About Me

I'm Jeremy, a graphic designer, communications specialist, and visual arts enthusiast fortunate enough to be based in beautiful Vancouver, Canada.

Oscillating between the realms of art direction, graphic design, branding, content creation, and all the fun facets of marketing and communication strategy, I get to do what I truly love.

In our increasingly connected world, there is an array of unique voices and plenty of commotion to compete with. An evocative message and well-conceived ideas help us get through the noise. Throughout my career, I’ve always sought to make the way we communicate less complex, more thoughtful, and especially pleasing to the eye.

With 6 years of experience as a professional designer and even more as a team leader, I’ve had the unique pleasure of collaborating with clients and creatives across different sectors and industries.

I always look forward to helping my collaborators express themselves and realize their vision.


Together, let’s create something new…

Work
Experience

  • GRAPHIC DESIGNER
    Denny’s Canada, Sandman Hotel Group, & The Sutton Place Hotels
    January 2024 - Present
    Vancouver | Full-time

    • Lead the conceptualization, design, and execution of all visual materials for national brands Sandman Hotel Group, Sutton Place Hotels, and Denny's Canada

    • Present and communicate design concepts to internal stakeholders and clients

    • Regularly conduct competitor analysis and produce audit documents to share with key internal stakeholders

    • Developed brand guidelines for Sandman Hotels, Sandman Signature Hotels, The Sutton Place Hotels, The Karl Luxury Mountain Hotel, and Selkirk Tangiers Heli-skiing

    • Assist in the art direction of multiple hospitality photoshoots for Hotel and Restaurant divisions

  • DESIGN LEAD & COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST
    January 2021 - July 2023
    Vancouver | Full-time

    • Managed the creative direction of The Arbutus Club’s branded materials and marketing collateral

    • Worked collaboratively with the Management team to develop marketing campaigns & communications, ensuring that all communications were aligned with the Club’s brand standards and communications strategy

    • Oversaw the Communication team’s graphic designers, offering creative guidance, technical training, and project management

    • Managing Editor, Art Director, Layout Artist, and Writer of the Club’s quarterly editorial publication, The Bark magazine

    • Planned, designed, and constructed the wire-frame for the Club’s touchscreen digital display system

    • Oversaw the redevelopment and launch of the organization’s new website / member portal

    • Developed Club-wide branding and identity guidelines, helping the organization streamline marketing projects and on-boarding of new Communications staff

    • Art directed photo shoots for promotional campaigns and guided the creation of content for the Club’s social media channels

    • Public relations experience during large scale renovation project, Arbutus 2020, and the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic

    COMMUNICATIONS DESIGNER
    October 2018 - January 2021
    Vancouver | Full-time

    • Developed and implemented creative concepts for digital and printed marketing collateral

    • Assisted on content development, layout design, and production of The Arbutus Club’s quarterly magazine, The Bark

    • Created digital marketing assets for use on The Arbutus Club’s website, mobile app, social media accounts, digital display network, and email marketing

    • Provided copy-writing and editing support to all departments for associated marketing collateral

  • GRAPHIC DESIGNER
    Jeremy Reay Creative
    October 2018 - present
    Vancouver | Part-time

    Self-owned freelance business focusing on branding, packaging, layout, and web design for a variety of corporate clients.

    Clients include:
    • Good Luck Sock
    • Vancouver Bach Festival
    • Surface Skin Lab
    • Rethos
    • Mark Yammine Photography

  • ART DIRECTOR
    Pacific Rim Magazine
    January 2018 - August 2018
    Vancouver | Co-op

    • Managed the artistic vision of Pacific Rim, working closely with the Art team to establish the publication’s overall look, style, and feel

    • Delegated projects to team of graphic designers and layout/production artists after developing artistic concepts with the magazine’s Art and Editorial teams

    • Reviewed graphic materials to assess their effectiveness and suitability for the publication, which helped maintain a visual consistency and quality across all graphic deliverables

    • Wrote the cover story for the magazine on transgender health care and participated in the editing process of the magazine

    • Guided the UI design of the Pacific Rim website

  • BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR
    JDRF Canada
    May 2014 - September 2017
    Burnaby | Full-time

    • Management of the JDRF’s corporate relationships across the Lower Mainland of British Columbia Development and implementation of strategic business, communication, and social media plans

    • Successful planning, logistical coordination, and administration of kickoff and recognition events

    • Assisted in the hosting of fundraising events and public speaking at corporate fundraisers

    • Hosted communications and social media seminars for JDRF BC/Yukon Regional Planning Meetings

Awards + Recognitions

  • North America, 2018
    The College Media Association Awards honour the best in North American publishing.

