Curriculum Vitae
Santiago
Valencia Vera
Brand systems, wayfinding, retail. And the software that runs them.
Graphic designer and art director with twenty years of experience in visual identity, wayfinding and retail. My work connects brands with the places and services people use, from institutional environments to the Centro de Experiencias at Distrihogar. I combine creative direction with hands-on design and build tools that help teams put that work into practice.
Based in
New York, USA / Medellín, Colombia
Practicing since
2005
Languages
Spanish · English (B2)
Experience
Jun 2022–Present
Chief of Consumer Experience
Distrihogar · La Estrella, Colombia
- Garment label system: rebuilt the data and standards behind the artwork. About thirty minutes per label down to about one, six daily users, three departments on a written standard.
- Internal software the team runs on: launch planning, headless publishing, catalog image production, product information management.
- Centro de Experiencias: a small-format store built as an experiment. It matched the sales of larger traditional stores with less floor space, and recovered customers who never migrated to e-commerce.
Jan 2021–Jun 2022
Brand & Communications Lead
Distrihogar · Medellín, Colombia
- Brand communications and creative design at Distrihogar.
Feb 2018–Jun 2021
Graphic Designer / Textile
Distrihogar · Medellín, Colombia
- Graphic and textile design for home and apparel, informed by global trends.
Jul 2008–Jun 2022
Creative Director
Estrategia y Estructura de Marca · Medellín, Colombia
- Wayfinding for Ruta N Medellín, Dream Plaza Panama, Viva Centros Comerciales.
- Brand strategy and corporate identity work for institutional clients.
2005–2013
Wayfinding designer · Client projects
Client: Universidad de Antioquia · Medellín, Colombia
- Single visual identity system adapted to four building typologies.
- Edificio de Extensión, Posgrados, IPS León XIII, Sede Oriente.
- Designed governance that scaled to future buildings without author intervention.
Selected work
- Garment label generation system at Distrihogar. A backlog of several hundred labels replaced in a single export.
- Ruta N Medellín wayfinding. One system across a 65,000 m² innovation district.
- IPS León XIII bilingual clinical signage. 29 rooms, 87 patient-care signs.
- Sede Oriente botanical wayfinding. Yarumo, Roble, Nogal, Chagualo, Caunce, Candelo.
Disciplines
- Brand strategy
- Wayfinding systems
- Phygital retail
- Corporate identity
- Art direction
- Consumer experience
- Internal software
- Data standards
Stack
Adobe Creative Cloud · Illustrator · Photoshop · InDesign · TypeScript · Next.js · Postgres · n8n · LLM pipelines
Education
Sep 2021
Senior Management Program in Digital Sales
ESIC Business & Marketing School
2010
Postgraduate studies in Corporate Identity Design and Application
ELISAVA, Escola Superior de Disseny · Barcelona
2002–2006
Graphic Design
Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana