Creative Direction & Leadership
Creative direction goes beyond how a product looks—it plays an important role in how a brand grows. I guide product development with an eye toward the bigger picture, identifying opportunities to strengthen existing assortments, expand into complementary categories, and create cohesive product stories that support sales. By balancing brand identity, consumer needs, trends, and business objectives, I help shape product strategies that feel fresh and relevant while building logically on what the brand already does well.
Inspiring & Guiding Creative Teams
Having managed creative teams for many years, I’ve worked with designers, writers, clients, and executives on everything from major product launches to projects with less obvious creative energy. An important part of creative leadership is creating momentum and inspiration, especially during demanding or repetitive work. By encouraging exploration, collaboration, trend awareness, and creative play, I help teams stay engaged and energized while guiding the work toward a clear creative vision and stronger, more thoughtful results.
Shown below, new takes on old ideas: Doodles for Kids — we refreshed a well-worn tween scrapbook format (previously thought of as a “girl” product) by selecting an illustration style that was quirky and fun and centered the book’s theme on Doodling. On another format, instead of going all girl, we introduced the dead. Just in time for the Zombie Apocalypse.
Shown below, new takes on old ideas: We developed new formats that built on the success of existing best sellers, adapting key visual elements and concepts into fresh products designed for a variety of retail channels and price points. Alongside these extensions, we also introduced entirely new formats that expanded the brand in creative and commercially relevant ways.
