Justin Giardina

Currently serving as DIgital Experience Design (DXD) Lead on the Wells Fargo Virtual Channels team. As a Lead on the Core and Global Services team, I am responsible for leading team projects for the Secured Services side of WellsFargo.com and the Wells Fargo app.

Through my experiences as a consultant, I have learned how to establish and maintain positive customer relationships with clients while providing a variety of design & marketing services in an organized and timely manner. I have had the ability to work on a wide-range of projects for local, national and global brands with agencies including M&C Saatchi, Havas Edge, Bloom Ads, Addison Whitney, Brinkley Design, and GGMD.

List of notable clients :
Humane Society of the United States. Lifelock, Sherrie's Berries, 1-800-FLOWERS, Hustler Casino, Pfizer, NC Parks, Wegmans Food Markets, and the San Diego Addy's on behalf of the San Diego Zoo.

As a member of this startup's original in-house team, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to influence the direction of the company's foundation including its business model & guiding principles, assist in the design & organization of the company structure, and help to form & build the new development team. This position reported directly to the company's President and CEO, and Director of Technology.

Socialtopias was founded on the idea of making it easier to connect with friends and businesses in the local community. As we defined the company vision, we realized there were many areas in the very competitive social media space for which we could build mobile applications to improve on the user experience. The result was to build an organization to create a portfolio of social applications - the first being Hopspot. The goal was to create a proof of concept for a social media application that allows friends to connect quicker and easier to meet up around town.

Being a startup, our team was challenged with limited resources to accomplish hefty goals set by the company's investor. I worked directly with the originator of the idea and founder of the company to bring the idea for this mobile and web application to life.

As the company grew, I was able to build and lead the creative team to support the design of the Android and iOS applications, develop the company and product brands, and support key marketing initiatives and promotions. This included refining the design of the Socialtopias identity, as well as the ideation and creation of the Hopspot name & brand - brand style guide, mobile app design, website design, brand stationery, marketing collateral, vehicle wraps, and event spaces & displays.

Buzzwords associated with my role as the company's UI/UX Unicorn :
User Advocate, Brand Evangelist, Information Architecture, Team Documentation, Product Wireframes, Direct and Manage Creative, Project Management, Agile, Scrum, Lean UX, Dev Team Supporter

Every once in a while a project appears that really touches on personal beliefs close to your heart - this was one of those opportunities. As a member of the creative world, I am a supporter of organizations that help to educate children and the community about the arts.

I was approached by Apparo to assist in the Art & Science Council's initiative to improve the effectiveness of the organization's portfolio of websites. As a User Experience Consultant, I was responsible for conducting a digital brand audit and analytics review to create a detailed report and provide suggestions for moving forward with a planned site redesign.

As the team lead, I was asked to manage several of the company's key marketing initiatives. This position reported directly to the company's CMO, CTO, CIO, and VP of Marketing. While the company was going through the merger process, minimal resources were available and many positions were left vacant. As a result, I was asked to lead the future of Family Dollar in the digital space, challenging me to wear many hats - Creative Director, Brand Manager, CX Manager, UX Manager, Digital Marketing Manager, Digital Program Manager, Business Analyst, Omnichannel Coordinator and Product Owner & Manager.

My responsibilities included managing day-to-day digital marketing operations, coordinate, direct and manage the execution of omnichannel campaigns and initiatives, manage the company's brand experience across all brand channels, manage and direct four of the company's agency accounts - Epsilon, Catapult Marketing, iCrossing, and AC&M, and co-manage digital team vendor accounts - Wishabi/Flipp, Coupons.com, Adobe, ActiveStandards, InMar, RightScale, InComm and Cognizant.

Creative Direction :
Manage the execution of company branded assets according to brand standards and oversee the repositioning of the company brand as it transitions its brand messaging to communicate Everyday Values.

Omnichannel :
Create strategies for daily, seasonal, and promotional campaigns across all marketing channels.

Day-to-Day Operations :
Plan, Direct, Manage, Analyze & Report results for the execution of digital campaigns promoted via FamilyDollar.com, Email Marketing, Public Relations Initiatives, Community Events and Social Media Channels.

Product Management :
Re-imagine the future of the company's digital presence including the launch of the new website to support the company's initiative to expand into the e-commerce marketplace, development of industry-leading digital coupon aggregation technology, future mobile application development, and new email & social media marketing strategies.

This role allowed me the opportunity to develop digital web strategies for agency clients and provide creative direction for interactive media, print, web, video, motion graphics, and mobile applications.

As the agency's lead UI/UX designer, I was responsible for the design and management of all agency website projects for industry leading clients such as Advanced Markets, Advantage Software, Dynamic Health & Pain Management, 10 Park Lanes and Wiki Wiki Carwash.

As the company expanded into the mobile app space, I was asked to direct the design and development teams to create the agency's first two mobile applications for Jumpshot Genie and Innspector, as well as their associated websites and digital marketing materials.

Through my experiences as a freelancer, I have learned how to establish and maintain positive customer relationships with clients while providing design services in an organized and timely manner. I have had the ability to work on a wide-range of projects for local, national and global brands with agencies including M&C Saatchi, Euro RSCG Edge, Bloom Ads, Addison Whitney, Brinkley Design, and GGMD.

Provided creative design, website development and consulting services to area organizations on a contractual or per-project basis. Client list includes; Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District, Swisher International / Daley International, Harrell Design Group, EpicNotion, and Vermillion Creative.

This position challenged me to assist in the strategic planning, creative direction and implementation of client projects designed to drive tourism to native cultures. While working with AIANTA and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the agency has been recognized by the advertising industry as one of the best Native American Marketing firms. Goss has received many awards as a result of current national and international advertising and marketing campaigns.

Originally created to become a branding and marketing agency, Punchmark was approached by the Independent Jewelers Organization to register as a lead vendor within the organization to offer its expert services to members.

As a founding partner and the Director of Marketing, it was my responsibility to lead Punchmark's brand and marketing initiatives to attract clients for brand development, promotional campaigns, and website design & development.

Punchmark quickly became a leader within the jewelry industry as it established its website enterprise and industry social network software - connecting independent jewelry stores and industry vendors.

Since its establishment in 2008, Punchmark has experienced extensive growth serving more than 250 clients nationwide. As the Director of Branding and Marketing, I was fortunate to work along side great companies to create unique site designs and marketing materials focused on creating a better learning and shopping experience for their customers.

My responsibilities were to manage client projects, design effective web solutions, and implement brand strategies for some of the industry's leading companies including; IJO, Nelson Coleman Jewelers, Miner's North Jewelers, and Mari Lou's Fine Jewelry.

As the administrator of the company’s rebranding and repositioning efforts, I was approached with the challenge of educating team members and company leaders about specific marketing strategies associated within the architectural field. As the company expanded into the graphic design and advertising markets, I was asked to develop the department from the ground up, including purchasing computer programs and hardware, devising company forms and processes, as well as, creating promotional materials to target current and prospective clients and increase brand awareness.

Originally hired as an intern, I was brought onto the team to participate in all company operations. This allowed me to successfully direct and manage company accounts, lead client meetings and create an organized process to increase job-flow productivity.

As an employee of Wegmans Food Markets, I gained the experience of educating and training employees, managing staff, and overseeing department inventory and ordering processes. Additionally, as a member of the corporate design team, I had the opportunity to work on several company-wide projects including: graphics for internal software, store directory layouts, program booklets and product labels.