# Dylan John Western > Creative Leader at CrunchLabs Location: Berkeley, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/dylanjohnwestern Creative leader with 18+ years of experience leading brand, design, and marketing initiatives for global companies and early-stage startups. Skilled at aligning creative work with business strategy, developing scalable systems, and producing consistent, high-impact creative across channels. Experienced in building brand frameworks, executing cross-functional campaigns, and leading teams through complex initiatives. I’m a synthesizer. I make complex things simple and beautiful with a figure-it-out mindset and a drive to keep expanding my creative and strategic range. I bring operational focus to the creative process, balancing quality, speed, and clarity. I execute within budget, lead with follow-through, and deliver results across teams and stakeholders. I’m hands-on when it counts, big-picture when it matters, and focused on what actually moves the needle. Great creative isn’t just clever. It’s aligned, alive, and built for results. As a creative leader, I set structure, build trust, and communicate directly. I lead with clarity, energy, and curiosity. People feel seen and supported because I ask, I listen, and I remember. I’m always looking for growth, in myself and in the teams I lead. ## Work Experience ### Creative Lead @ CrunchLabs Jan 2025 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area ### Brand & Marketing Director @ Mastin Labs Jan 2024 – Jan 2025 | San Francisco Bay Area • Led a full rebrand of a legacy photography company, establishing a visual and verbal identity rooted in emotional clarity and strategic category positioning. • Built and deployed a modular brand system, complete with a comprehensive standards guide, 
to align visual design, marketing, and product across every customer touchpoint and support future brand expansion. • Developed messaging and positioning guidelines that connected product truths, customer pain points, and audience segments, bringing all brand and marketing efforts into strategic alignment. • Repackaged 12 disconnected products into 4 clear collections, streamlining the customer journey and increasing average order value by 17%. • Led prototyping of future products, including a next-generation image capture app with social and collaborative features, grounded in qualitative user feedback and category-wide market research. • Explored and integrated generative AI tools into brand and marketing processes, unlocking faster iteration, richer content development, and smarter creative decisions. • Built and led a high-performing creative team and optimized campaigns through data-driven insights, raising CTR by 22% and lowering CAC by 18%. ### Creative Director @ Dylan John Western Jan 2017 – Jan 2024 | San Francisco Bay Area • Drove substantial brand growth through design and marketing collaborations with prominent companies including Dropbox, Adobe, and The School of Life, enhancing brand visibility and expanding market presence. • Led and mentored creative teams to deliver cohesive and impactful brand solutions, spanning branding, marketing, UI/UX design, and photography, fostering a collaborative environment that nurtured creativity and innovation. • Spearheaded the creation of brand standards guides and conducted comprehensive brand audits, establishing clear, scalable systems that strengthened brand identity and marketing effectiveness across channels. • Organized and curated brand design systems, optimizing ease of use and cross-team collaboration. These efforts reduced time-to-market and costs, while ensuring brand consistency and fluidity in all creative outputs. ### Creative Director @ Mission Control Media Jan 2012 – Jan 2017 | Oakland, CA • Built and led a multidisciplinary creative team across brand, UI/UX, and marketing, scaling the studio into a full-service agency trusted by clients like PetSmart and LinkedIn. • Expanded the marketing division and led strategy-informed creative across campaigns, digital experiences, and brand activations. • Served as the lead on pitches and presentations, translating business and stakeholder input into compelling creative that consistently won buy-in and delivered results. ### Lead Designer @ HYDRANT Jan 2010 – Jan 2012 | San Francisco, California, United States • Led and managed a diverse creative team to deliver effective and refined branding and marketing design solutions for clients in both B2B and B2C sectors, driving measurable improvements in brand engagement and market presence. • Directed a team of designers to produce targeted, high-impact solutions, leveraging thorough research and direct feedback from stakeholders to align designs with strategic goals and client needs. • Conducted in-depth brand audits to uncover growth opportunities and areas for improvement, providing actionable insights that significantly enhanced client brands' positioning and market differentiation. • Led UI/UX research efforts, gathering qualitative and quantitative data, developing user personas, and producing wireframes and user flows to ensure products were designed with user needs at the forefront, driving more intuitive user experiences. ### Senior Art Director @ Studio Holladay Jan 2007 – Jan 2010 | Santa Cruz, California • Managed creative projects and collaborated closely with clients to deliver innovative and impactful design solutions that exceeded expectations and drove client satisfaction. • Led branding workshops and explorations, uncovering key insights that informed creative direction and expanded the scope of our work, resulting in stronger, more cohesive brand identities. • Led identity design and marketing campaigns for emerging brands across lifestyle, CPG, and tech. • Built and ran an in-house photo studio, producing branded content aligned with campaign strategy. • Led pitch meetings for new work and created creative briefs to align teams and guide execution. ## Education ### Philosophy University of California, Santa Cruz ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/dylanjohnwestern - Website: https://www.dylanjohnwestern.co/ --- Source: https://flows.cv/dylanjohnwestern JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/dylanjohnwestern/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-05