Zandri van Zyl

Please view my online portfolio at: zandriportfolio.com Award-winning Senior Art Director and Product stylist with over 15 years’ experience in the print, design and media/marketing industry, specialising in Creative concepts, Creative direction, UX design, innovative thinking and bringing creativity into any brand. Entrepreneur.

COMPANY: PROMOSHIN AND BUSINESS OF ANIMATION

Position Held: Freelance position 2022-2023: Creative Director/Creative Advisor

- Fully Remote company.

- Leading/mentoring a team of 10+ designers.

- Analyse and improve the brand quality by designing brand guidelines for 2 companies and making sure everyone sticks to them to ensure cohesiveness through the brand.

- Reviewing all final social media content. Making sure the fonts, picture usage, look and feel and copy makes sense and is used correctly.

- Reviewing all final ads before they get published.

- Reviewing all Video demo reels, Customer testimonials, Promotional material etc and sending feedback to the team.

- Designing Zoom backgrounds.

- Script writing/proofreading and editing Explainer videos and new video concepts.

- Online meetings with clients from all over the world.

COMPANY: TPP / CLICKS CLUBCARD MAGAZINE 

Position Held: Art Director - Digital, print, videography (April 2019 - Jan 2023)

 2022: Clicks ClubCard won the South African Loyalty Award for Best use of Omni-channel marketing & 

engagement for the launch of the launch of digital ClubCard magazine 

- Visually and strategically transforming the Clicks ClubCard magazine onto a digital platform (mobile first, but for all digital platforms). 

- UX and UI design of the new online magazine.

- Art Directing videographers and animators, sketching storyboards and briefing changes in to the video editors.

- Art Directing all photoshoots for every magazine. Cover shoots (sometimes involves travelling), Food shoots, Product styling still shoots and additional shoots like Ed’s shoots, competition shoots etc.

- Art Directing of above the line photoshoots where my work will appear online and in stores.

- Brainstorm concepts for the shoots and then brief the stylists, photographers, hair & make-up artists and models to stick to the brief while I oversee and art direct the shoots.

- I am responsible to come up with creative concepts and style all the beauty products for our beauty stills shoots once the concepts are approved by our client.

- Planning of all the shoots and reaching out and securing every team member to make sure the shoots run smoothly.

- Responsible for designing every page of Clicks ClubCard.

- I manage the budget for every magazine issue and make sure I stay within budget per issue and annually.

- I handle/manage all the re-con and invoices, PO numbers for every issue. 

- Implementing more modern design elements into the magazine to keep it fresh.

- Image sourcing and repro. More time-consuming repro work I outsource to retouchers.

- Send magazine PDF to get Epson’s printed for our colour check.

- PDF pages to send to print and then approve on Insite and a dummy that get’s sent back from the printers.

- Design adverts and marketing material.

- Staying up to date with editorial and fashion trends to incorporate into the magazine.

COMPANY: THE PUBLISHING PARTNERSHIP / JET CLUBCARD MAGAZINE

Position Held: Senior Designer (July 2017 - March 2019)

- Standing in for art director of styled still photoshoots in studio and buying the appropriate props/stills for the styled still photoshoots.

- Experience in Art Direction of front covers and travelling to JHB for the shoots when the Art Director can’t attend.

- Create/design front cover concepts and brief photographers, make up artists and models/celebs.

- Organising and planning of front cover shoots.

- Assisting the art director with budgeting & re-con of merchandise.

- Help manage order sheets and booking forms of all images and staff/models needed for shoots when 

necessary.

- Help with re-design of Jet ClubCard magazine January 2018.

- Training and mentoring of junior freelance designers.

- Design and layout of Jet ClubCard magazine, front covers and liaising with clients until approved.

- Image sourcing and repro.

- PDF pages to send to print.

- Sending PDFs to the printers and approving pages/Liaising with the printers.

- Design adverts.

- Staying up to date with editorial and fashion trends to incorporate into the magazine. 

COMPANY: MEDIA 24 / FINWEEK 

Position Held: Layout Designer/Acting Art Director (September 2012 – June 2017) 

Magazine front cover design award: #MagLoveTop10: Best magazine covers of 2015 - South Africa 

Magazine front cover design award: MagLove: Good-news mag covers we love this week (20 May 2016) 

Magazine front cover design award: #MagLoveTop10: Best business magazine covers of 2016

-Complete creative re-design of Finweek magazine, 2014-2015.

- Designing front covers for Finweek and making sure the team sticks to the new template of the front cover.

- Introducing new elements to the magazine e.g. contributors page.

- Making sure everyone sticks to the templates and that the templates tie together in the magazine.

- Design and layout of weekly English and Afrikaans magazines by using Woodwing, Content Station, Indesign (CS5), Photoshop and Illustrator.

- Work closely with the editor and writers with regards to copy, layout, photo selection and the overall look of the magazine.

- PDF pages to send to print.

- Sending PDFs to the printers and approving pages on Insite/Liaising with the printers.

- Check/place all adverts in the magazine.

- Liaising with the sales team about the adverts, checking and approving formats (set-up) of the adverts.

- Organise photoshoots.

- Creative direction of photoshoots (briefing photographer/clients with photoshoots).

- Deep etching and re-touching of images in Photoshop.

- Picture sourcing.

- Mentoring and training new designers in Woodwing and wherever necessary.

- Design marketing material.

- Staying up to date with trends and incorporating creative elements into the magazine that appeal to the target market that Finweek wants to reach while maintaining the identity of the magazine.

- Designing of the Finweek Life section and Finweek General Newsletters.

COMPANY: MAZEE CREATIONS PTY

Position Held: Entrepreneur, Co-Owner, Art Director and Visual Communicator

- Responsible for all the Graphic Design, Art Direction and UI/UX design for our website.

- Branding/Designing and conceptualising of pop-up store at expo etc.

- Print designing (vector cut-outs) to create new and unique textiles.

- Product photography.

- Deep etching of handbag images in Photoshop.

- Catalogue design.

- Flat website design. 

- Patented handbags launched at Source Africa in CT.

- Finalists for a Guess competition held at New York in 2016. (Independent Handbag Designer Awards 2016)

College attended: Vega Brand Communications School (2007-2009)

Degree: BA Degree (Communications Management) specialising in Creative Brand Communications

Top 10 graduate 

Top 10 International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD) awards 

Completed campaigns for clients

College attended: Red & Yellow

Short course Certificate: User Experience design - Passed with Magna Cum Laude