Pamela Golafshar

Owner/Visual Designer/Consultant

• Responsible for creating brand identities, developing creative strategies and delivering final design executions for digital and traditional design.
• Recent projects include: UI/UX design for software app (in progress) | Campaign branding and visual design
  | Book cover & ebook design | Brand identity and sales/marketing assets | Multi-page document design.

Design Director

• Created, fostered and delivered creative concepts that met strategic briefs and expectations across all channels, for global pharmaceutical CROs in the clinical trial industry.
• Managed creative studio operations including best practices for project workflow, strategic creative development, and digital asset management.
• Expanded the organization’s brand identity by creating and implementing a set of illustration guidelines.
• Led and motivated brand design team to produce best-in-class communications while ensuring brand consistency and strategic alignment with organizational goals.
• Developed visual concepts to address strategic marketing solutions as defined by briefs, requiring an understanding of stakeholder business challenges and goals.
• Fostered contractor and agency relationships; provided creative direction for external partners.
• Utilized data analysis to evaluate and improve campaign success.
• Partnered with copywriter and ECD on campaign concept development.
• Presented concepts and designs to stakeholders at all levels, providing design rationale.
• Initiated partnership with product design team to ensure cohesive brand identity across all mediums.
• Created visualizations to help improve cross-functional communication and workflow efficiency throughout project lifecycle.

Senior Art Director

• Provided creative strategy, art direction and visual design in a fast-paced, deadline-driven agency setting.
• Produced high-quality work for B2B and B2C clients, from concepting to design executions: brand identity, product marketing campaigns, digital marketing, layout design, print collateral, digital media, advertising, websites, direct mail, landing pages, presentations, packaging, emails, banner ads, social media assets, etc.
• Provided critical feedback to other team members, mentoring designers and coaching industry best practices.
• Collaborated with cross-functional teams, utilizing qualitative data from user research to inform creative and content strategy.
• Designed storyboards and art directed video, animation and motion design; photo art director from concept to planning to completion.
• Presented creative solutions to stakeholders, articulating design rationale and highlighting how objectives were met.
• Designed websites, including wireframes, design systems, functional prototypes and mockups; worked with front-end developers to ensure seamless handoffs and optimal user experience.
• Proven ability to learn new industries and knowledge of consumer product, client business, product strategy and differentiators.
• Developed branding and design deliverables for clients in the healthcare/pharma industry: clinical trials, HCP and DTC campaigns.

Creative Director

• Provided creative direction for the ideation/execution of various marketing campaigns including mood boards, concepting, experiential & visual design elements, as well as developing timelines of all communication touchpoints.
• Developed creative briefs to translate business goals across all channels, driving strategy, vision and execution.
• Reviewed work and provided effective, actionable feedback to the creative team in a timely manner.
• Managed campaign budgets and profitability on six-figure accounts.
• Created work informed by data analysis, collaborating with cross-functional teams to improve campaign effectiveness.
• Created experiential event concepts and large-scale environmental branding and signage plans for events including conferences, sales meetings and business events.

Creative Director

• Creative direction, omni-channel creative strategy and hands-on visual design for a consumer retail company.
• Created the brand identity from the ground up, ensuring consistent brand expression across all platforms including retail POP, packaging, website, social media, advertising, photography and B2B sales presentations.
• Developed customer-centric creative strategy in tandem with business goals.
• Provided art direction for product photography and lifestyle shoots.
• Created and implemented a redesigned e-commerce website which elevated the customer experience, contributing significantly to the growth of the business and increasing sales by 30% YOY.

Creative Director

• Responsible for managing a culturally diverse team of 4-5 creatives.
• Provided leadership and mentorship while fostering a culture of inclusion and open collaboration.
• Led strategic development of abstract conceptual creative ideas, driving creative vision and overseeing execution from concept to completion.
• Managed team’s productivity, timelines and budget while motivating creativity and overseeing deliverables for print, digital, video, animation and social media.
• Provided hands-on design and illustration for campaigns.
• Increased audience engagement by developing thematic visual concepts and overseeing execution of environmental, experiential and multimedia design executions.
• Managed a team of volunteer creatives in the local community, empowering and fostering new ideas and leading the execution of experiential events.
• Hired, managed and provided creative direction for third-party vendors.
• Developed the branding and created visuals for an international conference; integrated an intuitive human centered design thinking approach to bring improvements to the attendee experience YOY.

Graphic Designer

• Created comprehensive branding based on abstract concepts foreach thematic series, including poster series, presentation templates, social media, digital collateral and supporting printed materials.
• Supported other in-house departments with graphic design needs.

Graphic Designer

• Provided in-house graphic design for a world-renowned art museum.
• Designed print ads, outdoor banners, posters, brochures and other printed materials for exhibitions, educational programs and events at the museum.
• Received a promotion within the first few months due to work ethic, learning agility, high quality standards and design aesthetic.

Leadership qualities

• Leads with authenticity and emotional intelligence
• Honest and effective communication
• Empowers team members
• Supportive mentor
• Active listener
• Inspires big-picture dreaming 
  
• Strategic/critical thinker
  
• Responsible and dependable
  
• Leads with empathy
  
• Builds teams and culture
  
• Teaches advanced design skills
  
• Comfortable executing decisions
  
• Current with industry trends
  
• Intellectually curious; enthusiastic about continuous improvement at all levels
  

Skills

• Creative direction, art direction
• Creative and conceptual strategy
• Design management
  
• Flexible, adaptable
  
• Agile learner
  
• Motivated, driven
  
• Creative problem-solver
  
• Detail-oriented
  
• Organized and analytical
  
• Excellent ability to communicate and collaborate
  
• Project management
  
• Branding and identity, brand development, advertising, marketing
  
• Typography, illustration, social media
  
• Visual, graphic and digital design, web design, UI/UX design
  
• Strong understanding of design thinking methodology
  

Software

• Adobe Creative Suite (CS)
• Adobe InDesign (LinkedIn Skills Assessment Badge: Top 5%)
• Adobe Illustrator (LinkedIn Skills Assessment Badge: Top 5%)
• Adobe Photoshop (LinkedIn Skills Assessment Badge: Top 15%)
  
• Adobe XD, Figma, Sketch
  
• WordPress, Webflow, HTML/CSS
  
• Microsoft Office: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook
  
• Communication/collaboration apps (Teams, Slack, Google Docs, Sheets, etc.)
  
• Project management apps (Asana, Trello, Workamajig, etc.)
  
• Digital asset management apps (Frontify, Dropbox, etc.)
  

Education/Certifications

Greenville University

George Fox University

LinkedIn Learning:

• UX Foundations
• UX Design
• Design Thinking
• Storytelling for Designers
• Critical Thinking
• Learning Design Research