    Best Advertisement: 3rd Place
    •     Advertisement for Qmunity

    Honorable Mention: Best Magazine Cover
    •     Pacific Rim Magazine: the Transition Issue

    Website of the Year
    •     Pacific Rim Magazine

  • JDRF Canada
    Toronto, 2015

    President’s Award is given for exemplary staff performance and adherence to JDRF’s core values. Recognized for exceeding targets and cultivating strong corporate relationships for the organization.

  • Although not formally trained in photography, I thoroughly enjoy capturing the world around me. Images that I have taken have been featured in or published by:

    • BC Ferries, Vancouver
    • Georgia Straight, Vancouver
    • Prensa Libre, Guatemala City
    • CBC News, Edmonton

Skills

  • After nearly 5 years at The Arbutus Club managing the organization’s brand standards, I have become well acquainted with the nature of art direction. From photoshoot creative briefs to layout design in a magazine, leading the look and feel of a project is my forte.

  • Sometimes verbalizing doesn’t capture everything we want to say. For me graphic design became the medium in which I could communicate in the deepest way possible. I find it a welcomed challenge to meet users’ specific needs and focus on the logic of displaying elements in interactive designs, to optimize the user experience.

    EXPERTISE IN:
    • After Effects
    • Dreamweaver
    • Illustrator
    • InDesign
    • Lightroom
    • Photoshop
    • Premiere Pro

  • With over half a decade of working on large and small scale printed projects, I have become intimately acquainted with the nature of production design and the technicalities of printing. I’ve had the pleasure of working with some of Vancouver’s largest print houses and have developed a strong sense of the nuance required in translating a design into a printed product.

    PAST PRINT PROJECTS INCLUDE:
    • Large scale magazine printing
    • Product packaging
    • Outdoor signage
    • Design to textile printing
    • Wall wraps and decals

  • Developing websites for The Arbutus Club, Surface Skin Lab, and Rethos has allowed for considerable experience in developing online projects from inception to digital publication.

    EXPERTISE IN:
    • HTML
    • CSS

    TRAINING IN:
    • Figma

  • Engaging audiences sometimes requires that little something extra. Motion helps viewers understand and retain information much faster and its use is growing ever more popular. Adding a new spin is what I aim for in every project.

    EXPERTISE IN:
    • Adobe After Effects
    • Adobe Premiere Pro

  • Communication is a tremendous part of what all creatives do. Whether it be generating emotion through an illustration or dissecting a complex issue in a long-form editorial, there are certain ways in which we can guide our viewers through our thought process. This is one of the joys of writing or copywriting works. As Managing Editor of The Bark magazine and Art Director of Pacific Rim magazine, I have been closely involved in the written content of both publications.

    PERSONAL STYLE:
    • Canadian Style Guide
    • Familiar with CP Stylebook
    • Fan of the Oxford Comma

  • As Design Lead & Content Developer at The Arbutus Club I was involved in the fabrication of countless marketing campaigns for all arms of the organization. From Food & Beverage promotions to participation in Recreation Services programming, every week would necessitate new campaigns or require strategic communication to the member population. Additionally, I helped in leading communications through a major facility construction project and the COVID-19 pandemic. Both challenging situations, but allowed for creative approaches to retaining member confidence.

Education

  • Through a range of courses, the 1-year intensive diploma helped me achieve creative excellence in design, graphics, writing, and editing.

    During the course of the program, I received the honour of being selected as the Art Director of Pacific Rim Magazine and served on its web design team during the redevelopment of the publication’s website.

    Graduated with Distinction and achieved a 4.0 Grade Point Average.

  • While visual and graphic arts are my first love, I have a keen interest in politics. This fascination with social, economic, and political discourse led to my enrolment in the University of Alberta’s Political Science and Human Geography programs.

