Proven track record of creating fresh, customized ideas for branding, promotional campaigns, and marketing communications. Experienced in developing digital and social media content that boosts brand awareness, reach, and engagement. Consistently deliver high-impact collateral, including catalogs, brochures, emails, 360 campaigns, ads, and TV commercials, driving successful campaign execution. Skilled at building lasting relationships with key stake holders and delivering top-tier creative services. Expert in transforming outdated marketing materials into innovative, compelling designs that stand out.

TECHNICAL PROFICIENCIES

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Strategic Planning & Execution
Content Development
Video and Television Conception
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Graphic Design
Advertising & Promotions
Print & Web Production
Photo & Video Editing

WORK HISTORY

Art Director/Production Artist, BI Worldwide Marketing Since 2010 Freelance I Also Worked With Other Various Clients Over the years-Too Many To List...

Conceptualize and implement effective marketing strategies to boost sales, enhance employee engagement, and elevate client retention. Oversee all aspects of art direction, pop, print, and web production for Toyota, Lexus, Hyundai, Kia, GM, and Honda. Orchestrate and execute engaging campaigns for multiple clients to boost company sales. Develop creative marketing assets including graphic animations, websites, photography, and video content for new product launches, as well as spearhead marketing initiatives across print and digital media.

Key Achievements:

Created and managed a new brand, website, logo, and all the merchandise sold through the e-commerce website.
Transformed low-res photos into high-res by researching and retouching images resulting in maximizing customer satisfaction.
Replaced the old logo with the new logo on vehicles and clothing by retouching hundreds of 2020-2021 images for Kia Automotive.
Devised an effective and successful Kia web banner campaign resulting in generating more sales for the company.

Marketing & Art Director, Laguna Tools, Irvine, CA 2018 – 2019

Designed and oversaw collateral development for web, trade show exhibits, P.O.P., and magazine advertisements. Re-branded company identity by creating innovative and smart marketing collateral. Directed and guided influencers, photographers, and videographers on set designs and videos. Provided top-notch support in UK sales campaigns. Designed logos for machines. Developed collateral for web campaigns, magazine ads, brochures, and one-sheet flyers. Liaised with vendors and press, as well as coordinated meetings with sales teams.

Key Achievements:

Earned 'Employee of the Month' for negotiating contracts and cutting publication costs by thousands.
Identified markets for machines to sell and formulated special package prices by coordinating with advertising partners.
Improved company image by reshooting all machines to ensure consistency in angles, lighting, shadows, and height.
Inquired availability of machines by liaising with shipping manager to shoot machines within strict time constraints, as well
as demonstrated machine capabilities through youtube videos. Upgraded showroom by incorporating finished products.

Art Director (Freelance), Faraday Future Automotive, Gardena, CA 2016

Served as art director to design and oversee production for launch show video, and email marketing as well as produced
customized graphics for the company website. At FF as new information became available, we were nimbly able to produce new content. Then, through earned media augmented by paid media we were able to generate millions of views for a product that is actually yet to exist. In my experience, we did in three months what would have taken a year in the traditional advertising model.

Art Director/Production Artist (Freelance), Innocean, Huntington Beach, CA 2009 – 2010

Designed best-in-class marketing material for print, magazine, and web banner ads for Hyundai campaigns.

Designer (Freelance), Designory, Long Beach, CA 2008 – 2010

Produced creative print collateral and web asset design for Indymac Bank & Nissan Motor Company website.

Designer (Freelance), Vans, Cypress, CA 2008

Created illustrations, retouched, and color corrected photos for print catalogs and websites, as well as redesigned

layouts for women’s dresses & swimsuits.

ADDITIONAL EXPERIENCE

Designer (Freelance), TBWA Chiat Day, Los Angeles CA

Managed operations of print production and art direction for national advertising campaigns for Sony, Infiniti, and Nissan USA.

Art Director, Y&R Brands, Irvine CA (full-Time 3 Years)

Led and directed 8 member production team.
Devised and executed national branding and marketing campaigns for Jaguar, Land Rover, Lincoln, Sony, and Mattel.
Oversaw photography, as well as television and printing for Jaguar, Land Rover, and Mattel national and retail campaigns.
Saved clients thousands of dollars by shooting products with my digital camera and retouching images.
Orchestrated and launched nationwide sales event campaigns resulting in boosting Jaguar sales by 63%; “Unwrap a Jaguar” increased sales by 115% and “London Calling” by 31%.

