Art Director · Senior Designer · Photographer

Hi, I'm Olivia.

I'm an art director, designer and photographer in San Diego with more than ten years at agencies, in-house teams and print shops. I've led creative for illy, California Pizza Kitchen and Captain Morgan, and today I run Amazon creative for a roster of health and wellness brands. I plan the shoot, take the photos, design the assets and build the templates that keep a brand consistent.

Open to full-time senior designer and art director roles. Remote, hybrid or on-site in San Diego, and open to relocating. Contract work too.

See my work

Download resume

San Diego, CA · (760) 607-8934 · oliviavaldescreative@gmail.com · linkedin.com/in/olvaldes

10+

Years in design, photography and production

10+

Brands art directed at once

3 months

From Senior Designer to Art Director

What I do

Brand, ecommerce, social and photography.

Ecommerce & marketplace creative

Amazon Brand Stores, A+ Content, listings and product storytelling

Brand & visual systems

Identity support, guidelines, toolkits, templates and layout systems

Social & campaign design

Organic and paid social, carousels, short form video, campaign collateral

Photography & retouching

Product, food, lifestyle and event photography, from concept to final edit

AI-assisted production

Generative tools for the first draft, Photoshop for the finish

How I work

Clear before pretty

Good design shows people what matters and where to look. Looking great is part of that, not the whole job.

How I use AI

A starting point

Generated images still need art direction, retouching and compositing before they're ready for a brand. That finish is my job.

Working remote

Easy to work with

I've worked remotely since 2021. I write things down, keep files organized and keep projects moving without a lot of check-ins.

Experience

Where I've worked

Lead Amazon creative for 9+ client brands: listing image sets, A+ Content and Brand Stores, adapted for Walmart and Target.
Designed 15+ products across health, wellness and home, including a 7-product line for Global Health Products and a 4-product line for Think Smarter.
Set up an AI-assisted image workflow (Midjourney, Firefly, Photoshop) that replaced most product shoots and cut new product turnaround from about two weeks to two or three days.
Built most creative from scratch when brands had no usable photos, and made Figma and Photoshop templates so each line stays consistent.

Promoted from Senior Graphic Designer to Art Director within three months. Managed and mentored a team of four.
Led creative for 10+ brands, including California Pizza Kitchen, illy, Mechanix Wear, Captain Morgan (Diageo), Bonduelle and International Delight.
Launched @illy_us from zero with a US content plan and seasonal shoots ready before day one. illy rebooked us for three years.
Produced about 25 CPK social assets a month and cut shoot time from roughly five days to two.
Shot and designed a full Mechanix Wear campaign solo, concept to delivery. Captain Morgan recipe photos went live on the brand's site unchanged.
Covered International Delight at Coachella with same-day photo delivery for social.

Sole designer for every venue in the group across six channels: menus, signage, web, email, social and photography.
Wrote the brand guidelines and built shared templates each venue could restyle.
Handled vendors, prepress and proofing.

Designed signage, vehicle wraps, banners and large format graphics and saw them through to install.
Owned prepress and color management, and proofed before print to avoid reprints.

Ran the shop floor: large format printers, plot cutters, CNC routers and laminators.
Managed client projects from consultation to delivery and trained junior staff.

Shot live music and events for editorial coverage, with fast turnaround for web and social.

Designed invitations, cards and print products for an online stationery company.

By area

Skills

Grouped so you can find what you're hiring for.

Ecommerce & marketplace

Amazon A+ Content

Brand Stores & listings

Walmart & Target creative

Product storytelling

Conversion-aware hierarchy

Reusable asset templates

Shopify

Design & art direction

Design systems & toolkits

Art & creative direction

Brand identity & guidelines

Typography & hierarchy

Responsive web & email

Presentation & campaign design

Concept development

Photography

Product & lifestyle

Event coverage

Food & beverage styling

Natural light & studio

Retouching & compositing

Color work

AI-assisted production

Prompt writing

AI-assisted imagery

Compositing AI images

Studio-quality finishing

Product imagery without a shoot

Video & motion

Short-form social video

Video editing

Stop motion

Animated graphics

Platform-native motion

Leadership & collaboration

Remote creative leadership

Stakeholder presentations

Creative operations

Brief-to-delivery ownership

Team mentoring

Fast turnarounds

Tools

Adobe & photo editing

Photoshop

Illustrator

InDesign

After Effects

Premiere Pro

Lightroom

Firefly

Acrobat

Capture One

Photo Mechanic

Figma

Components

Variables

Shared libraries

Auto-layout

Prototyping

Generative AI

Midjourney

Runway

Adobe Firefly

Generative Fill

AI assistants

ChatGPT

Claude

AI-assisted coding

Web & CMS

Framer

Squarespace

WordPress

HTML/CSS

Shopify

Mailchimp

Workflow & collaboration

Google Workspace

Microsoft Office

Asana

Notion

Slack

Monday

Print & production

Five years of hands-on sign and large-format production.

Machines operated

Plot cutters

Large-format printers

CNC routers

Laminators

Mounting systems

Process

Prepress setup

Proofing

Color management

File preparation

Fabrication & install

Let's talk.

I'm looking for a senior designer or art director role on a team that cares about quality and ships a lot of work. Remote, San Diego, or somewhere new.

Brands I've worked on include illy, California Pizza Kitchen, Captain Morgan, Mechanix Wear, Bonduelle, International Delight, Global Health Products and Think Smarter.

Email me

See my work

Download resume

Olivia Valdes Creative