Howard Ronder | About

Distinctive, inspired and innovative creative solutions that meet brand and marketing objectives.

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About

BIOGRAPHY

An inspired creative leader; integrated, decisive, winning, entrepreneurial.

howard_ronder Creating an outstanding customer and user experience, I blend vision and expertise as a creative director and branding leader with an outstanding ability to effectively collaborate with clients, designers, marketing teams, external creative agencies, and channel partners in the development of big ideas that build brands.

I leverage my unique combination of agency and in-house expertise to align marketing strategies with corporate goals, driving sustainable revenue growth. This diverse and robust expertise spans a spectrum of clients in publishing, wellness, fitness, high-tech, financial, consumer products and experiential marketing.

I’ve developed strategies and managed successful global brand and advertising campaigns, creating identities for both start-up and established companies, while building and motivating creative teams to produce multi-media visual design, digital and traditional experiences, content layouts and memorable brands.

Building on a solid foundation as a Designer, then an Associate Creative Director at Grey Advertising, I went on to become a Creative Director known for crafting and implementing innovative strategies. Some of my accomplishments include driving growth from $35M to $300M at Gaiam; increasing creative output 40% through collaborative leadership, metrics and resource structuring; and leveraging multi-media marketing and product development, generating a 150% category lift. In addition to building global brands for industry leaders, I’ve helped a myriad of small and mid-sized businesses through collaborative creative consulting.

My specialties include: branding, identity, creative direction, creative services management, design direction, marketing communications, project management, contract negotiations, client relations, account and project management.

Download a (PDF) resume here.

PHILOSOPHY

Creative vision combined with strong aesthetics and intuitiveness that makes great experiences is what inspires me as a creative leader.

I believe that brands must evolve beyond personalities – to become part of the cultural fabric; with social and environmental values to distinguish their presence from the noise — requiring substance, authenticity and community building. By using the power of emotion, being respectful of the mission and the customer, I think that good design of brand imaging creates a loyalty beyond reason. Creatively integrating brand personality is powerful for consumers, employees, vendors, partners, retailers and investors alike.

I’m a mission driven communicator – a hybrid of creative, marketing and strategic communications who articulates and drives strategic vision in multiple touch points based on my solid understanding of both business and user goals and how they relate. This work fuels and inspires me, bringing out my best to collaborate and serve my team and the organization.

By fostering great design and ideas in a team environment, I set vision and hands- on drive concepts and strategies through the entire creative and development process. These solutions are born from creativity, skill and experience to create unique products, services and brands.

Channels: direct response, retail, wholesale, publishing, online, e-commerce marketing, packaging, advertising, catalog, corporate communications.

TESTIMONIALS

A rare find in the creative world; a hybrid of creative, marketing, branding and strategic thinking.

“Howard Ronder is an exceptional leader of people, creative talent and vision. He brings an environment of trust and confidence that makes people rally to get things completed successfully. He combines his great understanding of branding and customer engagement with creative skills that produce winning results. To put it simply, Howard is the best hire I made at Living Arts. Howard Ronder’s reputation as a grounded, brilliant leader is well deserved.”
Steve Adams, Founder / President, Living Arts
“Howard is a brilliant creative director and marketing specialist. His eye for creating high-quality graphic productions and marketing materials on a large scale is superb.”
Chris Besett, Creative Director - Internet, Gaiam, Inc.
“Howard is a good friend and an accomplished marketer who has a good understanding of the larger sustainable vision and how to translate it to action that provides clear messaging while maintaining authenticity.”
Ted Ning, Director, LOHAS
“Howard has a real passion for the creativity and opportunity in new challenges. He sees the intangible and brings the people and the plan and the ideas together to breathe it to life. He built our creative team from the ground up and cultivated the thinking, resources and work ethic to keep a lot of trains going full steam ahead on any given day. He manages to the strengths and challenges of each team member individually, but has a way of galvanizing people. He’s a man of action and he leads with a lot of heart and energy.”
Mary Jo Cameron, Editorial Director, Gaiam Inc.
“Howard Ronder has been a tremendous resource for our small company by providing vital assistance with the mission, vision and presentation of our unique message to the public. In our relationship he brings a great balance of creative input, practical feedback and steadfast guidance to keep us on message and putting our best face forward. We’re pleased to have him as part of our team on an ongoing basis.”
Mark Holmes & Ian Albert, Pranamaya, Inc.
“I had the pleasure of working with Howard Ronder both from the Printing (Arandell) and Paper (Strategic Paper Group) side of the business and know that Howard is well-respected within the industry. Howard operates with integrity, fairness, passion and a very strong work ethic. He has an excellent brand management and creative side, coupled with good business sense. Having worked with his entire staff, I know that as a manager, he had the respect and was held in high regard by his team and co-workers.”
David Goldschmidt, VP Sales & Marketing, General Manager, Western Region, Strategic Paper Group
“Howard is one of those rare finds in the creative world — a hybrid of creative, marketing, branding and strategic thinking. Not only does he have keen sense of design and how to apply that across multiple channels, he also graciously brings out the best in his team to create amazing results. His expansive world view brings refreshing and unexpected ideas to the table to craft powerful brands that last and effectively hit the mark. I highly recommend Howard’s unique combination of talents if you’re looking to create a powerful brand presence.”
Michele Molitor, CEO, Nectar Consulting, Inc.
“Howard increased awareness of our new branding and captured the company’s mythology by working across departments and listening to customer feedback to drive measured results via Web page refinements, Direct Mail campaigns, email offers, SMS text announcements, video tutorials, etc. He helped me built relationships between our direct reports so the Marketing initiatives were sustained by the sales, retention, and customer relations teams.
Mark Hollis, Director, Customer Relations, Credo Mobile/Working Assets

ALLIANCES

Superior leadership and creative precision for multi-channel campaigns.

AR C

Director Creative Services/ Strategy/ Design

A strategic advisory, innovation and brand marketing company, developing brand strategy and communications for internal and external stakeholders with implementation across interactive, advertising, print, broadcast, PR, video and direct response to increase brand reach, impact and improve online and offline UX with market shaping results.

Kreativz, Inc.

Creative Director, Brand Strategist

Kreativz is a strategic-creative agency designing solutions for local-global branding, marketing and media communications. They lead business and technology applications to quick results in today’s sophisticated consumer and b2b markets with services that include: brand strategy, marketing communications, logo, graphic, web and experiential design, web development, e-commerce solutions, rich-media and content development, art direction, copywriting and editing.

Dream Sculpt Media

Director Creative Services/ Brand Strategy/ Design

DreamSculpt Media is a publishing group that develops personal brands through ebooks and traditional channels. Services provide clarity and distinction for commercially viable approaches to write and position books. Programs are designed for viral propagation through the web, social media and all mobile devices.