# Nichola Americanos > Branding and Marketing / UX Designer / Producer / Visual Designer / Social Media Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/nichola Multi-faceted freelance designer based in SF Bay area: visual design, UX design, marketing/branding, social media designer and producer. ## Work Experience ### visual Designer / ux designer / social media designer / content writer @ Elation by Design Consulting / Principal Jan 2021 – Present | Oakland, California, United States ### digital communications manager @ College Track Jan 2018 – Jan 2021 | Oakland, CA ### designer / producer / photography @ JAN MICHAELS INC Jan 2014 – Jan 2021 | San Francisco Bay Area Oversee digital design for B-C and B-B e-commerce website for 2,000+ jewelry collection renowned for its vintage and bohemian motifs. Oversee photography, retouching, digital advertising and landing pages. ### producer / designer @ elation by design Jan 2010 – Jan 2014 | san francisco bay area Offered high quality marketing and design for agencies, small businesses and nonprofits that include deep dive to understand the market problem and articulate the new vision and execute from the ground up, while teasing out unique needs and requirements to turn them into strengths. ### design communicator @ Cooper Interaction Design Jan 1998 – Jan 2000 | san francisco bay area Working as part of a close collaboration in a two-person team, we designed human interfaces for consumer and enterprise software using 'Goal Directed Design,' a design methodology pioneered by Alan Cooper. The essence of the approach is to deeply understand needs and goals of the market, business, and intended users using qualitative interviews and ethnography - the strength of the method is uncovering the discrepancies between what people want and what the system provides; The result is a rich and intuitive experience. Using this rigorous approach, we created the first front-end interface for Informatica's data integration and business analytics platform called PowerAnalyzer. According to the VP of Product Development, Informatica was able to clinch multi-million dollar deals on the strength of the conceptual design alone. ### copywriter & designer @ iOwn.com Jan 1996 – Jan 1998 | san francisco bay area The first online mortgage company, iown.com offered discount mortgage rates to home buyers in the state of California. Collaborating in a four-person design team, we created an award-winning website that included a number of mini-applications, calculators, and a wealth of mortgage and home buying information. I was responsible for information architecture and content creation and worked closely with product managers to design new tools on the website and ensure adherence to design specifications and guidelines. iown has since been purchased by Citibank. ## Education ### B.S. in Journalism & English Textual Studies (ETS) Syracuse University - S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/elationbydesign - Portfolio: http://www.elationbydesign.com --- Source: https://flows.cv/nichola JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/nichola/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-13