Salvatore Luongo

At Essence Digital (a mid-size agency) I oversee 5 office locations that produce a wide variety of marketing solutions and UX products for clients. The vast majority of projects involve forward-thinking zero legacy limitations. Each day I have the luxury of refocusing my attention to deliver innovative work, as no project is the same.

Key Clients: American Express, Bloomingdale's, Exelon Corporation, Macy's

Project Types: Branding, 360 Campaigns, Digital Design, Environmental Design, iOS/Android App Design, Print Collateral, Social Media, Trade Shows Design, and Video

At Sears, I led all efforts in building and maintaining a strong team and established a vision for successful multichannel integrated marketing campaigns. Evolving a brand, improving processes, and articulating new technologies, best practices, and trends ensured my UX team was leading its industry in intelligence and application.

Properties: Sears.com, Kmart.com, Shopyourway.com

Areas of Focus: Brand Strategy, Partner Acquisition and Retention, Business Development, Advertising, Digital Marketing, Web and Mobile Design, Email Marketing, Social Media, In-Store Communications, Style Guides, Animation and Video, and Overall User Experience.

At Aon, my primary objective was to modernize and enhance UPoint, a $3.2 billion suite of (SaaS) consumer-facing tools used by multiple business divisions including health, retirement, and human resources. My time was dedicated to visioning and strategy, conceptual layouts, UX/UI enhancements, and future product features. I also managed a matrixed staff of 27 individuals comprised of multiple user experience disciplines including an additional off-shore team of developers. The biggest challenge was making sure my ideas fit within the roadmap and budget. I overcame this, by delivering multiple product solution options and ranking them on a cost/value/effort scale.

Core Projects: UPoint, Aon Virtual Assistant, and Aon Smart Advocate.

Responsibilities: Digital Strategy, UX/UI Design, Design Rationale, Accessibility, UX Artifacts, Styleguides, Workload Allocation, Budgets, Process Improvement, Vendor Management, CRM, CMS, SEO, Client Relations and Presentations, Analytics, User Research, and Testing.

While at CVS, I worked on a variety of properties. For CVS Caremark, I redesigned the entire site from a visual and functional perspective overcoming regulatory and legal concerns. In creating the mobile app for CVS Caremark, I took creative liberty in design, pushing boundaries to create a modern experience, supporting and defending my decisions with testing and data.

When my focus shifted to CVS Pharmacy, I was given the opportunity to re-think the overall vision for mobile, tablet, and web. Outside of a few brand restrictions, I was able to move away from existing CVS design models. The mobile and tablet app were new creations, and the website was completely redesigned to reflect them.

For CVS Specialty, I was presented with a unique challenge in product design to create a smart prescription bottle for specialty patients. This was a project with no legacy or prior restrictions, and something I am extremely proud of, having never imagined I would be part of building a physical, tangible product that would improve the lives of CVS customers.

Properties: CVS Health, CVS Pharmacy, CVS Caremark, CVS Specialty, Silverscript, MinuteClinic

Artifacts Produced: Wireframes, Prototypes, User Flows, Journey Maps, Sitemaps, Storyboards, Personas, Web/Mobile Visuals, Style Guides, and UX/UI Design Systems.

Additional Responsibilities: Accessibility, Project and Content Management, Copywriting, and Usability Studies.

The Sears local ad (web and mobile) project was a pioneer in e-commerce, opening the door for many retailers to follow suit.

At Sears, I functioned in a variety of disciplines, driving the outcome of a revolutionary personalized shopping experience. Tasked with defining the overall look, feel, and functionality of the local ad project, I leveraged research, data, and trends to gain the freedom to deviate from existing sears styles and architecture. The outcome was an experience that produced $11 million in revenue on Black Friday alone, $270 million in year one, with a total project cost of under $5 million.

When later asked to redesign Sears.com and Kmart.com, I created new layout styles, workflow processes, and redefined visual standards, diving deeper into customer personalization and site optimization.

Before leaving Sears, my final victory came when I successfully convinced senior leadership to empower teams organization-wide, with the creative freedom to impact and evolve the experience through design.

Properties: Sears.com, Kmart.com, Searslocal.com, Kmartlocal.com, Mygofer.com, Shopyourway.com, Craftsman, Kenmore, and DieHard.

Artifacts Produced: Web, Mobile, and iOS/Android App Visual Designs, Email Marketing/Social Media Campaigns, In-Store Communications, Style Guides, Animations/Video, Wireframes, User Flows, Journey Maps, Sitemaps, Storyboards, and Personas.

At Essence Graphics (now known as Essence Digital) I oversaw the creative for multiple small and medium-size client accounts. Responsible for project budgets, scheduling, and resource allocation, I remained hands-on to deliver high profile projects for larger client accounts.

After six months I was given an opportunity to research, price, and create a series of new products and service offerings for our marketing/merchandising design division. Strategically, I developed new organizational practices and negotiated vendor pricing to reduce overall production costs and time.

The product and service expansion helped to increase client retention and satisfaction. The value-added for clients was the ability to use a single agency to access new products for a wider array of marketing materials. This boost of word-of-mouth equity helped increase our market share by 10% resulting in an $85,000 revenue increase year over year.

Key Clients: Alloy Media and Marketing, Dunkin Donuts, Puma, and Monster.

Project Types: Identity, Digital and Print Advertising, Environmental Design, Physical and Digital Marketing Products, and Video.