Art Director Director (Freelance), Saatchi & Saatchi, Torrance, CA

Coordinated with internal/external teams to design and create advertising campaigns for Toyota Motor Company.

Concepted TV and national campaigns.

Art Director (Freelance), Indika Entertainment, Hollywood, CA

Oversaw all of the creative processes for Charlotte’s Web including art direction, layout, and photo retouching of magazine ads, & newspaper ads.

Creative Director, Sportfolio, Malibu, CA

Designed hundreds of mechanicals for car air fresheners and greeting cards for NASCAR, NFL, NBA, Avis, Cadillac, and NBA in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. Developed website and brand identity aligned with company goals/objectives.

Art Director (Freelance), O’Leary & Partners, Irvine CA

Oversaw art direction for Kawasaki Motor Company and Francisco Breads International.

Art Director (Freelance), G&M Plumbing, Manhattan Beach, CA

Developed and led advertising campaigns for THQ Inc. Video games.

EDUCATION

College of Dupage, Glen Ellyn, IL

Airbrush- Yup and I still have my airbrush I also paint cars ounce in a while. Painting, package design, sculpting- I can sculpt anything! I also had one year of Life Drawing. I went here for a year while working nights at UPS loading trucks when I was 19.

American Academy of Art College, Chicago IL

This was the premier Art College in Chicago for Illustration & Design. The school was across the street from the Art Institute of Chicago that has the best Art Collection in the world. "well that is my opinion". I went there every Tuesday (it was free that day). I studied and sketched from the the most famous artists in the world. I took another year of life drawing. I went there for 4 years and studied Advertising, Illustration & Graphic Design.

Specialized Graphic Design Degree and Minor in Illustration.

I have sold some of my sculpture work to the President of the American Academy of Art, I created this at College of Dupage before I went to the American Academy of Art.

HONORS

Effie Award, Y&R Brands, Jaguar Cars, London Calling Ad Campaign
Scholarship to Savannah Art & Design School and The Rhode Island School of Design. I chose the best school The American Academy of Art.

BRAND EXPERIENCE:

Automotive
Faraday Future, Toyota Motor Company, Nissan Motor Company, Lexus North America, Kia Motors, Hyundai Motor America, Land Rover America, Lincoln Mercury, Jaguar North America, General Motors, Cadillac Motor Company, Peterbilt Trucks & Sonic Automotive.

Toys, Sports, Action Sports & Entertainment
Mattel, Kawasaki Motors Corporation, Vans, Pacific Sunwear, Sony USA, Sony Playstation 3, Sony PSP, THQ Inc. Video Games, Sportfolioinc.com, Charlotte’s Web the movie, Mattel, Sports 3D Inc., Echobuzz Inc., & Down Beat Jazz Magazine.

Financial, Real Estate, Cellular
United Parcel Service, Proppoint.com, Liquiddium.com, Roosevelt LA Lofts, Sprint PCS, & Grubb & Elis.

Medical
CVS Pharmacy & Biogen Idec.

Food & Wine
Francisco International, El Pollo Loco, Boston Market, T.G.I. Fridays, Rainforest Cafe, Einstein Bros. Bagels, Kenndall Jackson Wines, Italians’s Restaurants, Home Town Buffet, Daysago, Co Co’s Restaurants, & Subway Restaurants.

Manufacturing
Laguna Tool, Laguna C&C. & Acurate Air Engineering Inc.

RECOMENDATIONS

“Ron has worked with me and for me at 6 different companies including my own consultancy.There is no amount of work that Ron can’t accomplish.
My work is often quick turnaround and netting the most out of a budget. Ron has been and continues to one of my “go-to” guys.He is sure to become your “go-to’ guy as well.”

Edward Miller, Creative Director, Copy at Creative Drive/Accenture

“I have known Ron for over 10 years and he has been a great help to me with several projects.

He is highly skilled in adobe software and photoshop.”

Jill Weston, Assistant Community Director at Walters Property Management

“Ron is an experienced hands-on Art Director. He is creative and can handle everything from concept thru production. He even does his own retouching. He has a great personality and is a pleasure to work with.”

