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Mario Foresta · Creative leadership

Global Art
Director

Building clear brand stories, ambitious creative teams, and scalable systems across product, culture, retail, and global consumer businesses.

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Portrait of Mario Foresta

Creative leadership profile

Clarity, craft,
and momentum.

Creative leader with 19+ years building brands, teams, and operating systems across global consumer, product-led, retail, and culture-driven businesses. I lead with equal parts taste and judgment: clarifying the story, setting a high bar for craft, and giving multidisciplinary teams the context and structure to do ambitious work at speed.

Known for making complex products feel clear, building trust across marketing, product, sales, and leadership, and creating scalable systems without sanding the personality out of the work. Hands-on when the moment calls for it; generous with context, direct with feedback, and invested in helping creative people do the strongest work of their careers.

Professional experience

2006—Present

Fluidra North America

Global Art Director / Design Lead

Carlsbad, CA · 2024–Present

Lead creative direction across a global B2B and B2C portfolio, shaping product launches, brand systems, campaigns, retail, digital, packaging, executive storytelling, and the standards that connect them.

  • Translate technical products and a complex brand portfolio into clear, premium customer stories—connecting performance, innovation, lifestyle, and emotional benefit across the funnel.
  • Partner with marketing, product, sales, brand, regional teams, and executives to define the creative problem, align priorities, and turn shifting business needs into focused briefs and stronger work.
  • Build global toolkits, templates, review rhythms, and brand standards that help internal teams, regional partners, and agencies move faster while protecting quality and consistency.
  • Lead and mentor designers and creative partners across U.S. and global teams, raising the bar on concept development, presentation, craft, feedback, and ownership.
  • Direct agencies, vendors, and production partners across campaign, content, retail, packaging, photography, video, and launch workstreams.
  • Introduce AI-supported workflows for concept exploration, image development, storyboarding, localization, and campaign ideation—expanding speed and range while maintaining taste, originality, and brand discipline.

Mario Foresta Design Company

Founder / Creative Director

Irvine, CA · 2021–2024

Led marketing and creative for fast-moving consumer businesses across brand, product, packaging, digital, retail, campaigns, and go-to-market planning.

Full-time retainer · HYPPE / BAY-LABS · 2023–2024

  • Owned the brand story and creative direction from product positioning through launch, building messaging and visual systems that made new products easier to understand and sell.
  • Connected consumer insight, channel strategy, product innovation, and business priorities across campaigns, digital content, packaging, retail support, and sales enablement.
  • Managed internal resources and external partners across design, copy, content, and production; established clearer briefs and feedback loops to improve speed, consistency, and usefulness.

Full-time retainer · Torch Enterprise · 2021–2023

  • Directed brand strategy, campaign development, packaging, retail, digital, and creative operations across a fast-growth, multi-brand consumer portfolio.
  • Built and scaled an in-house creative team, establishing roles, standards, review practices, and a culture of accountability that improved both quality and throughput.
  • Contributed to brand and campaign work during a period when monthly revenue grew from $2.5M to $20M, balancing fast execution with the systems needed to support scale.

New Era Cap

Art Director / Senior Design Manager

Irvine, CA · 2006–2020

Led design and creative direction for global licensed, lifestyle, sports, entertainment, music, and fashion programs—building culturally relevant work across product, collaboration, retail, campaign, and partner storytelling.

  • Directed creative for 200+ global clients and licensed partners, translating distinct audiences, cultural moments, brand standards, and commercial goals into product and stories people wanted to wear.
  • Led and developed a multidisciplinary design team through seasonal product cycles, high-profile collaborations, retail programs, and compressed launch timelines.
  • Partnered across product, sales, licensing, marketing, retail, legal, production, and executive leadership to create alignment and deliver globally scalable work within real manufacturing and marketplace constraints.
  • Shaped 360-degree creative spanning product graphics, apparel and headwear, campaign concepts, collaboration narratives, retail activations, presentations, and launch support.
  • Recognized by executive leadership as one of New Era’s strongest global creative leaders for team leadership, creative impact, and consistent execution.

Leadership scope

What I lead.

Creative team leadership & development · Brand narrative & creative strategy · Integrated campaigns & customer storytelling · Visual identity & design systems · Product marketing & go-to-market creative · Creative operations, resourcing & prioritization · AI-enabled creative workflows · Global toolkits, localization & brand governance

Education & credentials

Built on craft.

University of California, Santa Barbara
Bachelor of Arts, Fine Art · Minor, Art History
William Dole Memorial Award for Excellence in Arts

Korn Ferry Leadership University Professional Certificate · Digital Marketing Professional, DMI / AMA · AIGA Member

Creative directionBrand systemsCampaign platformsTeam leadershipAI workflowsAgency managementCross-functional partnershipAdobe Certified Professional

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