Nick Shwaery

I have the rare reputation for being just as comfortable designing rich user experiences as adopting/developing with the latest technology stack. I'm a builder, whether assembling teams, creating brand strategies or rolling up my sleeves and coding/designing. With over 17 years experience in the industry, I've led tech and creative teams that create award-winning digital websites, apps and kiosks for medium to Fortune 100 clients.

Portfolio

Corporate

Royal Caribbean

Digital transformation. Designed the "My Account" product design, animation and Angular development for all Royal Caribbean cruisers. C
Hard Rock Casino

Designed the casino's mobile app.
Toyota

Created an interactive dashboard for Toyota's dealers.
Bayer

Designed and coded Bayer's React tablet app and microsite.
Leisure Time Passport

Wires, design, development
Victorinox

Parallax animation, responsive development
Verizon Wireless

Mobile and tablet development management
NCL | Booked Guest

Responsive web development
Norwegian Cruise Line

Design, development

Résumé

Experience

Creative Technologist — Ernst & Young — Consultancy

4.17 – current

Conducted user testing, created journey maps, interviewed key stakeholders for requirements.
Gave project timelines, estimates, hired/managed resources for our teams.
Led the creative vision/design systems/UI toolkits/developed components for web, native mobile/tablet apps.
Clients: Toyota, Herbalife, Bayer, Royal Caribbean, Seminole Hard Rock, Merck, Pfizer, and Oncor.

Front End Architect — Interval International — Digital agency

3.15 – 4.17

Architected company’s new, responsive website using Bootstrap, Sass/CSS3, Jahia, HTML5, JS.
Created interactive wireframes, rapid prototypes, designed comps, icons and styleguides.
Pitched creative/technical direction to key stakeholders and presented at conferences.

Freelance Developer/Art Director — Shwaery Design — Digital agency

9.14 – 3.15

Interfaced with C-level executives to architect technology stack and define agile processes.
Created several modular, interactive style guides/prototypes.
Clients: Norwegian Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean, Baptist Hospital, Tampa General Hospital.
Wrote SOWs, proposals, project briefs and met with clients to set/achieve their goals

Manager, Interactive Development — SapientNitro — Digital agency

4.11 – 9.14

Designed code framework/architecture, wires, comps and animation for Fortune 100 brands.
Gave LOE estimates, built internal teams, gave UX/UI direction and interfaced with clients.
As track lead, I was responsible for clean/efficient code for 10+ teams in local/offshore locations.
Clients: Verizon Wireless, Simple Skin Care, Victorinox, Bed Bath & Beyond, buybuy BABY, Vitamin Water, Arctic/Coke No Limit, Liberty Mutual, Briggo Haus, BBVA Compass, among others.

Sr. UI Developer — GravityFree — Advertising agency

10.09 – 4.11

Pitched creative blueprint, presented research and collaborated project direction with clients.
Created SEO-friendly landing pages for PPC campaigns and ran/analyzed multivariate tests.
Coded and designed dynamic websites/interactive Flash applications.

Creative Director — Clickbooth — Affiliate marketing/SEM/SEO

7.08 – 10.09

Hired, trained and directed team of 13 video editors, designers, developers and a PM.
Established workflow processes for PR, tech and advertising teams.
Built a dynamic publisher interface for tracking and analytic tools to optimize ad campaigns.
Gave creative direction on animated banner ads, e-mail campaigns, landing pages, multimedia kiosks, environmental design, print collateral and interactive websites.

Flash Developer — Walt Disney World PRO — Digital agency for Disney

12.07 – 7.08

Created animated virtual tours, interactive games and multimedia site assets.
Led Disney’s SEO committee, with emphasis on Flash visibility.
Designed monthly multimedia assets for Disney World’s Backstage Pass section.

Art Director — Starwood Vacation Ownership — Hotels and timeshares

12.06 – 11.07

Produced Ardy award-winning audio and video podcasts for Web and iTunes.
Designed Flash banner ads, kiosks, multivarient landing pages and interactive sites.
Created e-mail/promotional campaigns with web tracking statistics using Omniture.

