Two decades of creative leadership, applied to AI-first products.

From the mountains of western Virginia, to SCAD, to leading creative teams at Amazon Studios, TMZ, and Banijay. Now at the seam between design and AI systems.

Twenty years, five chapters.

Dec 2024 – Present

Commercial Strategy Design

Very Good Ventures
Los Angeles, CAverygoodventures.com

Generative UI and AI product design partner for enterprise clients. Lead design on agentic AI experiences from prompt architecture to interaction layer, with deep collaboration across engineering, research, and brand.

  • Hospitality assistant for a Fortune 500 brand: shifted experience from passive Q&A to a goal-seeking GenUI interface composing the right surface at the right moment
  • Author of GenUI and server-driven UI thinking that has informed VGV's public POV on the future of intelligent interfaces
  • Cross-functional partner across product, engineering, and research on enterprise AI assistant deployments
2020 – Present

Design & Strategy Consultant

Independent Practice
Los Angeles, CAConcurrent

Concurrent freelance and consulting practice across direct-to-consumer brands, healthcare, and ad-agency partnerships. Focus areas: conversion-driven landing systems, brand identity and direction, healthcare and clinical practice sites, and AI-augmented design workflows.

  • Cannella Media (agency partner, ongoing): Relief3 conversion landing systems, healthyagingdigest.com hub, MyJointPainLife site migration, ZeroRX brand-direction explorations, AmWest Funding Corp creative
  • Pain Psychology Center (UK/EU): Next.js rebuild of clinical practice site with elevated holistic design language
  • Permission to Ugly Cry: full coaching practice platform with custom in-browser content editing and integrated booking
  • Built reusable systems for client work: brand-direction review template that compresses setup from days to minutes, plus internal media tooling
  • Pitching enterprise Claude integration partnerships for agency-scale design and workflow automation
Apr 2020 – Jul 2024

Senior Lead Creative & Design

Amazon Studios
Los Angeles, CAamazonstudios.com

Directed marketing creative production across website, email, video, print, and in-person channels for the studio and partners. Aligned C-suite strategy with execution, building communication tools and processes that reached 10,000+ studio employees and 200M+ Prime Video subscribers.

  • Designed and delivered the studio's first DEIA report, "Progress on Inclusion," showcasing DEIA initiatives across productions
  • Led holistic branding, campaigns, websites, 3D renders, motion graphics, and social systems for studio and partners
  • Collaborated with 20+ Amazon Studio and Prime Video teams across the organization
  • Built in-house comms strategy reaching 10,000+ studio employees
Jun 2017 – Sep 2019

Creative Director

Banijay
Los Angeles, CAbanijay.com

Spearheaded innovative design across online, A/V, and digital marketing initiatives for the production studio. Built, trained, and managed the in-house design team. Established the studio's first digital entertainment news property.

  • Acquired 8M+ average monthly unique visitors and 9M+ video views
  • Produced 6,000+ engaging videos across short and long form
  • Secured multiple $100k+ direct ad buys through design and presentation
  • Increased social media followers by 300% in the first year
  • Secured syndication partnerships with Meredith, Sinclair, MSN, and Oath
Aug 2014 – Apr 2017

Partner & Executive Creative Director

Soda & Lime
Los Angeles, CAsodaandlime.com

Established and led an innovative, inclusive creative department in an LA-based agency. Oversaw cross-disciplinary collaboration across photographers, videographers, art directors, editors, copywriters, brand strategists, and freelancers in a start-up environment.

  • Secured agency as AOR for AEG, Orion, and Fox
  • Conceived and executed proposals that generated $1M+ net revenue in year one
  • Oversaw $12M collective media spend; averaged $9M billable, 140% client ROI
  • Acquired 1B+ collective social impressions across client roster
  • Relaunched OK! Magazine, Travel & Leisure, and Koral
  • 500% increase in annual company billings via scaled vendor and freelance network
Jan 2010 – Feb 2014

Creative Director

TMZ
Los Angeles, CAtmz.com

Formed and led TMZ's first in-house creative team of 24/7 designers and art directors. Established visual tone and brand voice as the brand's first Creative Director. Collaborated with Warner Bros. management to scale brand exposure across emerging outlets.

  • Grew social following from 500K to 6M across all platforms
  • Redesigned TMZ App; 1M+ downloads in first week of launch
  • Streamlined RFP process for partnerships, resulting in $1M+ direct ad sales
  • Designed sister-site TooFab brand within a 72-hour deadline
  • Increased team workflow by 40% via project management processes
  • Implemented 200+ IAB standard campaigns for Lifetime, OMD, USA, CW, and Discovery

SCAD.

Master of Fine Arts

Design Management
Savannah College of Art & Design

Bachelor of Fine Arts

Advertising & Graphic Design
Savannah College of Art & Design

What's in the kit.

AI & GenUI
Prompt architecture · LLM UX patterns · Eval-driven design · Agentic UX · Server-driven UI · Anthropic, OpenAI, Vercel AI SDK
Design
Brand systems · Identity · Editorial · UI/UX · Motion · Print, OOH, Broadcast · Inclusive design
Tools
Figma · Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, Premiere, XD) · Framer · Webflow · Shopify · WordPress
Leadership
Creative team building · Cross-functional partnership · C-suite collaboration · Hiring · Vendor management · Budget oversight
Data & ops
Google Analytics · GTM · Amplitude · A/B testing · Tableau · Asana · JIRA · Notion

Building an AI product? Hiring an AI creative director? Rolling out Claude?

Tell me what you're building and where it's stuck. I'll tell you honestly whether I'm the right person for it.

Or write hello@joshuawells.com directly.