Experience

Experience

More than 26 years across creative leadership, digital design, performance media, brand systems, product experiences, and agency operations.

DELVE — Executive Creative Director / Creative Director

November 2019 – September 2026

Led Creative across design, copy, creative development, and performance-focused strategy for global nonprofits and growth-stage brands. Led distributed teams, shaped executive and client storytelling, and connected creative direction with media, measurement, and production.

Built the Audience-First Creative System to connect audience research, message hypotheses, modular creative, and campaign learning. Developed the structured prompting framework that uses AI to accelerate research synthesis and first drafts, with human strategy, creative judgment, QA, and approval guiding the work.

Managed the creative department’s P&L alongside scoping, forecasting, staffing, capacity planning, and margin discipline. Connected resourcing and workflow decisions to the financial health of the department while maintaining creative standards and supporting team development.

Rhythm Creative, LLC — Creative Director / Senior Art Director

January 2017 – November 2019

Founded and led an independent creative consultancy delivering branding, digital experiences, websites, campaigns, and social content while balancing strategy, client leadership, execution, vendors, schedules, budgets, and final delivery.

IMM — Design Director

April 2012 – January 2017

Led a multidisciplinary creative team supporting large-scale digital campaigns for national brands. Connected creative planning to media strategy, performance goals, development requirements, production systems, and quality control.

IMM — Senior Designer

August 2009 – April 2012

Designed ROI-focused websites, landing pages, CRM campaigns, acquisition creative, and campaign systems while bridging visual design, sales-driven strategy, and front-end execution.

The Creative Alliance — Graphic, Web & Video Designer

2005 – 2009

Created brand systems, websites, video, print campaigns, and integrated marketing materials across B2B and B2C clients.

MWH Americas, Inc. — Graphic Designer

2001 – 2005

Produced web and print marketing materials, proposals, presentations, and collateral for a major engineering firm.

Volan Design LLC — Graphic / Web Designer

1999 – 2001

Began a career in websites, identity, marketing design, production, and client service.

Capabilities

  • Creative direction and campaign strategy

  • Audience-first messaging and creative systems

  • Art direction, design, copy, and executive storytelling

  • Performance creative across display, paid social, search, email, landing pages, and video

  • Modular templates, Google Studio, CM360, DV360, dynamic feeds, and QA systems

  • AI-enabled research synthesis, structured prompting, workflow acceleration, and human-led QA

  • Team leadership, mentoring, staffing, and distributed operations

  • Creative department P&L management, scoping, forecasting, capacity planning, and margin discipline

Looking for a creative leader who can strengthen the work and the system behind it?

I’m open to local, hybrid, or remote ECD and VP-level creative leadership roles.

© 2026 David Willis. Selected work created in collaboration with agency and client teams.