Hi, I'm Kurt.
I have over 22 years of experience as a design professional, and have spent the last six years leading multi-disciplinary creative teams, designing digital product experiences, and brand marketing services in Seattle. During that time my passion for story-telling and designing quality experiences has helped me deliver intuitive and inspiring solutions for my clients.
My focus and passion is around designing the best quality products that help clients buoy up their brand, product, service, idea, or dream.
Wanna get in touch about a project,
or learn more about me?
Experience
2020 - PRESENT
Freelance Product Designer / Director
Seattle, WA
I provide a variety of design services and executions which includes but not limited to: marketing, branding, brand strategy, advertising, web design, prototyping, video production, user experience studies, and SaaS UI design.
2015 - 2020
Design Director at Mentor Creative Group
Seattle, WA
Successfully supported, pitched, and sold work that resulted in $2MM+ of revenue for clients including Eddie Bauer, Starbucks, Fred Hutch, T-Mobile, Care Oregon and Leafly.
Led the creative process for a variety of user experience and interaction design projects including Native Android, and iOS, React Native, responsive web, and SaaS products. Business verticals ranged from E-commerce, Display advertising, Branding, Marketing, Self-service, and eLearning.
Facilitated and guided user experience activities including content auditing, heuristic assessments, competitive analysis, user discovery, information architecture, wire flow strategy, and prototyping.
Led the design and launch of a new design system for mobile and responsive web for eddiebauer.com.
Hired and mentored teams of designers to execute on time and budget sensitive projects with maximum design appeal.
Provided regular design reviews and walk-throughs for clients that helped them successfully interpret complex concepts with little context.
Performed internal design process audits and hosted internal training labs that resulted in 50% reduction in pass-off time from design and prototyping to development.
2011 - 2015
Sr. Visual Designer at Amazon ADX
Seattle, WA
Designed and built an array of digital ad campaigns across multiple platforms including for mobile, Fire tablet, Kindle eInk and desktop. I led the design for Bose, LG, Sony, Bissell, and Nikon campaigns. Here I established the design strategy and scalable design patterns to accommodate +50 different placement dimensions.
Established internal style guides and processes to streamline design efficiency. Guides contributed to a 30% reduction in QA preflight bugs. These process improvements were then integrated into the onboarding experience for new designers.
Produced successful semi-custom landing page experiences for Fire Tablet that required accurate representation of the advertiser’s brand while still meeting the high design bar as set by Amazon.
Provided art direction and training for ad design on Kindle and Fire tablet, and was the subject matter expert for Kindle eInk UI and UX.
2011
Sr. Graphic Designer at Touch Worldwide
Seattle, WA
Conceptualize and design large format display materials, presentations, web graphics, and identity materials for Nordstrom, United Way, Microsoft, Russell Investments
2010 - 2011
Commitee Volunteer at AIGA
Seattle, WA / Minneapolis, MN
Committee member for the annual AIGA Portfolio 1-on-1 event. I worked with other team members to effectively plan and execute the needed logistics for the event. This included: signage design, design firm scheduling, group tour guide, and general event support.
2005 - 2011
Sr. Graphic Designer at Bonestroo
Minneapolis, MN
Headed in-house design department with final design authority for creative materials and support graphics at a $43M engineering and planning firm. Produced and coordinated advertising, marketing collateral, industry design materials, and conference trade shows under tight deadlines. Developed and interpreted brand materials. Trained and managed a support staff of six including project estimates and expense budgets.
2002 - 2005
Graphic Design Manager at Auto Shopper Magazine
St. Paul, MN
Handled most all design work for print or web, designing ads for dealerships and other vehicle related companies as well as company marketing materials. I coordinated all stages of production output for the magazine. During my time, I hired 6 employees to my team.
1999 - 2002
Sr. Product Illustrator at Metsys Engineering Inc.
Seattle, WA / Minneapolis
Designed and published technical illustrations for documentation, training, and engineering departments in the food packaging industry. These illustrations were created through on-site research and direct client collaboration. Internally, I developed sales and marketing materials for print and web. I also provided creative direction to a support staff.
© 2022 Kurt Hinz. All rights reserved.