Chris Znerold is a creative director, designer, and educator based in Boulder, Colorado. His practice is shaped by principles of human-centered design, and his process is informed by a diverse set of experience across agency and in-house teams. Chris currently works as a fractional marketing and design executive, and teaches as an adjunct professor in the masters program at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Design for Impact
For the last 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 Facebook games for Disney, and worked as a design lead creating digital experiences with Apple, Adobe, Airbnb, Playstation, and many other startups.
Chris’ career has followed the rise of social and digital products, the deregulation of cannabis and fintech markets, and the emergence of artificial intelligence as a game-changing design tool. Now consulting as a solopreneur and teaching as an adjunct professor, Chris has helped hundreds of students find their footing in the design industry, led the marketing departments of several $100M+ companies, founded a human-centered studio, and most recently led the design restoration of his midcentury home in Sunshine Canyon.
Featured Work
An evolution of the visual brand experience, the development of a token-based Figma design system, and prototype showcasing the new capabilities deployed across a re-imagined host experience.
Design Principles
Move farther, faster
Launch effective brand and product launches through a design-led market analysis and creative strategy development to validate assumptions before costly investments.
Lead with empathy
Create engaging brand experiences by leveraging consumer research and ethnography capabilities to create and deploy well-loved, market-informed identity design systems.
Eliminate dead ends
Leverage rapid prototyping and iterative design principles to create holistic, integrated user experience ecosystems across all physical and digital consumer touchpoints.
Experience nirvana
Reduce churn and increase joy through highly performant brand communication and digital experience designs that leverage world-class IA, IxD, UX, and UI design output.
