Simone Hartley

Profile

Creative Director with 14 years leading brand, campaign, and digital design across consumer tech, retail, and media verticals. Specializes in building high-output in-house studios and translating brand strategy into visual systems that scale. Directed creative for a product launch that drove $42M in first-year revenue and grew a design team from 4 to 22 in three years.

Work Experience

Creative DirectorMar 2020 - Present

Lumen Brands Co., Austin, TX

Rebuilt the brand identity system across 6 product lines, reducing inconsistency flags in quarterly brand audits by 74% and cutting external agency spend by $1.1M annually.
Led a 22-person cross-functional creative team—designers, copywriters, motion artists—delivering 300+ assets per quarter at a 96% on-time rate across paid, owned, and retail channels.
Conceived and directed the 'Live Bright' integrated campaign (TV, OOH, digital) that lifted aided brand awareness 18 points and contributed to a 31% YoY revenue increase in the home-goods division.

Associate Creative DirectorJun 2016 - Feb 2020

Meridian Digital Agency, Chicago, IL

Oversaw creative output for 11 client accounts with combined annual billings of $28M, maintaining a 91% client-retention rate over four years.
Mentored and promoted 6 senior designers into art-director roles, reducing mid-level attrition from 40% to 12% within 18 months by instituting structured creative reviews and career-pathing sessions.
Directed a rebranding engagement for a regional grocery chain (320 locations) that increased store-brand product sales by 22% in the first post-launch quarter.

Senior Art DirectorAug 2012 - May 2016

Crestfield Media Group, New York, NY

Designed and art-directed editorial and advertising creative for 4 monthly print and digital publications with a combined readership of 2.4 million.
Produced a redesign of the flagship magazine's layout system that reduced production time per issue by 3 days and earned a 2015 AIGA Communication Design Award.
Collaborated with the sales team to develop branded-content packages that generated $3.7M in incremental advertising revenue in year one.

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