Heather Gray

Experience

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  Project Advance

  Jan 2006 - May 2007

  Graphic Designer
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  One Pica, Inc.

  May 2007 - Oct 2008

  Graphic Web Designer
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  Pivec Advertising, LTD

  Oct 2008 - Mar 2009

  Graphic Designer
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  Erickson Retirement Communities

  Apr 2009 - Feb 2010

  Freelance Graphic Designer
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  Harvey and Daughters, Inc

  Feb 2010 - Oct 2011

  Graphic Designer (Print & Interactive)

  Responsible for designing and working with art directors and creative director to create work for clients such as Proctor and Gamble, Manischewitz, Phillips Seafood Restaurants and McCormick Spices. Working from concept to completion on all P&G projects including Fall and Spring 2012 Covergirl in-store walls and promotion graphics. Design lead on packaging lines for Phillips Seafood and Manischewitz Confectionery line, including direction of package photography.

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  Warschawski

  Oct 2011 - Apr 2014

  Design Director
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  T. Rowe Price

  Apr 2014 - Jul 2014

  Freelance Senior Designer
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  Havas helia

  Jul 2014 - Jul 2017

  havas CX helia is Havas North America’s specialist customer engagement and data agency, based out of Baltimore, Chicago, New York, and Richmond. We are part of Havas CX, the customer experience division of the Havas Network.I helped ideate, design and launch helia’s new positioning, brand image and website. Built and led high-performance team of 10+ including art directors, designers, and writers tasked with owning creative projects lifecycles from concept to launch for high-profile clients. Strengthened company credibility with clients including Liberty Mutual Insurance, AutoZone, PayPal, and Moen by attending sales meetings and winning pitches. Set clear user experience and provided clear creative direction to redesign the Mike’s Hard Lemonade ecommerce experience. Including on site collaboration with the client, user testing on wireframes and working with studio team to generate new content for website launch. Implemented and facilitated design thinking exercises with clients like AutoZone and Liberty Mutual to determine best content variables to strategize A/B and MVT tests that increase user engagement and click through rates. Set clear creative vision for design systems to design and produce over 500M email deployments annually. Show less

  • Associate Creative Director

    Jul 2015 - Jul 2017

  • Senior Interactive Art Director

    Jul 2014 - Jul 2015
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  Maryland Institute College of Art

  Jan 2015 - Jul 2015

  Adjunct Professor

  Brand Identity Design and Branding II

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  Vanguard

  Oct 2017 - Sept 2019

  CX Design Manager, Institutional Marketing

  Provide oversight and coached team of 15 designers to create and manage complex sales pitches under tight deadlines resulting in new business and investments from $500M Institutional Investing clients including: Amazon, Fed Ex, Google, Facebook and Hershey. Established a design system based on each clients brand to be implemented across a variety of deliverables including: PPT, data visualization, email, landing pages, video content, photography and marketing materials. Participated in enterprise-wide design thinking cohort and certified as LUMA instructor and facilitator to teach 2 days every month in order to roll-out practice throughout entire design community.Led and established data visualization best practice and PPT training for 30 crew, including 2 day workshop and implemented resource and creative management methodologies to improve cross-functional collaboration and resulted in more strategic design recommendations. Set a clear creative vision for the company’s institutional investing conference Vision and implemented consistent design systems across work that includes print marketing materials, flyers, invitations, emails, landing pages, trade show booths, video content and data visualization. Show less

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  McCormick & Company

  Sept 2019 - Jul 2023

  Assumed scope change to merge the packaging graphics, digital product content, shopper & trade marketing and advertising campaign design teams to form an in-house North American design team of 18, resulting in over 10M in cost savings (to date) and delivering award winning creative work for McCormick Spices, French’s, Frank’s RedHot, Cholula, Grill Mates, Old Bay, Thai Kitchen, Lawry’s, Zatarain’s and Club House. Set a clear creative vision for the 2023 rebrand of McCormick RedCap Spices with consistent design systems that influenced work including: packaging, global brand standards, social media content, emails, landing pages, photography and food styling, in-store merchandising, digital ecommerce content, and advertising paid digital campaign content. Partnered with retail media to develop annual calendar and delivered on-brand creative key visuals for tentpole marketing moments, evergreen and seasonal campaigns resulting in higher online transactions through key partners like Amazon and Walmart.com. Recognized by Walmart for outstanding creative execution in retail ecommerce environment. Entered and won over 20 Graphic Design USA Awards consecutively over the past 3 years. Show less Established Better Brief Writing best practices and provided enterprise-wide training annually to marketing organization. Reviewed, edited and collaborated on over 300 briefs annually. Dynamically allocated resources across key North American brands including McCormick, French’s, Frank’s RedHot, Cholula, Lawry’s, Zatarains, Thai Kitchen and Club House that resulted in the release and production of 2000 SKUs annually. By implementing a Graphics Playbook and consistent templates throughout the commercialization process, I was able to increase production value by 66% ROI. Managed external agency budget of 2.5M for US and Canada. Defined the strategy and led the creative execution of the Cholula design system, that resulted in the launch of Cholula Salsa and Taco Seasoning Mixes breakthrough in the Mexican Aisle and influenced work including: global brand standards, social media content, email and landing pages, photography and food styling, in-store merchandising, influencer partnerships, digital ecommerce content, and advertising paid digital campaign content. Predicted to contribute 6M in year 1 sales. Introduced and established LUMA Design Thinking methodologies within brand and creative marketing teams that resulted in adopted practices and creative thought-leadership throughout innovation process, contributing to 89% increase in new product innovation launching in 2023. Led the omnichannel creative execution and launch of DTC initiatives including: McCormick Flavor Inspirations, Tabitha Brown Sunshine Seasoning, The Ten Spice Gift Set and Earth Right Supplements. Provided art direction and photography styling on set with Tabitha. Show less Set a clear creative vision through consistent design systems, to launch the Frank’s Red Hot Frozen Boneless Chicken Bites & Dips platform which successfully extended the brand into the Appetizers & Snacks category pan channel. Led the strategy and execution of the Club House brand renovation with consistent design systems that influenced work including: packaging, in-store pre packs, global brand standards, club extensions, advertising and online retail marketing campaigns. Defined the strategy and set clear creative vision for the redesign of the Gourmet Garden brand in the US, and influenced work including: packaging, global brand standards, club extensions, in-store prepacks, and omni channel marketing assets. Show less

  • Senior Manager, Creative Design & Content Services

    Feb 2023 - Jul 2023

  • Senior Design Manager, Packaging Design and Production

    Aug 2021 - Mar 2023

  • Graphic Design Manager, North America Packaging

    Sept 2019 - Aug 2021
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  EY

  Nov 2023 - now

  Assistant Director | Creative Manager