POOYAN
ALIZADEH

POOYAN
ALIZADEH

POOYAN
ALIZADEH

BACK

Seabourn —

Creative Operations at Scale

BACK

CLIENT

Seabourn® Cruise Line

TIMELINE

2024 - PRESENT

Client


Seabourn is ultra-luxury at sea. That standard doesn't stop at the gangway. It extends to every flyer, email, brochure, and digital ad placed in front of guests and the travel advisors who sell to them. This is the story of how I built the operational infrastructure to meet that standard at scale, without letting quality slip.

The challenge
Demand was outpacing the system.
Templates were inconsistent or missing. Designers were handed vague briefs and expected to reverse-engineer the brand on every asset. QA was reactive. Two or three major campaigns ran simultaneously alongside recurring monthly promotions, spanning print, digital, email, social, and video. The volume was real. The infrastructure wasn't.
The infrastructure
Not a redesign.
A rebuild.
The first move wasn't aesthetic. It was structural. A repeatable workflow from brief to delivery, every handoff clear, every role understood. Loom-based async direction replaced ambiguous back-and-forth. Weekly standups kept the team aligned.
Brief to delivery
Loom-based async
Weekly standups
QA at every stage
01 — Onboarding
Every new designer, same starting point.
A structured onboarding board so any new creative could ramp up in two weeks without slowing the account down.
Introduction Video
Branding Assets
drive.google.com
Key Terms for Seabourn
General Notes
Flyer Template Explanations
How to Export Properly
How to Find Images and Maps
Naming System
Template Library
PCC Flyer
CMYK
TA Flyer
CMYK
FCC Flyer
CMYK
Tabletop Sign
CMYK
Digital Sign
RGB
PPT Slide
PPTX
Email Header
RGB
Advisor Site Banner
RGB
Highlighter Banner
RGB
02 — Briefing
No asset touches a designer without a brief.
Every client request was translated into a structured brief before it hit the queue. Ambiguity was the enemy of speed.
Project Name
Google Drive
CD via Loom
Client Notes
Offer Details
Legal Requirements
Objective & Messaging
Visual Assets
Hero Image
Hero Image
Hero Image
Product Launch
Product Launch
Launch Logo
Past Project Inspirations (if applicable)
Updates
Revision history
v1
Delivered
v2
Revised
v3
Revised
v4
In Review
Quality Assurance
Precision Is The Product.
At this scale and brand tier, a wrong disclaimer is a client relationship problem. QA wasn't a final check. It was a system. Offer hierarchy, disclaimer language, map validation, typography, export settings, file naming, image quality. Senior designers trained to support review. AI-assisted typo-proofing added a second pass.
Offer Hierarchy
Pricing Accuracy
Typography
Spacing + Hierarchy
File Naming
Convention Enforced
Disclaimer Accuracy
Legal + Compliance
Export Settings
Format + Resolution
AI Typo-Proofing
Second-Pass Copy Check
Map Validation
Region Accuracy
Image Quality
Resolution + Crop
Senior QA Support
Trained + Distributed
Version Control
Naming + Revisioning
Workflow Innovation
Friction Down. Delivery Up.
Partway through the engagement I shifted portions of production into Canva, intentionally. Not as a cost-saving measure. As a friction-reduction move. The workflow became smarter about where complexity was actually needed.
Before
Production
File Export
Client Review
File Handoff Required
Revisions
Back To Designer
After - Canva Shift
Production
Canva
Browser-Based
Client Edits
No Handoff Needed
Faster Delivery
Loop Compressed
Next - AI-Assisted Production
Campaign Inputs
Structured Brief
AI Draft
First-Pass Generation
Human Refinement
Team Review + Polish
Delivery
At Scale
The Team
People, Process, And Production.
The team scaled from two designers to six. Twenty or more creatives trained in total. Onboarding followed a two-week ramp-up: documentation, tool training, paired work with a senior designer, QA review before independent assignment. People stayed because the environment was clear. Work was scoped, feedback was structured, and growth had a path.
Structure
Creative Director
Direction + QA + Training
Senior Designer A
QA + Production
Senior Designer B
QA + Production
Designer
Production
Designer
Production
Designer
Production
Designer
Production
Onboarding
01
Brand Rules
Voice + Standards
02
Tool Training
Systems + Naming
03
Paired Work
Senior-Led
04
Independent
2-Week Ramp-Up
Growth
2 To 6 Designers
Team Scaled 3x
20+ Trained
Over 23 Months
Retention Improved
Structure Kept People
Impact
Trust Turned Into Growth.
Monthly campaign performance grew from $8M to $14-15M. The client expanded the relationship: more teams, broader scope, guaranteed budget allocation. That kind of trust is not earned by individual assets. It is earned by building something reliable enough that the client stops worrying about execution and starts thinking about what is next.
$8M To $8.0M
Monthly Campaign Revenue
0+
Verified Assets Delivered
0 Months
Active Partnership
0 Designers
Team Scaled And Retained