About Aaron
Creative Director. Team Builder.
AI Native.
Aaron Pettijohn
Founder, Creative Director
Aaron Pettijohn is a San Diego-based Creative Director with 17 years of experience building brands, leading teams, and shipping creative at broadcast networks, global nonprofits, and some of the most significant crypto protocols in the world.
He started in television — NBC, CBS, FOX — where he learned to make great work fast under impossible deadlines. That discipline has never left him.
At San Diego Zoo Global, he built a children's television network from the ground up. San Diego Zoo Kids — now called San Diego Zoo Wildlife Explorers — grew from a concept to 300+ hospital partners across the US. Aaron recruited and managed a team of four videographers and an editor, built out a full production studio, handled traffic and scheduling, and oversaw every aspect of the brand. Content from that network has since aired on PBS and in children's programming worldwide.
He went on to lead video production at Polygon Labs, one of the most prominent Layer 2 blockchain protocols in the world, traveling globally to document conferences, hackathons, and developer meetups. His most significant project there was Scale — a documentary following the team of cryptographers who developed zero-knowledge proof technology. The film premiered in Paris.
Most recently, Aaron served as Design Lead at SEI, a high-performance blockchain protocol, where he led marketing design and creative across the entire organization — including an internal incubation team building consumer apps. Those apps include Picasso Markets, Monaco Trading, Alpha Mach 1, and a SEI application shipping pre-loaded on new Xiaomi phones.
Today Aaron runs Paintbox Studio — an AI-native creative studio leveraging tools including Claude, Cling, Runway, Midjourney, Lovable, and Figma to deliver at a speed and quality level that would have required a full department five years ago.
He is currently available for the right full-time Creative Director role — remote preferred, open to hybrid in San Diego.
About Aaron
Creative Director. Team Builder.
AI Native.
Aaron Pettijohn
Founder, Creative Director
Aaron Pettijohn is a San Diego-based Creative Director with 17 years of experience building brands, leading teams, and shipping creative at broadcast networks, global nonprofits, and some of the most significant crypto protocols in the world.
He started in television — NBC, CBS, FOX — where he learned to make great work fast under impossible deadlines. That discipline has never left him.
At San Diego Zoo Global, he built a children's television network from the ground up. San Diego Zoo Kids — now called San Diego Zoo Wildlife Explorers — grew from a concept to 300+ hospital partners across the US. Aaron recruited and managed a team of four videographers and an editor, built out a full production studio, handled traffic and scheduling, and oversaw every aspect of the brand. Content from that network has since aired on PBS and in children's programming worldwide.
He went on to lead video production at Polygon Labs, one of the most prominent Layer 2 blockchain protocols in the world, traveling globally to document conferences, hackathons, and developer meetups. His most significant project there was Scale — a documentary following the team of cryptographers who developed zero-knowledge proof technology. The film premiered in Paris.
Most recently, Aaron served as Design Lead at SEI, a high-performance blockchain protocol, where he led marketing design and creative across the entire organization — including an internal incubation team building consumer apps. Those apps include Picasso Markets, Monaco Trading, Alpha Mach 1, and a SEI application shipping pre-loaded on new Xiaomi phones.
Today Aaron runs Paintbox Studio — an AI-native creative studio leveraging tools including Claude, Cling, Runway, Midjourney, Lovable, and Figma to deliver at a speed and quality level that would have required a full department five years ago.
He is currently available for the right full-time Creative Director role — remote preferred, open to hybrid in San Diego.
[01]
Either book a call or a send message.
[02]
Share your vision and requirements.
[03]
I'll evaluate within 24 - 48 hours whether your project is the right fit.
Send message
Book call
Answers
FAQ
Everything else you're wondering.
Have a question?
Still have questions? Book a 15-minute call. No pitch — just answers.
Aaron Pettijohn
Founder + Creative Director
Think of it as having me embedded on your team for a flat monthly rate. You submit requests through Slack or your project board — I work through them one at a time in priority order. Most requests are delivered within 48 hours. You get senior-level creative direction without the overhead of a full-time hire.
You can pause your subscription anytime with 30 days' notice. When you unpause, your rate stays locked for 6 months. No rollover gimmicks — just pause when you're slow, restart when you need me.
Retainer clients are typically onboarded within 3–5 business days. Project work kicks off within 1–2 weeks depending on my current pipeline. If you're on a tight timeline, let me know — I can usually accommodate rush delivery.
