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Clear
Direction


Working with teams to
shape strategic creative
and move in new ways

Work
In Motion

Past Work: Remixed
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Works

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Small Case Studies
Big Impact

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  • Client: Global Aerospace & Defense Firm
    Role: Environmental Systems Lead

    Challenge
    Preserve design intent while identifying cost savings across a campus-wide environmental graphics and wayfinding system.

    Strategy
    Reconsidered materials, production, and sequencing as an integrated whole. Prototyped quickly, failed fast, and refined through iterative mock-ups.

    Impact
    Achieved ~$250K in savings (~25% of production budget) without compromising design integrity. Insights informed cost-conscious strategies on future large-scale projects.

  • Client: Global Media Company
    Role: Strategy & Systems Contributor

    Challenge
    A proposed renovation wouldn't move forward without demonstrating need—visually and quantitatively. Design had to be justified with clear, data-backed reasoning.

    Strategy
    Supported early-stage spatial analysis to understand explosive headcount growth, operational bottlenecks, and behavioral patterns—especially around food service and circulation. Translated findings into a clear narrative that helped leadership connect lived experience to quantifiable strain. Developed supporting decks and documentation to anticipate detailed questions and build confidence. Later, contributed to environmental graphics and wayfinding, aligning brand standards with spatial and code constraints.

    Impact
    Helped create the clarity and confidence needed to advance a major renovation. Provided structure and storytelling that gave decision-makers the tools to move forward.

  • Client: Global Investment Firm
    Role: Systems Designer for Public Engagement

    Challenge
    Enable scalable, meaningful access to a multi-site public art collection—across varied architectural finishes and long-term facilities constraints.

    Strategy
    Developed a flexible tagging system using clear acrylic plates screen-printed with QR codes (or placeholders), mounted via tailored hardware based on wall type. Designed a templated workflow that automated layout from Excel data for streamlined production with minimal visual disruption.

    Impact
    Delivered a maintainable, low-visibility infrastructure for cultural engagement, adaptable to future content and considerate of both architectural context and operational needs.

  • Client: Global Tech Company
    Role: Strategic Designer & Program Lead

    Challenge
    Support high-stakes real estate planning with clear, data-informed analysis to aid in lease negotiations and future programming.

    Strategy
    Led program development within a cross-disciplinary advisory team. Used interviews, focus groups, and scenario modeling to surface patterns and explore growth possibilities. Translated findings into visual frameworks and information design that clarified trade-offs and revealed new options.

    Impact
    Equipped decision-makers with actionable insight at a critical inflection point—shaping conversations around headcount, spatial needs, and long-term flexibility without predetermining outcomes.

  • Client: Global Financial Firm
    Role: Workplace Systems Designer

    Challenge
    Establish a modular planning approach that balances long-term adaptability with clarity for internal teams and external partners.

    Strategy
    Co-developed a spatial equivalency framework to simplify planning conversations and create consistency across real estate projects. Helped produce a detailed workplace standards guide that articulated this logic with visual clarity and narrative precision, supporting broader decision-making and rollout efforts.

    Impact
    Enabled scalable workplace planning through a clear, design-led system. The standards helped align strategy, design intent, and execution across regions.


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My Practice


Creative
Multi-Disciplinary
Strategic


15+ years across brand, the built environment, and digital platforms

Focused on clarity, systems, and
stories that move

Working
Together


Whether you’re building,
evolving, or rethinking—
I can help shape creative
systems that move
things forward

    • Identity Frameworks, Design Systems, Documentation, Fractional Brand Leadership

    • Spatial Graphics, Exhibitions, Branded Interiors, Signage & Wayfinding, Embedded Creative Direction

    • Narrative Positioning, Creative Leadership, Brand Architecture, Concept Development, Fractional Strategy Partnerships

    • Prompt Architecture, Prototyping, AI-Enhanced Processes, Advisory Roles & Fractional Collaboration

Let’s connect

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Portrait of Steven Scharrer, creative director and systems-based design strategist.

Prefer email or phone?
Reach me at steven@scharrer.co
or +1 646 598 8897

  • Steven Scharrer is a creative director and systems-based strategist working across brand, architecture, and digital platforms. His work blends design thinking, storytelling, and emerging tools to shape thoughtful, forward-moving solutions.

    He holds professional degrees in Graphic Design (BFA) and Architecture (M.Arch) from Kendall College of Art and Design and the University of Michigan. He also earned an AI for Business specialization from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

    His work, often created in close collaboration with award-winning teams, has been recognized across brand, design, architectural, and experiential categories. He has contributed to conversations on creative leadership, systems, and process at institutions including the University of Michigan, Virginia Tech, and select industry events.