Ethan Smith: Product and Marketing Design Consultant, Creative Director in Bellingham, WA

Utilized design thinking and hybrid skill set to solve business challenges for dozens of corporate, public-sector, and not-for-profit clients, from single-person shops to Fortune 50 enterprises. Services have included management consulting, industrial design, technical product development, material sourcing, user research, user experience design, user interface design, front end development, branding, print design, illustration, copywriting, photography, videography, video editing, event coordination, and workshop facilitation. Highlights have included: - Website overhaul increased web-based lead conversions by over 2000% for mortgage bank - Enabled and motivated over 100 well-known conservation photographers to directly contribute blog posts, photo galleries, and field reports to data-rich publishing platform - Full service marketing, branding, copywriting, and e-commerce package doubled sales conversion rate and handily facilitated a 590%+ uptick in sales for niche outdoor industry manufacturer - Explanatory visual design persuaded managers across business units at a Fortune 500 bank to adopt and act on updated data quality and processing guidelines

Remote AskNature encompasses a suite of web properties that touch nearly a million folks per year with a mission to empower product, service, and system innovators to make breakthrough discoveries with accessible and actionable biological knowledge. - Built, collaboratively led, and mentored cross-functional, distributed teams - Designed and executed generative and evaluative user research activities and feedback pipelines, incorporating qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methods - Enabled stakeholder collaboration and created shared understanding with visual tools - Established and maintained all layers of distributed web applications - Overhauled legacy web application with greenfield replacement from the ground up, including automated migration of all legacy assets and accounts - Generated and/or nurtured leads for prospective partnerships, funders, and SME/LE consulting, leading to multiple successful engagements and vastly expanded product exposure amongst F500 - Consulted with product/R&D teams designing apparel, consumer goods, and services - Continuously refined product vision, requirements, roadmap, and key performance indicators - Managed project backlogs, and co-managed budgets up to ~$400k - Co-created $50k-$5M+ proposals to public and private foundations; planned program budgets - Sourced, recruited, and hired staff, contractors, and vendors; defined and managed SOWs, schedules, and deliverables - Developed content, marketing, and user support strategies; executed product rebranding - Assembled advisory council of industry experts from academic, business, and public sectors

Focused on achieving ideals of performance, beauty, and sustainability in practice and product to demonstrate that a socially and environmentally responsible business model could also be the basis for a profitable enterprise. - Led collaborative design and oversaw technical development of inaugural lines of luggage, technical gloves, and accessories, including custom hardware/trim design - Designed and developed trims, apparel features, graphics and patterns for woven and knit textiles, and t-shirt graphics - Managed seasonal color palette specification and Pantone swatch selection - Assisted with line-level product, palette, and materials direction - Collaborated with design, development, and merchandising teams to manage visual line-plans - Managed visual line plan for all product, and a created custom database and digital interface that reduced time required for updates by up to 80% - Managed and mentored interns

Worked directly with product developers and clients to design, develop, and oversee production of gloves and accessories for the outdoor sports industry. Gained familiarity with trends and styles, manufacturing techniques, material attributes and applications, production practices, and industry standards for communication. - Contributed over ten designs that went on to production and market - Created database management system and organization guidelines for in-house materials library - Managed and mentored intern