Brenan Sharp Résumé
Career Summary
Award-winning Design Director with proven success working with major brands online in advertising and in print. Specialize in branding, account management, marketing and driving creative projects with interdisciplinary teams from concept to completion.
- Accomplished Design Director of the American Bar Association Journal.
- Art Director for multiple websites at Alpha Media Group and senior art director at Publishing Group of America in charge of design for American Profile, NBC, CMT, Relish and Spry Sunday supplement magazines.
- Social Media Director for Alpha Media Group with 6M hits per month.
- Review writer for Car & Driver, the Country Music Association, RacingJunk.com and Music City News.
- Feature writer, automotive journalist, book review author, blogger and podcast script writer.
- Photographer with work featured in international publications.
- Hosted Modern Law Library Podcast with 5K listeners in first month.
- Launched career as Acting Managing Editor, Art Director & Digital Imagist for Music City News and The Gospel Voice magazines (Gannett Inc.). Determined cover and feature stories. Streamlined the publication process. Co-directed marketing campaigns to increase subscriptions. Co-directed TV spots. Created ads for major advertisers in each publication, including: Curb Records, Mercury Records, Alan Jackson, Toby Keith, Billy Ray Cyrus, Hank Williams, Jr., and Loretta Lynn.
- Managed budget over 200K and staff of graphic designers, interns, free-lance designers, illustrators and photographers.
- Voted Best Local Visual Artist three times in the Nashville Scene, sister publication of the Village Voice.
- Won 73 design awards for covers, illustration, photography, editorial design and Web design.
Areas of Expertise
- Leadership & Management
- Creative Direction & Art Direction
- Advertising, Branding & Marketing
- Content & Communications Strategy
- Social Media Marketing
- Graphic Design & Multimedia
- Writing & Editing
- Digital Photography
- Digital Magazines
- Video
- Feature Articles
- Visual Artist
Employment Experience
ABA JOURNAL (American Bar Association) | Chicago, IL November 2010 – Present
Design Director; March 2018 – Present | Deputy Design Director; March 2015 – March 2018
Art Director; February 2012 – February 2015 | Senior Designer & Visual Web Editor; November 2010 – February 2012
- Supervise, recruit, and train graphic designers; manage interns in partnership with Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism.
- Negotiate excellent rates for use of stock photography, for both Getty Images as well as the Associated Press.
- Serve as front end designer for Webby-winning website (>2M monthly pageviews) and write reviews on law in popular culture.
- Spearhead daily operations of Web and magazine production for largest U.S. law publication and website to engage ABA members.
- Host podcasts, the most recent (Modern Law Library Podcast) receiving 5,000 listens in first month and won a Folio Hon. Mention.
- Orchestrate hiring and assign and art direct covers, features and videos. Manage $260,000 budget – $60,000 savings in 2019.
- Conceptualize and implement design strategies for seamless alignment of ABA goals, editorial directives and diversity and inclusion.
- Re-introduced entering awards competitions with wins ensuring team survival during staff reorganization.
- Conduct market research and analysis of other publications and websites; present findings to ABA Journal Board of Editors.
- Manage >36 projects a year. Provide IT server solutions and support for entire production team.
Achievements - Promoted 4 times in 8 years from Senior Designer & Visual Web Editor to Design Director.
- Won 29 American Society of Business Publication Editors Awards (18 Gold Awards) for print and Web, including ASBPE Magazine of the Year and 2 Graphic Design USA Awards.
- Won 19 Apex Awards (5 Apex Grand Awards for Design & Illustration) + 1 Peter Lisagor Award for Best Illustration.
- Received partial scholarship to attend Yale School of Management Leadership Strategies in Digital Media.
- Revitalized marketing to attract more youthful audience and cultivate online engagement. Delivered multiple presentations in person, on-site, via Zoom and abroad.
- Collaborated and took leadership role for 9 years in marketing committee for ABA Journal
- Initiated, designed, managed, and executed Legal Rebels Marketing Project, which garnered >$300,000 in ad revenue.
BOLDPLAY MEDIA | Chicago, IL and Nashville, TN January 2000 – Present
Contract Art Director, Editor & Visual Artist • Portfolio at BrenanSharp.com
- Write for magazines and websites: Car & Driver, Maxim, and RacingJunk.com. Authored book Rock Stars of the 27 Club.
