Hi Carbon Direct

My name is Jeff Williams and I’d like to introduce myself.

 
 
 

Design Leadership

 

I’ve been in design leadership roles for the past 10 years, with the last 5 years spent managing and leading the brand at Apptio. At Apptio, I've handled all types of projects. If you can name a type of project, I’ve likely worked on it. If I haven’t, I’ll do the research and figure out how to make it happen. My experience includes social media campaigns, emails, websites, ebooks, case studies, digital and printed white papers, infographics, reports, data visualization, trade show booths, full events, videos, mobile and desktop applications, apparel, swag, and much more.

I’m comfortable directing and managing projects for teams of creative individuals, while simultaneously leading and evolving the brand, attending key meetings, and brainstorming large projects. I also still love getting my hands dirty and working on projects myself. I'm also a results-driven director. If my team's work isn't contributing to the company's growth and its customers, then I'm not doing my job.

Example portfolio work:
- Highlights from my work at Apptio

 

Brand Development

I’ve created and maintained a set of brand guidelines for a diverse set of companies at three of my last four positions. This means much more than just creating a PDF or brand website. It involves regular meetings with key groups like marketing, creative, video, and product. But also with every group in the organization to ensure that the brand is working for them and their needs.

Example portfolio work:
- The brand guidelines I created and maintained for Apptio

 

Marketing & Communications Design

As the leader of the creative team, I communicate and collaborate well with teams across the company, up through the executive leadership team. I believe my secret superpower is as a listener. I love understanding the needs of a project, whether it’s business outcomes or more personal objectives, and then using the brand guidelines to turn that into a compelling story.

I also believe that animation and motion is an important part of modern brand storytelling. I’ll include a link below to some motion design work I’ve created at Apptio for presentations and web pages.

Example portfolio work:
- Motion graphics and animation for Apptio
- A social campaign for Greatist, a small fitness startup in NYC
- A presentation for a keynote at the Global Retail Conference

 

Website Design & Management

I’ve built and led website designs in several of my past roles. This includes working closely with web design teams on modules and custom page designs. And using motion and other modern techniques to communicate the story while understanding the limitations and guardrails of a website.

Example portfolio work:
I know the Carbon Direct is using Frame to design their website, so the process will be different from the work shown below, but the principles are the same.
- A website design for Greatist, a small fitness startup in NYC
- A website design for Charles & Colvard, a jewelry manufacturer & retailer in NC

 

Team Building & Management

 

I’ve successfully managed and mentored a team remotely at Apptio for the past five years. Creating bonds within a remote team can be tricky, but my team and I have frequent virtual sessions to share work, tips, and ideas. Sometimes we’ll even just connect while we’re working to talk through tasks and have candid conversations. We also make use of online courses to help us progress in our careers and learn new skills. I've also made a habit of sharing personal highlights and photos of my weekend activities each Monday so my team can share my life outside of work.

 

Cross Functional Collaboration

I’ll share a personal anecdote here. Whenever the former CEO at Apptio had an upcoming presentation, he would preemptively schedule a meeting with me to go over the presentation and do some initial work on his slides. He mentioned that working with me first helped him organize his thoughts. I’d always need to involve Product Marketing and other stakeholders afterward to ensure he stayed on message, but needless to say, I’m very comfortable collaborating with groups across the organization, up to the executive team.

 

User-Centered Approach

I’m a results-driven creative leader. At Apptio, I regularly meet with the web, product, email, and social teams to review results and analytics from past projects. We collaborate closely to understand the outcomes, develop A/B tests, and improve my team’s work based on that data.

 

Innovation & Trends

I remain curious and am always searching for inspiration. My team and I also have regular meetings to share designs we love, and discuss whether that could help influence our future work. I also understand that innovation means constantly looking for ways to improve efficiency. I’m constantly exploring new templates and tools that can help my team work through their day-to-day tasks and have more time to be creative.

 
 
 
 

Thanks again Carbon Direct team. Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to see any additional examples of my work.

Sincerely,