Brian Piper, Design Director in Seattle, WA

About

I've worked as a creative director, art director, designer & manager for 20 years and have gained broad & international experience in branding, print, advertising, packaging, product, environmental & digital mediums. I've worked for advertising agencies, design studios & in-house creative departments in addition to opening my own design studio in 1999 (Piper Design Co.)

I’ve had the chance to create award winning work for everything from small start-ups to worldwide brands. Some of the big ones are: Gatorade, Adidas, Mercedes-Benz, Wella, AT&T Wireless, Nintendo, Real Networks, Teague and Microsoft.

Work I’ve helped to create has been recognized by: American Advertising Awards, Red Dot Design Award, Pentawards, Communication Arts, Print, ADC Germany, Type Director’s Club, HOW, SXSW Interactive, Graphis, CLIO & the Flash Film Festival London.

Specialties:

• Advertising (concept creation & execution)

• Strategic Branding

• Design Management

• Photo Art Direction (lifestyle, auto, hair, product)

• Packaging Design

• Corporate Identity

• Collateral & Editorial

• Retail / POS / Display

• Digital / Interactive

Typographically excellent. Superb eye for detail. Professional Adobe CS user. Adept at illustration. Experienced writing proposals, estimates & budgets. Extensive knowledge of production & printing processes.

Education

Associate of Applied Arts Visual Communications

Art Institute of Seattle

1991 - 1993
Fine and Studio Arts

Spokane Falls Community College

1989 - 1990
Shadle Park High School

1984 - 1988

Experience

Principal & Creative Director

Piper Design Co.

Sep 1999 - Present (25 years 2 months)

Before moving to Germany in May of 2002, I was Principal and Creative Director of Piper Design Co. in Seattle, which I founded together with my wife. We were very successful in our 3 plus years in business. We enjoyed a broad range of clients and projects. A number of these were recognized by Communication Arts, Graphis, HOW International Design Annual as well as the Flash Film Festival, London and SXSW Interactive. My most proud moment was being featured in Communication Arts "Fresh" in the Sept. 2001 issue.
Design Director

Julep Beauty

Jul 2014 - Dec 2014 (5 months)

Joined the wonderful team at Julep as Design Director, helping to bring their brand to the next level.
Associate Creative Director

Magner Sanborn

Oct 2013 - Jul 2014 (9 months)

Small Agency of the Year - 2012 West Region, Gold.

We're a full-service advertising and brand agency made up of writers, designers, technologists, anthropologists, thinkers, doers.

As an ACD in our Seattle office I do everything in my power to create the best ideas possible for our diverse range of clients. And, it's sort of like being back home, since our headquarters are in my hometown of Spokane, WA. Owner Dennis Magner was my first boss right out of school back in January, 1994. And 20 years later, I've rejoined him, his two partners, Jeff Sanborn and Brandt Heinemann and one of the best groups of people I've worked with in 20 years.
Design Manager

Nordstrom Product Group

Nov 2011 - Sep 2013 (1 year 10 months)

As the Graphic Design Manager at Nordstrom Product Group, I was responsible to help oversee not only the entire Nordstrom Brand as it related to product labels & packaging but all additional Nordstrom owned brands under the guidance of my amazing CD Red Godfrey.

My responsibilities were three-fold: 1) manage existing brands and create any brand extensions as well as the creation of new brands, 2) create and maintain brand books for Nordstrom's eight Signature Brands, and 3) support the NPG Trend Studio by developing any necessary graphic and/or layout templates necessary.

Brands I helped to create (or refresh) during my time at NPG were: r. jeans, Flounce Shoes, Public Opinion, The Rail, Tildon, Unit-Y, Nordstrom atHome, Nordstrom Habits, Nordstrom Heritage, Chelsea28, bpm by Zella and many more.

I was also responsible for the update of all packaging & labeling for Nordstrom’s entrance to Canada. This meant adding french alongside english to every printed or woven label, tag, heat transfer, wrap, box, bag, etc.
Senior Designer

Tether, Inc.

May 2009 - Jul 2011 (2 years 2 months)

I was initially hired as freelance to help with the Gatorade G Series rebrand pitch. A few weeks later, we ended up winning it, which meant I'd be part of a once in a lifetime project. So I was hired as a Sr. Designer (No. 7) and our small team of four became the Gatorade Brand Design Team at Tether.

I was responsible as co-leader of our team which grew from Matt Schmunk, Daniel Petrzelka and myself (under the masterful guidance of Stanley Hainsworth) to 15 plus during our creation of new forms and delivery systems for the Prime 01, Perform 02 and Recover 03 occasions for three separate platforms (Pro, Performance and Fit).

