About
I am a Creative Leader with a background in Brand Design, Illustration, Art Direction, Production, Music Direction, and Writing.
I value empathy, mentorship, building teams, and advocating for them and their work.
Work Experience
I work on our social, CRM, acquisition, B2B, and partnership channels; and I provide support in other verticals where needed. On any given day, I am engaging in graphic design, illustration, art/design direction, peer and direct-report mentorship, and producing/directing/styling photoshoots.
As Associate Creative Director at Greenlight, I work hard to exhibit the highest level of creative skill and craft, serving as a subject matter expert to improve work and elevate the entire team.
I take on major, complex company initiatives (campaigns, channels, pods, brand properties) and drive successful outcomes in collaboration with our cross-functional partners. I manage agency and partner relationships across large and small initiatives. I am consistently advocating for process improvements that enable the Creative team to produce the best work—ensuring sustainability and job fulfillment among members of team.
I take pride in empathetically holding myself and our team accountable to identifying and rectifying gaps in project deliverables. This promotes the quality of the team's work through both design management and proactive improvement of team processes.
As is expected in a new, growth-focused startup, I serve as a leader in broader team culture. I regularly have the opportunity to propose organizational changes to our Creative Director as business grows.
At Greenlight, I drive and execute visual assets across all Greenlight channels and touchpoints related to brand, product marketing, customer acquisition, social media campaigns, family engagement campaigns, on-set art direction of photo and video shoots, collaboration with agency partners, and more.
I work on the Creative Team (which sits on the Brand Team which sits on the Marketing Team) to help conceptualize and craft high-quality brand and product marketing assets across online and offline marketing channels. I work independently, as a collaborator on the team, and in a creative oversight role to brand and motion designers.
I lead creation of original, engaging visuals that strategically answer the brief and elevate the brand across multiple platforms (social media, email, blog, website, paid media, print collateral).
I manage and mentor brand designers and oversee their work to provide art direction that improves the work and aligns it with brand strategy, project objectives, and a high standard of creative quality. One of the designers who reports directly to me is a motion designer—as such, I bring motion thinking and solutions to help direct the animated work that our team produces. This all contributes to a culture of continual creative improvement and design excellence that we value.
In addition to working with the Brand Team, I work collaboratively with marketing managers, content strategists, copywriters, product designers, and other cross-functional teams. Though this work I have regular opportunities to present concepts to internal and external stakeholders, serving as a creative leader and advocate for the brand.
Being on this team means making time to seek out interesting design opportunities to elevate our brand our presence in the industry landscape.
I was responsible for designing, and overseeing the development of, all possible deliverables to support Kids2's house of brands. Thought leadership was essential throughout the development process. I partnered with global, functional, and cross-functional groups within the company to work through projects from concept to completion. I worked with our internal and external teams to solve business needs through smart design solutions. I managed a creative team of five direct reports that executed all aspects of brand and retail design.
I provided art direction, design, and process management for one of Kids2's brands. This entailed working through concepting with multiple external agencies; leveraging consumer insights to develop design systems across all touchpoints including physical packaging, retail communication for brick and mortar and .com, social media, video, and print marketing; managing the workload of junior designers; building and pitching decks internally and to Kids2's external licensed partners.
The new design system—specifically packaging—was approved by all licensed partners and commended by our major channel retail partners as successful. This was only possible because of massive collaboration with our internal teams: insights, marketing, licensed partnerships, production, sales, and brand & retail design.
—Digital and print design for established brands and brands in transition
—Collaboration on the brand team and cross-functionally to reach design solutions quickly and efficiently
—Prioritizing work and ensuring all milestones and deadlines were met
—Leading and participating in new concept development, ensuring initiatives are strategic
—Following through with projects and ensuring alignment to strategy
—Presenting work, interpreting feedback and solving appropriately
—Providing multiple design solutions for one creative challenge
—Creating strong design while staying within budget and meeting overall margin requirements
—Developing and pulling together art direction for photoshoots
—Attending photoshoots to ensure that photography is on par with aligned art direction
—Researching and implementing current marketplace and design trends
My main function was to sit in on internal reviews and help drive concept and creative. I also made some stuff including logos, brand design, and illustrated brand content. I oversaw two designers on projects involving branding, identity, and campaign buildouts. A lot of identity-related print media and packaging work.
Illustration, animation, and design for clients around the globe, speaking engagements, workshops, published by Chronicle Books.
Clients included: Toyota, MINI, Jolly Rancher, vitaminwater, Tumblr, Citibank, WGN America, Harvard University, Atlanta Magazine, Mailchimp, Hilton
PlanetShoes was a freelance client who I ended up working full-time for. The made and sold shoes. I styled and directed lifestyle and product photoshoots in their studio and on-location. I designed their print, direct mail catalogs from scratch, by myself. I dealt with print vendors to select size, stock, and printing method. I retouched the photos for the catalog. I designed their website. I designed their first ever mobile site. I hired two designers and directly managed them. It was a wild ride.
Design, illustration, art direction, music direction, music composition, photography, art exhibitions, commissioned fine art. No agent, no manager, no lawyer, no accountant—I did everything by myself and it was incredibly stressful, but it made me incredibly powerful.
Clients included Nike, Groupon, Atlantic Records, Sony Records, PBR, Oscar Mayer, American Greetings, New Balance
RSQ was an old school Advertising Agency. I worked mainly on the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa account, but got tons of experience on a wide range of smaller clients. Also my first forays into on-set video shoots and music direction. I had really great mentors here who taught me finishing techniques that increased my ideation and execution speed.
My first experience with full-time freelance. It was so much fun and I made almost no money.
Created art to be screen printed onto apparel. I became intimately familiar with limited-color design and prepping files for print.
Design intern at boutique branding agency. Designed logos and merchandise for various clients. Learned how to actually use the Pen Tool and Pathfinder, thank god.
Design of client promotional materials and websites, location scouting, on-set direction of talent at photoshoots, studio and on-location lifestyle photography, live event photography. These were my first experiences with "client interaction," and they have served me well.