Welcome to
my world

Hello, there.*

I’m Claire A. Nichols (aka CAN), a Boston-based multi-disciplinary designer. I aim to solve business and consumer problems through strategic, human-centered design that delights just as much as it helps.

I’ve spent most of my 14+ year career as a brand and web designer supporting, dreaming, and creating for incredible clients—both the Davids and Goliaths of the world. Being “multidisciplinary” means I’m a versatile contributor, proficient at solving a variety of problems in whatever domain or medium I’m tasked with.

Currently, I am a UI/UX designer for two mobile apps at EF, where I get to support the literal and metaphorical journey of travelers of all ages as they learn and explore every continent of the globe.

I am happiest when creating things that impact the world for the better. A few dream projects I often think about and would love to help solve include:

  • Designing the future of the grocery store experience—low/no-waste packaging systems with seamless ordering and fulfillment

  • Designing the future of secondary education—centralizing mental health/wellness and practical life skills

  • Designing a community/village platform to help families at all life stages thrive

Outside of the 9–5, I assist brands and entities I believe in with creative strategy, experience design, branding, and visual storytelling. I also help people tidy their homes and clarify their vision for their lives.

For details on availability, to trade travel tales, or to simply just say “Hey!,” you may reach me at helloclairenichols@gmail.com.


*Yeah, you. You’re looking good. And you’re doing great.

Riders
AIGA
Devries Global
Romney for President
Cambridge Savings Bank
Stanley Black & Decker
RMR Group
Redeye Roasters
Bertucci’s
Cream
Genzyme
Sanofi Aventis

Clients

EF Education First
Liberty Mutual
Keds
NYDJ
Timex
Park Hyatt
Grand Hyatt
Hyatt House
Rue La La
Brahmin
Wrangler
Lee Jeans

Experience

—

Experience —

  • AUG 2022–PRESENT

    UI Designer

    An opportunity to join the UX team and grow my technical skillset opened in the engineering department, so I jumped at the chance to learn from some exceptional colleagues and employ lean user research and testing to validate product decisions.

    JAN 2022–AUG 2022

    Senior Designer, E-Comm

    I was tapped to contribute as a design lead within a new lane for the company focused solely on the e-comm/public site experience.

    • Oversaw the UI design and implementation of site components by external vendor while ensuring consistency across platforms.

    • Crafted beautiful and functional UI solutions to meet user needs, solve business problems, and champion design best practices.

    • Worked hand-in-hand with e-comm marketing director to define problems and opportunities based on both qualitative and quantitative information.

    • Contributed to roadmap strategy, connected design to business objectives, and determined scope of complex projects.

    • Evolved processes and frameworks to guide and shape the e-comm lane structure and drive efficiencies.

    OCT 2019–JAN 2022

    Senior Brand Designer/Manager

    With brand design down, it was time for me to get some management experience under my belt.

    • Managed two junior designers, providing personal and professional growth via regular check-ins, crits, and project feedback, as well as yearly performance reviews and goal-setting.

    FEB 2017–OCT 2019

    Senior Brand Designer

    Responsible for leading and elevating design within both the product and EF at large and translating business goals into meaningful brand experiences.

    • Provided fully integrated art direction/design of both brand and sales campaigns, brand evolution (brand book & guidelines), web product redesign, photoshoot planning and on-set direction, editorial publications, event design and collateral, swag, bus wraps, and more.

    • Provided art direction to designers, photographers, video editors, illustrators, and developers. Collaborated with copywriters, project managers, and multiple internal teams daily.

    • Attended press checks, liaised with various vendors, and led trainings with new company hires.

    • Planned and implemented multiple core team & cross-team process modifications to streamline workflows and maximize efficiencies.

    Travel | Hospitality | In-House | Product Design | Brand Design | Art Direction

  • JAN 2013–PRESENT

    Art Director / Designer / Creative Strategist

    I love getting to work closely with tight-knit teams or business owners to translate their dreams into reality. There’s a kind of alchemy you get to take part in under these circumstances that always feels special.

    Some things I’ve contributed to:

    • Rebranding of the second-oldest institution in Cambridge, MA after Harvard

    • Keeping Swifties and Brave Girls excited with design and art direction for Taylor Swift + Keds

    • Building a robust new website for a cult favorite coffee roaster

    • Designing a brand book for Grand Hyatt

    • Art directing a photoshoot for a regional Italian restaurant chain

    • Branding and positioning of a brilliant glass artist

    Branding | Creative Strategy | Creative Direction | Website Design | Advertising | Positioning | Naming

  • OCT 2015–SEP 2016

    Senior Visual Designer

    I came to Genuine to gain a deep digital education. They were doing things that few others were at the time, and were sought after to build cutting-edge digital solutions before agencies realized they needed to climb aboard the digital bandwagon.