In addition, our team was also responsible for all Gatorade G Series sidelines marketing, including the new G Series beverage delivery systems (bottles & coolers) for the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and MLS.
Freelance Designer

Green Rubino

Mar 2009 - May 2009 (2 months)

Hired to help create the website for Avanade - IT Business Technology Services for the Enterprise ( http://avanade.com ).
Assoc. Creative Director

POP

Jan 2009 - Mar 2009 (2 months)

Hired to bring my experience in advertising and design to help lead interactive projects. Projects I was a part of were the creation of microsites for GI Joe/Target and PMI (Pacific Market International). Unfortunately, due to the economy at that time led to an early release of my position.
Design Director

Jung von Matt / Neckar

Jul 2008 - Dec 2008 (5 months)

Helped lead team of designers focused on creating the best design and art direction for teams at JvM / Neckar.
Sr. Art Director

Jung von Matt / Neckar

Sep 2005 - Jun 2008 (2 years 9 months)

Conception, art direction and design for clients in categories such as: automotive (Mercedes-Benz), lifestyle (Graefe und Unzer), entertainment (bigFM) and beauty products (Wella and Clairol). Project highlights include: Product Books for Mercedes-Benz (SLR McClaren and SLR McClaren Stirling Moss) the latter being the final edition of any SLR to be built. Other highlights were recognition for integrated campaigns for bigFM and creating global print campaigns for Wella Hair Salon Appliances.
Sr. Art Director

Panama Werbeagentur

Jul 2002 - Jul 2005 (3 years)

Panama was the first agency I worked for while living in Germany. I was very lucky to have my hands on almost every project for their broad client base in the areas of sport, outdoor and cosmetics. I was instrumental in helping Panama win the global Adidas account, with our winning pitch for the first mi Adidas campaign. Campaigns for F50, Predator and The Champions League followed suit. I was also responsible for the art direction and design for Wheeler Bikes, which included their catalog as well as the actual bikes sold within.
Sr. Designer

Phinney Bischoff Design

Mar 1999 - Aug 1999 (5 months)

While at Phinney Bischoff Design, I was design lead for the 1999 Microsoft Global Developer Days campaign. Elements Included: event schedule, POS, exhibit banners, assets package delivered on CD, web ad banners, and splash page. I also worked on the Bill & Melinda Gates and Callison Architects logo projects.
Sr. Designer

TMA Ted Mader Associates

Mar 1998 - Feb 1999 (11 months)

Lead designer for Milgard Windows advertising and collateral; book design for Peach Pit Press; packaging for Netgear; editorial design for Arcade Magazine, designed Nintendo's press kit for the 1998 E3 trade show.
Graphic Designer

Widmeyer Design

Oct 1997 - Mar 1998 (5 months)

While at Widmeyer Design, I worked together with Ken Widmeyer on a variety of print, digital and environmental projects. Including: Identity & environmental graphics for Crystal Mountain Ski Resort. Widmeyer Design identity (logo, letterhead, website and promo brochure). Created sales & marketing collateral for Sanofi Diagnostics Pasteur. Created advertising & design for RANE Audio Products.
Art Director

Imagio / JWT

Jan 1997 - Oct 1997 (9 months)

While at Imagio / JWT, I created advertising and design for hi-tech brands such as Real Networks, Intermec, ADI Monitors and IXMicro. I remember: honing my Photoshop skills; endlessly looking through stock photo books; designing for the WWW for the first time; using electronic mail; waiting 15 min. for a full-bleed tabloid page to print and lots of all-nighters. Funniest memory was that the VP for IXMicro was Chris Knight who played Peter Brady in The Brady Bunch. Oh, and I helped create the first desktop icon for RealPlayer.
Designer / Production Specialist

Nordstrom Product Group

Jan 1996 - Dec 1996 (11 months)

Worked on brands such as: Halogen, BP, Classiques Entier, Façonnable, Studio 121, Caslon, Nordstrom Rack, Callaway Golf
Art Director

WhiteRunkle Associates

Jan 1994 - Jan 1996 (2 years)

This was the very first agency I worked at, (back home in Spokane). My first title was "Art Kid" and I moved my way up to "Art Director" after winning 5 NW Addy awards for my work on the Spokane Food Bank Capital Building Campaign. Following this, I was a lead team member responsible for handling the rebrand of Cellular One to AT&T Wireless Services. My responsibilities included: art direction, layout and design of collateral, POS, advertising, promotions and packaging. This was my first taste of 60 hour weeks, which I learned to thrive from.

Awards

Type Director's Club, Art Director's Club Deutschland, Jahrbuch der Werbung, Deutsche Dialogmarketing Preis, Eurobest, Print Regional Design Annual, Graphis Letterhead, Communication Arts "Fresh", HOW Intl. Design Annual, Seattle Show, NW Addies

Affiliations

AIGA

Skills

Elsewhere on the Web

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On Coroflot

@brianpiper, member since 2005

Followers 4

Brian Piper

Director and Associate/Full Professor, Myron E. Ullman Jr. School of Design, College of DAAP

Director, Industrial Design