seaworld Parks and Entertainment | 2017-2019

✷  Art directed all permanent signage for the 2019 Inside Look event, which saw attendance increase by over 1,000 guests on opening day compared to the previous year

✷  Designed environmental graphics, wayfinding systems, and promotional signage across SeaWorld Orlando’s three theme parks, managing up to 45 simultaneous projects

✷  Created immersive scenic art and experiential graphics for park attractions, food festivals, and seasonal events, working across digital design, vinyl application, wide-format printing, and scenic painting

✷  Collaborated with art directors on mood boards, set decoration, and themed environment design for attractions and guest experiences

✷  Produced production-ready files for large-format printing, vinyl plotting (Onyx and Mimaki), lamination, and installation across multiple park locations

✷  Scenic painter for Howl-O-Scream haunted houses and Food & Wine Festival, creating immersive environmental art for themed entertainment experiences

✷  Decorated Santa’s house for ChristmasTown, hand-painting branded elements including Coca-Cola logos on oversized ornaments and tying 200+ elaborate present bows

✷  Sound and lighting technician and chainsaw wrangler for live scare entertainment (yes, this is a real job)

‍

Design Intern, Junior Designer | Baylor University | 2013-2017

✷  Creative direction and campaign design for the university's largest annual events (Sing, Pigskin, Stompfest)

✷  Created print ads, email campaigns, billboards, social media graphics, and promotional materials for Athletics programs

✷  Scenic carpentry, MIG welding, scenic painting, costume design, stage makeup, and prop fabrication for 10+ theater productions