ELLIOT SALAZAR ☺︎





Designer, Illustrator & Art Director
A quiet yet witty, perfectionist originally from West Texas. He now lives and works in New York City where he is helping shape design, branding, and creative strategy at TikTok. He also doesn’t drink coffee or eat avocados – weird, right?.

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+ elliot.e.salazar{at]gmail.com +
CV ↘︎





Education
 School of Visual Arts
MFA – Designer as Author and Entrepreneur Program
New York, New York

Texas Tech University
BFA – Communication Design 
Lubbock, Texas



Experience 

TikTok
Senior Creative Lead
↘︎ 2023 – Present

Currently focused on design, creative strategy and art direction for marketing projects, events, social content and in-app e-commerce campaigns for the launch of TikTok Shop in the US.

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Instagram
Brand Designer [2021-2022]

On the Brand Design team, I helped shape a variety of brand touch-points across product, editorial, and experiential. I was the lead designer for @design, including the #BlackDesignVisionaires grant program and art directed Instagram cultural moment stickers.

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Virtue Worldwide
Senior Designer [2019-2021]

Virtue is the creative agency born from VICE, and I worked on some exciting projects with clients like Urban Decay, Beats by Dre and Cholula Hot Sauce, new business pitches, and internal projects for the agency. 

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Refinery29
Senior Designer 
Social Media [2014-2018]

Sitting on both the Design and Social Media teams, I oversaw editorial and branded content for all social media channels. If you’ve liked, double tapped, or retweeted an @R29 social post then you’ve probably seen some of my work!

• Designer [2015-2017]
• Freelance Designer [2014-2015]
• Editorial Design Intern
  [2014-2015]

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Warby Parker
Graphic Design Intern [2013-2014]

As a bespectacled intern by day and graduate student by night (I was pretty busy then)I worked on design assets for collectionsand other special collabs.

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Texas Tech University
Graphic Designer [2011-2012]

Worked with faculty, staff, and students in developing new projects for the School of Art and Landmark Arts Galleries – brochures, exhibitions designs, and recruitment materials.

• La Ventana Managing Editor
  [2008-2011]
• Rec Sports Marketing Designer
  [2009-2010]



Organizations

AIGA NY Board of Directors 
Communications and Social Media
[2017-2020]



Awards & Honors
Society of Illustrators 66th Annual: Advertising & Institutional Jury [2023]

AICP Next Awards Judge, 
Category: Influencer [2023]

#ArtOnLink World Pride Featured Artist [2019]

Chandelier Creative – Mermaid Ranch Artist In Residence [2018]

The Young Ones: Advertising & Design Student Competition Juror [2017]

Print Magazine Regional Design Award [2017]

Ace Hotel: New York Artist in Residency Program (#AceAIR)

AIGA Command X Competition [2016]



Speaking Engagements
SVA MFA Design Guest Lecturer
New York, NY

Laguna College of Art + Design
Guest Lecturer 
Laguna Beach, CA

Shillington School Of Design 
Guest Lecturer 
New York, NY



Press AIGA Eye on Design
Planoly
Newspaper Club
Brand Therapy Podcast








Last Updated 25.02.13
SELECTED WORK [WIP]





TikTok Shop
Update in progress – more coming soon! 

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TikTok Shop x Nicki Minaj

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📍 Times Square, New York

As part of this year’s Black Friday & Cyber Monday campaign, TikTok Shop partnered with Pink Friday Nails, the luxurious press-on nails from one of the world's best-selling music artists and the best-selling female rapper AKA The Queen, Nicki Minaj.

Design and Creative: Claire Nasca, Elliot Salazar, Amira Lin
Animation: Vlad Loyko


TikTok Shop Deals For You Days Campaign

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+ Deals For You Days Announcement
+ Record revenue Driver: $98.12M Enter a shopping world made just For You – introducing TikTok Shop’s first annual shopping event of the year! TikTok Shop is bringing a new experience to product discovery and deal shopping  with huge savings exclusively on TikTok Shop across thousands of trending products this July.

Design, Creative, and Amimation: Claire Nasca, Elliot Salazar, Amira Lin, AND Kewei Zhu


TikTok Shop x Rare Beauty

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📍 Los Angeles, California

TikTok Shop’s first co-branded pop-up event (and Rare Beauty’s first IRL event!) was held in Los Angeles. TikTok Shop Creative Studio collaborated with the Rare Beauty creative team and event production agency to produce this three-day activation, which included a creator-invite only day to generate content and excitiement, and two days open to the public, where lines wrapped around the block.

Design and ART DIRECTION: Josh Gurrie, Elliot Salazar and Amira Lin

TikTok Shop Black Friday & Cyber Monday

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+ Record-breaking daily revenue $100M+
+ Record-breaking accumulative campaign revenue $1B+TikTok Shop’s biggest e-commerce shopping campaign of the year. More coming soon!

Design, Creative, and Amimation: Claire Nasca, Elliot Salazar, Amira Lin, Kewei Zhu, AND Vlad Loyko


© Elliot Salazar 2024-2025