Michelle Goldsmith

Brand Transformation Leader | Creative Direction • Brand Strategy & Systems

Cleveland, Ohio, United States

About

I help organizations evolve trusted brands, from iconic consumer companies to global enterprise organizations, by building brand systems that create clarity, consistency, and growth. Over the past 20+ years, I've helped shape brands across both consumer and enterprise environments—from contributing to the evolution of Progressive's iconic brand identity to leading Hyland's global brand transformation. My work spans creative direction, integrated marketing, executive storytelling, experiential design, and scalable brand systems that enable teams to create with greater clarity, consistency, and confidence. I enjoy bringing together marketing, communications, product, and executive leadership to transform strategy into meaningful brand experiences. Whether developing integrated campaigns, leading enterprise brand evolution, or building the creative systems that help organizations scale, I'm motivated by creating alignment, simplifying complexity, and enabling great work to happen. The most rewarding part of my career has been helping organizations build brands people trust while creating environments where creative teams can do their best work. I believe the strongest brands are built through clarity, collaboration, and a shared vision—and that creativity is at its best when it helps people feel more confident, connected, and inspired.

Experience

  • Hyland (12 yrs)
    • Brand Creative Director
      Apr 2023 - Present · 3 yrs 4 mos

      • Lead Hyland's global brand, evolving it into a cohesive, scalable system that connects marketing, communications, product, and partnerships across the organization. • Led an enterprise-wide rebrand and global rollout across 180+ internal creators and agency partners, establishing a unified and adaptable brand system designed for growth. • Built the connective tissue across Brand, Marketing, Communications, and Product to ensure consistent expression and alignment across customer and employee touchpoints. • Defined and evolved Hyland's visual identity, voice, and messaging to align with business strategy, market positioning, and changing audience needs. • Developed modular design frameworks and enablement tools that empowered teams to move faster, execute with greater flexibility, and reduce reliance on stock assets. • Established Brand Central as a hub for templates, guidelines, training, and self-service resources, driving adoption and consistency across the organization. • Directed global campaigns across priority markets, translating go-to-market priorities into cohesive brand storytelling and measurable impact. • Led high-visibility sponsorship activations, including partnerships with Valtteri Bottas and Xander Schauffele, ensuring brand clarity and consistency within culturally relevant moments. • Helped evolve Hyland's approach from traditional guidelines toward a Brand Operating System—exploring how principles, governance, self-service tools, and emerging technologies can empower teams and enable creativity at scale. • Influenced executive leadership through strategic frameworks, presentations, and brand governance that guide long-term brand evolution. • Guided and mentored internal and agency creatives through feedback, collaboration, and shared problem-solving to elevate craft and strengthen creative confidence across teams.

    • Creative Director
      Oct 2021 - Apr 2023 · 1 yr 7 mos

      Manage a team of 10+ in-house creatives providing the combination of creative strategy, problem solving and human centered design Direct creative campaigns that capture the essence of complex technologies and solutions for various industries Improve digital experiences through development of accessibility standards Head brand identity and guidelines Develop and implement role-based learning plans to keep high-performers engaged Execute performance evaluations, recruitment and hiring Maintain a fun and collaborative hybrid work environment through in person and virtual experiences Collaborate with cross functional leadership to define and implement new processes to optimize ways of working yielding a 10% increase of efficiencies Work with project managers to ensure objectives, goals and deadlines are consistently met in a high quality manner Creative direction for the CommunityLIVE conference branding and event experience

    • Sr. Manager Creative Services
      Oct 2019 - Oct 2021 · 2 yrs 1 mo

  • Progressive Insurance (11 yrs 3 mos)
    • Marketing Manager, Internal Communications
      Sep 2013 - Aug 2014 · 1 yr

      Employee Engagement Leader activating 25k Brand Ambassadors as marketers. Single point of contact for Companywide Communications requests and large scale events. Executes top-notch marketing and communications programs across multiple channels in support of corporate and marketing strategies. Leads the creative workflow process by managing budgets and deadlines while ensuring objectives and goals are met in a high quality, timely manner. Collaborates with all levels including Execs to hourly employees.

    • Associate Creative Director
      Jul 2009 - Sep 2013 · 4 yrs 3 mos

      Associate Creative Director for 96 Octane, Progressive’s multidisciplinary in-house creative agency. Directly responsible for design staff and creative development across all mediums (video, mobile, social, print, photography, interactive) for a Fortune 200 Co. to grow the business and evolve the brand. Mentors and supports project management staff. Collaborates with all levels including Execs to hourly employees. Upholds 96 Octane’s $1.6M operations budget while managing project budgets up to 250K. Builds a positive environment that yields top notch creative output and excellent leadership assessment scores.

    • Art Director
      Jan 2006 - Jul 2009 · 3 yrs 7 mos

  • Graphic Designer, Project Coordinator at SCK Design
    May 2001 - Jan 2003 · 1 yr 9 mos

  • Line Designer at American Greetings
    Jun 1999 - May 2001 · 2 yrs