
Call me Hakan
Name: Hakan Ertan
Living in: Brooklyn, New York
Languages: English, Turkish
Profession: Product Designer
Competencies and skills
Design
Platforms
Soft Skills
Storytelling
My design journey began with my architect older brother. He invited me to his office in the summers for Photoshop jobs. The first thing that came to mind was, “What the hell is Photoshop?” After working with an Architect when I was twelve, I became a huge fan of people, art, and technology. So why not become a designer?
After graduating from Graphic Design school, my passion for design became my profession. I admit that working in the advertising industry was not my first choice, but it was like my second school. I’ve had the opportunity to work with many large global network agencies, including BBDO, TBWA, Saatchi & Saatchi, and Grey Group, and I’ve become an award-winning Art Director as a result. Many talented Creative Directors and Strategists have taught me about creativity and design strategy, marketing, art direction, public relations, and how to find ideas and run 360-degree campaigns.
I’m the guy who loves a good challenge! I enjoy solving complex problems and trying to improve things in design, creativity, technology, and life. So I decided to make a change! I quit my job, took UX/UI Design classes, and relocated from Istanbul to New York.
During my freelance days in New York, I received a job offer from a CMS software company in early 2015 as a UI/UX designer and Visual Designer. It was an excellent opportunity for me to learn about the entire complex product life cycle. For the previous five years, I had worked closely with the New York product and marketing teams, as well as the regional product and marketing teams in Europe.This experience has given me a 360-degree understanding of creating products or solving complex problems.
As a result of my work in New York, I was named a grand prize judge for the Adobe Creative Jam UX Design Award https://nvite.com/CreativeJam/brooklyn, and some of my illustrations were published in the books Drawn Book – Leaders in Contemporary Illustration and Bézier Book – The Best Vector Artist WorldWide.
