Olivia Phoenix
Builder of brands and things you can stand inside. Eighteen years across Berlin's emerging immersive scene, Portland studios, Tribeca, Burning Man, and Art Basel.
Based in Portland. Brand Innovation & Art Director at GuildWorks. Working across brand, sales, and storytelling. Always making something.
- Tribeca · Best Immersive, 2020
- Buckminster Fuller Fellow
- Fulbright Scholar
- Signal Fire Arts Resident
Nine Projects from the Archive.
Across eighteen years, multiple cities, and most of the mediums. Full case studies on request.
Darcelle XV Plaza
Brought GuildWorks into the conversation for a major Portland Parks & Recreation development through strategic relationship-building and deep local roots. Darcelle XV Plaza is a downtown Portland public space honoring the late drag legend Darcelle XV — a project re-stitching Old Town back into civic life. Led project renderings, documentation, marketing materials, and visual communications for the partnership.
🚧 Currently under construction · May 2026 View Project ↗
Migrations
A 20-foot tall, 40-foot wide bird sculpture about movement, climate, and the bodies that carry continuity across borders. Lead artist on a multi-disciplinary build crew, originally fielded at scale on the playa at Burning Man (2023). Subsequently exhibited at OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, Portland), featured at the Portland Winter Light Festival (2023 and 2024), and invited to the Reno Tahoe International Arts Show (2023). Realized against significant budget restrictions through resourcefulness, in-kind support, and a tight build crew willing to bet on the work.
View at OMSI ↗
GuildWorks · Brand Innovation
Led a complete brand and marketing transformation for a Portland studio — repositioning the business from a temporary events shade company into a major player in the global tensile structure industry. Drove growth through integrated marketing strategy, sales enablement, visual identity, document and pitch design, and brand representation at industry conventions. AI-augmented workflows accelerated production across creative, sales, and marketing functions, helping generate $8M+ in sales pipeline. Delivered a 20,000% return on marketing spend through integrated brand and sales strategy.
guildworks.com ↗Works Progress Architecture
Led the firm's rebrand under the leadership of Carrie Strickland, FAIA — one of the most renowned female architects on the West Coast. Assisted in building the firm's national presence through collateral system design, conference booth design, press placements, and brand representation. Drove a measurable lift in new project inquiries and national coverage. Grew the firm's national presence on a modest marketing budget through earned media, strategic conference presence, and craft-driven collateral. Returned in April 2026 to update the firm's website, refreshing the visual system for a new era.
worksarchitecture.net ↗Equitable Banking Standards
A flagship standards document designed to help financial institutions navigate and implement equitable lending and community investment practices. Set in InDesign for both print distribution and digital reference — dense with data, structured for policy audiences, and designed to be used. Currently developing version 2.0, spring/summer 2026.
View Standards ↗Emerging Radiance
An interactive VR documentary giving voice to surviving Japanese American farmers of Bellevue, WA. Produced by META Open Arts. Winner of Tribeca's Best Immersive Experience award.
★ Tribeca · Best Immersive Experience emergingradiance.org ↗
Elevating Impact Summit
Flagship annual conference combining entrepreneurship, arts, and innovation. A 20-person live choir, projection-mapped staging, sensory rooms, and immersive education spaces — managed across stakeholders, budgets, and execution. Produced ambitious experiential programming through leveraged funds, in-kind partnerships, and creative resourcing — every dollar stretched, every favor called in.
View Archive ↗
The Edge Effect
An artwork created in collaboration with Invisible Thread for the PSU Elevating Impact Summit. Built around the ecological concept of an edge effect — the place where two ecosystems meet and biodiversity flourishes. Featured an interactive projection mapping experience that visualized the metaphor in space, designed to live alongside speaker programming exploring the theme through business and ecological perspectives.
View Case Study ↗
Future Shorts · Interfilm Berlin
Quarterly experiential short-film events at Admiralspalast, ARENA Berlin, Glashaus, Badeschiff. Cinema staged as nightlife — concept, identity, production, and on-the-ground direction.
Where systems learn to speak.
I make brands and immersive experiences for people who want depth. My work translates the abstract — complex science, dense research, ambitious technology — into something a person can walk into and remember.
I think with both hands. Sketch, harvest, prototype. I work fast and stay curious, drawing across disciplines and pulling from whatever serves the idea — print, projection, sculpture, code, sound, language.
I'm exceptionally budget-conscious. Some of the work I'm proudest of was built with a fraction of what comparable projects required — through resourcefulness, strategic partnerships, in-kind support, and getting the most out of every dollar. I trained as a systems thinker, was named a Buckminster Fuller Fellow in 2020, and have spent the last decade building things that punch far above their weight.
Recent Experience
- Brand Innovation & Art DirectorGuildWorks, Portland OR2022–
- Marketing Director & Branding DesignerWorks Progress Architecture, Portland OR2015–19, 2026
- Creative Producer & Visual DesignerInvisible Thread, Portland OR2018–24
- Art Director & PartnerIntangible, Portland OR2018–23
- Art DirectorSamara Group, Portland OR2017–20
- Creative Director & ProducerElevating Impact Summit, PSU2017–21
Education
- MFA — Collaborative Design + Systems ThinkingPacific Northwest College of Art, Portland OR2013–15
- BA — Visual CommunicationUniversity of Applied Sciences, Potsdam DE2009–13
- Visual Communication Design ExchangeBahçeşehir University, Istanbul2011–12
Tools
- Design & ProductionAdobe Creative Suite (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere) · Figma · Keynote · PowerPoint · Procreate
- Strategy & Design ThinkingService Mapping · Storyboarding · Graphic Harvesting · Systems Diagramming · Journey Mapping · Miro · Notion · Google Workspace
- AI & EmergingMidjourney · Firefly · Photoshop AI · Claude · LLM Workflows
Recognition
- ★ Tribeca — Best Immersive ExperienceEmerging Radiance2020
- ★ Buckminster Fuller Institute Fellow2020
- ★ Resident, Center for Land Use Interpretation2014
- ★ Signal Fire Arts Residency2017
- ★ Fulbright Scholarship2012
- ★ ERASMUS Scholarship2011
Let's talk!
Brand and creative direction across visual, narrative, and experiential mediums. Reach out for collaboration, conversation, or coffee.
West Coast based