- Executive Creative Director 2021-2023
Blink Agency - Chief Creative Officer 2019-2021
VP, Creative Strategy 2017-2019
Vicimus - Chief Creative Officer 2015-2017
Dashboard - Associate Creative Director 2012-2015
Senior Art Director 2010-2012
Grey Canada - Senior Art Director 2007-2010
Dashboard
I have over 20 years of experience in Creative disciplines within design, advertising, and product (SaaS) firms. this includes over 12 years of team and department leadership as well as hands-on product design and software management. Skillsets include CX strategy, Personas, Journey Mapping, Documentation, Product Design – User Interfaces (UI), Information Architecture Mapping (IA), User Experience Design (UX) and User Research.
I have brought multiple products and platforms to market. I also have extensive experience in process development, operations, UX documentation, creative strategy, and user-centric research. Beyond design and SaaS Product development, I have helped to create globally adopted experiences, launched hundreds of websites, and created award-winning (Cannes, One Show, and more) brand and advertising campaigns.
I prefer a disciplined, analytical, data and user-centric approach to problem-solving and creative thinking that has served me well living between creativity and technology for the bulk of my career. This has garnered 50+ awards nationally and internationally for marketing, branding, illustration, and design (including multiple Cannes Lions, One Show Pencils, and more). As well as numerous top 15 Best Art Directors rankings in Strategy Magazine’s Creative Report Card.
Awards & Accolades: 50+ awards national and international for marketing, branding, illustration, and design.
Creative Skills: Creative Direction & Strategy, Art Direction, Concepting, Branding, Design, Illustration, Social, Digital & Traditional Marketing, Writing (short form, long form, scripting), Former 3D Character Designer & Animator
Leadership Skills: Executive team Experience, Team and Departmental Management, Client Management, New Business Development, Internal Planning, Budgeting, Resource Management, Project management, SOWs, Estimates, Process Development and deployment
Product Design Skills: UI/UX Design (Figma, Adobe Creative Suite), UX Research & Planning, UX Strategy, Wireframes, Information Architecture, Prototypes, AI Prompt coded-prototypes (Figma Make, Lovable.io), User Testing, UX Documentation, BRDs, Roadmaps, Product Management, Data Mapping, 3rd party data field flow mapping and requirement building – Read More
Social Skills: Interpersonal Skills, Public Speaking, Storytelling, Mentoring, Teaching
Todd Lawson
Creative Professional Since 2001
LinkedIN Profile
UI Product Design & UX Research
MCIM – Product Design
MCIM – Product Design & Marketing
iWorkyWorky – Product Design
QQuote Book – Product Design
Glovebox – Product Design
Blu Ivy – Dashboard Design
RMS – Product Design
Bumper – Product Design & Marketing
Art & Creative Direction
Guinness National TV-Spot
Breathe Right (GSK) Snore App
BC Ambulance Campaign
Millionnaires OOH AR Ads
Ocean’s More Than A Can Campaign
Staples We Love Teachers Contest
Guinness National TV-Spot
Shreddies “Morning Break”
Grape-Nuts “The Odds”
Grape-Nuts “What’s Your Mountain?”
Missing Children Society
Missing Children Society “Arrow”
Nice Things Other People Say…
Todd Lawson is a “Swiss-Army-Knife” of creativity. Physical or digital, no matter, he can do it fast and he can do it very, very well. He is a Jack of all trades and a Master of all. Hire him, quick, you won’t regret it.
Glen Hunt | Ex CCO/CTO, V7/Cossette
Todd is a true talent, equal part user experience and idea minded he’s fluent in multiple communication languages.
Patrick Scissons | Co-Founder & CEO, The Ostrich Algorithm / Ex CCO, KBS/Grey/Syncapse/BBDO
He embodied all of his creative works characteristics while also being one of the most calm, cool and collected creatives that I’ve had the pleasure of working with.
Barry Hillier / Co-Founder & CIO At EquoShift / Former Owner/Founder At Dashboard
Todd is a talented senior creative that has incredible dedication and passion. His ability to understand the objectives and deliver relevant, exciting creative is outstanding.
Brian Steinhauser / Co-CEO / Discovery Loft
Todd is one of those rare creative professionals who not only produces beautiful and inspired design, but actively leads the process around it. He understands the sweet spot where business objectives and creative innovation intersect and is extremely adept at bringing fresh insights to the projects he works on.
Gayle Lunn / Partner / Rebelles Research
Todd’s strong leadership, communication and customer service skills were the reason this project was such a huge success for the AutoShow. It didn’t matter what the task or request was, he made it happen for us. We cannot thank him enough as he was a true pleasure to work with!
Stephanie Thompson | Manager, Marketing & Operations | Canadian International AutoShow
View Projects By Brand.
Clients/Brands I’ve helped: Abreva, AXE, Acura on Brant, AIDS Committee of Toronto, ATI, Atlanta Magazine, BlackBerry (RIM), Blu-Kote, Blue Ivy, Bombay Sapphire, Breathe Right, Bumper, Burlington Ribfest, Canadian AutoShow, Canadian Online Gamers Network, CDRS Hamilton, Corus, CosmoTV, Cruzan Rum, CCSC, Diageo, Dofasco, Débaufré, Eli Lilly Cymbalta (Pharama-depression), Elm Street Magazine, Enroute, Euroglass, Exclaim, Fortune Magazine, GSK, GloveboxCMS, Grape-Nuts, Great Grains, Guinness, Hellmann’s, H&R Block, Home Hardware, InBurlington, Independent School Association of Ontario, LCBO, Lexus of Oakville, Milk, Nissan Canada, Ontario Toyota Dealers Association, Ovarian Cancer Canada, Phaeton Automotive Group (6 Store Automotive Retail), Playtex (Health/Product – FemCare and InfantCare brands), POST Cereals, Pronamel, Sagicor General Insurance, Sensodyne, Scotiabank, SevenStar Sports, Shreddies Cereal, Sunlight Laundry, Suburban Ford (Retail Automotive), Sunveil Sunwear, St. George Apple Festival, Swiss Herbal (Pharma-vitamins), Target Canada, Toyota Canada, the Toronto Jewish Film Festival, Vaseline, Wrigely’s Juicy Fruit and W-Network (partial list)
Latest Written Articles
- UX Foundations – PersonasA detailed review of how to host user persona workshops and create a user centric culture in software and interactive design.
- UX Foundations – Planning & MappingLearn the foundational aspects of user experience (UX) planning and research including forms of user journey mapping and UX architecture.. Over the course of over two decades creating interactive experiences and balancing creative thinking I have spent a lot of time on understanding how things interact with people. In the early days of website design we ignored a lot of the disciplines software developers used in exchange for quick wins and fast track creations.
- 5 points from 5 years of managing Creative Teams in a SaaS Tech Firm.When I started to lead a creative team as Chief Creative Officer in Tech (SaaS) I had a LOT of preconceived notions about what my job was. I was mostly wrong most of the time. But I also learned a LOT over these past 5 years.