# Justin Vachon > Senior Visual and Product Designer, Art Director with over 10 years of design experience in gaming, entertainment, and media. Location: San Francisco, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/justinvachon Senior Visual and Product Designer with over 10 years of experience in the gaming and entertainment industries. Focused on delivering innovative user experiences in product design, emphasizing useful tools while infusing each product with a distinctive visual flair. Proficient in publication design, news design, sales design, branding, interaction design, product design, and user research. A strong communicator experienced in leading design projects of all sizes and managing cross-coordination between teams to meet deadlines and deliver assets. Self-motivated and capable of handling tasks autonomously without detailed direction or provided assets. Consistently demonstrates the ability to switch between Product, UX, Art Direction, and Visual Design disciplines as needed on a daily basis. Dedicated to delivering user-first products and initiatives, utilizing user research, polling, and interviews to ensure voices are heard and problems are addressed on both small and large scales. ## Work Experience ### Senior Product Designer (Yahoo News) @ Yahoo Jan 2025 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area Transitioned to the Yahoo News team from the Commerce side of Yahoo previously. -Collaborating with the other designers on the homepage team to support the continual development and updating of the page itself. -Working with the larger news design org to develop new pages and products ### Senior Product Designer (Yahoo Commerce) @ Yahoo Jan 2024 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area Converted from contractor after a little under a year. Now working primarily as a designer on the horizontal commerce team within Yahoo focusing on: -Leading product design for Yahoo's tech media brand Engadget while supporting full product launch from design to QA to production -Product and visual design for various commerce related products and services ### Product Designer II (Yahoo Commerce) @ Yahoo Jan 2023 – Jan 2024 | San Francisco Bay Area Lead Designer at Engadget within Yahoo's Commerce division, with a specific focus on: -Product design for Engadget's website -Revamping long-standing Engadget page layouts and improving user experience (UX) -Providing visual design assistance to Engadget's editorial teams across various regions -Collaborating with other teams to develop new Yahoo Commerce products. ### Lead Designer, Art Director @ Analog MGZ Jan 2013 – Present | San Francisco, California, United States After my gaming blog, Press Start to Begin was sunset, the decision was made to rename ourselves as Analog MGZ. I decided to transition its medium into a magazine (digital for the time being) which meant moving away from having an online presence as we had with PSTB. I created a new set of branding assets around the new name and from there developed the visual language, layouts and strategy for Analog as a magazine ### Senior Product Designer @ Fandom Jan 2022 – Jan 2023 | San Francisco Bay Area Joined in the fandom acquisition of the news and ratings brands (GameSpot, TVG, Giant Bomb and Metacritic) from Red Ventures Lead Designer for News and Ratings brands -Leading Product Design for Metacritic, GameSpot and Giant Bomb -Art Direction for the entire news and ratings group (GameSpot, Giant Bomb, Metacritic, TV Guide) -Visual Design for the entire news and ratings group (GameSpot, Giant Bomb, Metacritic, TV Guide) -Misc brand work ### Senior Product Designer @ Red Ventures Jan 2021 – Jan 2022 | San Francisco, California, United States Lead Designer for Games & Entertainment brands under the Media and Commerce division -Leading Product Design for Metacritic, GameSpot and Giant Bomb -Art Direction for the entire G&E portfolio (GameSpot, Giant Bomb, Metacritic, TV Guide) -Visual Design for the entire G&E portfolio (GameSpot, Giant Bomb, Metacritic, TV Guide) -Misc brand work ### Senior Brand & Product Designer @ IGN Entertainment Jan 2019 – Jan 2021 | San Francisco, California, United States Promoted to Senior Brand + Product Designer -Led the redesign of IGN's Youtube design strategy resulting in increased viewership YoY and consistent brand image and perception -Led the redesign and relaunch of IGN's social presence resulting in IGN being the standard bearer for games media in the social sphere, specifically on Instagram -Continued to execute on wireframes and visual design for the Product/Engineering