{
"schema_version": "FinalistRerankV1",
"role_key": "graphic-designer",
"recommended_order": [
{
"candidate_id": "hello_at_mischievousdesign_com",
"email": "hello@mischievousdesign.com",
"name": "Rebecca ioannucci",
"rank": 1,
"recommendation": "recommend",
"score_adjustment": 0,
"rationale": "Only true production designer in the pool who clearly passes both HARD requirements. 10+ years of hands-on marketing asset production (banners, email-ready graphics, landing pages, decks) with expert Adobe + Figma craft and heavy DTC/eCommerce + agency (Tinuiti, BIG) background matching the client's Amazon-agency-serving-DTC context. Purely execution-first, ASAP-ready.",
"tradeoffs": [
"Center of gravity is paid-social ad creative; sales collateral and onboarding materials are more implied than explicitly shown",
"$75/hr at 20-30 hrs/week (~$6.5-9.75K/month) sits at or slightly above the $5-7K retainer band"
],
"evidence_snippets": [
"Create homepage banners, collection headers, and email-ready graphics for site and retention teams",
"Special Gathering: creating flyers, email marketing campaigns, and landing pages",
"Expert Proficiency level of design softwares: Adobe (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, After Effects, Premiere Pro), Figma",
"Swiss Gear: executed a variety of creative ads... working within their strict brand guidelines"
]
},
{
"candidate_id": "skernart_at_gmail_com",
"email": "skernart@gmail.com",
"name": "Stephen Kern",
"rank": 2,
"recommendation": "recommend",
"score_adjustment": 0,
"rationale": "Second candidate who passes both HARD requirements: a decade of high-volume, fast-turnaround asset production with real brand-system/style-guide work (authored org-wide brand systems and templates at Amazon) and agency/ecommerce exposure (Tinuiti). A genuine design operator who personally ships at volume.",
"tradeoffs": [
"Functional depth concentrated in paid social / motion / video ad creative rather than website graphics, sales collateral, and especially newsletters/email where evidence is thin",
"$90/hr implies staying part-time (~67 hrs/mo) to fit the $6K midpoint"
],
"evidence_snippets": [
"Generate hundreds of ad variations weekly across static and video formats",
"Authored brand systems and various templates adopted org-wide, unifying visual communication across L&D",
"Delivered on-brand, fast-turnaround creative under tight deadlines",
"Industries: Ecommerce; worked with Tinuiti"
]
},
{
"candidate_id": "gloria_at_roguestories_com",
"email": "gloria@roguestories.com",
"name": "Gloria Chik",
"rank": 3,
"recommendation": "alternate",
"score_adjustment": 0,
"rationale": "Strongest near-miss to fill a top-five slot given only two candidates pass all HARD requirements. Owns relevant design/landing/email tools (Photoshop, Illustrator, Canva, Instapage, Unbounce, Klaviyo) and has genuine DTC/eCommerce + Amazon-adjacent context plus creative-director design exposure. Best design-adjacency of the remaining pool.",
"tradeoffs": [
"HARD FAIL: positions as a growth marketer / creative director; design is a supporting skill, not dedicated marketing asset production (req-001, req-002)",
"No portfolio evidence of versatile, high-volume asset production across web/sales/email/collateral",
"$75/hr rate reflects senior growth-marketer positioning rather than production-designer economics"
],
"evidence_snippets": [
"Head of Growth and Creative Director at diink pickleball ... branding and product design",
"tools: Canva, Photoshop, Illustrator, Landing page tools (Instapage, Unbounce), Email tools (Klaviyo)",
"DTC Brands: Daily Practice, Scamper & Co, By The Namesake ... Lemon Collections"
]
},
{
"candidate_id": "valbonatika_at_gmail_com",
"email": "valbonatika@gmail.com",
"name": "Valbona Demiri",
"rank": 4,
"recommendation": "alternate",
"score_adjustment": 0,
"rationale": "Fills a top-five slot as a near-miss with the most concrete design artifacts among the non-passers: she has actually produced brochures, a brand book, sales deck templates, and designed/built emails. Budget-friendly ($60/hr), available, and strong DTC/agency context. Closest to the collateral/onboarding lane the role emphasizes.",
"tradeoffs": [
"HARD FAIL: classified as Content/Email Marketer; design is a secondary output rather than a core function (req-001, req-002)",
"No evidence of website graphics or landing page design at the volume/depth a production designer needs",
"Missing core design suite depth (Figma/Illustrator/InDesign)"
],
"evidence_snippets": [
"Created social media posts, brochures... using Adobe Premiere and Canva",
"Built dynamic sales deck templates, enabling the team to present their solutions persuasively",
"Created a detailed brand book to establish Mate Health's identity, including brand voice, visuals",
"draft copy, design emails, and build them in Service Titan"
