Jason Campos
Design leadership with sixteen years of experience at the intersection of creative, brand, UX, and ecommerce
Living and working in Seattle, Washington
Strategic by design
I’m a passionate problem solver committed to helping talented teams build elegant solutions to complex business challenges. I feel most at home when pairing design thinking, technology, and imagination, with a healthy dose of humanity.
How we make it matters more
A compelling roadmap supported by motivated teams can serve as the catalyst for transformative growth. But creating a safe place for those innovative ideas relies upon a commitment to empathy for our makers and our customers alike. By championing the people, processes, and ideas that make it all possible, we build good faith as enthusiastically as we build products and features.
What we make, matters
A strategic approach to design helps confirm that we’re building the right thing, and empowers our teams to build the thing right. While our products provide the progress our businesses strive for, when done well, they also build trust with the good people we hope to serve.
An omni-channel strategy that truly serves our customers requires that we deftly align stakeholder goals with those of end users. More than ever before, good design that puts people first is simply good business. When we fundamentally understand our user’s needs, we gain crystal clarity around the projects and challenges we’ll take on next.
And why we make it means everything
Brand
Strategy
Experience
Product
A passion for
the presentation layer
This is where the rubber meets the road. The summation of our teams’ very best ideas and executions. Marketing, Strategy, Creative, Product, UX, and Engineering, all working in concert, and brought together on-screen where customers can literally reach out and touch our brands.
Fourteen years.
One indelible brand.
Creative
I started my Custom Ink journey as a Production Designer and Illustrator focused on processing designs created in our online Design Lab. After a year in Operations I helped launch and scale a new offering we called Creative Services, a growing team that worked directly with customers on from-scratch designs.
Then, as the first hire to a proper Creative Team I built equity in the power of good design, and helped show the value and processes of Design Thinking and polished execution rooted in rationale and insight.
Brand
As the Design Lead for our 2008 rebrand I helped shape the vision, scope, and strategy that served as the catalysts for Custom Ink’s fundamental design and positioning pivots. By moving us away from the commodity of customized t-shirts, and toward the power of community we set a new course for the company, and design’s role in our future.
This 3-year project was a contributing factor for meteoric company growth and served as the foundational work that I would go on to attempt to imbue into our aging online experience.
Experience
I soon became both an advocate for and a student of Product Design, dovetailing the fundamentals of UX and Design Thinking to earn a place on the Tech Platform teams facing our website’s biggest experiential challenges.
As our first proper UXer I represented a reliable bridge connecting Product and Brand, eventually carving out a dedicated Brand Experience role focused on creating systemic, repeatable patterns, and design artifacts that targeted efficiency and consistency both online and off.
Make it feel like magic
A deep understanding of the people you serve is the bedrock upon which to build better products. But seeing around corners to first anticipate then delightfully mitigate a user’s challenges is how you’ll transform well-earned customers into brand champions.
CLIENT WORK
“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”
RECENT PROJECTS
Local Legends
When COVID hit, small businesses faced unprecedented challenges with very few clear pathways forward. I worked with Ready Set Coffee Roasters to address what they saw as crippling constraints, and reframed them as opportunities to meet their customers’ needs in new and meaningful ways.
By promoting free next-day local deliveries and integrating whitelisted zipcodes into our checkout flow, we were able to exceed the expectations of a hometown workforce struggling to work (and get their fix) from home. More than doubling our online sales overnight was great, but more importantly we earned good will and gratitude from the budding coffee community we were committed to grow and serve.
Softening the Blow
By leveraging a small marketing investment focused on TikTok influencers, TigerLady entered the Holiday gifting season with explosive year over year growth and unprecedented order volume. But our US based supply chain and fulfillment centers found themselves severely hobbled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
So I worked with their Founder to ideate, copywrite, and design a letter that gift-givers could present to loved ones. We explained a bit about why their gift wouldn’t arrive in time for the Holidays, what we were doing to make it right, and leveraged a QR code that linked them to a video that built excitement for the product.
Feedback from purchasers who had every right to be frustrated were overwhelmingly appreciative.
Rallying Support
Few years have compelled us more to come together, do what we can to help, or roll up our sleeves for a cause we believe in. Heading into November, I had been volunteering for Georgia Democrats, making phone calls, helping folks there make a plan to vote, and even arranging rides to the polls for voters in need.
I had also been posting some quick designs to help keep the volunteer Slack channel motivated. When someone from their marketing team reached out to see if I’d be willing to take on some proper design work for the GA Dems’ social and marketing initiatives I jumped at the chance. First, knocking out some team collateral and social posts targeting new volunteers, and ultimately helping to shape and kick off their design standards for Instagram Live.
Hearsay
“Never have I partnered with such a talented designer and inspiring storyteller who fluently spans the many disciplines of product design, UX, strategy, and innovation. All while navigating the practicalities of product development and the art of stakeholder influence. Jason levels up every room he enters with disruptive creativity, and conceptual reframing that spawns new paradigms and inspires actionable innovation.”
JOE ZACZYK
Innovation Strategist, Custom Ink
Working 5-9
I love a good passion project, especially when it involves an equally enthusiastic coconspirator. We’ve all had a hilariously brilliant idea over dinner, and regrettably failed to bring it to life. Well, in the case of tinyfellas, my partner was more than up to the challenge. And before long the absurd was becoming actionable.
Our goal from the start was to shine a light on DC locations, events, and issues dear to our heart. We’d do it by challenging our community to find and photograph playful micro-installations hiding in plain sight.
By considering the experience we wanted those who found tinyfellas to have, it became clear that Instagram would be our platform of choice. This project gained more traction than either of us could have imagined. And it reinforced my belief that if you think you’ve got a compelling idea, give it some love and put it out there. You’ll always be surprised by how it will be received.
FEATURED IN
Unplugging to Recharge
Detaching from work that you love can be difficult. That said, traveling with my camera feels like a healthy way to create and problem solve without being too precious or hyper-considered. It’s a great way for me to be present in a place, but still working on a project of sorts. Photography is a lifelong journey, and I learn something new every time I shoot.
So, when it’s time to take a break from… everything, I grab my camera, seek out those last vestiges of the world without cell coverage or wifi access, and reconnect with friends, the natural world, and myself, refilling the tank for the next big project or push.
Let’s chat!
If you have an interesting problem to solve, are in need of a thought partner with fresh eyes, or just looking for a sounding board with an empathetic ear, let’s put some time on calendar. I’d love to hear about what you’re excited to take on!