team -Continued to manage design and design teams to help execute IGN's tentpole events and shows -Updated and maintained the IGN brand image as well as its uses on all mediums we touched (web, tv, video, ads, etc) ### Product Designer @ IGN Entertainment Jan 2014 – Jan 2019 | San Francisco, California, United States Worked on a product design team of 3 other designers -Worked closely with PMs and Engineering to develop new products and refreshes for the current ign.com user experience -Co-led the Visual Design for newly released products and services -Created the Brand division of IGN which acted as a pseudo marketing and design department ### Associate User Experience Designer @ LinkedIn Jan 2013 – Jan 2013 | Mountain View, California Worked as a designer on the Branding and Marketing division with a medium size team (about 30 in total) of designers and web developers. Handled primary requests for the Marketing Solutions department as their point person in my time of employment. created concepts and visual assets, email campaigns, microsites, on site interactive ads and branding for Linkedin events. Also worked closely with developers on ensuring a consistent and user friendly experience. ### Art Director @ AIGA Ringling Student Group Jan 2012 – Jan 2013 As Art Director I oversaw all promotional material for AIGA Ringling's events and presentations. I designed and assisted in the creation of posters, buttons, presentations and branding for shows/events. ### Design Intern @ Ringling College of Art and Design Jan 2012 – Jan 2013 Through a competitive portfolio review I was chosen to work as an intern for the Ringling College Design Center, the in house design agency for the school. Redesigned/rebranded the current Alumni print magazine including renaming the magazine, new features & titles as well as a new internal grid system. Also worked on additional proprietary projects currently in development. ### Design Assistant to Graphic Design Department Head @ Ringling College of Art and Design Jan 2011 – Jan 2013 | Sarasota, FL I work closely under the direction of the head of Graphic Design and the other professors. I designed posters, promotional material and helped with other design related tasks. ### Founder, Lead Designer, Editorial Lead @ Press Start to Begin Jan 2010 – Jan 2013 | Venice, Florida, United States Created the branding, visual design and overall image for Press Start to Begin, a Gaming and Entertainment blog operating with a small writing staff of 3-5 writers. I managed the editorial voice and visual representation of PSTB as well as managed writers pitches, deadlines and ongoing work This was the beginning of the editorial brand that would later become Analog MGZ. The PSTB name was changed mostly due to other cpampanies and entities using it as well as the length being an issue in its use for design and in an editorial capacity. ### Freelance Designer @ Google Jan 2012 – Jan 2012 | Mountain View, CA Proprietary design assignment given by the design leads to myself and a partner. Together we designed an internal award to recognize impact of a team member at Google. Information was provided based on Non Disclosure Agreement. ### Design Intern @ Brooklyn United Jan 2012 – Jan 2012 | Brooklyn NY Worked on a team of 3 designers and led an internal re-branding project for upcoming Olympic logos for 2014, 2016 and 2018. Coordinated meetings, scheduled presentations and designed logos of my own. Also worked on multiple web design projects for the Associated Press and ALTERSTUDIO. I wireframed, created concepts and designed layouts for both projects and worked with in house engineers to ensure a polished end product ### Art Director @ Ringling College Type Club Jan 2011 – Jan 2012 In my role as Art Director I designed posters, buttons and other promotional material for TypeClub events/presentations. This was a collaborative process with the other Type Club officers on designs, typography, layout and color for promotional use. ### Freelance Designer @ The Honour Society Jan 2010 – Jan 2010 | Venice Fl Developed brand identity for The Honour Society, an upscale collegiate clothing company. Took the lead in discussions of brand identity with the company's two partners. ## Education ### Bachelor in Graphic & Interactive Communication Ringling College of Art and Design ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/justin-vachon-ab596633 - Website: https://meatcheesebun.art/ --- Source: https://flows.cv/justinvachon JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/justinvachon/resume.json Last updated: 2026-02-23