]
},
{
"candidate_id": "kennanielsen_at_gmail_com",
"email": "kennanielsen@gmail.com",
"name": "Makenna Nielsen",
"rank": 5,
"recommendation": "alternate",
"score_adjustment": 0,
"rationale": "Rounds out the top five as a near-miss. She actually ships design end-to-end within email (Canva-to-Figma migration, Photoshop, HTML/CSS) and has premium DTC/luxury brand context (The RealReal, Gap). Directly covers the newsletter/email design lane (req-008) that several finalists cannot, and owns relevant design/web tools.",
"tradeoffs": [
"HARD FAIL: design confined to email templates and self-labeled 'Graphic design (basic)'; core is email/lifecycle strategy (req-001, req-002)",
"No evidence of website graphics, sales collateral, or landing page/onboarding design",
"Format versatility as a designer is not demonstrated"
],
"evidence_snippets": [
"Wrote, designed, and deployed all email content—handling every step from concept to launch",
"Moved design production from Canva to Figma to streamline creative workflows",
"Graphic design (basic)",
"high-growth luxury and lifestyle brands like The RealReal, Gap, Gymboree, Yearly Co., and WeWork"
]
}
],
"near_misses": [
{
"candidate_id": "erynn_at_ethicagency_com",
"email": "erynn@ethicagency.com",
"name": "Erynn Hart",
"rank": 6,
"recommendation": "do_not_recommend",
"score_adjustment": 0,
"rationale": "Content strategist / fractional CMO with a graphic-design skill tag and passing mentions of design/website updates plus style-guide creation. Worth a GM glance only for brand-guide familiarity (req-003) and email/newsletter familiarity, but not a design operator.",
"tradeoffs": [
"HARD FAIL on req-001/req-002: no design portfolio or asset output; design is a tag-level skill",
"$100/hr rate skews well above the retainer band"
],
"evidence_snippets": [
"content marketing strategy and execution, graphic design, and website updates and product management",
"creating style guides, messaging guidelines, and a monthly content calendar"
]
},
{
"candidate_id": "myriam_at_mckcreatives_com",
"email": "myriam@mckcreatives.com",
"name": "Myriam Gibson",
"rank": 7,
"recommendation": "do_not_recommend",
"score_adjustment": 0,
"rationale": "Strong brand/lifecycle strategist and Fractional CMO with excellent DTC context, but explicitly a creative director, not a producer. Worth noting only for brand-guide direction and Figma familiarity.",
"tradeoffs": [
"HARD FAIL: self-classified 'Graphic design (basic)' and 'Visual Brand management (not direct design)' — she directs, not produces (req-001, req-002)"
],
"evidence_snippets": [
"Visual Brand management (not direct design)",
"Graphic design (basic)",
"Figma is my preferred creative tool for asset management, campaign reviews, and cross-functional collaboration"
]
},
{
"candidate_id": "jackie_at_emailbeam_co",
"email": "jackie@emailbeam.co",
"name": "Jackie Ayala",
"rank": 8,
"recommendation": "do_not_recommend",
"score_adjustment": 0,
"rationale": "Seasoned email/lifecycle strategist with strong DTC/agency relevance and budget-friendly rate, but design capability is explicitly 'basic' with no design portfolio. Wrong role.",
"tradeoffs": [
"HARD FAIL on req-001/req-002: 'Graphic design (basic)' only, core is email marketing"
],
"evidence_snippets": [
"Graphic design (basic)",
"served as a strategist, copywriter, designer, and developer"
]
}
],
"overall_rationale": "Only two candidates satisfy both HARD requirements (req-001 execution-focused marketing asset production and req-002 versatility across web/sales/email/collateral as a designer): Rebecca ioannucci and Stephen Kern. Rebecca leads decisively as the only candidate whose profile is a true multi-format marketing production designer with expert Adobe+Figma craft and directly relevant DTC/agency (Tinuiti, BIG) experience. Stephen is the clear second — a hands-on, high-volume design operator with genuine brand-system work — though his depth skews to paid-social/motion rather than the newsletter/sales-collateral lanes. Because fewer than five candidates pass all HARD requirements, ranks 3-5 are filled by the strongest near misses (Gloria, Valbona, Makenna), each clearly labeled with their hard-fail tradeoffs: all three are growth/content/email marketers whose design work is a supporting skill rather than a dedicated production function, but they show the most concrete design-adjacent artifacts and tooling in the pool. The remaining near misses (Erynn, Myriam, Jackie — and by extension Raquel, Janky, Diane, Adam) are strategists/marketers with tag-level or 'basic' design skills and no design portfolio; they are do-not-recommend for this execution-focused design retainer. Per instructions, strong strengths in adjacent lanes (email strategy, growth, paid social, content) were not transferred into design scores."
}