    Here I served as visual design lead for two big projects (while serving as support to a few others):

    • An award-winning hub for Liberty Mutual called MasterThis

    • A new website and custom CMS for PR agency, Devries Global

    Visual Design | UI Design | Digital Agency | Agile

  • FEB 2013–AUG 2014


    Designer

    I worked directly with Creative Director, Karen Hite, and Founder/CCO Mike Toth, to shape the campaigns of brands such as Keds, NYDJ, Timex, Park Hyatt, Riders by Lee, and more.

    I was the lead designer on the Keds account. My first project was creating the pop-up experience for Keds on Taylor Swift’s RED tour. Taylor had just become their spokesperson, and the RED tour was a massive opportunity to spotlight the partnership. I later designed the print ads, billboards, OLA, retailer microsites, and the online hub of the campaign—Bravehearts.com.

    A major task I undertook for the hub was designing a series of photo filters, borders, and overlays that users could apply to their Keds-adorned “foot selfies” to be featured on the site.

    This project came at a time when brand narrative all over the world was starting to shift due to the rise of social media. A brand was no longer the sum of exceptional branding and advertising and what the brand told the world it was. Now, every individual could tell the world what they thought of a brand and what it represented. This bottom-up/grassroots-type of approach was changing the game. We utilized this learning in the campaign by featuring user submissions to the Bravehearts hub as the headlines for the ads.

    Also in my time at Toth, I:

    • Designed the Wishlist experience for NYDJ.com

    • Created the new master logo for Timex

    • Devised a campaign style guide for global use and translation into multiple markets for Park Hyatt

    • Made a coffee table book for Taylor Swift’s parents

    • Learned how to pop a champagne bottle with a sword

    Fashion | Lifestyle | Branding | Advertising Agency | Luxury | Hospitality

  • JUN–NOV 2012

    Digital Designer

    With the whole world as our audience, I was part of a 20-person creative team within the 200-person digital team tasked with getting Mitt Romney elected to the Presidency.

    I was in charge of bilingual site content design, rapid response event signage, physical product design and photography for fundraising store items, infographics, and any/all ad-hoc requests you could imagine.

    I could turn on the news at any time during the campaign and see something I had just designed hours prior on TV in front of millions. There are few things I may ever do in my life that will carry that kind of weight and thrill, and it’s likely better that way.


    FAQs

    Q—Are you a Republican?
    A—No. I am and always have been a registered Independent. I can see and empathize with both sides of any given issue, and I agree with different parties on different issues. I believe in nuance and that the world is an astonishing amalgamation of greys—there is almost nothing that is black and white. But I do believe we need change. And I believe we need to listen to one another as human beings—not political parties—in order for change to occur.

    Q—Did you meet Mitt?
    A—A few times, yes. A few days after the lost election, I walked into his office to thank him for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He was packing up all of his belongings. Just him. I think often of parallel lives and experiences, and how that moment never would have happened if he’d won. He was on the precipice of world rule, and I could just wander into his office and watch him toddle around with cardboard boxes. I have great respect for him. And what’s really tough to think about—if he’d won in 2012, we probably would’ve escaped the upside-down of a Trumpian era.

    Political Campaign | Web Design | Startup | E-Comm | Rapid Response

  • OCT 2011–JUN 2012

    Contract Designer

    Flash sales had just exploded as a business concept and Rue was at the center of it all.

    I worked with the creative team to elevate and optimize the site experience with daily creative refreshes while adhering to both in-house and vendor guidelines.

    E-Comm | Fashion | Web Design | Startup

  • Visual Asylum

    • Helped concept and develop identity systems for several clients ranging from large institutions to start-up enterprises.

    • Assisted in the installation of environmental design.

    • Silkscreened mass mailings to full client list.

    • Worked with small internal team to develop and assemble company holiday promo package.

    Acom Healthcare

    • Designed website for Endobarrier, one of Popular Mechanic’s “20 New Biotech Breakthroughs That Will Change Medicine”. Clients included Genzyme and Sanofi Aventis.

    Shields Design Studio

    • Print, packaging, and web design for local restaurants, national CPG brands, and regional universities and hospitals.

    Point Loma Nazarene University

    • Print, event, web design and photography to inform and inspire prospective and current students, staff, and alumni.

Don’t take it from me...

Don’t take it from me...

