François Haylett

EXPERIENCE AT A GLANCE

10 years
BRAND design

11 years
photography

About me

As Creative Manager, I applied my extensive experience to a long list of projects, developing a diverse skillset encompassing design, brand messaging, and photography. I developed impactful visual assets for a range of industries. My portfolio demonstrated a proven ability to communicate brand positioning and enhance visual identity.

My mission

I am particularly drawn to organisations that prioritise innovation and social responsibility, and I am lucky enough to have a track record of collaborating with brands committed to sustainability and equality. I firmly believe that compelling design and professional messaging are key differentiators, and I am passionate about using my skills to contribute to the success of organisations that share these values.

My management style

I excel at collaboration and over the years I developed novel solutions to rework content into compelling design collateral with strategy in mind. I provided leadership for the growth of my division, tracked by key business goals, and I spearheaded company-wide learning and development initiatives. My focus was on developing efficient workflow procedures, remaining current with industry trends, and always looking out for emerging technologies.

Career Timeline

Nov 2022 - Present

Creative Manager

May 2022 - Present

Owner/Brand Developer

Oct 2018

Account Executive:
Visual Branding

Feb 2015

Photographer & Desktop Publisher

Skills

Leadership

  • Project Management

  • Brand Strategy

  • Campaign Development

  • Guiding Brainstorming Sessions

  • Business Development

  • Presentation of creative concepts to clients

  • Tracking & Reporting

  • Managing Organisational Learning & Development

  • Inspiring Team Creativity

Photography

  • Studio Lighting

  • Colour Grading  & Skin Retouching

  • Corporate Event Photography

  • Fashion & Product Photography

Design

  • Creative conceptualisation while adhering to brand guidelines

  • Brainstorming with content writing teams to develop campaigns

  • Logo and corporate identity design

  • Managing successful production to meet deadline & budget.

  • Excellent time management, planning & administrative skills

  • Ability to multi-task & prioritise tasks on various brands simultaniously

  • Creating Chat Bots with Power Virtual Agents

  • Gamification of Learning

Notable Case Studies

The research report from this global coalition is seen and used by over 60 prominent fashion companies, all committed to reducing their environmental footprint and promoting ethical production methods. Notable companies involved include Gucci, Adidas, and H&M, each leveraging their influence to foster a more responsible future for fashion. See case study here.

The 30 by 30 zero programme by The World Bank guides the banking sector to increase climate-related lending to 30 percent with zero or near-zero coal exposure by 2030. This project involved campaign logo design, report layout, infographics and other branded collateral. See case study here.

This massage therapy studio needed to establish a distinct brand identity, enhance its online visibility, attract a discerning clientele seeking premium massage therapy services, and communicate their relocation to a new area. The project involved formalizing their brand, widening their online presence, and starting a newsletter. See case study here.

Pink Armenia, (short for Public Information and Need of Knowledge), needed a new brand that reflected their change from a solely HIV/Aids focus to the broader scope of human rights protection, advocacy, LGBT+ community empowerment with psychological and legal support. They do their advocacy by writing publications on these issues within Armenia and the brand needed to adapt to print publications and promotional signage. See case study here.

The Women in Business forum hosted their annual conference to raise funds for deserving yet financially excluded women to study at the UCT Graduate School of Business. We developed and executed a content-led marketing strategy. The campaign met its targets, bringing in large organisations as sponsors and selling out tickets. See case study here.

The Hasso Plattner d-school hosted the first design thinking conference in Africa to celebrate the success of design thinking globally and explore Africa's creative potential to solve complex problems. This content-led marketing strategy included social media, thought leadership, PR, media invitations, paid advertising, on-the-ground coverage, emailers and content development for the post-event eMagazine. See case study here.

Software

InDesign

InDesign

Photoshop

Photoshop

Illustrator

Illustrator

Premiere Pro

Premiere Pro

Sharepoint

Sharepoint

Office

Office

Education

My studies at Vega, being a school of brand management, included subjects like Visual Communication, Brand Management, Colour Theory and Composition. These formed the basis of my knowledge when I started my position as photographer and desktop publisher at Rothko Brand Partners, and supported my further development in design.

Higher Certificate in Photography,
Vega School of Brand Leadership
(2013)

Advanced Certificate in Photography,
Vega School of Brand Leadership
(2014)

In my role as design team manager I’ve introduced the following approaches to standardise procedures and fast track onboarding:

Project Management

Developing a project management app

I developed an app for project status oversight and to limit deviation from procedures while simplifying project briefing and status tracking. Users fill in forms based on the type of project, which then creates the correct folders and naming convention, and creates a chat channel specifically for that project. The app can be used online, within Microsoft Teams, or on mobile.

Automation of procedures

I relooked all of our company procedures to find problem areas and used Power Automate and Microsoft List Automations to automate repetitive tasks and keep the team updated on changes and assignments at the time that it is needed.

Chatbot Creation

As part of my roll out of training and automations, I designed a chatbot which also acted as the company’s internal mascot. It featured in all internal marketing campaigns and gave a friendly face of the automations happening in the background. The bot was incorporated into the company chat platform (Microsoft Teams) for direct, personal access to questions relating to our procedures, file locations, and sends out automated status update messages on various company functions.

Training and Onboarding

Creation of Internal Team Sites

To reaffirm and grow the company values among the team, I created internal sites on SharePoint where I frequently shared information and news relating to our clients and our values. These included Sustainability and Nature Conservation, since it relates to the type of clients and projects the team worked most. Another company goal was Maintaining a Healthy Work-Life Balance, where I shared video links from sources like Ted Talks, and YouTube from thought leaders.

Training
videos

A site was created to host all my training presentations and pre-recorded guides. It gave updates on new software, videos on our procedures, as well as links to external videos around soft skills and tips relating to our daily work.

Gamification of Learning

Team members were encouraged to complete their training to climb a leaderboard in a fun multiple choice quiz game which I developed and ran frequent internal campaigns on with prizes for top performers. The storyline behind the game guides you to help the company chatbot (now mascot) to learn through missions, each set around a specific topic.