Hi, I’m Valerie. Right now I'm a UX writer and content strategist in Adobe’s in-house creative agency working on their homepage. After being a copywriter for 7 years, a UX writer for 2, and a professional writer for 12, my greatest skill is my versatility. Pithy ad copy, well-researched case studies, strategic UX microcopy, I’ve done it all.
I'm also a filmmaker. My first narrative short, Strawberry Milk, is in post-production and will soon be introduced to the festival circuit. In a former life, I was a music journalist for MTV and NYLON, a tour marketer for the indie record label Polyvinyl Records, and a publicist for the San Francisco International Film Festival. I like to stay busy, sharp, and creative.
Clients past and present: Adobe, Salesforce, Figma, San Francisco Film Society, Patreon, and Tolleson Design.
Bylines: Women's Health Magazine (print), NYLON (print), MTV, Pitchfork, Time Out SF, Paste Magazine, KQED Arts, and a few others.
While a creative on Salesforce’s Customer Success team, I was in charge of copy for their quarterly release announcements that went out to customers. Emails were customized by user persona, as well as how far along they were in the set-up process.
Affordable opulence is the ultimate oxymoron, especially when dealing with Bay Area housing. Yet that was the tone I conveyed while writing about The Cove at Marina Bay, a $300k+ condo development in Richmond, CA. Contracted by real estate giant Polaris Pacific, I led the initial charge of introducing homebuyers to their future staycations via a multi-month email marketing campaign.
Teaming up with the Hornblower designers to conceptualize multiple email marketing campaigns proved to be one of the most fun creative challenges I’ve come across. From stop-motion Easter eggs to tongue-in-cheek puns, we stretched ourselves while always keeping the audience’s desires in mind.
Zingle, a messaging platform Medallia acquired in 2019, had the enviable hurdle of needing to expand into multiple verticals fast. After becoming HIPAA-compliant, Zingle was ready to launch a Healthcare webpage. I also wrote copy for their property management and veterinary verticals.
I wrote copy for the majority of Studio TK’s “magalog,” a product catalog/magazine showcased at Chicago’s 2019 NeoCon, the largest interior design conference in the country.
As part of Hornblower Cruises 360 marketing campaigns, I was tasked with coming up with web copy. One of my favorite aspects of working at Hornblower was diving into the vastly different audiences for each series of events.
L. is a female-run organic tampon and condom manufacturer that can be found in major retailers. They give back on a 1:1 model — for every L. product sold, they donate another to a female entrepreneur in a developing country. So when they asked me to write copy for their Ambassador Page, I jumped at the chance.
Case Study
VetnCare’s success story with Medallia Zingle was an obvious one to document. After we interviewed the COO, I put together a compelling narrative based on the simple framework of problem, solution, and results. To me, the best case studies highlight how features lead to real-world applications and the real humans who used their ingenuity to solve big problems. Link.
Blog
Writing for tech companies does not have to be a dry endeavor. I swear. At Figma, I interviewed a power user who in his (very little) spare time created an Icon Library that was then so very helpful for streamlining Microsoft’s design process. Clearly communicating stories of innovation like this is so important in the tech ecosystem of engineers, designers, and users. Link.
SF Film Society — The 59th San Francisco International Film Festival
Press Release
After I finished my six-year stint in the music industry, I immediately snagged a three-month gig as a publicist for the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival, the longest-running film festival in North America. In addition to being in charge of television placement and approximately 80 media contacts, I also wrote several press releases. Link.
Before the festival, I watched nearly 50 screeners. These are my recommendations:
Under The Sun, a documentary about North Korea’s school system (the director smuggled footage out without the regime’s knowledge); Under The Shadow, an Iranian horror film with sociopolitical undertones; and The Greasy Strangler, a film as uncomfortable as its title promises.
My year as a full-time copywriter at a SaaS startup taught me success is hinged on product launches. Figma, a collaborative design tool that was named one of the 19 hottest San Francisco startups to watch in 2018, was no different.
In August of 2018 I led the campaign charge for #FigmaProtoWeek. The creative output? A total of four tweets, many gifs, and a blog post I ghostwrote for one of the engineers. The results? 1,167 likes, 199 RTs, and a featured spot in the Designer News weekly newsletter.
At Hornblower Cruises, 360 campaigns reigned supreme. I was copy lead for both their Spring and Easter 2019 output.
While contracting with Tolleson Design, a creative agency heralding clients such as Nike, Genentech, and Salesforce, I was fortunate enough to work on several print and digital ads. Due to client confidentiality, those are available upon request.
A mentor once told me branding is simply the soul of a company — an indelible quality difficult to measure with metrics, but undeniably essential for success.
At Tolleson Design I wrote brand narratives for companies defining their mission, how their past led them to the present, and what the future holds. The clients’ names whom I worked with are available upon request.
At Figma, I spearheaded the Voice and Style Guide initiative. This included leading multiple workshops, pouring over an AP Style Handbook, and reiterating as the company grew.
