About/Résumé · Updated November 2026
Parker Lee
Creative Director | B2B Brand, Digital, and MarTech
Remote Nationwide · On-Site Across Chicagoland
Hello@ParkerLeeCreative.com • LinkedIn.com/in/ParkerJamesLee
16+Years in the Creative Industry
5XEmployee of the Year
225+Unique Brands Created
Summary
I’m a Creative Director with 16+ years of experience across branding, art direction, UX/UI, websites, integrated campaigns, and marketing technology. I’ve led B2B teams of up to 10 designers and developers and owned client work from the first creative brief through launch. I’m a hands-on player-coach who enjoys building the work as much as directing it, whether designing a brand, coding a site, shooting photography, or solving the technical problem nobody saw coming.
An average day might look like walking the C-suite through an interactive Figma prototype, aligning designers and developers on the build, then personally wiring up HubSpot retargeting that tracks every click post-launch.
Experience
Red Caffeine on LinkedIn (Opens in a New Tab)
Lombard, Illinois
Jan 2020 – Aug 2026
Promoted Three Times
Production & Martech Manager
Jan 2025 – Aug 2026
- Set creative direction for 8 concurrent B2B accounts, directing up to 10 remote designers and developers, setting hours, budgets, and timelines, matching projects to the right person, and approving every deliverable through launch in sprint reviews.
- Led an AI-assisted proposal tool that let account managers and non-creatives build an on-brand pitch deck in a few clicks, with spreadsheet-linked pricing that kept the numbers right through each revision and cut the time spent on quotes in half.
- Named Employee of the Year five years running as the go-to person for agency operations, onboarding every new hire, bringing in a ticketed support team, training staff on AI tools, and administering Slack, ChatGPT, 1Password, and Google Drive.
- Oversaw the technical relaunch of the Anchor Harvey Components website after the company’s acquisitions, writing design and developer briefs, quoting the work, and testing each page and form until all open issues were resolved before launch.
Senior Art Director
Jan 2022 – Jan 2025
- Turned an email-campaign request from Bales Metal Surface Solutions into a customer reactivation system with automated journeys, exceeding its revenue target by 13%, tripling minimum orders YoY, and earning a Net Promoter Score of 74.
- Built lead-scoring and marketing automation campaigns with custom-written content using Ortto, HubSpot, and Mailchimp to drive engagement, automate outreach, establish clients as subject matter experts, and generate repeat orders.
- Wrote the creative brief for every project and presented strategy and brand storytelling to client executives, mapping websites and campaigns in Figma and FigJam during calls so the whole plan stayed on screen as each client decided whether to sign.
- Led brand relaunches for Rome Grinding Solutions, The Signature Room at the 95th, and U.S. Minerals, overseeing brand audits, on-site photography, website redesigns, and visual identity guidelines from concept through launch.
Art Director
Jan 2021 – Jan 2022
- Interviewed and evaluated design candidates, helped hire new team members, and onboarded and mentored designers through hands-on training, creative reviews, and ongoing feedback to strengthen the agency’s creative team.
- Managed day-to-day creative production across branding, websites, and campaigns for several brands, assigning work to designers, reviewing deliverables against brand standards, and coordinating with remote developers to maintain quality.
- Replaced the agency’s old static wireframing process with interactive, scalable Figma prototypes that clients and stakeholders reviewed in live sessions, catching problems before development and cutting down revisions on each new website.
- Improved website user experiences through A/B testing, Hotjar behavior analysis, and Typeform surveys, using real user feedback and conversion data to identify friction, refine navigation and content, improve accessibility, and optimize conversion paths.
Senior Designer
Jan 2020 – Jan 2021
- Drew custom vector illustrations in Adobe Illustrator and designed B2B brand, campaign, sales, and presentation materials in Adobe InDesign, combining original artwork, photography, and typography in production-ready files for print and digital.
- Introduced Figma for client reviews before development, reducing coded revisions, and led UX quality checks on a nearly 9,000-page e-commerce site, documenting issues and partnering with developers to resolve usability problems before launch.
- Helped launch Business as “Un”usual, a B2B livestream still running after 6 years, building Restream workflows, configuring channels, preparing guests, and resolving live audio, video, and connection problems to keep the show on air.
- Designed interactive trade show exhibits, producing environmental graphics, large-format signage, and photorealistic to-scale mockups so clients could approve designs before fabrication.
Parker Lee Creative on LinkedIn (Opens in a New Tab)
Greater Chicago Area
Oct 2010 – Present
Creative Director
- Built and have run an independent creative studio for 16+ years, earning repeat business from clients like Taracon Precast with hands-on work spanning branding, websites, email marketing, annual reports, packaging, photography, and video production.
- Generated 95M+ unique interactions with 30+ Snapchat geofilters featuring original typographic illustrations of local landmarks, earning Featured Cities Artist recognition from Snapchat in 2020, 2021, and 2025.
