ART DIRECTOR
SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS
SAN JOSE CA
Aaron Llavore is in his sixth season with the 49ers and currently serves as the team’s Art Director. In his role, Llavore manages the 49ers graphic design team and oversees the creation of all creative assets seen across 49ers and Levi’s Stadium digital and social media platforms. He is an emerging leader in design and creative thinking among the most recognizable brands in sports.
As a huge advocate for maximizing his employee’s creative freedom and ideal ways of learning new skills, Llavore has grown a tight-knit group of 49ers designers with a knack for creating unique, expressive, and ownable 49ers brand campaigns. Most recently, he has empowered his team to design the 49ers “Faithful to The Bay” and 75th Anniversary season campaigns.
Faced with a lack of resources throughout childhood, Aaron taught himself how to play multiple musical instruments by ear, and he strongly believes that this do-it-yourself approach to learning and chasing “a creative spark” has shaped his idea of amplifying creativity as a professional. A 15-year veteran of graphic and creative design, Llavore has worked with major league sports teams and Bay Area startups including the Golden State Warriors, e2k Events and Entertainment, and TuneIn. Llavore graduated from San Jose State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Design Studies, with an emphasis on Graphic Design. He currently resides in San Jose with his wife Melani, his 5-yearold son Ronin, and 6-month-old daughter Lana.
Looking forward, are you optimistic about the role of graphic design in business and society?
Graphic design is entering a unique territory in business, culture, and causes because the new challenges we have are quite complex. We live in a rapid information age, but messages still have a lot of layers to them. We can lean on design to help simplify the message while still getting our points across. Graphic design helps keep our messages deliberate.
Have the challenges of the past two years changed the way you approach your work?
What really became even more important to me as a leader is practicing true empathy and awareness. With all that’s happening around us, you never know what a person is going through personally. I think trying to be more aware of your surroundings and recognizing non-verbals are just as important as written or verbal communication.
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