The Apple Careers site has grown and progressed since I started leading the creative in 2016. During the Covid lockdown in 2021, apple.com/careers was completely rethought and redesigned. We shifted our thinking from highlighting specific roles to showcasing Apple as a diverse, welcoming workplace. This is a site not just to feature job descriptions, but to inspire careers. Using full screen video, detailed profiles, and dynamic page design, we worked to reflect the values of our employees through authentic images and rich stories. I manage the internal team of writers, designers, and media producers, as well as lead an agency to assist in many aspects of production. The current Careers site gets more than a million views per month and is global in forty-three countries. Only the Apple product pages receive more traffic.
View the Shared Values site on Careers - This section was recently featured in Tim Cook’s TIME magazine video profile.
View the Retail site on Careers
With the hiring needs of Apple Retail always growing, our team worked with Apple leadership and recruiters to capture the authentic voice of our employees in a global campaign. These videos tell the story of how employees bring their creative passions to Apple to grow a fulfilling career that is unique in the world of consumer retail. This highly successful campaign was launched across all of our English speaking sites, while a separate campaign was developed for Japan. I directed all the film pieces, oversaw the photos, and worked to guide the page design. It has been seen as one of the most successful retail campaigns in Apple history.
View the live site and videos here
With the launch of the iPhone 5c and 5s, Jony Ive came to our team requesting a complete redesign of the in-store Smart Sign system with a focus on color and interactivity. I led the creative and delivered a solution that made the information easier to read and digest while improving the visual store experience. Praised by executives as well as customers, we went on to redesign the signage for every product in less than four months.
For those unfamiliar with WeChat, it is the world’s largest stand-alone mobile app and the main social media platform in China, with well over a billion users. Apple had a successful China language-based WeChat channel for product launches, and my team was tasked with creating a recruiting-focused channel. Working with our marketing team in Shanghai, we also partnered with a Shanghai-based agency to design and launch two posts per month. The overall creative work for each post is equal to launching a webpage. The channel has been seen as a huge success in getting roles filled across China in both corporate and retail.
For their 10 year celebration Yahoo! wanted to create a print piece that would celebrate their milestones as well as inspire current and future employees. I provided the creative concept and design for this oversized book from concept to production and worked with Jerry and David to make it a reality. It proved so popular that it was included in their 2005 Annual Report and set new standards for Yahoo! internal marketing worldwide.
For the 2012 Apple iPod launch I led the creative team that updated the look and feel of the product site to reflect the stunning new iPod touch product design. The site received over 20 million views in the first 24 hours. The lighter, colored font choices and large images helped set the style for the next few years of Apple website design.
My team is currently responsible for all Apple event creative outside of the product launches and the WWDC conference. The work pictured has will be used across all 2018 - 2020 recruiting events including the Grace Hopper Conference, NSBE and many others.
Sometimes when I share my portfolio I get the comment, “yeah, but what else have you done?”. I’ve worked in interactive and print design for over 25 years, starting in snowboarding and skateboarding then moving toward large Silicon Valley work. This is just a sample of some of my past creative…from design to video to illustration.
I’d love to talk through any of this work. Drop me a line or give me a call.
As Design Director of the Yahoo! / FIFA relationship, I lead the team that designed the 2006 FIFA World Cup website. Creative teams were located in the United States, Canada and Germany. Working with the FIFA group in Zurich, our challenge was to create a quick loading, content rich website which was updated on a daily basis. In 2006 clean loading video was rare, as were fully mobile designs. The site led the world in internet technology at the time. Our team also designed all the FIFA partner sites which included Hyundai, adidas and McDonalds.
Sony partnered with digital music group Gracenote to create a unique and immersive album experience. My studio in Portland designed an application that was flexible enough to give artists an individual look, while making the back-end simple for the engineers. The final product became a memorable and deep user experience for obsessive fans and casual listeners.
Blaise