Suzy Thompson, Area Manager, Aquent Creative Staffing

“I liked working with Ron a lot on Land Rover He was key to our Brand. A strong thinker with a great design sense. And a super nice guy. Very fun and a great collaborator for the team. He always cheered us up with his great since of humor ”

John Hage, Creative Director, Y&R & Innocean

“In addition to a strong design sensibility and expert program proficiency, Ron has that rare sense of creativity that can make or break a campaign. As a copywriter, it was a pleasure to have Ron add his visual thinking to a campaign we worked on together. He brings concepts to the next level and makes them look great.”

Dan Sorgen, Creative Director, Saatchi & Saatchi. Owner of specbank.com

Ron was a real workhorse at Y&R, one of the engines that drove the Jaguar national retail business (pun intended). He’s not a prima-donna when it comes to Art Direction, he’s hands-on. He rolls up his sleeves and is there until the job is finished and cares that it is done right!”

Rolando Mendeze, Sr. Director Digital Strategy at Irvine Company

“When I led the Jaguar and Land Rover national retail business, Ron Salvo proved to be a significant creative team asset because of his ability to adapt to the rapidly changing needs of the dealer body. Ron’s approach to creative problem solving can best be described as inventive, resourceful, and innovative. Definitely one of those guys that makes you say, “Why didn’t I think of that?”

Chris Arkell, SVP Group Account Director, Young & Rubicam

“Ron worked with me on a variety of accounts at Y&R including premium brands such as Land Rover and Jaguar.
Ron is one of those Art Directors you can hand a creative brief and know he just gets it. You know you’re going

to see some incredible thinking.”

Ted Franscisco, VP Account Director, Innocean

Fiddler On The Roof

SHIRL SALVO 1945-2017

ABOUT ME

MY MAIN INFLUENCE
SHIRL SALVO 1945-2017 R.I.P. (MY MOTHER) MY GREATEST INFLUENCE IN ART. SHE WAS A PICTURE LADY IN GRAMMAR SCHOOL.
(SHE SHOWED PAINTINGS IN CLASS ONCE A MONTH AND TALKED ABOUT THE PERSPECTIVE AND DESIGN TO LEAD YOUR EYE IN A COMPOSITION )
AND SHE ALSO WON MULTI AWARDS IN THE ADDISON ART GUILD. MY FATHER IS ALSO VERY TALENTED, SO I AM VERY LUCKY TO HAVE GREAT PARENTS.
THESE ARE JUST OF A FEW OF HER WORKS.

Greek Orthodox Priest

Still Life Or Is IT? Lot's Of Depth

Eygept

San Francisco Bridge

The Holy City

Lillys On The Pond

Holy City Midnight

MY SECOND INFLUENCE, THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO
At The Academy of Art, we made fun of the students of The Art Institute because they would let anybody in. The Academy made sure you could draw.

Edward Kemeys

(American, 1843–1907)
American Bronze

Founding Company
Chicago

Collection Spotlight

The Lions of Michigan Avenue

There’s something extraordinary about the Art Institute lions, something that could only

come from the vision of a

remarkable artist.

The iconic Lions of the Art Institute of Chicago have guarded the Michigan Avenue entrance since 1893. Sculpted by self-taught artist Edward Kemeys, the pair was unveiled on May 10, 1894. Kemeys, known for his naturalistic depictions of North American wildlife, crafted these larger-than-life African lions to capture distinct behaviors: the north lion is "on the prowl," while the south lion stands "in defiance." Each bronze sculpture, cast by the American Bronze Founding Company, weighs over two tons.

Ivan Albright Self Portrait. He is in my Top ten Favorite Artists. He has amazing detail in his work.

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Chicago native Ivan Albright

Remains one of the most uncompromising artists of the 20th century, a “master of the macabre” famous for his richly detailed paintings of ghoulish subjects. A medical draftsman during World War I, Albright portrayed the body’s vulnerability—to age, disease, and death—in works that provoked outrage and admiration.

For Albright, art was a family business. His father, Adam Emory Albright (1862–1957), was a commercially successful painter who had several one-person exhibitions at the Art Institute in the early 20th century, but his son rebelled against what he called this “pretty pretty” art. While Albright’s unique style has been called Magic Realism, it defies categorization. His painstaking creative process involved designing sets for his paintings and creating studies of models and props—even making diagrammatic plans for colors. Albright’s desire to present the minutest subtleties of human flesh or the tiniest elements of a still life often required that he spend years on a single painting.

A graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Albright established a reputation in the city through early support from the museum, which displayed and purchased many of his paintings. As the largest public collection of Albright works, the Art Institute has organized several exhibitions showcasing his unconventional style and the controversial subject matter that earned him fame and notoriety throughout his career.

Chicago artist Ivan Albright executed this grisly work for the 1945 movie adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s 1891 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. In Wilde’s tale, a portrait of the young and attractive Gray decays as the protagonist leads an increasingly wayward life, recording the extent of his moral corruption in paint. Having established a reputation for capturing the macabre, Albright was the ideal choice to create such a horrific image that both attracts and repulses its viewers. The portrait appeared in vivid Technicolor, within the otherwise black-and-white film, causing a sensation. When Albright’s canvas was exhibited at the Art Institute later that year, the Chicago Tribune reported that the museum “is having a heck of a time handling the crowds flocking to see his painting.”

Edward Hopper

About Nighthawks. Edward Hopper recollected, “Unconsciously, probably, I was painting the loneliness of a large city.” In an all-night diner, three customers

sit at the counter opposite a server, each appearing to be lost in thought and disengaged from one another. The composition is tightly organized and spare in details: there is no entrance to the establishment and no debris on the streets. Through harmonious geometric forms and the glow of the diner’s electric lighting, Hopper created a serene, beautiful, yet enigmatic scene. Although inspired by a restaurant Hopper had seen on Greenwich Avenue in New York, the painting is not a realistic transcription of an actual place. As viewers, we are left to wonder about the figures, their relationships, and this imagined world.

Grant Wood

In American Gothic, Grant Wood directly evoked images of an earlier generation by featuring a farmer and his daughter posed stiffly and dressed as if they were, as the artist put it, “tintypes from my old family album.” They stand outside of their home, built in an 1880s style known as Carpenter Gothic. Wood had seen a similar farmhouse during a visit to Eldon, Iowa.

When it was exhibited at the Art Institute in 1930, the painting became an instant sensation, its ambiguity prompting viewers to speculate about the figures and their story. Many understood the work to be a satirical comment on midwesterners out of step with a modernizing world. Yet Wood intended it to convey a positive image of rural American values, offering a vision of reassurance at the beginning of the Great Depression.

1887 Vincent Van Gogh
This man is one of my favorite artists. The Art Institute has 18 Van Gogh's. This is one of his self-portraits & a few others at the Art Institute of Chicago.

I have been to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the Ann Frank Museum. I highly suggest visiting both just look out for the bikes!

Vincent Van Gogh 1888

So highly esteemed his bedroom painting that he made three distinct versions: the first, now in the collection of the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam; the second, belonging to the Art Institute of Chicago, painted a year later on the same scale and almost identical; and a third, smaller canvas in the collection of the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, which he made as a gift for his mother and sister.

1890 The Drinkers

During his time in the Asylum of Saint-Paul in Saint-Rémy, a small town near Arles, For this image, Van Gogh copied a wood engraving from Honoré Daumier’s Drinkers, a parody on the four ages of man. The exaggerated figure types capture Daumier’s characteristic humor and convey his sad message about the horrors of alcoholism. The greenish palette may well be an allusion to the notorious alcoholic drink absinthe.

Peter Blume, The Rock (1944-1948)

Peter Blume (American, born Smorgon, Russian Empire, now Belarus, 1906–1992) A startling juxtaposition of images, The Rock depicts a shattered red rock resting on top of a base that is being demolished by workers below. Peter Blume labored for years to complete this painting, which was commissioned in 1939 by the Edgar Kaufmann family for Fallingwater, their Frank Lloyd Wright–designed home in Pennsylvania.

My favorite architect is Franky! I used to work at one

of my first Jobs in the Frank Loyd Wright District in

Oak Park, IL. I walked it all the time it was a amazing area to work in, so inspiring!

René Magritte,

La durée poignardée Time Transfixed
Belgian, 1898–1967
painted Time Transfixed at a moment when he was attempting to elicit “poetic secrets” through his works. With both philosophy and psychology in mind, the artist challenged himself to juxtapose two images in such a way that they would suggest in the viewer’s mind a third un-pictured thing.

Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926)

1867- The Beach at Sainte-Adresse

Claude Monet depicted a moody sky over a beach in Sainte-Adresse, an affluent suburb of Le Havre in northern France. He was familiar with the landscape, having grown up in the area, but the region underwent dramatic change during his lifetime: in particular, the expansion of the country’s rail network turned many rural fishing villages into seaside resorts for tourists. Here, Monet hinted at this transformation, placing a group of local fishermen and their boats in the foreground while drawing the eye to the red details in the outfit of a fashionable woman sitting beside her companion, who idly watches the sailboats through a telescope.

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Rembrandt Van Rijn,

1606-1669

Old Man with a Gold Chain 1631. There are
many of Rembrandt's work at the Art Institute

A beloved interpreter of the human experience, Rembrandt van Rijn boldly reimagined the language of 17th-century art by combining close observation from life with the artistic theory of the day. The results proclaimed a new level of emotional intensity across all genres.

La Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat 1859-1891
Widely considered one of the most brilliant and innovative artists of the 19th century, Georges Seurat was equally ahead of his time.

In his best-known and largest painting, Georges Seurat depicted people from different social classes strolling and relaxing in a park just west of Paris on La Grande Jatte, an island in the Seine River. Although he took his subject from modern life, Seurat sought to evoke the sense of timelessness associated with ancient art, especially Egyptian and Greek sculpture. He once wrote, “I want to make modern people, in their essential traits, move about as they do on those friezes, and place them on canvases organized by harmonies of color.”

Seurat painted A Sunday on La Grande Jatte—1884 using pointillism, a highly systematic and scientific technique based on the hypothesis that closely positioned points of pure color mix together in the viewer’s eye. He began work on the canvas in 1884 (and included this date in the title) with a layer of small, horizontal brushstrokes in complementary colors. He next added a series of dots that coalesce into solid and luminous forms when seen from a distance. Sometime before 1889 Seurat added a border of blue, orange, and red dots that provide a visual transition between the painting’s interior and the specially designed white frame, which has been re-created at the Art Institute.

Salvador Dalí 1904-1989

The Art Institute of Chicago has a collection of 40 works by Salvador Dalí, including paintings, drawings, prints, objects, and textiles. Among these are some of the most representative works of his paranoiac-critical method—in which Dalí intentionally entered a paranoid state to tap into his subconscious.

Jon Singer Sargent 1904-1989

One of my favorite portrait painters.

Katsushika Hokusi 1760-1849

Katsushika Hokusai’s much celebrated series, Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjûrokkei), was begun in 1830, when the artist was 70 years old. This tour-de-force series established the popularity of landscape prints, which continues to this day. Perhaps most striking about the series is Hokusai’s copious use of the newly affordable Berlin blue pigment.

Pablo Picaso 1881-1973

Widely regarded as one of the 20th century’s most influential artists, Pablo Picasso invented or reshaped nearly every major artistic movement of his era. Constantly pushing the boundaries of composition, medium, and style, he left an indelible mark on generations of artists who followed.

Pablo Has huge influence in Chicago and has numerous Art in the Art Institute.

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One of the most influential American artists of the 20th century, Georgia O’Keeffe promoted new ideas of abstraction and helped redefine modern art. Best known for her paintings of flowers and plants—enlarged beyond life-size and precisely painted with bold colors—and for her spare and dramatic images inspired by the landscape of the Southwest, O’Keeffe also took inspiration in the aesthetic and architectural styles that she was exposed to during her time as a student at School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Georgia O’Keeffe

(American, 1887–1986)

Jackson Pollock (1912-1956)

"Jack the Dripper"

Andy Warhol (American) 1928–1987

Pop Art icon Andy Warhol’s embrace of mass culture radically altered the course of late twentieth-century art history, redefining both what a work of art can or should depict as well as the way in which it can be made. His breakthrough artistic moment came when he took the commercial printing process of photo-emulsion silkscreen and applied it to canvas. This allowed him to reproduce the same image over and over, quickly and efficiently.

Mary Cassatt

(American) 1844–1926)

The Child’s Bath is a tender portrayal of familial closeness, a subject that Mary Cassatt explored throughout her career. The caregiver’s cheek brushing the child’s shoulder, her encircling embrace, and the child’s pudgy hand on her knee suggest an emotional bond between the two.

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