Hi, I’m Mark 👋

My mom always taught me that a stranger is a friend you haven’t met yet, so allow me to introduce myself.

TL;DR

Mark Manalaysay is a multidisplinary designer and art director. He currently works at Apple. Originally from Philadelphia, he graduated with a BFA in Advertising and minor in Photography from SCAD in 2012. He has ten years of experience working on major tech clients and previously worked on Google, Samsung and Blackberry

---

I currently work at Apple as an Interactive Creative Lead at Marcom, Apple’s Global Marketing Communications group

Working alongside a talented group of art directors, digital designers, UX Designers, strategists, developers and producers, we create considered, elegant customer experiences on apple.com, various digital touchpoints and other partner communications

My skillset revolves around creative strategy, designing to scale, 0 to 1 and optimization.

Beautiful visuals without strategy, is like art without copy.

I take the time to get alignment and build trust with our Brand and Product Marketing partners to help set the team up for success for stakeholder reviews

I ensure that the look and feel is consistent across hundreds of deliverables; that the same story is told all the way upsteam on the home page, to downstream to the banner ads

I marry impactful, heroic creative with data science, analytics and user research to create engaging experiences which inspire, educate and empower users to find what best fits their needs across multiple touch points

I design to scale, build teams, frameworks and working models that can be flexible, easily replicated and meticiliously documented. 

We’re pretty close to Stage 6 and we’ve only been at it for a year.

The reason we are successful is because we do our homework.

Be it reading up on the most recent Human Interface Guidelines for iOS and iPadOS, having open lines of communication with our Design Systems team or working with our Dev Leads to understand the in’s and out’s of the platforms, our collective knowledge base makes it so that we rarely have blind spots.

Inclusive design is the baseline.

Accessibility is built in.

Cultural sensitivity is considered.

Be it via a screen reader or in another language, the work is consistent across the board

I have learned the rules, now it’s time to try to break them.

Challenging the established norms, doing audits, piloting new ways to do thing is something I try to do every day. 

I’ve been on multiple workstreams and have been lucky to work across Product Launch, Retail Interactive, Channel Interactive and Seasonal Campaigns in my time here.

I am someone that has been able to lean into ambiguity and turn it into sustainable working models. I love new challenges; getting out of my comfort zone is something I welcome.

Ask anyone that’s tried it, the hardest thing to do is cause meaningful change with a large established company.

From adopting new programs, to working with stakeholders to find better ways to partner with the creative team, to establishing processes the studio now impliments, I always aim to find the net positive for everyone.

I lead and manage a team of 8+ art directors and designers.

Primarily women and POC, the team’s core values are rooted in mutual trust and transparent lines of communication.

Inclusion and diversity isn’t a metric for me, it’s the default. I create safe spaces and form communities where people feel like they can be themselves in the workplace.

I talk a lot, but I take just as much time to listen.

I elevate voices that aren’t heard before.

I offer up opportunities to those who never had them before.

I take the time to know the team, listen to their needs and prop them up when the time is right. 

I am lucky to have a lot of mentors and managers who saw the potential in me and I am choosing to give back in the same way. 

I trust the team to do the best work of their careers, and they trust me to be able to get approvals and alignment from our Brand and Product Marketing partners. 

I make sure to work with the other Leads and help give them the right clarity and context to start on the work 

I remove blockers, I help assess timelines and push back if I think the team needs more time 

I get alignment on the agenda of the stakeholder meeting and work with our strategists and producers to keep the deliverables to the essentials and stay flexible during tight timelines.

It’s okay that we don’t have this comp in time, I can voice over that part. Why do we need to show ten of these, when in reality we only show two and then build out the rest?

I am a big supporter of work/life balance.

While I was raised to believe that I should leave my personal life at the door before heading into the office, I think nowadays it’s hard to remove ourselves from what’s out there.

It’s a hard world right now.

And I am extremely mindful of that.

The work will always be here, but make sure to take care of yourself.

If you’re not feeling great, sign off early today.

Go pick up your kids, I can go and take it from here.

I’m sorry that the world is making is hard to concentrate on work, take the day off I can cover for you.

It’s okay not to be okay.

But this is a resume I guess, so one huge benefit I have with my empathetic and kind mindset is, well, we knock it out of the park constantly.

We deliver on time.

Sometimes earlier.

We go into stakeholder reviews and come back with no actionable feedback. I effectively sell the work through so quickly that we sometimes are under time for our PM calls.

Even during crunch, we stay roughly around 40-ish hours each week. It’s a well-oiled machine built on the foundation of collaboration and trust and work doesn’t feel like work when you’re working with some wonderful folks. 

If you’re still reading after this, thanks for taking the time to hear me out.

I never ever thought I’d work in tech, let alone working on some of the brands I’ve recognized and respected as a kid. 

Because of this, I give back a lot

I’m humbled to say I’m an Apple Mentor, and also through Apple am a mentor through AIGA, the Marcus Graham Project, CollegeTrack and ADCOLOR 

Addtionally, I volunteer my services for mentoring, career and life coaching to younger creatives or those looking to break into tech. 

I’ve been a featured mentor on ADPList, and have been a mentor at Northwestern (Kellogg School of Management), SCAD, HOW Design, Invisible/Talks and UC Berkeley. I’m also walking distance from San Francisco-Marin Food Bank and volunteer on the weekends when I’m free 

For some final credentials, in my personal life I’ve been featured in The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, HuffPost, Agency Spy, HOW Design, psfk, USA Today, The Verge, Creative Mornings and Wired

Thanks for taking the time to hear me out.

If you’re interested and want some work samples, feel free to email markmanalaysay@gmail.com

Have a great rest of your day, and take care of yourself 👋