David Van Allen

Brand and Creative Project Management, Art & Creative Direction, Animation, Design, Fine Art

National Director of Brand & Creative

Creative and brand executive leader with years of experience leading enterprise creative organizations, brand strategy, digital experiences, experiential initiatives, and creative operations across hospitality, entertainment, media, and consumer brands. Currently National Director of Brand & Creative at Westgate Resorts, leading creative and brand strategy across 60+ resorts and 25+ internal departments with 24 direct reports. Expert in building high-performing creative organizations, brand architecture, creative operations, digital experience, media production, and emerging AI-driven workflows.

Creative Project Manager

A hands-on creative project manager with years of proven capability and award-winning experience. Excels at facilitating clear communication between staff and stakeholders while maintaining a focus on project scope, timeline, and ROI.

Highlights

• Ability to function as creative resource, vision keeper, and liaison
• Art Direction and FX Director on Emmy Nominated projects
• Experience in budget planning for projects ranging from $50K to $500K
• Exceptional multitasking, asset, and time management abilities
• Superior people skills with a positive, upbeat attitude
• Managed creative processes from concept to completion in video, design, graphics, UI/UX, broadcast media, print, web, social, and marketing with both small and large teams

Professional Experience

Westgate Resorts 2017-present (multiple ARDA awards and organizational recognition)

National Director of Brand & Creative 2025 – present (promoted from Sr. Creative Director)

Oversees all creative efforts for marketing, brand and digital/web leading division to highest earning year on record. Responsible for creating world-class marketing assets and ensuring the prompt and ideal process for project assignment/production via direct reports (Project Manager and designers).

Responsible for leading organization and brand wide marketing efforts and ensuring the prompt and ideal process for project assignment/production via direct reports (Project Manager and designers). Effectively communicates the brand vision for all resorts and the main brand, as well as other parallel entertainment, food & beverage and hospitality brands in tandem. Successfully champions teamwork, flexibility, strong communication skills and effectively manages large and small projects with competing priorities, as well as a team of creative personalities. Fosters a fun, fast paced and supportive leadership environment.

Directly supervises team of Designers, Multimedia Specialists, Photographers, and Videographers. Carries out responsibilities in accordance with the organization’s policies and applicable laws. Responsibilities include, but are not limited to: training, planning, assigning, and directing work; appraising performance; rewarding and disciplining team members; addressing complaints and resolving problems.

    • Exceptional creative thinking and problem-solving abilities.

    • Expert level knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite, Figma, Weavy, Ai tools, and most applicable         creative software packages.

    • Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to articulate and sell creative     concepts to leadership.

    • Strong leadership and people management skills including the ability to motivate and inspire    a creative team.

    • A deep understanding of branding principles with the ability to maintain brand consistency        across all touch points.

    • Passion for travel and a keen sense of how design can shape and enhance the consumer travel experience.

Sr. Creative Director 2024-2025 (promoted from Digital creative Director)

Digital creative Director 2017-2024

MediaLab 3D Solutions 2015-2016 (W3 Award, Davey Award)

Art Supervisor (Art Director)

Art directed, directed, produced, and edited most successful social media post in company history at over 20K in hits and 100K in outreach

• Takes creative vision from pitch to publish
• Makes decisions on visual style including medium, story, and technique
• Determines approach to best suit the project and appeal to target audiences
• Develops type, design, animation, concepts, and visual style
• Supervises overall unified appearance and ensures cohesive project vision through focus on creative collaboration, process, and facilitation
• Leads client creative vision from concept to completion

Freelance 2014-2015

Art and Creative Director

• Design, Animation, Motion Graphics, and Photo Manipulation
• Leads client creative vision from concept to completion
• Creative vision keeper with a focus on overall style decisions including medium, story, and technique with consideration for target audience appeal
• Supervises project timelines, visual continuity, messaging, and branding for an overall unified appearance
• Facilitates creative collaboration, team management, project scope and timeline

Noir Worldwide LLC. 2007-2014 (1 Emmy, 10 Tellys)

Creative Director, Art Director, Animator, Lead Designer

• Owner/operator, stakeholder, partner
• Oversaw nearly every A-list client and project from concept to completion
• Managed budget, scope, time lines, vendors, client relations, creative teams, and agency relations
• Led company in design, mediums, and techniques that best suit the project and appeal to target audiences
• Notable Clients: NBC, ABC, Motorola, State Farm, Discovery Network, Comcast, Siemens, Goddard Schools, Glaxo Smith Kline, PBS, Fox, Sprint and many others.

lnnomations Ltd. 2000-2007 (3 Emmys 30 Tellys)

3D/2D Generalist, Designer, Animator

• 3D/2D generalist
• Compositor
• Motion Designer
• Animator
• Graphic Designer
• Visual Effects Supervisor
• Art Director

Software Proficiencies

Expert: Weavy Ai, Photoshop, LightWave 3D, After Effects, Red Giant Suite, Premier Pro, Media Encoder, Video Copilot, Particle Illusion, Microsoft Office Suite, Windows and Mac

Advanced: Illustrator, Adobe CC Suite, Figma, Sketchup, Avid, Final cut pro, ProTools, Maya, Cinema 4D, various AI platforms including LLMs and generative AI

Skills

Other Skills

Awards, Accolades and Achievements

Organizations

N. A. T. A. S. (National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences) – member and regional judge

ACM SIGGRAPH (Association for Computing Machinery) – Member

M. C. A. I. (Media Communications Association – International) – member

A.D.C.P. (Art Directors Club of Philadelphia) – Advisor/Board member

Art Institute Of Philadelphia – Advisory Committee, Guest Lecturer, Portfolio Review Board

Education

The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA

     Bachelor of Fine Arts in Animation/Media Arts, May 2001

Munson Williams Proctor Institute of Fine Art, Utica, NY

     Associates of Fine Art, May 1998

Related Experience

Gasparilla Festival of the Arts, Entertainment Committee

References Available Upon Request