About

Rachel Stevens is a versatile art director and designer based in New York City, blending storytelling with usability. With deep experience across multiple platforms and media, I strive to create seamless, engaging connections between people, technology, and organizations through thoughtful visual design and UX. My background as a college educator gives me a broad perspective, allowing me to shape meaningful experiences for diverse audiences. Passionate about sustainability, art, film, journalism and cooking, I bring creativity and purpose to everything I do.

Skills

• Marketing design: digital features, emails, banners, social, brochures, flyers

• Editorial design: online features and navigation, print magazine

• Environmental design: corporate event signage and environmental graphics

• Branding / Identity: logos, wordmarks, identity systems, merch and communications

• Photography: photo curating / editing, basic retouching, photo illustration

• Social media: content creation and design for social media: Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook

• Visual and interaction design for cross-platform, responsive, content-rich editorial and ecommerce sites: wireframes, interfaces, icons, responsive layouts, working with developers

• Collaboration, design thinking, mapping

• Time-based media: basic video editing, video and audio production

• Managing designers, interns and students

• Teaching, mentoring and leading workshops

• Course design and curriculum development

• Writing, editing and commissioning for editorial projects

• Curating exhibitions

Platforms / Software

• Adobe Creative Suite: Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, AfterEffects, PremierePro,
  Lightroom, Audition, XD

• Figma

• Presentation: PowerPoint, Google Slides 

• Remote collaboration: Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Docs, Google Classroom, Slack

• Project/Task management: Adobe Workfront, Monday, Basecamp, Asana, Excel

• CMS: WordPress, Squarespace, Drupal

• Basic familiarity with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JSON, GIS

Clients

ARTINFO, artnet.com, Atari, Bumble and bumble (consumer, business and edu websites, marketing), Scott Chafin L.L.C., Coach (coach.com), Condé Nast, Edelman Good Purpose, Estate of Gandy Brodie (artist), Follain, Hearst Publishing, Iyengar Institute of New York, LAB Series Skincare for Men, Millennium Film Journal, New York Stock Exchange (nyse.nyx.com), Newsweek Interactive, Prescriptives, Sage General Store, Transcending Leadership Center, Wiley Publishing, Women's Wear Daily (WWD.com) + have made Squarespace sites for artists, yoga teachers and designers.

More

I have BFA in Photography from the Rhode Island School of Design, and an MFA in Visual Art (Digital Media and Sculpture) from UC San Diego. I was one of the editors of Millennium Film Journal from 2018-2022 and have taught media art, theory and photography at Brown University, the Rhode Island School of Design, Hunter College and Queens College.

The name “Red Balloon Projects” is inspired by the French film The Red Balloon by Albert Lamorisse, especially its qualities of enchantment, longing, simplicity and play in everyday life.

Contact

racheljstevens (at) gmail (dot) com