Nick Heller
🙂

Nick Heller

Creative Strategist in Atlanta, GA, He/him/his

Ready, willing, and able. Looking for a great team.

8 months ago

About

I'm a designer, strategist, and freelance advocate. I focus on helping entrepreneurs, businesses, and other freelancers level up their work. I leverage more than fifteen years of experience across specialist roles and diverse industries to develop interdisciplinary solutions tailor-made to my client's needs, challenges, and problems. A generalist's breadth of knowledge matched by a specialist's depth of focus. A "Creative Fixer," able to speak across teams and disciplines, if you will.

Today, I focus my energy and efforts on strategy in the two areas I'm most passionate about:

  1. Team operational systems (process, project, and people): I help business owners and creative team leaders find process and project improvements, freeing up more time to focus on the work that matters most to them.

  2. Brand alignment and storytelling strategies (messaging, voice, and identity): I guide newer companies and individuals in finding and aligning their brand voice and product/service solutions with the market.

I'm also developing "The School of Able™," a community-driven platform and resource house for those venturing into freelancing or building their own creative studios. I have seen the need to assist agencies, small businesses, and fast-moving teams in streamlining their work and projects for maximum clarity, efficiency, and profitability.

Regardless of what I'm working on, I do my best daily to focus on the human condition and how people are best served at the intersections of life, work, and beyond. Life is short, and hard things happen when we least expect them. Enjoy it all—the experience, the people, the successes and failures. Embrace the challenges with grace.

Please say hello. I look forward to getting to know you.

Work Experience

2021 — Now
Consultant: Business Strategy & Operations at Self
Atlanta, GA

From a single, one-hour session to several months-long engagements, I help other creative professionals, fast-moving teams, agencies, and small businesses find solutions to their challenges and problems—no issue is too big or too small.

  • Freelance/Creative business creation (set-up, pricing, positioning, etc.)

  • Branding and/or Visual Identity (audits, creation, revamp, etc.)

  • Process & Project Management

  • Team & Project Systems, Integrations, Workflow automation

  • Customer/User Experience Mapping

  • Digital Asset Management, File Sharing

  • R&D, implementation, and training on new tools and/or processes

2015 — Now
Phoenix, AZ
  • Foster lasting relationships with client partners, vendors, and contractors as a storytelling and strategy agency head.

  • Support clients with specific and targeted interdisciplinary project development and content creation

  • Develop brands and visual identities; create product and service assets

  • Design and implement creative asset libraries for clients, bringing efficiency and organization to growing businesses

  • Interactive design for web, eCommerce, and experiential events

  • Product research, development, and implementation on behalf of clients

  • Visual design for print, promotional, and marketing • Act as fractional/internal multimedia designer for clients' creative needs

2020 — 2021
Tempe, AZ
  • Worked with executive and business leadership to architect and develop a new Member (Customer) Experience Division in the company, leading a diverse team of 30+ employees, vendors, and freelance contractors across Sales, Marketing, Creative, Product, and Customer Excellence.

  • Responsible for overseeing the entire membership journey from inception to lead generation, customer onboarding to the delivery of membership resources, member communications, brand messaging, and overall customer satisfaction when interacting with the business. Outcome: Reducing customer friction and pain points led to a 50% increase in conversion rates and membership over three years.

  • Developed, managed, and implemented an all-new, SaaS-based Member experience. Created parallel internal processes to manage all members for the first 180 days of service, meeting critical business objectives from leadership. Outcome: Implementing the new experience gave the business data-backed insight across the entire membership for the first time. Engaged the member base with frequent communication and educational resources and streamlined digital engagement campaigns to reduce member inquiry and bill submission frequency by more than 30%.

  • Advised executive leadership on industry-specific product and service innovations. Became first-to-market with an immersive online self-guided member onboarding process.

2017 — 2020
Director of Experience Design at Solidarity HealthShare
Tempe, AZ
  • Implemented a competitive analysis, buyer behavioral study, and membership data analysis project as a precursor to a complete business rebrand.

  • Developed a comprehensive brand overhaul for internal and external team use: visual identity refresh, mission, vision, value statements, messaging and tone directives, media relations training for executive leadership, and instructions for cobranded campaigns with strategic partners. Executed the new brand across all distribution channels.

  • Launched a new marketing website, including hundreds of new resources for members and partners. Outcome: The new website and resources led to highly engaged member and partner interactions, which greatly reduced call volume, wait times, and billing errors.

