Chris Znerold — Design & Creative Direction

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Chris Znerold — Design & Creative Direction ~

Chris Znerold is a creative leader and design expert based in Boulder, Colorado.

His practice is shaped by principles of human-centered design, and his process is informed by a diverse set of agency and in-house experiences across brand and product design spaces.

Chris recently published two books and a country-western EP — Story (by) Design, The Futures of Brand, and Gassed Up.

For over twenty years, Chris has leveraged the power of design to help smart teams create positive cultural impact. As a product designer, Chris helped create the first social dating profiles on Match.com, launched an NBA themed basketball game for Disney, and worked as a design lead crafting well-loved digital products like Apple Music, Adobe Marketing Cloud, Airbnb Trips, Playstation Video, and more.

More recently, Chris has thrived as a startup executive where he built a from-scratch product team that launched 50 new products in 2 years to deliver $40M in revenue growth, and co-founded a design studio that launched next-gen digital products in highly regulated spaces.

Services

  • Chris offers guidance and strategic oversight for businesses aiming to elevate their design practices and outputs. Ideal for organizations looking to hire an experienced leader who can harness the full potential of their design team, Chris brings a wealth of knowledge in fostering innovation, collaboration, and excellence in design. With a proven track record of leading high-performing teams in creating market-leading digital products and brand experiences, Chris's leadership style is characterized by empathy, clear communication, and a commitment to design thinking principles. He excels in building and mentoring teams, defining design processes, and aligning design goals with business objectives to drive growth and user delight. Working with Chris in a leadership capacity will not only inspire your design team, but also strategically integrate design strategy as a core pillar of your organization's success.

  • Art Direction is a cornerstone of Chris’ design process, providing visionary creative leadership and conceptual guidance for visual projects across any medium. This service is ideal for brands looking to elevate their creative output through insight driven concept design, whether for advertising campaigns, digital content, or brand communications. With an eye for exceptional and a deep understanding of visual storytelling, Chris crafts compelling content that align with strategic objectives, ensuring every piece of creative work not only stands out aesthetically but also resonates deeply with its intended audience. Leveraging his extensive experience in both agency and in-house settings, Chris brings a nuanced approach to art direction, balancing innovation and experimentation with brand consistency

  • Chris provides a strategic foundation for companies looking to launch a new brand or rejuvenate an existing one, ensuring a distinctive, coherent identity that effectively communicates their values and vision. Chris employs a holistic approach, integrating market insights, consumer research, and creative innovation to develop branding that resonates with target audiences. His work in Branding & Identity encompasses everything from logo design and visual style guides to messaging and tone of voice, crafting a complete identity system that is both memorable and meaningful. With Chris's guidance, expect a brand identity that not only stands out in a crowded marketplace but also fosters emotional connections and loyalty with customers, helping to drive long-term success.

  • Chris creates transformational product journeys through intuitive and memorable interactions across digital and physical platforms. Tailored for businesses aiming to level up their current products or launch new ones, this service encompasses the full spectrum of consumer research and insight development through high-fidelity prototypes and user testing. Chris applies a human-centered methodology to product design, focusing on understanding user needs, behaviors, and pain points to create solutions that are not only visually appealing but also functionally seamless. With a background in launching groundbreaking experiences for leading tech companies including Apple and Logitech, Chris brings a wealth of knowledge in crafting products that engage, retain, and delight users. Whether you're developing a mobile app, a consumer packaged goods product, or a virtual reality experience, Chris will ensure your product is accessible, user-friendly, and aligned with your business goals, creating the framework for resounding success.

Clients —

Principles —

Design for abundance

Create engaging brand experiences by incorporating consumer research and ethnography perspectives to help expand the potential for creating well-loved, culturally-resonant identity design systems.

Facilitate serendipity

Leverage rapid prototyping and iterative design principles to create holistic, integrated user experience ecosystems across physical and digital touchpoints to facilitate product moments that feel like magic.

Experience nirvana

Reduce churn and produce joy through highly performant brand communication and digital experience design expressions that leverage world-class IA, IxD, UX, and UI digital design output.

The only way to experience an experience is to experience it.