Elephant Appoints Chris Hayes as Vice President, Product Design

IPG creative company Elephant announced today the appointment of Chris Hayes as vice president, product design. Reporting to CCO Chris May, Chris Hayes will be responsible for leading Elephant’s product design team, spanning visual and user experience designers.

“Throughout the past year, we spent a lot of time thinking about our focus as a company,” said Elephant CCO, Chris May. “Once I met Chris, there was this serendipitous moment where our ambitions and his expertise were a perfect match. It was glorious! We are thrilled he has taken on the role of VP, Product Design and cannot wait for him to bring his wealth of experience to our team and our clients.”

Chris and his team will be working with founding client Apple as well as a variety of brands in the web3 and QSR spaces.

Chris will also be responsible for spearheading Elephant’s creative boot camp for BIPOC students, the Elephant XD Academy, which is being reimagined for 2023. This year, the programme will consist of talks and workshops spanning Elephant’s core service offerings such as design research, user experience, visual design, motion prototyping, storytelling and presentations, and career pathing. And, for the first time, XD Academy will open to an unlimited number of participants – making it accessible and valuable to as many people as possible.

An industry veteran with over 20 years of experience, Chris has delivered digital experiences at the intersection of design and technology. Most recently, Chris directed design at Tonal, where he shaped product vision through leading software design initiatives for the brand’s digital ecosystem and led cross-departmental partnerships on new product innovation.

Prior to Tonal, Chris led creative product teams at Nike, partnering with fellow members of Nike's Advanced Innovation Collective to identify and design new capabilities and experiences that enable innovative product and services for athletes. Earlier in his career, Chris spent five years at R/GA as creative director, where he led key business wins and office-defining products in Chicago. He then relocated to Portland to open R/GA Portland, growing the studio from five to 50 people and building a product design capability that served Nike retail innovation and performance initiatives.

“I felt an immediate connection to the culture and mission at Elephant, one that puts creativity and people above all else,” said Chris. “Elephant’s track record of delivering world-class creative for clients and their commitment to diversity and inclusion really pulled me in. We have some great projects on the horizon in the product design space for 2023, and I am excited to harness my team’s collective talents to deliver thoughtful and beautiful experiences for our clients.”

Chris begins his role effectively immediately and is based in Portland.