Richard “Rigo” Gonzales
Director of Brand / Head of Brand
615-979-1107 (call or text) / richard@therigo.com / Nashville, TN / LinkedIn
Summary
I’m a brand and creative leader who loves solving big, messy challenges with smart strategy, great design, and a little humor. At CSI, I lead an in-house team that’s responsible for shaping how the CSI brand shows up. From national ad campaigns and content strategy to UX, video, and design systems.
Professional Skills
Brand strategy and positioning; brand identity systems and rebranding; brand voice, messaging, and content strategy; creative direction and design leadership; cross-functional collaboration and stakeholder management; integrated marketing and national awareness campaigns; thought leadership development; digital experience and website strategy; UX, information architecture, and conversion optimization; data-informed decision making and performance measurement; SEO and analytics interpretation; event and experience design; podcast and video strategy; team building, mentoring, and distributed team leadership; creative operations and workflow optimization; vendor and agency management; translating business goals into clear creative strategy.
Technical Skills
Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, Premiere Pro); Figma; Microsoft Office (PowerPoint, Word, Excel); SharePoint; website CMS platforms; GA4 and digital analytics tools (HotJar, ContentSquare); SEO tools and keyword research platforms (SEMrush); A/B testing and experimentation tools; presentation and collaboration tools; social media platforms (LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, X); podcast and video production tools (Riverside, Frame.io, Vimeo); survey and research platforms (Qualtrics); project and workflow management tools (Asana, Smartsheet).
Experience
Director of Brand, CSI
May 2024 - Present
Leading CSI’s in-house brand, creative, social, and digital teams across content, design, UX, and video. Our work spans national ad campaigns, full website rebuilds, brand refresh, trade shows, podcasts, presentations, digital strategy, experiential design and production — all aimed at making our brand clearer, stronger, and more consistent across every touchpoint.
Creative Director, CSI
January 2019 - May 2024
Responsible for leading the digital and design team at CSI. Translating corporate objectives into clear creative strategies and leading their execution from beginning to end while coordinating with core key stakeholders and partners. Leading these teams to leverage content, strategy and design to create excellent, cohesive experiences centered around the user.
Senior Graphic Designer, CSI
November 2016 - January 2019
Visually translating complex, data-driven products to provide unique and fresh design to the financial clients served by CSI. Supporting the team by creating website designs, ad campaigns, social media graphics, mobile apps, video graphics/editing, infographics, conference design, logos, annual reports and more.
Graphic Designer, CSI
August 2007 - November 2016
Working with team members to create and maintain the face of CSI. Vector artwork, video graphics and editing, as well as websites, email marketing, and social media. My specialty is print design, and copy layout. Sending artwork to the printers with various client work, and running pre-press for the pressman at CSI Document Services.