JASON SEVERS
Selected Experience
frog design, New York City
January 2005-Present
• Executive Creative Director 2013-Present
Lead for frog’s New York creative group and Global lead for frog’s Experience Strategy
service offering. Helps clients envision, implement, and evolve complex product and
service ecosystems. Responsible for creative and strategic direction across the majority
of program deliverables in the New York studio. Direct manager for eight creative leads.
In partnership with the GM, handles studio-level leadership for the overall pipeline
decisions, hiring, and organizational structure. Other primary responsibilities include
driving new business efforts from relationship building, new partnership models, pitch and
proposal development all the way through to contract phases. Manages a global team of
12 frogs across strategy, tech, creative, and program management disciplines
responsible for growing the Experience Strategy service pillar through sales and practice
orientation. Reports to frog’s CCO.
• Creative Director 2010-2013
Creative lead for frog’s New York Studio focused on experience strategy, product design,
creative facilitation, and design research. Responsible for directing multiple programs
concurrently with multi-disciplinary teams that consist of visual and interaction designers,
design researchers, strategists, and technologists. Focused on integrating clients’
business requirements into design strategies, interaction design, and visual solutions, as
well as creative facilitation for innovation management and organization change. Set the
direction, style, and methodology of the creative group. Other responsibilities include
department manager with direct reports (senior to junior level visual and interaction
designers, experience strategists, and design researchers), hiring and retention, resource
allocation, and business development.
• Principal Designer 2008-2010
Represented deep domain expertise and organizational seniority and was an
autonomous contributor focused on developing breakout innovation and multi-disciplinary
process. Was integral in establishing and leading frog's first design research practice,
shaping the frogThink innovation methodology, mentoring junior staff, and acted as
project lead for several user experience strategy and design programs with a heavy
emphasis on design research (contextual and participatory) and creative facilitation for
alignment and innovation workshops.
• Senior Design Analyst 2006-2008
Lead product research, innovation workshops, strategy, information architecture, and
interaction design to create products that are feasible and differentiated. Discover,
understand, and communicate the business requirements of our clients, the emotional
desires of their customers, and the context in which these two come together.
• Design Analyst 2005-2006
Discovery research (comparative and heuristic), content inventory, and requirements
gathering for first phase insights and direction. Lead information architecture and content
strategy activities. Conducted usability and human factors research to evaluate design
concepts and requirements. Provide recommendations and improvements for
development and implementation.
Client List: American Express, AT&T, Bloomberg, Chrysler/ Fiat, Comcast, Cox
Communications, ETS, Equinox, Eyelock, Foundation Medicine, Gatorade, GE, Google, Humana,
HP, IPC, Johnson & Johnson, Juniper, Microsoft, Neutrogena, PepsiCo Global Nutrition Group,
Pitney Bowes, Sandisk, Thomson Reuters, United Nations OCHA, and Under Armour.
www.jasonsevers.com / jason.severs@gmail.com / twitter: @jasonsevers
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Faculty: Products of Design, School of Visual Arts, NYC 2012-Present
Adjunct Professor, Framing User Experience
Full time faculty in SVA’s Master’s program in design, entrepreneurship, and design strategy. The
class focuses on providing students with the fundamentals in user experience strategy, looking
deeply into the structure of experience, human agency, and object interactions to help candidates
gain a new perspective on how to design for meaning.
Bruce Mau Design, Toronto, Canada 2004 - 2005
Designer and Strategist
Worked on an interdisciplinary design team in the Bruce Mau studio focused on the project
Massive Change: The Future of Global Design. Worked as a designer, researcher, and strategist.
• Research and design for the traveling exhibition and book published by Phaidon Press
• Creative lead for the design and development of the Massive Change website
• Copywriter and visual designer for the marketing campaign that produced building banners,
posters, invites, transit signs, retail cards, and a four-month ad campaign
Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning (CCNMTL), NYC 2002-2004
Designer & Technologist
Responsible for design and testing of new technologies used in courses across at Columbia
University to drive new curriculum development. For example, design and developed interactive
simulations and illustrations for used in various courses (for example, Climate Change Models
used in Earth and Environmental Engineering Seminars and 3D animations for the physics
department that illustrated quantum interactions online course software for the course work)
Work samples available upon request. Google me for lectures and publications.
Related Experience
Conde' Nast Publications, NYC 2005
Design Technologist
Worked for the Conde' Nast property Modern Bride designing and developing digital marketing
applications.
Faculty: New York University SCPS / Paul McGhee Division, NYC 2003-2006
Adjunct Professor, Fundamentals of Interactive Multimedia
Developed and taught course structured around project based learning to enable students to
develop an understanding of how digital tools are used in the professional workforce in team
based situations.
Illustrator: The Fabric of the Cosmos, Brian Greene & Random House, NYC 2002–2003
The Hidden Reality, Brian Greene & Random House, NYC 2010
Data visualizations and illustrations for physicist Brian Greene to explain the theoretical
underpinnings for his texts on string theory.
Freelance Web Designer and Flash Developer, NYC 1999-2001
Education
M.A. Instructional Design & Technology, Columbia University, NYC, 2003
B.F.A. Painting & Sculpture, Memphis College of Art, Memphis TN 1995
References available upon request.
www.jasonsevers.com / jason.severs@gmail.com / twitter: @jasonsevers
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