About

From an early age, Kris Viesselman has loved to collaborate with creative people — to build things more magnificent than simply the sum of their parts. When she was a kid, she’d corral the neighborhood kids to create musical productions, complete with designed programs.

In the decades since, she has held a number of creative, content and product leadership roles. In addition to some staff gigs, Kris has worked as a consultant and leads the creative group Electric Ivy. Depending upon the needs of the project, she often partners with other creative and technical teams, as well.

As a strategist, she helps teams and organizations create meaningful work, while fulfilling their missions and meeting their business goals. She also executes hands-on work across a variety of disciplines. She art directs, designs, writes, edits, illustrates and visualizes data.

Her work spans print, digital platforms, TV, film, exhibits and events and her clients and partners have included: Al-Monitor, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Association of Alternative Media, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Climate Advisers Trust, The Denver Post, Dziennik and Fakt (Warsaw), Financial Times Deutschland (Hamburg, Frankfurt, Berlin), Foreign Policy Magazine, Governments of India and Switzerland, MG Strategy & Design, National Governors Association, National Park Service, NRK (Norwegian public media), Orange County Register, San Diego History Center, San Diego Tourism Authority, The Sacramento Bee, San Jose Mercury News, Seattle Times, Sony, Time Out, Voyager Search, The Washington Post and The World Bank.

She was recently based in Washington, D.C., as SVP/Editor-in-Chief and Chief Creative Officer for The Economist Group’s CQ and Roll Call. Kris was also Managing Editor, Chief Creative Officer and VP/Product at The San Diego Union-Tribune and held a variety of senior design and editing roles at several other California news companies, including the Los Angeles Times.

Kris spent more than five years at National Geographic in several hybrid leadership positions encompassing editorial, creative and business development duties.

She has consulted and presented across the U.S., in Europe, South America and Asia. She is a past president of the (international) Society for News Design. Kris has also been an adjunct university professor.

She and her teams have received numerous international design awards and regional Emmys—and she has been on the core teams of three Pulitzer Prize-winning efforts.