Our team is led by Dawn Sword, creative director and founder of the company. Alvar Sirlin is a web designer and front-end programmer who works closely with Dawn on an ongoing basis to create and maintain our clients’ websites. Depending on the project, we also work with a variety of specialists and other firms.
Dawn Sword
Dawn founded Serendipity Creative in 2001 to provide graphic design and communications consulting to nonprofits and cause-related organizations. Today, she assists these clients with strategic communications and marketing consulting, website and social media strategy, website and HTML email design and development, cross-media consulting and brand development.
Dawn began her design career with a focus in print media but couldn’t resist the web’s potential to engage new supporters for her non-profit clients. Since then, she has developed a special interest in designing and implementing websites based on Content Management Systems (CMSs) to help clients take advantage of social media and interactive Web 2.0 site features to develop new conversations with supporters.
Dawn is inspired by the connections between the visual, technical and strategic decisions that go into designing an irresistible website. She enjoys thinking on multiple levels—from big-picture strategic planning to diving into the details of website wireframes, design comps and HTML/CSS code. Her multi-disciplinary approach and strong interest in current techniques brings a wealth of resources to her clients’ projects and new dimensions to her partnerships with others.
Operating under the belief that we do our best work when we personally connect with it, Dawn is honored to serve such progressive clients as Women Empowered Against Violence (WEAVE), International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), Human Rights Campaign, The Asia Foundation, Rosalind Wiseman, Sewall-Belmont House and Museum, CAIR Coalition and many other worthy organizations.
Dawn graduated Summa Cum Laude with University Honors from American University in Washington, D.C. She speaks German and Spanish. Outside of her professional life, she can be found hiking, camping, scuba diving, training in Krav Maga and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, gardening and traveling internationally. Most of all, she enjoys spending time with her husband, Eric and two young children, Caiden and Lyra.
Alvar Sirlin
Alvar Sirlin is a web designer and developer who has been creating websites for eight years. He works with Dawn on an ongoing basis to create and support well-crafted CMS-based websites for Serendipity Creative clients. As a designer, Alvar specializes in usability, information architecture, content development and data visualization. He has created website interfaces for large institutions, schools, e-commerce stores, corporations and non-profits. As a developer, Alvar hand codes valid XHTML and CSS and works frequently with Wordpress as a CMS. He is also capable in Flash, JavaScript, SVN, PHP, SQL and Ruby on Rails.
Prior to his work with Serendipity Creative, Alvar has been a web designer and developer at NetTheory, Courtney Co. and Two Jakes, where he developed websites for such clients as The Smithsonian Institute, The Ritz-Carlton, Crown Royal, The Jed Foundation and The Tourism Authority of Thailand. Alvar received his BFA Magna Cum Laude from Rhode Island School of Design and has since studied advanced topics at The Fashion Institute of Technology, School of Visual Arts, O’Reilly Learning and at a Macromedia Certified training center.
When he’s not creating websites, Alvar enjoys painting, illustrating, relaxing with his cats and dog, riding his bike and shopping at the green market.
Other Partners
When a project calls for specialized help or another skilled pair of hands, we work with a select group of trusted associates. Our partners range from larger firms with established teams to freelance specialists who bring unique capabilities to our clients’ projects.