Art direction / Brand identity / Print & environmental / Team leadership
Brands you can hold, walk through, and remember.
I’m Brian Silva, a San Antonio creative leader with 15+ years turning strategy into identity systems, campaigns, and physical experiences — and coaching the designers who make them.
- Now
- Associate Director of Creative Strategy, talkStrategy
- Practice
- Agency, museum, and enterprise in-house teams
- Craft
- Identity, OOH, environmental, exhibition, motion
- Based
- San Antonio, Texas
01 — Selected work
Built for the real world
Identity systems, exhibitions, and campaigns that live on signage, gallery walls, and city streets — each shown from strategy through production.
San Antonio SkyRide
One identity that flexes from tower signage to a phone screen, backed by a comprehensive guidelines book.
Role · Lead Designer & Creative Strategist
Limitless
Five distinct artists, one cohesive voice — an exhibition identity that unifies the show without flattening any of them.
Role · Lead Designer
Litter Is Ugly
Launched during Fiesta 2025 in a voice that belongs there — and kept as an evergreen platform, back for Fiesta 2026.
Role · Led design, strategy & art direction
Floods Don’t Care
Stark, cinematic art direction that cuts through flood complacency and sends people to BexarFlood.org before they drive.
Role · Concept & messaging lead
02 — How I lead
Hands on the work. Eyes on the team.
I grew from Senior Creative Strategist to Associate Director at talkStrategy by doing both: shaping concepts myself and building the conditions for designers to do their best work.
01
Concept first
Strategy only matters once it becomes a striking idea. I push the team past the first safe answer, then sharpen the one worth making.
02
Feedback that builds confidence
Honest, specific, and kind. Reviews end with what’s working, what isn’t, and one clear next move. [A designer you’ve grown, and how]
03
Guard the brand, keep it moving
SkyRide’s responsive logo system and guidelines were built to flex, so the brand stays consistent without boxing designers in.
04
Systems that free up craft
I co-built talkStrategy’s file-naming, folder, and versioning architecture with our CMO and art director, so designers spend their time designing, not hunting for files.
Years in design and creative leadership
Designers directed or mentored
Brand systems and campaigns launched
“[One sentence from a designer you’ve mentored or a creative partner on what it’s like to work for you.]”
03 — Concept to press check
Made to be printed, installed, and held
I art direct with production in mind from the first sketch — stock, finish, color, and fabrication are design decisions, not afterthoughts. [One line on a press check or fabrication call you’ve led]
- Software
- InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects, Figma
- Pre-press
- Preflight, bleed and safe zones, color profiles, PMS matching, proofing
- Formats
- Outdoor and transit, environmental signage, exhibition graphics, collateral, brand guidelines
- Partners
- Printers, sign fabricators, photographers, outside vendors
04 — Experience snapshot
Agency, museum, enterprise
15+ years of building brands and leading creative teams.
-
2009 — 2016
Designer
Sprout Marketing & early roles
Built a foundation in design, branding, and digital.
-
2017 — 2018
Graphic Designer
Aguillion & The DeBerry Group
Sharpened craft across agency client work.
-
2019 — 2022
Lead Visual Designer
McNay Art Museum
Led art direction for exhibitions and institutional branding.
-
2022 — 2023
Video Production Specialist
USAA
Story-driven video at enterprise scale, within an in-house creative request workflow.
-
2023 — Now
Associate Director of Creative Strategy
talkStrategy
Promoted from Senior Creative Strategist. Leads creative vision, strategy, and teams. [Team size you direct]
05 — Contact