CHRISTOPHER CHU
Art Director & Designer
With over 17 years of experience in editorial, marketing, web design and web development, Christopher Chu would bring additional professionalism and creativity to any organization’s already successful endeavors.
Christopher Chu has striven to bring a thoughtful and strategic design philosophy to all facets of his career in digital and marketing design. His management and perceptive communication skills round out a skill set that is deep and informed. Whether rebranding a website and its overall UX strategy or the creations of trade show collateral print materials, Chris’s comprehensive approach and experience supports every facet of that process.
The last 6 years of his professional life he has been leading design and development of all visual marketing, consumer websites, UX and product development for OC Online a CMS centric company that specializes supporting the luxury jewelry and watch industry. A good deal of that time was focused on the redesigning and improvement of the UI/UX related to the CMS B2B platform and consumer facing Wordpress client websites.
While under his tenure the OPT platform was redesigned to incorporate better image management and B2B ordering flows that improved UX and helped increase usage. Work flow and development efficiency was improved with the implementation of project management applications like Basecamp and Trello under his direction. His skills and experience as an animator and video editor gave him the ability to crossover from print and interactive projects to those that involve, the every more relevant, social media motion content. Chris grew and mentored the art/design department of OC Online into an efficient group of 6 designers, developers and marketing staff. From corporate marketing initiatives to social media campaigns he was able to deliver all tasks on time and on budget.
Chris comes with a wealth of experience and skills that can align well with any organizations design goals.
ABOUT
Corporate Art Director , OC Online; New York, NY 2007 — 2017
Art Direction and Management across the spectrum of the visual and conceptual projects for growing internet start up company based on a proprietary CMS platform serving the high-end jewelry and watch industry.
Management Responsibilities:
• Direct supervision of the art department of 6 members
• Directed internal development team related to UI/UX tasks related to OC Online’s CMS platform and Hint Whisper website
• Supervised client consumer website development and enhancements (brand and retailer)
• Trafficking project and communication between business management team and the internal development teams
• Disbursement of invoices for contracted third party employees
• Supervised server accounts - creation of new applications and syncing of staging environments.
Art Direction Responsibilities:
• Design and Creation of Brand Education modules for the OPT platform
• Creation of Consumer Facing Authorized Brand Content Iframe modules
• Print marketing materials and Signage for Annual Trade Shows
• Email Template Creation
• Design of client consumer websites(Scott Kay, Davidson & Licht, Armenta, Mastoloni, Kwiat, Fred Leighton and More)
• Motion graphics animation for Hint & Whisper promotional initiatives
• Design of Web-banners for promotional initiatives
Owner / Art Director, ZushiMedia; New Milford, CT 2007-2007
Art Direction, Illustration, Photo Retouching and Image Manipulation, Video Editing and Motion Graphics.
Clients: Kwiat Diamonds, Mikimoto Pearls, St. Mary’s Children’s Hospital, Fathom Communications, Novation
Marketing Art Director, AIR AGE MEDIA; Wilton, CT 2001-2007
Marketing and Editorial Art Direction for a media publishing company that serviced the Radio Control Hobby and Aviation industry.
Promotional Responsibilities:
• Design, concept and execution of all promotional materials for the companies eight publications, websites, special issues,books, live events and DVDs. Such materials include ads, direct mail, e-mail, logos and signage.
• Design, concept and execution of all corporate branding materials.
• Creation of promotional and editorial Flash content and digital video.
Editorial Responsibilities:
• Functioned as staff illustrator both classic and digital media
• Executed all Photoshop retouching and image manipulation.
• Editorial layout for all publications
• Directed photoshoots for promotional and editorial content
• Assisted in DVD authoring
• Videographer for live events.
Freelance Designer, icreatives; Los angeles, CA 1999-2001
Designe and art direction for clients: Swart Advertising, Pioneer Digital, Fox Sports, ITC/USC
WORK History
PRATT MANHATTAN
Certificate Program - Digital Illustration/Animation
BOSTON COLLEGE
Bachelors Degree in Philosophy and Studio Art
Cory Kwiat - Co-President
OPT Online
Phone: 516.375.5965
Email: cory@optcentral.com
“Chris is an exceptional and hard working individual with many different talents and skill sets. His design capabilities coupled with his understanding of how the technical process works makes him an invaluable resource to any organization. He has a natural ability to handle many different tasks simultaneously while keeping very organized and deadline focused. He adapts well to changing environments and always rises to the occasion. I would absolutely recommend Chris for any organization.”
Dania Shiblaq - Senior PR Manager
Birkenstock USA
Phone: 646.241.4130
Email: dkshiblaq@gmail.com
“I was a client of Chris at Opt during my time at Kwiat as Director of Marketing and Communications. We worked together over the years on the brand’s digital development including the web site and email campaigns.”
Clara Bodelon - International E-Business Director
Chopard
Email: cbodelon@chopard.com
“Chris and I first collaborated when I was Digital Marketing and E-commerce Manager at Mikimoto America. He designed and created many components of digital campaigns for Mikimoto, always in a timely manner and within budget. Chris was reliable even under extremely tight datelines. We continued to collaborate during his time at Opt Central, both while at Mikimoto and now through my tenure at Chopard.”