MICHAEL SHANNON

Maryville TN 37801
865 804-5186
http://www.michaelshannon.us

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Seasoned professional with 18+ years' experience developing creative solutions to meet goals, marketing objectives and brand strategies for top companies like OfficeMax, Coca-Cola, Haggar Clothing Company, BellSouth, Kodak, and Mindspring. 10+ years' versed in digital media: web, e-commerce, online advertising, interface design, architecture, and usability principles. 18+ year veteran of traditional advertising, print and collateral design, signage, branding, and corporate identity.

Creative innovator conceptualizing and designing successful results oriented creative. Instrumental in winning several Fortune 500 clients by providing creative presentations, strategies, and effective design. Provided creative direction for marketing strategies and site enhancements for office products company that supported sales growth of 192%.

Effective manager with a proven ability to lead, coach and mentor design teams, supervise production staff, and manage external vendors and freelancers. At ease working directly with clients defining objectives, participating in presentations and supporting creative direction. Proficient at organizing multiple complex projects, in a demanding, fast-paced environment under tight deadlines.

PROFFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

CREATIVE DIRECTOR-- OfficeMax, Shaker Heights, OH 3/2000 - 9/2001

Determined initial creative vision for projects; translating corporate goals, branding, and marketing objectives into digital and print collateral for OfficeMax.com, the nation's leading online office products website. Directed creative execution of a 30,000 product website: multi-page microsites, minisites, partner and affiliate graphics, animated and rich media online advertising, promotional and newsletter emails, daily updates and improvements to architecture and site usability. Responsible for creative development and production management of direct mail, national advertising, sales collateral, and product catalogs. Managed, coached, and supervised internal design and production staff. Negotiated fees and directed external vendors, freelancers, writers, designers, photographers, modeling agencies, and printers. Planned annual budget for creative team, including new hires, software updates, usage fees, contractors, and vendors.

• Lead creative execution of New Business Services, expanding the market for OfficeMax and generating a healthy six-figure profit in the first six months.
• Increased banner advertising click-through rates (CTR) by 300%; consistently delivered higher CTR than national average.
• Doubled sales and raised CTR by 17% after redesigning promotional email, which included standard usability practices, and added interactive functionality.
• Established, organized and lead internal environmental team to boost morale and stem exodus of valuable employees. Team was responsible for developing ideas and submitting budgets for recreation, refreshments, internal environmental improvements, and gifts for new and existing employees.
• Directed creative development, usability guidance and project management for redesign of the website. After relaunch, OfficeMax.com received several top honors:
• Best retail site in BtoB Magazine's NetMarketing Top 200, citing "ease of use," "good navigation," and "great organization" as prominent features.
• Top honors in Consumer Reports online survey of e-tailers specializing in office supplies for small business owners.
• Best office supply site in a Bear Stearns back-to-school study of online office superstores, citing look and feel, architectural design and content.
• Ranked number two in e-commerce sites by netScore's BPI Buying Power Index, which gauges value of visitors based on dollars spend across all sites on the Internet.
• Named a top ten business to business website by Business Marketing magazine.
• Computer Shopper Best Site Award

CREATIVE DIRECTOR-- Innotrac Corporation, Atlanta, GA 11/98 - 3/2000

Partnered in building the e-commerce division from the ground up for $126 million technology-based marketing support services company. Managed creative and technical personnel providing site development, copy, market research, and front- and back-end web site programming. Worked directly with clients defining short- and long-term goals; developed creative strategy, user interface and design; created presentations, website concepting and marketing support materials for the e-commerce sales team; participated in presentations to prospective clients discussing usability issues, site architecture, back-end integration and marketing objectives. Responsible for ensuring consistent brand identity for partner sites during development process.

• Instrumental in winning Coca-Cola e-commerce account: created and staged presentations, met with client gathering information, designed user interface, and developed unique ideas for interactive areas of site.
• Creative lead and client contact for Haggar Clothing Company: participated in client presentations, crafted e-commerce strategy, developed site architecture, directed photography, and designed site.
• Key team member that participated in securing several Fortune 500 clients.

CREATIVE DIRECTOR/PRINCIPAL-- Shannon Web Design, Asheville, NC 1996 - 1998

Provided businesses with website design, back-end scripting for dynamic content, and full e-commerce capabilities. Regarded as the first multimedia design house in Western North Carolina.

• Designed and produced e-commerce site for a high-end cookware company. Originally a successful retail store, the website generated 60% of all company revenue after one year.
• Created an auction site, including building, programming, and designing user interface that allowed a large retail and direct mail operation to liquidate surplus inventory. Site offers inventory and page management control without HTML knowledge.
• Launched e-commerce portal for national mail order company with over 50,000 motorcycle parts and accessories. Programmed CGI scripts, designed databases and built search engine to simplify ordering process and reduce call center volume.
• Developed, implemented and maintained the first e-commerce shopping mall in North Carolina. As a result of this innovation company was
• Named a Mindspring Web Partner and one of thirteen of "The Best Web Design Firms and Internet Marketing Specialists in the Nation".
• Selected as one of seven beta testers for ExpressVault, an end-to-end e-commerce solution. Partners included American Express, HP, Verisign, Mindspring, and Mercantec.
• Listed as a BellSouth ShowCase Designer, the first in North Carolina.
• Chosen as a developing partner for Mercantec, a leading e-commerce software company.

CREATIVE DIRECTOR/PRINCIPAL-- Shannon Design, Asheville, NC 1990 - 1996

Concepted, designed and developed corporate logos and marketing and collateral materials for corporate and small businesses. Worked directly with clients in developing marketing objectives and design directives for increasing their bottom line. Designed and executed illustration work for advertising agencies and corporate clients.

• First designer in Western North Carolina to utilize direct film output from digital files; resulted in consulting for and assisting in setup of digital output services for local printers.

ART DIRECTOR-- Rhew & Associates, Arden, NC 1988 - 1990

Designed sales catalogs, P.O.P., collateral, brochures, posters, logos and print advertising. Responsible for developing concepts, creating storyboards, art directing and supervising production of television advertising. Conferred with clients to determine advertising strategy, market demographics and brand positioning. Consistently commended for delivering projects on strategy, on time and on budget.

TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGIES

Expert level experience using Mac and Windows platforms with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, PageMaker, and Image Ready; Macromedia Freehand, Flash, Fireworks, and DreamWeaver; Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Project, and Visio; Quark XPress; Homesite; BBEdit; and FileMaker Pro.

Accomplished writing XHTML, CSS, DHTML, and hacking JavaScript, PHP and Perl.

Intermediate skill using Director, Soundforge, XRes, Fractal Design Painter, Debabelizer, Macromedia Extreme 3D, Adobe GoLive, Microsoft FrontPage.