Washington D.C. Metro Area
- Current
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- Creative Director at PBS
- Co-Founder at DCDesignBabes
- Principal Art Director at Freshsample Inc
- Past
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- Sr Lead Visual Designer at AIM Social Media, AOL
- Art Director at Hammer Creative
- Multimedia Designer at Texas A&M University
- Jr. Designer at Texas Tech University-College of Architecture
- Designer at Greenpeace
- Education
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- Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi
- University of Madras
- Recommended
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8 people have recommended Valli - Connections
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182
connections
- Industry
- Design
- Websites
Valli Ravindran’s Summary
Award winning designer, who thrives on challenge by incorporating a philosophy of clean, functional and intelligent design. Extensive experience in interaction, user experience design and art direction.
Valli Ravindran’s Experience
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Creative Director
PBS
(Privately Held; Financial Services industry)
October 2008 — Present (1 year 2 months)
Leading the design of PBS Video Project (COVE) - a $5MM multifaceted project that will result in increased engagement across member station sites, show sites, pbskids.org and pbs.org
1. Led the User-Interaction/ Design for the monetization exercise partnering with the PBS Ventures and Sponsorships teams
2. Hired critical staff, and oversaw the product design development and have been successfully launching it in the shorter release cycles
3. Manage and oversee everyday editorial needs
4. Leading the Design for future iterations, innovative feature additions and conduct brainstorming exercises with the team to continually build on the product
Leading the User Interaction and Visual Design of the re-design of PBS.org – an initiative that will grow audience size and affinity, creating a richer base for monetization and audience engagement
1. Led the concept/goals brainstorming and visual design brainstorming sessions, worked with the vendor on a daily basis
2. Creative direction and overseeing the Visual and User Interaction deliverables
3. Leading the re-structure and revised architecture for the shell pages section of the .org site, hired contractors and interns to help overhaul this process by creating sitemaps and User Interaction models
Manage PBS.org Homepage by providing creative direction and acting as a Product Owner, a site that delivers +1M views a day
1. Led the refresh of PBS.org Homepage in March 09, to update the look & feel that includes monetization, an updated localization feature along with time-senstive DTV modules and an enhanced search
2. Manage Photo editing functions and approve more than five dynamic lead stories per day that feature both online and TV programs
3. Led the visual and front-end development of various new features and modules that drives traffic to internal sites; working with the web analytics information to constantly realign or repurpose features to grow the audience size and page views -
Co-Founder
DCDesignBabes
(Design industry)
March 2008 — Present (1 year 9 months)
DCDesignBabes is an organization formed to have some solid design unity in the DC area. We host quarterly events that include design contests, art show etc.
Responsibilities include: Design and development of the website, scheduling, marketing among sponsors and budgeting.
A community of 350 members and growing, sponsorships from big corporations and affiliations from industry’s best design conferences.
Editor of blog.dcdesignbabes.com -
Principal Art Director
Freshsample Inc
(Graphic Design industry)
April 2000 — Present (9 years 8 months)
Developed marketing and advertising materials for a new store opening of Krispy Kreme, McAllen,TX
Developed logo and branding campaign for Weinerschnitzel collaborated with Art Museum of S.Texas
Developed irrigation and landscape website, www.fallingwaterirrigation.com. Developed concept, wireframes and banner animations.
Directed and created a short story animation for TV. Created in Flash and Actionscript 2.0
Hired and managed design contractors. -
Sr Lead Visual Designer
AIM Social Media, AOL
(Public Company; TWX; Internet industry)
July 2005 — September 2008 (3 years 3 months)
Played an active role of leading UE Designer and Intern Designers. Also has good experience in managing designers remotely, who worked in Bangalore, India.
Launched a social networking aggregator site www.buddyupdates.com. Created a new hot or not portal, www.pixnay.com, generated 12 MM pageviews, 450K unique visitors each month.
Redesigned AOL People Connection after the Bebo acquisition to merge both the content.
Redesigned the AOL Instant Messenger for the main release in 2007, an interface that will reach 40 million users on a daily basis. Worked closely with junior designers and other stakeholders.
Redesign of the AOL.com 3.0 portal, more than $1 Billion revenue drawing website. Developed multiple prototypes with innovative ways to increase engagement and network growth.
Developed AIM social micro community sites and generated 1M page views per month in 2007.
Created an AIM Chat portal, chat.aim.com and AIM Chat Mixer powered by UserPlane -
Art Director
Hammer Creative
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Entertainment industry)
May 2005 — July 2005 (3 months)
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Multimedia Designer
Texas A&M University
(Educational Institution; 10,001 or more employees; Higher Education industry)
August 2003 — May 2005 (1 year 10 months)
Designed an interactive learning program, an online courseware for CPA professionals.
Developed a broadband TV interactive learning courseware with Channel 7, KEDT.
Designed and developed webpages for Academic Departments. Created site maps to present the layout to the client. Developed wireframes and prototypes to present to business owners.
Collaborated with programmers, copywriters and editors for an enhanced and effective website. Regular upgrades and maintenance of cob.tamucc.com
Worked on all aspects of the project from scheduling, collaboration, concept, design and production. -
Jr. Designer
Texas Tech University-College of Architecture
(Architecture & Planning industry)
August 2002 — May 2003 (10 months)
Designed layouts and edited illustrations for the book “Architectural Delineation: Presentation
Techniques Vol 2”
Designed and developed an interactive game, in Flash, for a distance-learning program. Prototyped in Director MX.
Assisted with the publication & editorial design - Designed a weekly newsletter and art
directed a bi-monthly magazine produced by the students of School of Architecture. -
Designer
Greenpeace
(Non-Profit; 51-200 employees; Non-Profit Organization Management industry)
May 2000 — April 2002 (2 years )
Valli Ravindran’s Education
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Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi
MA , Graphic Design, Computer Science , 2003 — 2005
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University of Madras
B.Arch , Architecture , 1997 — 2002
Additional Information
Valli Ravindran’s Websites:
Valli Ravindran’s Groups:
DCDesignBabes
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AOL CONNECTIONS -
DCDesignBabes
Valli Ravindran’s Honors:
AMERICAN ADVERTISING FEDERATION (AAF-CC): Rising Star Award( 2004-2005)
Silver ADDY Award 2005, Category - Interactive Design
Bronze ADDY Award 2005, Category - Web Design
Gold ADDY Award 2004, Category - Interactive Design
Silver ADDY Award 2004, Category - Identity Systems
Silver ADDY Award 2004, Category - Web/Multimedia
Won the Logo & Identity Materials Competition commissioned by Weinerschnitzel collaborating with the Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, TX
Design Excellence Award (Best in Show) for Krispy Kreme Marketing Campaign, McAllen, TX
NODUS Nominee Award 2005 Category (Web /Multimedia)
Winner in a Federal Government Sponsored Competition in INDIA for Environmental Design, 2001
“Photograph of the Show” Award in the Presidents Council Art Show, Nov 2003
Valli Ravindran’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- career opportunities
- consulting offers
- new ventures
- job inquiries
- expertise requests
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