- Design print, Web and ePub for clients: Nashville Parent, AthlonSports, Digital Content Syndication, and DayCom Communications.
- Created com and Art and Automobiles YouTube channel.
Achievements
- Voted Nashville’s Best Visual Artist 2004, 2006, 2007 in the Nashville Scene (sister publication to the Village Voice).
- Exhibited in numerous successful art shows at multiple venues in Nashville and Chicago.
- Applied proven marketing techniques to sell over 1,000 paintings in 10 years.
THESMOKINGJACKET.COM | Chicago, IL August 2010 – September 2011
Editor and Illustrator
- Wrote, edited, illustrated and designed viral posts and infographics for popular humor site.
Achievements
- Generated tens of thousands of hits with top posts on Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon, and social media.
ALPHA MEDIA GROUP | Franklin, TN and New York, NY December 2008 – June 2010
Art Director (Digital) & Social Media Director
- Created all branding for primary website with target audience of adults ages 18–34, garnering 6M hits per month.
- Wrote native advertising for automotive and humorous content for advertisers, such as Volkswagen and Gillette.
- Served as Social Media Director and maintained 9 accounts daily.
- Art-directed photo and video shoots in L.A., Chicago, New York, and Nashville. Photographed music festivals for Web and print.
- Supervised designers, photographers and videographers. Wrote engaging and informative online marketing editorial.
- Created free online content from social media for online, garnering 75,000 views with each post.
Achievements
- Promoted to Creative Director for offshoot publication; created and designed all layout for 160-page national publication.
- Generated extra 1M hits a month for primary website as part of a 5-person team creating humorous original content.
- Created concept for, designed and art directed 2nd magazine for a specific audience
- Directed 275M viewers from Facebook in a single day to contribute to record month of 7M pageviews (2.5M unique).
- Added tens of thousands of fans and produced 500% increase in traffic from social media outlets to primary website.
PUBLISHING GROUP OF AMERICA | Franklin, TN February 2000 – December 2008
Senior Art Director; Aug 2006 – Nov 2008 | Art Director; Aug 2000 – Aug 2006 | Senior Designer; Feb 2000 – Aug 2000
- Designed cover and cover stories, hired videographers, and photographed events for each publication.
- Created ads for major advertisers such as Ford Motor Company, Hormel, Coty, CMT Network, and Capitol Records.
- Served as Acting Photo Director and Production Manager until those positions were filled. Created and designed cookbooks.
Achievements - Won 13 national Apex Design Awards, including 1 Grand Award during 8.5-year tenure.
- Supervised design of 5 national publications – one weekly, 4 monthlies: American Profile (10M weekly circ), Relish (12M circ), Spry (9M circ), NBC’s The Peacock (10M circ), CMT Life Set to Music (1.5M circ).
- Streamlined photo selection and color correction at American Profile to cut cost per page from $300 to $170.
- As only designer, took 2 magazines from startup to two of the largest magazines in the U.S., achieving runaway success.
- Won Mr. Magazine’s (Dr. Samir Husni’s) Magazine Launch of the Year 3 times.
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
- Yale School of Management Executive Education – co-founded alumni Facebook group; organized mini-reunions; conducted surveys
- American Society of Business Publication Editors – judge for annual ASBPE Awards
- Society of Professional Journalists
- American Bar Association
- American Society of Magazine Editors – received partial scholarship to attend Yale
- Chicago Headline Club – winner of Peter Lisagor Award for illustration
- Nashville Area Junior Chamber of Commerce (NAJCC) – former recruitment co-chair
- Magnolia-Wedgewood Condo Association – Former Vice President
- Folio Ozzie Awards judge
EDUCATION
Yale School of Management Executive Education – Leadership Strategies in Magazine and Digital Media Publishing Course
University of Tennessee, Knoxville – Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art
TECHNICAL SKILLS
Design: Adobe Creative Cloud, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, InCopy, Quark, Acrobat
Video: Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro Animation: Flash
Web: WordPress & Expression Engine Content Management Systems, HTML, CSS, SEO, Google Analytics, Omniture
Presentation: Keynote, PowerPoint
Word Processing: Microsoft Word, Excel, InCopy, Acrobat