# Rachel Kern

> Product Designer @ Thanx | MFA, Design

Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/rachelkern

As a Product Designer at Thanx, I use my 8+ years of experience and my MFA in Design to create engaging and effective consumer-facing experiences for app and web e-commerce products. I specialize in designing loyalty and ordering solutions that increase value, data capture, and ROI for customers across various industries.

I own the design process for the entire consumer-facing product, from research and documentation to prototyping and shipping. I have designed and evolved our app ordering experience from the ground up, and launched a complete points-based loyalty marketplace for app and web. I also facilitate the design process for onboarding merchants, collaborating with internal teams in a flexible and agile manner. Some of the customers I have worked with include Westfield, Urban Remedy, Equator Coffees, Tommy Bahama’s, Modern Market, and more.

## Work Experience
### Product Designer @ Thanx
Jan 2018 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area
Designed & evolved our consumer-facing experiences which lead to increased closed deals, significantly better data capture, and improved ROI for customers.

- Owned design for the entire consumer-facing product.
- Increased product value and customer base significantly by designing our app ordering experience from the ground up.
- Researched, documented, designed, and shipped a complete points-based loyalty marketplace for app & web.
- Developed the design process for onboarding merchants. 
- Facilitated said process across internal teams in a highly collaborative and flexible manner Customers included: Westfield, Urban Remedy, Equator Coffees, Tommy Bahama’s, Modern Market, and more.

### Design Coordinator @ Bay Area Alternative Press
Jan 2017 – Jan 2020 | Berkeley, CA
Design coordinator for all new projects & assisted on existing projects.
Collaborated with clients to help understand their project needs, limitations and goals. 
Taught others basic design skills and software programs. 
Used creative problem-solving skills to help create sustainable solutions, with limited resources.
Prototyped designs to convey ideas and test out solutions.
Taught letterpress printing to other volunteers.

### Product Designer @ Opendoor
Jan 2018 – Jan 2018 | San Francisco Bay Area
Contract role working on Web UI.

### Designer @ Castle Global, Inc.
Jan 2016 – Jan 2017 | San Francisco Bay Area
Responsible for:
    * Mobile and web design for our e-commerce platform
    * Merchant and consumer-facing products
    * Wireframing concepts to put ideas quickly in front of stakeholders and devs
    * Conducting some usability tests and user interviews

 Screen flows worked on
    * onboarding
    * checkout
    * returns
    * categories
    * onboarding and marketing emails

Contributions
    * Initiative to build up design teams skills by instigating weekly design challenges to hone design skills, build team bond, and sharing constructive feedback  
    * Lead daily office-wide planking session, which encouraged cross team interaction and socialization, while encouraging people to challenge themselves.
    * Did a brown-bag lunch talk on color theory for the office.

### Product Designer @ We Heart It
Jan 2013 – Jan 2015 | San Francisco Bay Area
User Interface/User Experience Design
- Designing for web/mobile platforms, including Android/iOS best practices.
- Wireframing and Prototyping from paper to interactive prototypes
- Working with other designers, developers and team members to ensure quality and consistency 
- A/B testing and in-person interviews

Marketing/Social Media Design
-Designed all promotional and social graphics, headers, app store content and guided client designs while establishing best practices

Branding
- Helped create and manage an online brand style guide as well as best practices and brand consistency
- Lead a brand refresh, and selected new colors including pantone and web colors.

Print Design
- Created compelling promotional content for mailing to clients and potential users including, postcards, banners, tshirts, and other promotional assets. 

Other:
- Worked collaboratively on teams as well on projects with little to no direction
- Took initiative on projects expanding on vague concepts to completion

### User Interface Designer @ FossHillLabs
Jan 2012 – Jan 2012 | Emeryville, CA


## Education
### Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Design
California College of the Arts

### Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Graphic Design
San Diego State University


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/willkernforfood

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Source: https://flows.cv/rachelkern
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/rachelkern/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-04-13