Animator/Sr. Designer — Deep Focus, Avatar NY, Razorfish, DirecTv — Various agencies

9.05 – 12.06

Gave art direction on detailed storyboards for client’s promotional campaigns.
Developed rich media, expandable, floating and standard animated banner advertisements.
Designed Flash based screen-saver applications and 3D animation show opens.
Created a diverse range of promotional material for small to Fortune 100 corporations.
Client list: Citi, Ford Automobiles, L’Oreal, Maybelline, DirecTv, TBS, HBO, Hasbro.

Chief of Photography/Graphics Editor — The Washington Examiner — Daily newspaper

5.03 – 9.05

Supervised 11 photographers, coordinated photo shoots and budgeted team’s finances.
Approved all main art/placement on the daily cover, news and feature sections.
Illustrated info-graphics, charts and maps to accompany news articles.
Wrote articles/interviews, laid out pages and shot photos for “Design Page” section I created.

Education

Adjunct Professor — Valencia Community College — Orlando, FL

7.07 – 6.08

Taught Flash Animation Principles. Served on Graphics Technology Advisory Committee.

Master’s Degree — New York Institute of Technology — New York, NY

9.05 - 12.06

Communication Arts. Concentration: Motion Graphics. GPA: 3.95.

Bachelor’s Degree — Rutgers — New Brunswick, NJ

9.97 - 5.01

Visual Arts. Concentration: Graphic Design. Minor: Economics. GPA: 3.0.

Skills

Technology

Hand-coded, cross-browser compliant, validated, responsive, HTML5 (Jade, haml, markdown) websites.
CSS3 (less, scss, sass, oocss, compass).
Javascript MVC frameworks (jQuery, jQuery UI, grunt.js, handlebars.js/mustache, node.js, hammer.js,
underscore.js, backbone.js, require.js).
AJAX/JSON/XML.
Mobile webapps (jQuery Mobile, Sencha Touch, Phone Gap, jQTouch).
Proper SEO semantics/structuring practices.
AS2/AS3 Flash development.
API integration (Social Media, Bazaar Voice, GoogleMaps, Scene7).
Parallax animation/CSS3 Transitions.
Version control (SVN, GitHub, BitBucket).
Desktop app development (Adobe AIR).
CMS/database (ATG, Adobe Experience Manager/CQ, Sharepoint, Joomla, WordPress, Drupal, Magento).
Creating/promoting podcasts/webinars via iTunes/Google play.
Analytics integration/campaigns (Omniture, Google Analytics, Site Catalyst).
HTML email blasts with text backups (ConstantContact, Mail Chimp, Yesmail).

Design

Seasoned experience of interface layout, composition, color theory, typography, consistency and balance.
Designing user-friendly, memorable experiences for ecommerce, corporate and retail clients.
Photography and video shoots, color correction, green screen keying out.
Information architecture, wireframing, prototyping and storyboarding.
Cross-media marketing (banner ads, email creatives, websites, landing pages).
Extensive traditional and vector-based illustration/iconography experience.

Management

Extremely selective in hiring top talent and aligning candidates with proper roles.
Managed creative/tech process, architecture and inter-department workflows.
Pitched digital strategy campaigns to clients.
Implemented newest design/technology trends with teams.
Delegated and organized team schedules.

Tools

Interactive - Sublime Text, Edge Inspect, MAMP, Charles, Chrome Dev Tools/Firebug, Terminal.
Motion - Flash, After Effects, Motion, LiveType, Swift3D, 3D Studio Max, Maya, ZBrush.
Layout - Photoshop, Fireworks, Illustrator, InDesign, MS Office, Quark Xpress, OmniGraffle, Balsamiq.
Video - Final Cut Pro, Premiere, Avid.
Audio - Soundtrack Pro, Garage Band, Logic Pro, Reason, Audacity.