Cameron Tiede

Selected teaching experience

• Associate chair, illustration, Winter 2024—present, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA

• Professor of illustration, Fall 2022—Fall 2023, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA

• Instructor, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California

• Instructor, Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, Los Angeles, California
  Played an integral design leadership role by implementing course content and syllabi. Developed and refined the direction and rewrote the course outlines for design 1 and 2 programs. Mentored and counseled students in studio classes and independent study. Weekly direction of one week and multi week assignments through critiques, exploration of design concepts, teaching of drawing and digital tools, for execution of projects, art direction of student work for final presentation and portfolio.

Selected professional experience

• Trend and product design manager, 2008–16, Michaels Stores Inc.
  Management, leadership and art direction of internal product design and trend team contributing to over $2 billion annually in private brand sales. Designed direction and experience in the Paper crafting, Seasonal, Home Decor, Art Supplies, Impulse, and Kids categories. Highest rated in the entire corporate organization by direct reports for management satisfaction. Trained associates on design, software, drawing, studio processes and timelines to effectively support business needs. Accountable for prioritization of workloads, addressed timelines and trend and design deliverables. Held individuals accountable for projects while providing encouragement, support, and direction to accomplish workload and corporate goals. Presentations of concepts, trends and products to merchandising team. Collaborated with studio management team to address studio needs, research, hire, and interview design candidates for studio positions.

• Original product design and licensing, 2001–19
  Wood Candy Workshop
  Designed, manufactured and sold limited edition handcrafted designer wood toys to collectors worldwide.

  13 Friends Product Line
  Designed and licensed limited-edition collectible vinyl art toys, apparel and books sold worldwide in collectible toy stores and galleries. Toy design, packaging concepts, sketching, final mockups, and target marketing of products valued by the end consumer. Art Direction and management of the product development teams in Hong Kong, and manufacturing teams in China on toy sculpts, packaging, production and final distribution with licensee.

  Snow Jam
  Developed conceptual art for snowboards manufactured by Snow Jam. Designed snow board graphics targeted towards different demographics including professional, intermediate and junior girls.

  Stinkheads Apparel
  Successfully created and launched Stinkheads brand including several shirts and other apparel featuring signature designs and unique characters sold through boutique stores in Southern California.

• Designer, 2001–16,  custom art toys and original paintings
  Sold to and collected by various celebrity and high-profile clients (Mena Suvari, Morgan Spurlock, and Kevin Smith). Fine art paintings and custom toys displayed in gallery and museum shows worldwide. Creation and sales of paintings, prints, custom toys and other fine art collectables.

• Freelance illustration, animation, and entertainment design, 1998–2010
  Mattel
  Concept and play pattern designer, illustrator, and animator of games and activities on the Hot Wheels.com website. Managed the teams of designers, art directors, producers, production team and programmers on improving the interactivity, storytelling, advertising and digital branding in conjunction with the new products of the Hot Wheels brand as well as other personal projects.

  Disney
  Ideation and pitching of animation properties for both preschool, preteen and tween demographics. Editorial illustration for Disney Adventures Magazine.

  Nickelodeon
  Team lead of TV interstitial animation featuring original characters and signature style. As art director and producer, worked with networks creative executives, producers, and composer/sound designer.

  Warner Bros.
  Artwork developed for various WB entertainment properties for use in both print and digital formats.

  DreamWorks
  Signature style characters and artwork on custom toys, and paintings for movie sets.

  Cadbury Chocolates
  Creation and design direction of the Cadbury Joy Monster used in nationwide advertising campaign (in South Africa) for online, television, print marketing campaign.

  Thinkheads Animated Cartoon Series
  Original creation of concept and characters. Previously in development for Canadian and European Markets.