"If you have the opportunity to hire Sarah, here’s my advice: Do it before someone else snaps her up. I’m telling you, she’s the best. "
-Max Lollar, Creative Director at Yoko Co.
Name
Sarah Sheppard
SarahSheppardStudio@gmail.com
Expertise
UX Designer & Conent Creator
Menu
Experience
UX Designer at Yoko Co.
Remote, Nashville-based
MAY 2017 - MARCH 2020
Yoko Co. is a web development firm based in Virginia. During my time with them, I worked fully remotely as part of a small team.
- Created thoughtful design layouts for clients large and small
- Optimized landing pages and full sites to meet client goals
- Built brands and created logos
- Strategized information architecture with account team
- Frequently met with clients to present work and answer questions, receive feedback
- Coordinated with developers to communicate design, functionality, and scope or project
- Built some websites solely in-browser as front-end designer/dev
- Assisted developers with front end styling (HTML/Css)
- Built custom post types and custom taxonomies inside WordPress
- QA'd websites to meet Yoko standards
- Deployed hundreds of pages of content
Creative Director at 12South Marketing
Nashville, TN
JANUARY 2013 - MAY 2017
12SM is a boutique inbound marketing agency for musicians & music industry businesses. I came on when 12SM was just a startup, and built out my role as we grew.
- Met with clients to discuss their needs, goals, music and business.
- Designed effective websites, web applications, and brands that meet client’s goals.
- Created all web work with a heavy emphasis on UX.
- Met with development team to discuss development strategy, and assists with front end dev (HTML/Css).
- Oversaw small design team
- Worked extensively in WordPress—dashboard, and theme files—Hubspot Design Certified.
- Created effective content for marketing campaigns, serving users at all awareness levels.
- Wrote occasionally for the 12SM Blog.
- Unofficial head of birthday celebrations
Freelance Writer, various publications
JANUARY 2014 - PRESENT
I regularly provide articles for small businesses who need content to round out their blogs.
I've provided expert level articles on music, the music industry, singing, and songwriting, for publications like Sonicbids, Patreon, SoundFly, Musician with a Day Job, and Wide Open Country. See my past work here.
- Posts have ranked #1 in Google for specific search terms
- Work featured in ASCAP Dean's List
- Picked up by Hypebot
- Article at Wide Open Country garnered over 90k views
- Provided articles weekly to monthly
- Extensive, in-depth and well-researched articles
Designer at CryoSurgery Inc.
Nashville, TN
JANUARY 2013 - JUNE 2013
In house graphic designer for medial product manufacturer.
- Oversaw all aspects of design, print and digital.
- Worked with marketing head to coordinate campaigns for sales and trade shows.
- Regularly created advertising materials and printed marketing collateral like flyers and booklets.
- Maintained website.
- Worked with and assisted SEO developer.
Web Designer at Design Farm
Tallahassee, FL
SEPTEMBER 2011 - MAY 2012
Graphic and web designer for design firm/software development company.
- Worked on many projects: including branding and identity initiatives, web site design, graphics, and website maintenance (HTML/Css, Sitefinity CMS), custom e-mail templates, e-mail marketing, printed materials (annual reports, advertisements) and illustration.
- Assisted in concept creation, storyboarding, illustration, and UI of the application & accompanying website for large scale educational project fo the state of Florida (Common Core).
- Assisted in writing copy for websites and handling SEO related research.
Skills
Lives in Adobe Creative Suite (PS, AI, InD, LR, and more).
But falling madly in love with Figma.
Writes and designs with SEO best practices.
Experienced in WordPress:
- Loves Beaver Builder and Themer
- Toolset Types and Views
- Yoast SEO
- Experience with Visual Composer, Slider Revolution
Other Apps:
- Google Drive
- Dropbox
- Asana
- InvisionApp
- Excel and Word
- BrowserStack
- Slack (I got your custom emoji's, yo)
Email list management:
- ConvertKit
- Mailchimp
- Litmus
Social media community management
Education
BFA in Graphic Design
Florida State University, 2011
Continuing Education:
UX Content Strategy
Treehouse, 2019
Creating User Experiences
Treehouse, 2019
UX Design Patterns
Treehouse, 2019
Design Criticism
Treehouse, 2019
About Me
I'm an americana singer/songwriter. You can hear my tunes here. I write with other artists to help them tell their stories.
I run a blog called SongFancy where I give songwriting tips to beginning singer/songwriters. It's grown to be thousands strong. I also run a songwriting challenge, Facebook community, offer an online course, and a book of songwriting prompts. Come write with us!
Offline, I love running, this pinot noir (its soo good!) and murder docs on Netflix.
Recommendations
Click the link below to read a letter of recommendation from from my previous Creative Director, Max Lollar, at Yoko Co.
