About me
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About me ✽
I should have known graphic design was my path early on. Dioramas were my school project of choice. My first layout project was a single-issue newspaper about my family that I mailed to my cousins. I Sharpied comic book characters onto my clothes and wrapped all my textbooks in magazine collages.
So naturally, I decided to become a lawyer.
Despite my early love for art, I earned a degree in Poli Sci and Peace Studies at Notre Dame (Go Irish!). After college, it started to dawn on me that in my bones I was not a lawyer. While I worked full-time at a law firm in downtown Boston, I took evening classes at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. I completed the graphic design program in 2012, made my big pivot, and never looked back.
I've spent the last decade-plus building a creative career I'm genuinely proud of across tech, higher education, healthcare and consumer brands. Most recently, I was the lead designer for the corporate brand at Zillow. I produced visuals that told our brand story to consumers, investors, industry leaders, employees and the media. I've led digital and printed creative projects from brainstorm to delivery across brand strategy, visual identity, integrated campaigns, presentation design, event graphics, motion graphics and social content. I've art-directed photographers and outside vendors and mentored emerging designers.
But what truly drives me at work is being a dependable, kind teammate. I'm the one who helps stakeholders turn half-baked ideas into clear creative briefs, reaches across an organization to build new connections, figures out who needs to be in the room and helps my team land on the most impactful solution. I'm not precious about my designs — I welcome feedback because I know the work gets better when outside perspectives are part of the process.
It's all about people for me. The colleagues I'm working with and the audience I'm designing for.
Skills
Adobe CC: Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects, InDesign, Lightroom
AI Tools: Adobe Firefly, Claude, ChatGPT, Glean, Google Gemini
Project Management: Airtable, Smartsheet, Wrike
Additional Apps: Figma, Google Docs, Google Slides, PowerPoint, Slack, Squarespace, WordPress
Fine Art: Photography, illustration, collage, ceramics, jewelry design
What people are saying
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What people are saying ✽
One of Sarah’s greatest strengths is that she understands the business problem behind the design assignment. She doesn’t just focus on making something look good. She wants to understand what we’re trying to accomplish, who we’re trying to reach and what the work needs to do, and then designs accordingly.
— Kristen Russell, former manager
I had the pleasure of having Sarah on my team, where she was an incredibly versatile and thoughtful creative partner. Sarah brought strong creative judgment to every project, with an ability to understand the goal behind the work and translate it into compelling, effective visuals.
— Brian Carberry, former manager
Sarah's a standout creative who has had a huge impact on Zillow's content. She has a natural eye for design and a deep understanding of how content needs to look and feel across different channels and audiences. She doesn't just execute content, but rather she elevates it. Beyond her talent, she brings a strong sense of creative ownership and responsiveness that makes her a true dream to work with.
— Lauren Embrey, Zillow colleague
Sarah isn't just a senior designer; she takes a simple request and elevates it with both expertise and next-level creativity. As a senior video production manager working alongside Sarah for five years, I'd often come to her with a straightforward ask, and she'd return with multiple concepts, beautiful graphic design, and work that went well beyond what I requested.
— Lindsay Cohen, Zillow teammate
She’s built brands, created guidelines, designed dozens of templates and handled countless one-off requests with calmness and clarity. She is also great with deadlines (as well as moving targets and priorities) and helps take half-baked ideas to the finish line with polish. On top of all of that, Sarah is uniquely kind. She has an artistic eye matched with a collaborative spirit.