- Created 225+ one-of-a-kind logos featuring custom hand lettering, original illustrations, and vector artwork, building tailored brand identity systems for everyone from mom-and-pop startups to multimillion-dollar companies rebranding acquisitions.
- Built websites clients could run themselves, organized around what their customers needed most, then tested accessibility and site performance and trained each client to update and manage the content on their own long after launch.
Symboliq Media on LinkedIn (Opens in a New Tab)
St. Charles, Illinois
Nov 2018 – Dec 2019
Art Director
- Helped grow the agency from 3 people to 8 by rebuilding its brand, voice, guidelines, website, advertising, and social media presence, and by creating, with the owner, reusable pitch decks and proposals that won signed work from new clients.
- Directed the MTN CBD packaging rebrand, including its identity and social creative, after which website traffic grew 138%, online sales rose 38%, and customer support inquiries fell 87%, making it the agency’s flagship online case study.
- Led daily Agile scrums with a senior graphic designer, two content marketers, and a senior web developer, assigning work, reviewing creative and website deliverables, and executing client photo shoots from planning through editing and retouching.
- Helped Vanexxe expand into Costco by redesigning its packaging, website, and social media creative around a more approachable brand identity that made personal care products easier to understand and customers more comfortable choosing them.
Lost Boyz Inc. on LinkedIn (Opens in a New Tab)
Chicago, Illinois
Sep 2016 – May 2019
Volunteer Senior Graphic Designer
- Designed annual reports that turned program data, finances, and the players’ own stories into a convincing funding case, helping the Chicago youth baseball nonprofit secure 5- and 6-figure grants it had never won before from funders like Nike.
- Maintained and expanded the nonprofit’s youth-created brand identity across baseball and softball uniforms, team apparel, events, and community outreach, keeping the organization recognizable while honoring the identity its young athletes had built.
- Ran donor communications, from Mailchimp newsletters to Giving Tuesday campaigns on reusable layouts, pairing each email with social graphics so donors and families kept hearing what the programs accomplished all year, not just during fundraisers.
- Managed creative production for a volunteer-led nonprofit, turning rough briefs into print-ready flyers, social media campaigns, and videos using Adobe Creative Cloud while keeping the brand consistent for donors, families, and community partners.
Gulf Business Printing on LinkedIn (Opens in a New Tab)
San Antonio, Texas
Jan 2017 – Nov 2018
Senior Graphic Designer
- Designed the interface and templates for Order Anywhere, an in-house online ordering platform that let franchise owners reorder in a few clicks, see all pricing in one place, and manage logins and purchase history by employee and location.
- Localized chain-wide campaigns for Fiesta Restaurant Group, Taco Cabana, and Whataburger, adapting menus, billboards, point-of-sale, direct mail, and email to each local offer, and shot product photography while keeping every brand standard intact.
- Built variable-data Adobe InDesign templates using data merge, conditional content, and field mapping to personalize offers, pricing, and addresses across markets, reducing manual file preparation and minimizing waste across high-volume print runs.
- Managed print production from quote to shipment, working with clients and account managers to set budgets, source materials, coordinate vendors, and personally handle prepress, Pantone color matching, press operations, finishing, kitting, and shipping.
Econoprint on LinkedIn (Opens in a New Tab)
Lake Delton, Wisconsin
Mar 2015 – Nov 2016
Junior Graphic Designer
- Built variable-data franchise templates and anti-counterfeit pieces for Culver’s, and adapted its Wisconsin brand for new markets like Naples, Florida, and San Antonio, Texas, while juggling walk-ins, revisions, and rush jobs every day.
- Ran Fiery-driven Canon and HP digital presses across the print floor, preparing files, imposing layouts, hand-mixing Pantone colors, checking proofs, finishing jobs, and solving production problems on the spot as soon as they came up.
- Planned specialty print production around budgets, run lengths, and press capabilities, specifying paper stocks, UV coatings, die cuts, folding methods, and finishing techniques while managing prepress specifications, color accuracy, proofing, and production quality.
- Designed environmental graphics, signage, and promotional materials for Wisconsin Dells attractions like Noah’s Ark Waterpark, Kalahari Resorts & Conventions, and Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park, preparing artwork for print and on-site installations.
Zebradog on LinkedIn (Opens in a New Tab)
Madison, Wisconsin
Sep 2014 – Dec 2014
Junior Graphic Designer
- Designed the interactive kiosk interface and several exhibits for the Livsreise Norwegian Heritage Center, combining accessible UX/UI design, language-agnostic navigation, archival photo restoration, and historical research to tell Norwegian immigration stories.
- Created environmental graphics for Duke University’s Basketball Museum and Hall of Fame, collaborating with architects on large-format layouts, dimensional artwork, and photorealistic mockups that honor the program’s history and its NBA alumni.
- Developed healthcare wayfinding and signage systems in Adobe Illustrator and InDesign, preparing precise, to-scale production files that accounted for architectural constraints, viewing distances, sightlines, mounting methods, and installation tolerances.