    The discipline and my subsequent Bachelor of Arts, allows me to apply concepts and theory to real-world problems, to synthesize disparate and complex ideas, to communicate in diverse ways, and rethink the ways in which our systems function.

    Awareness of the world around me seeps into my work as a graphic designer and has taught me the soft skills of comparative analysis and using challenging situations as opportunities to innovate.

    Graduated with Distinction.

  • Globalization has brought fundamental changes to the conduct and study of local, national, international and transnational politics. The concepts I learned in this program allows me to have a deeper understanding of the systems in which we communicate, produce artistic messages, and how to use your design for good.

Professional
Development

  • Attended the Vancouver DesignThinkers Conference in May 2023.

  • Attended the 2023 Adobe Max Creative Conference in Los Angeles where I was able to listen to keynote speakers, participate in workshops, and be coached by leaders in the graphic design industry.

  • In 2018 I received certifications in Google Ads Search, Ads Display, Ads Video, Shopping ads, and Ads Apps through the company’s free online program.

Interests

  • As a big fan of Spanish cinema, I always follow the career and films of Pedro Almodóvar. Weaving themes of identity, relationships, sexuality, politics, and art together, the director creates visually compelling and thought-subverting motion pictures. Plus, he’s super camp and I am all about deliberately exaggerated and parodical performances.

  • A pretentious palate for coffee? Perhaps. But, in all seriousness, I do love a good, well-roasted cup of coffee. It’s guided some of my travels and I’ve been fortunate to chase a cup of joe all the way to farms in Guatemala and Colombia. If you’re going to begin your day with coffee, you might as well start off on the right cup.

  • The 90s are back and thankfully this means my musical references are cool again (well, depending on who you talk to). From Oasis to the Spice Girls, mid to late-90s British music was very formative and influential for me.

  • While I was never fond of any type of racing sport, Formula 1 somehow captivated me after watching a few episodes of Drive to Survive. There’s a tremendous amount of logistics, physical skill, and technological advancements that go into the sport. Quickly it became a bit of an obsession and I’ve eagerly cheered for Hamilton, Sainz, and Ricciardo to reach the podium.

  • As a child, I used to take reference books – often atlases – out from the elementary school library. Typically, those types of books aren’t ‘take-home’ publications, but my elementary school librarian gave me the hook-up. I suppose I’ve been a cartophile or geo-enthusiast since I was young. Either way, I love maps and learning about the world.

  • It’s a bit of a cliché to say you love travelling…akin to saying you like hiking (I do like that as well!). But, I really do love nothing more than the slight anxiety of not being fluent in a language, being somewhere unfamiliar, and having the opportunity to learn something new. It’s allowed me to go on multi-month backpacking excursions and at the detriment of my bank account. Basically, it’s the best immersive educational experience you can get and I am privileged to have had the opportunity to see many parts of the world.

What colleagues & clients have said

  • Jeremy is one of the most professional individuals I’ve ever worked with. Working with him exceeded my expectations due to his dedication to understand your brands aesthetic and communication needs as well as delivering work that was beyond my imagination.

    CHRIS TICKELL
    Owner, Certified Professional Coach & Personal Trainer
    Rethos

  • Jeremy pushed us to continually improve ourselves creatively and technically, while always keeping inclusivity at the fore-front of all of our communication and design efforts.

    DORCAS MARKWEI
    Graphic Designer & Communications Specialist
    The Arbutus Club

  • Spearheading several significant projects that not only elevated the department's output, but also enhanced the club's brand standards and communication, Jeremy's commitment to continuous improvement, collaboration, and the creation of an inclusive, supportive work environment truly stood out.

    KRISTY DAVIS
    Director of Communications & Strategy
    The Arbutus Club

  • An innovative and enthusiastic designer, Jeremy naturally brings style and grace to his work from brainstorming sessions to the final design stages. While managing multiple projects at once, Jeremy's grasp on the creative industry is obvious with an ability to lead by motivating and guiding the creation of effective and beautiful print, digital and interactive designs.

    REBECCA KOVACS
    Branding & Collaborator - Surface Skin Lab
    Communications Designer - The Arbutus Club