Just moved to San Diego. Primed and ready for a new creative gig. Freelance, full time. Because I'd rather be working *in* a creative business than *on* one. Ideas with legs, branding, strategies, design and campaigns. (Collaborative: good to join forces or fly solo.) Early adopter/social media pioneer on the frontier, happy clients from F500 blue chips to startups. Google me. David Benardo. (one r).

Creative/Art Director Pinkerton South, Inc. 2006 - present
Partner in award-winning branding, advertising & new media consultancy, specializing in strategy-driven brand communications… from initial objectives to delivery of completed materials and analysis. 

• Recent Branding: Nacho Hippo                                                                                                         
Off the charts successful restaurant launch in the dead of winter on the Carolina coast. Created themed concept, name, logomark, menu, and social media launch campaign with promotions to ignite word of mouth. Client postponed print/radio because initial opening weeks have been so successful. 

• Golf Holiday brand extension
Developed social media promoting golf's largest annual amateur championship tournament, the World Am. Doubled Facebook fans & increased Twitter followers by 1200% within 2 months. Co-created @MyrtleGolfBall microblog - followed by over 30,000 on Twitter.

• ADDY Awards event producer
American Advertising Federation Coastal Carolinas, Co-Creative Chair. Promoted & produced 2008 ADDY awards show. Designed/art directed and produced direct mail, website, viral campaign, & winners book. Co-developed and produced live show including story development, casting, multi-media presentation, & soundtrack.

• The voice behind Twitter's popular time-warped character @FrankAdman
Creator and author of the award-winning fictitious art director "Frank Adman." This daily “Twitter-tainment” microblog is followed by over 40,000 fans. Worldwide winner of the 2010 Shorty Award for the Best in Advertising on Twitter.  www.twitter.com/frankadman

Focus 
Creative strategies, concepts, art direction and hands-on design of brand-driven communications and extension across media including groundbreaking social relationship marketing, plus project and budget management.

Skills 
Identity and brand design for products, events and services, experiential branding via social media initiatives, naming, design/art direction for collateral, packaging, direct mail, out of home, exhibits, magazine/editorial, interactive, and themed campaign integration across media

Clients 
Adobe/Macromedia, America Online, Bio-Rad, Broderbund, The Carolina Opry, Centex Homes, Divine Dining, Electronic Arts, Firefly Cove, Golf Holiday, Great Camps of the Smokies, Guthy-Renker, Hewlett-Packard, Intuit Business Software, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, MagiQuest, McLeod Health, Microsoft, PeopleSoft/Oracle, Symantec, Talent Zoo, Victorinox Swiss Army

Recognition
2011 Featured Guest Speaker for AAF Charleston
2010 Shorty Award, NYC: for the Best in Advertising on Twitter 
2010 Guest speaker for AAF Midlands 
2010 Conference Presenter re: Social Media for CREATE South                                                                                
2009 140 Conference, NYC, featured guest with Mad Men panel
2008 Selected ADDY Awards Judge for Savannah Ad Fed 
2008 AAF Social Media for Non-Profits presentation/workshop/produced event
2004-2009 winner of various Gold ADDY Awards, AAF San Francisco & Carolinas Chapters.

“ Follow @benardo: great guy who is helping the world understand social media.” 
—Kyle Lacy, author, "Twitter Marketing for Dummies" 

“…Love the concepts, the wording, EVERYTHING ” 
—Catherine Hargrave, Macromedia

“…best damn package I’ve ever seen! ” 
—Mark Appel, Nimblefish

Previous Chronology
04–06 Creative Dir - LHWH Advertising, Myrtle Beach SC 
99-04 Creative Dir - Bad Cat, Inc., San Francisco CA
88-99 Art Director - Rodgers Benardo Design, Berkeley CA 
83-88 Art Director/Designer - (In-house) CBS, I.Magnin

Applications
Adobe CS incl. Dreamweaver & Fireworks, Quark, MS Office, Final Cut
Highly fluent in relationship marketing via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Tumblr

Education 
Academy of Art University, San Francisco CA - UC Berkeley, San Francisco, CA 

References available
Craig Isaacs, CEO, Network Frontiers 
Nate Anderson, VP, Partner, Divine Dining Group
Vern Hearl, Partner, LHWH Advertising and PR
Jose Rosado, CEO, IBEX Group 
Bruce Cotton, CEO, ADworks
Marty Hardin, SVP, Creative Director, Media Lab, Palio Communications