  • “Claire is always reaching for a higher quality of design in the creative materials we make. As a fellow designer, I can say we are trained to have an eye for the details so we can most accurately communicate visual messages to an audience, but Claire takes it to a whole new level—she has a personal conviction to create pixel-perfect work and spark joy with the visual details of our materials.

    As a senior designer, she has the responsibility of reviewing materials to make sure they're satisfactory before we send them out into the world. In the day-to-day, she is critiquing and refining the pieces that we put in front of her, always having a suggestion for improvement—to make the text a little higher, the color a little warmer, and the image a little brighter. She is tuned into these nuances across all of our projects, demonstrating that consistency in details is how we present a deliberate, unified brand image.

    It's also reflected in Claire's own work. If you ever have the pleasure of looking through her working files, they are immaculate. She meticulously organizes them and all the measurements are consistent down to the pixel. If she's creating a template for others to work off of, she creates several variations, taking into account all the different layouts another designer might need in any situation. I don't think it's in her nature to sacrifice quality, and I've seen her put in more time after a long day to get things JUST right.

    Claire also finds ways to spark joy in design with the details. She worked on last year's merch for Global Kick Off, and during the process she tested multiple different inks, fabrics, and colors while ordering samples. Claire would cross-compare all of them to get the best combination of functional, quality, and stylish pieces. If you remember, the merch had the Go Ahead Heart on the sleeve, a tiny detail that spoke to the heart of the company. It's these type of details that stick with our travelers.

    Recently, we've been brainstorming new print piece ideas, one of which she has spearheaded. She has a vision for a beautiful large-scale print piece, with typographic details that transform a little travel zine into art—something our customers would be proud to frame and hang on their wall. She is especially meticulous on our print pieces—she considers paper feel and thickness, binding and weight, page number placement ratios, etc. To a non-designer, some of these details might seem unnecessary, but when you see a beautiful print piece come together like our previous catalog, we find that our travelers are ecstatic to receive such a beautifully designed piece, and they are more likely to keep it as a piece of art and share it with their friends.

    Claire is a valuable asset to this company, keeping our brand design and marketing materials in tip-top shape and having the vision to elevate this brand to a higher quality.”

    —2020 Nomination for EF Core Value Attention to Detail Award

  • “As a creative launching your own business, there is a self-imposed idea that you must be the source of all visual content related to your product. After working with Claire I see how this belief was holding my company, K+ Glass, back. Through her incredible design skills and impeccable professionalism, Claire showed me the importance of quality branding as a means to elevate your work in a competitive marketplace. From the initial branding questionnaire to the final digital and physical products, she worked with me in a way that shifted this process from intimidating to enjoyable. Working with Claire has not only resulted in a polished brand (a term I only now feel like I understand) but the questions she posed in getting to know how I wanted myself and my work to be perceived made me reflect in ways that have since strengthened my own practice. Receiving design from Claire was like Christmas in July, seeing a full branded package helped me increase my confidence in my own work, something I know many creatives like myself struggle with at times. The website Claire designed for me has scaled my business—both in sales and inquiries dramatically since its launch.

    There are many high points I can mention in working with Claire (her thorough market research, attention to detail, excitement on my behalf, clear mockups and workflow) but most of all everyone in my field is jealous of her product photography. Anyone in glass knows how hard a material it is to photograph. The amount of time she spent with my glass, to fully understand this temperamental material I have devoted my life to and how it comes alive in the light, is beyond compare.”

    —Rebecca Potash, PhD, Founder K+ Glass

  • "Goes beyond expectations"-that's the phrase of how I would describe Claire as a designer. Coming on to the Romney campaign, Claire became the main designer that I worked with, so I got to know her very well.

    Claire is someone who is constantly working hard and always is going beyond what is asked from her. Right when she gets an assignment, she doesn't just come up with a few good ideas, but numerous ideas. She is an awesome team member because she kept me up to date with all of her work and made sure we were all on the same page. All of her work consisted of the best combination of what worked best for our campaign's designs as well as what worked best for our target audience.

    Claire is such a pleasure to be around. She constantly had a positive attitude every day, even during the countless days that were longer than 20 hours. She works until the job is done. I have no doubt that she will have a huge impact wherever she works.

    —Hallie Keenan

  • “In one of my first experiences working with designers, I was very fortunate to have Claire on my team. Her ability to grasp messaging and transmit its core meaning in ways that are visually appealing is extraordinary. Her can-do attitude even with the most complex projects made her one of the "go-to" designers on the team. She executes projects with a level of efficiency and an even higher level of thought and outside-of-the-box creativity. She is an absolute joy to work with & her future employers will be very lucky to have her. There is no doubt in my mind that this young lady will make a very large impact in the design world!”

    —Lauren Stewart