Me. Every asset — from strategy to final render — comes from one seniorcreative director with 17 years of experience. No juniors, no outsourcing. When a project calls forspecialized engineering, I bring in a vetted collaborator and remain your single point of contact.
Absolutely. Many clients run on a monthly retainer for ongoing needs and add standalone projects for bigger initiatives like a rebrand or launch campaign. Retainer clients get priority scheduling on project work.
On retainer: I refine until you're satisfied — that's the point of having me on call. On project work: I include two formal revision rounds in every scope. Additional rounds are available, but in practice, the async review process (Loom + Frame.io) means we usually nail it in two.
Yes — roughly 40% of my clients are outside North America. I structure my days to overlap with key time zones and default to async communication (Loom, Slack, Frame.io) so projects move regardless of where you are.
No hard feelings. Pause or cancel with 30 days' notice. Your rate is locked for 6 months if you come back. I'd rather you pause than burn budget you don't need to spend.
Answers
FAQ
Everything else you're wondering.
Have a question?
Can't find what you need? Book a 15-minute call and I'll walk you through everything.
Aaron Pettijohn
Founder + Creative Director
Think of it as having me embedded on your team for a flat monthly rate. You submit requests through Slack or your project board — I work through them one at a time in priority order. Most requests are delivered within 48 hours. You get senior-level creative direction without the overhead of a full-time hire.
You can pause your subscription anytime with 30 days' notice. When you unpause, your rate stays locked for 6 months. No rollover gimmicks — just pause when you're slow, restart when you need me.
Retainer clients are typically onboarded within 3–5 business days. Project work kicks off within 1–2 weeks depending on my current pipeline. If you're on a tight timeline, let me know — I can usually accommodate rush delivery.
Me. Every asset — from strategy to final render — comes from one seniorcreative director with 17 years of experience. No juniors, no outsourcing. When a project calls forspecialized engineering, I bring in a vetted collaborator and remain your single point of contact.
Absolutely. Many clients run on a monthly retainer for ongoing needs and add standalone projects for bigger initiatives like a rebrand or launch campaign. Retainer clients get priority scheduling on project work.
On retainer: I refine until you're satisfied — that's the point of having me on call. On project work: I include two formal revision rounds in every scope. Additional rounds are available, but in practice, the async review process (Loom + Frame.io) means we usually nail it in two.
Yes — roughly 40% of my clients are outside North America. I structure my days to overlap with key time zones and default to async communication (Loom, Slack, Frame.io) so projects move regardless of where you are.
No hard feelings. Pause or cancel with 30 days' notice. Your rate is locked for 6 months if you come back. I'd rather you pause than burn budget you don't need to spend.
Answers
FAQ
Everything else you're wondering.
Have a question?
Still have questions? Book a 15-minute call. No pitch — just answers.
Aaron Pettijohn
Founder + Creative Director
Think of it as having me embedded on your team for a flat monthly rate. You submit requests through Slack or your project board — I work through them one at a time in priority order. Most requests are delivered within 48 hours. You get senior-level creative direction without the overhead of a full-time hire.
You can pause your subscription anytime with 30 days' notice. When you unpause, your rate stays locked for 6 months. No rollover gimmicks — just pause when you're slow, restart when you need me.
Retainer clients are typically onboarded within 3–5 business days. Project work kicks off within 1–2 weeks depending on my current pipeline. If you're on a tight timeline, let me know — I can usually accommodate rush delivery.
Me. Every asset — from strategy to final render — comes from one seniorcreative director with 17 years of experience. No juniors, no outsourcing. When a project calls forspecialized engineering, I bring in a vetted collaborator and remain your single point of contact.
Absolutely. Many clients run on a monthly retainer for ongoing needs and add standalone projects for bigger initiatives like a rebrand or launch campaign. Retainer clients get priority scheduling on project work.
On retainer: I refine until you're satisfied — that's the point of having me on call. On project work: I include two formal revision rounds in every scope. Additional rounds are available, but in practice, the async review process (Loom + Frame.io) means we usually nail it in two.
Yes — roughly 40% of my clients are outside North America. I structure my days to overlap with key time zones and default to async communication (Loom, Slack, Frame.io) so projects move regardless of where you are.
No hard feelings. Pause or cancel with 30 days' notice. Your rate is locked for 6 months if you come back. I'd rather you pause than burn budget you don't need to spend.