Tom Thorslund
ABOUT ME
Born and raised in Ontario, Canada, I moved to South Florida when I was 15. Graduating early from high school due to the Canadian and American high school curriculum's not aligning, I decided to go straight to college. I attended the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, studying Graphic and Desktop Design, and graduated in 2006 at the age of 19 with honors, a medal for best portfolio and a 3.6 GPA.
After graduation I soon joined the User Experience design team at Citrix, now a 4 billion dollar software company, in Fort Lauderdale as a Visual Design contractor. This is where I spent the first 4 years of my career, learning a great deal about enterprise design and contributing many assets that to this day are still in place. In 2011 I was hired on full time as Lead Visual Designer and transferred to the Santa Clara office in beautiful Northern California.
Moving on from Citrix after nearly 5 years, I joined the central User Experience Design team at VMware where I have been for nearly 7 years working alongside my visual design team, interaction designers, and engineers on our entire line of products, creating fresh UI's, product logos, full icon libraries, branding and detailed graphic standards.
My creative approach is to first fully understand the goals of the project and the needs of the user. I then research current design trends and work closely with my team to develop a story and a visual direction. Once I've focused on a vision, I jump into an introverted, right brain fueled, design vortex until I emerge with a piece I'm proud to present to my team.
With 15 years of industry experience, on top of many years in public speaking and performing live as a musician (charting on college radio and winning Best New Album in South Florida), I am able both to lead, collaborate, and present designs and ideas effectively with my team members, always open to take whatever critique or ideas I'm offered to heart and work them into pleasing new directions.
Thank you for taking the time to explore my career. Please feel welcome to reach out and connect!