- Translated architectural drawings and design concepts into photorealistic environmental renderings and client presentation decks, helping stakeholders evaluate graphics, spatial relationships, materials, and installation details before approving projects for fabrication.
Hiebing on LinkedIn (Opens in a New Tab)
Madison, Wisconsin
May 2014 – Aug 2014
Studio Intern
- Developed digital sweepstakes and promotional contest creative for Culver’s, working with art directors and copywriters on interactive entry experiences, campaign graphics, and in-store promotions, while shooting and retouching food photography for advertising.
- Designed Schneider National’s annual reports and political action committee identity, combining financial data visualization, editorial layout, custom vector illustrations, logo design, and brand standards into polished corporate communications.
- Designed product labels and packaging for Toppers Pizza, developing branded graphics, typography, and print-ready artwork while preparing production files for commercial printing and packaging applications.
- Supported agency art directors, copywriters, and production teams across multiple client accounts, translating creative briefs into campaign concepts, presentation layouts, original illustrations, and production-ready assets for print and digital channels.
Schaumburg Boomers on LinkedIn (Opens in a New Tab)
Schaumburg, Illinois
Apr 2013 – Sep 2013
Graphic Design Intern
- Designed game-day programs, season schedules, ticket layouts, promotional graphics, specialty jerseys, and branded apparel, preparing print-ready artwork for vendors while managing sponsor requirements, revisions, and tight baseball deadlines.
- Shot player portraits and live game photography using manual camera settings, traveled with the team to road games, and edited and retouched images for promotional campaigns, player profiles, social media, and team publications.
- Operated the stadium video board and scoreboard during live games, preparing graphics, promotional content, and video assets while coordinating real-time updates, sponsor advertisements, and in-game entertainment.
- Managed WordPress website updates and social media content throughout the season, publishing scores, schedules, ticket promotions, and player news while helping coordinate giveaways, theme nights, merchandise, and postseason campaigns.
Education
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Graphic DesignThe Illinois InstituteMay 2010 – Dec 2013
of Art-Schaumburg, Schaumburg, Illinois
Certifications
- HubSpot Solutions PartnerHubSpot Academy2026
- Implementation for PartnersHubSpot Academy2026
- Inbound MarketingHubSpot Academy2026
- Marketing Hub SoftwareHubSpot Academy2026
- Understanding User NeedsUniversity of Michigan2024
- Introduction to User Experience Principles and ProcessesUniversity of Michigan2023
- From Brand to Image: Creating High Impact Campaigns That Tell Brand StoriesIE Business School2022
- Foundations of User Experience (UX) DesignGoogle2022
- Facebook BlueprintMeta2018
Awards
- Bacon Saver Award (Employee of the Year)Red Caffeine2021 – 2025
- Featured Cities ArtistSnapchat2020, 2021, 2025
- Best of San Antonio Award, Graphic DesignBest of San Antonio2018
- Emerging Designer MemberAIGA Chicago2014
- Dean’s List and Honor RollThe Illinois Institute2010 – 2013
of Art-Schaumburg - Congressional Art Competition HonorsU.S. House of Representatives2008 – 2010
- Scholastic and The Art Institutes ScholarshipsScholastic2009 – 2010
Skills
Creative Leadership
- Creative Direction
- Art Direction
- Brand Strategy
- Creative Strategy
- Concept Development
- Creative Briefs
- Team Leadership
- Team Mentoring
- Client Presentations
- Client Partnerships
- Pitch Development
- New Business Development
Brand and Design
- Brand Identity Systems
- Brand Guidelines
- Integrated Campaigns
- Logo Design
- Typography
- Packaging Design
- Presentation Design
- Custom Illustration
- Motion Graphics
- Photography
- Copywriting
Digital, Web, and UX
- User Experience (UX) Design
- User Interface (UI) Design
- Website Design
- E-Commerce
- Wireframing
- Prototyping
- Usability Testing
- Accessibility Review
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Marketing and MarTech
- B2B Marketing
- Marketing Technology (MarTech)
- Marketing Automation
- Email Marketing
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
- Lead Generation
- Content Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- Marketing Analytics
Creative Operations and Production
- Creative Operations
- Production Management
- Project Scoping
- Resource Planning
- Workflow Automation
- Quality Assurance
- Vendor Management
- Print Production
- Video Production
Tools
- Adobe Creative Cloud
- Adobe InDesign
- Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe After Effects
- Adobe Premiere Pro
- Figma
- HubSpot
- Salesforce
- WordPress
- Shopify
- Google Analytics 4
- Asana
- ChatGPT
- Codex
- Claude
- OpenClaw
- Microsoft 365
- Microsoft Word
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft Teams
- Microsoft SharePoint
- Microsoft OneDrive
Hobbies
- Grading, trading, and collecting baseball cards
- Collecting and restoring vinyl records
- Prototyping, building, and testing agentic tools
Let’s Talk.
See a Time You Like? It’s Yours.
Have a project in mind? A question? Want to pass down your secret family lasagna recipe?
Grab a time on my calendar or send me a message. Either way, I’d love to hear from you!