  • Recruited a five-person committee to brainstorm, research, and strategize the organization’s creative and product needs and unique selling points. Leveraged this information to draft new departmental requirements, such as personnel, budgets, and organizational structure.

  • Collaborated with business leadership to foster Instructional Design in the business, starting with a week-long employee onboarding and training curriculum to teach the comprehensive member journey to all departments and staff. Outcome: Journey mapping the different customer paths allowed for minimal staff downtime despite additional training needs. Staff retention increased by 15% in the first three months. NPS scores increased by nearly 20% almost immediately.

  • Established project management processes across internal teams and external vendors to manage large-scale product/software projects.

  • Provided design and creative support for internal stakeholders’ strategic initiatives and project needs – presentation decks, training materials, marketing materials, etc.

2013 — 2014
Tempe, AZ
  • Collaborate with the sales and production (build) teams to design and develop event solutions

  • 3D Modeling and renderings of custom set builds for sales proposals and build plans

  • Event animation and video content direction and development

  • Design and production team integrations for efficiency

2010 — 2013
Glendale, AZ
  • Project Manager and creator of custom stadium renderings (State Farm Stadium – Glendale, AZ).

  • Created and implemented graphic and video content for all sporting events – NFL games, college playoffs, final four, and state championships.

  • Designed and implemented an Asset Management System to monitor and secure $1M+ of audio/visual, production, and stadium equipment.

  • Collaborated with staff to architect and develop SOPs and efficiency standards for the hourly freelance/contractor support staff (game days and corporate events).

  • Managed the Field Crew on NFL game days.

Education

2008 — 2012
Tempe, AZ

• Technical Communication minor
• Small Business minor

2005 — 2006
Gilbert, AZ

• Live Sound Recording
• Music Business
• Digital Editing
• Analog Recording
• Foley

Contact

Website
Instagram

Projects

2023

Brand Development (including digital Style Guide), Visual Identity, Creative Direction, Custom web development

2022

Exploration and education of the different generative art platforms (MidJourney, DALL·E 2, Stable Diffusion) as an exploratory tool during ideation and brainstorming.

2022

Rebrand, Visual Identities (podcast and personal), Web Development, Creative Direction, Apparel & Merch design

2021
Sales/Experience: New Member Onboarding Team at Solidarity HealthShare

Restructured the sales department's objectives and roles. Developed a comprehensive educational customer (member) onboarding program and resource website.

Results:
• Onboarding program and new sales roles projected to increase revenue and decrease customer churn – increased profit margin by more than 15%
• Prioritizing and promoting a self-service member journey increased internal FTE efficiency by more than 50%

2021

Rebrand, Visual Identities (for sub-brands/events), Web Development, Messaging Strategy, Customer Experience, Creative Direction

2020
Product Development: Member Care Portal at Solidarity HealthShare

Collaborated with a software vendor to develop an online portal and community for members. Focused on UI/UX improvements of their white-labeled application tailored for the business' end-user customers (members). Created and executed a product launch campaign to engage and educate the member base.

Results:
• Successful onboarding of 85% of members within 90 days of product launch
• Adding online chat features increased member service levels by 30%+ in the first 30 days
• Clearer and more efficient bill submission and tracking functionality reduced member inquiries by over 50% virtually immediately

2016

Brand development, Visual identity, Creative direction, Custom web development, Print design

2015

Rebrand, Visual Identity, Creative Direction

Side Projects

2021

Old school vibes. New school tools – Digital artwork as an exploration.

A Cinema4D study and exploration of the popular low poly style 3D modeling.

2019

Old school vibes. New school tools – Digital artwork as an exploration.

A Cinema4D study and exploration of the popular low poly style 3D modeling.

2017

Researching the fringes and developing new techniques – Finding new ways to innovate and imagine.

A Fusion360 modeling study exploring the relationship between a 2D/flat medium (MDF) and 3D shapes (via model).

Features

2017

Every so often on Twitter, I come across a graphic artist who displays his concepts that are (even if you’re not a fan of the concept) really well-executed and thought-provoking. It’s how I first became acquainted with Brian Begley (NBA) and Tyson Kehler (NHL), as well as artist/painter Graig Kreindler and colorizer Chris Whitehouse. I met today’s featured artist, Nick Heller, much the same way. Nick not only has some pretty neat NFL concepts (some of which will be featured below), but he also has some college football concepts I’ll introduce you to in the future.

2012

"The reliability and accuracy of the product is key. Wasp’s barcoding and asset tracking system is a must-have item for any major sports team or large production venue."

  • Nick Heller, Production Manager, University of Phoenix Stadium