Frank Chimero

Brand & Product Designer
Brooklyn, New York

About

I’m a designer with 20 years of experience in brand, product design, and creative direction. I have an international reputation for creating warm, smart, and effective design for a variety of companies in technology and publishing. Among these is Abstract (acq. Adobe), which I co-founded in 2014. I’m head of brand at Modern Treasury, directing our creative output across go to market.

I also write and speak about design. Several of my essays and lectures are assigned in design classrooms around the world and act as foundational texts in the web design industry, including Everything Easy is Hard Again, The Web’s Grain, and What Screens Want. In 2012, I wrote, illustrated, and published The Shape of Design.

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Book cover for The Shape of Design

Read My Book

The Shape of Design explores the secrets of crafting meaningful, emotionally resonant designs and the opportunity of making things for others.

Contact

Twitter
@frank_chimero
LinkedIn
@fchimero

Select Writing

2018

Everything Easy is Hard Again

Presented at Awwwards Conference in Berlin, Germany

A talk about longevity in technology: can a person have 20 years of experience or five years, repeated four times?

2015

The Web’s Grain

Presented at Webstock in Wellington, New Zealand

Is there deeper understanding in using a browser’s built-in affordances to guide web design decisions?

2013

What Screens Want

Presented at Build in Belfast, N. Ireland

Digital’s medium is the screen. What’s does it mean to natively design for this canvas?

2012

The Shape of Design

Purchase at Amazon or BuyOlympia (Support Indie!)

A little philosophical handbook about design and making things for others that focuses on the Why questions.

Work Experience

2022–Now

Head of Brand at Modern Treasury

NYC/SF & Remote

Establishing the creative vision and visual tone for the fintech unicorn. Ship-steering, team-building, and strategic design swash-buckling.

2020–2022

Creative Director at Fictive Kin

New York, NY & Remote

Setting creative vision, providing design leadership, establishing process, and managing client relationships, while participating as an IC at a leading digital agency whose clients include Sweetgreen, Ogilvy, National Geographic, TripAdvisor, and Samsung.

2017–2020

Self-employed Designer

New York, NY

Design and consulting for early stage startups and established leaders at the intersection of brand and digital product. Clients included: Etsy, Meetup, Kaplan, Abstract, and many YC startups.

2014–2017

Co-founder at Abstract

New York, NY

The traditional set of founder responsibilities: setting vision, creating product definition, fundraising, and company leadership. Lead design across brand and product, and helped define the company’s go-to-market approach.

2001–2014

Self-employed Designer

Portland, OR & New York, NY

Product design, web design, publication design, branding, and illustration. Clients include: Nike, Microsoft, NPR, Adobe, Facebook, WIRED, Bloomberg Businessweek, O’Reilly Media, The Atlantic, and Justin Bieber (sorta).

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