Freelance

2019 – Present

I work with artists and independent brands through strategy & marketing coaching, brand design, and photography.

Herban
Produce

2019 – Current

For Herban Produce I am a Creative & Business Consultant, a 2 acre farm in Chicago. Once we turned them into a thriving for-profit farm we began several new initiatives that are launching this year in 2021 - a restaurant, an event space, a cannabis operation, and coming in 2022, a landscaping and urban farm & garden store. 

I was brought on to do a complete overhaul from the ground up. I developed more than just a new look for Herban, it was a total brand and business makeover. The transition from non-profit community greenhouse to for profit enterprise needed to be measured and steady so as not to  overload the business financially. I created a roadmap to roll out the newly developed initiatives that would grow the business smoothly and help achieve financial goals as opposed to draining funds. 

• Create a new brand that works to target their ideal consumer markets.

• Ensure those new standards, messaging and voice are met across all consumer touch points, products, events, social media etc.

• Curate a brand space that consumers of all walks of life can relate to and feel included in. This was important to them specifically due to the neighborhood they are located in and the community they want to support.

• Work with CEO to keep the business aligned with the mission of supporting the community while still reaching financial goals and reaching the targeted consumers.

• Develop the right partnerships for products, events, collaborations etc.

• Create value add products, product partnerships, retail product curation, and brand merchandise design.

• Creative direction and design for event space and new onsite farm cafe initiatives.

• Keep existing and potential consumers engaged through on-brand events & programming both online & in-person. And properly utilize social media in an authentic way for engagement.

OutCold

2017 – 2020

At OutCold I was the Creative Director for all client projects, as well as internal brand creative strategy. 

OutCold is an experiential marketing agency that started with a niche focus on converting vintage vehicles into traveling consumer engagements. This grew to include event production on large and small scales. I loved the small team energy and hands on approach to the entire creative process from ideation through the physical production of the project with the on-site build team.

As head of creative for the agency I managed on-staff and freelance designers and other creatives as needed project to project. I also ran the brand content creation and executed content creation for our clients.

I used creative problem solving to not only apply successful aesthetics but also effective marketing strategies tailored to the unique needs of each client.

• Drive overall brand strategy and creative design across internal and client channels. 

• Lead the creative process from new business ideation and pitch, to design and build, and finally to execution.  

• Utilize creative problem solving to move vision into reality, be that for a brand struggling to reach their desired client, a new business pitch, or a logistical design problem with a physical build we were working on.

• Design consumer experiences and touch points - physical and digital.

• Evolve internal brand creative as the company grew and evolved from scrappy start up to established business.

• Concept and design unique engagements for clients; everything from Secret Concerts for Pandora, Plant Filled Hotel Takeovers for Orbitz or cross country sampling Road Trips in a tricked out vintage Greyhound bus for High Brew Coffee. 

• Due to the small internal team my role on a given day would range from strategist, designer, photographer, brand manager, and new business conceptor & on-site event executer. I also managed a small support team of freelancers.

• In addition to the over all event/project look and feel, I would design physical elements of the project for our in-house build team to execute. This ranged from vehicle interiors, creative signage, event elements like furniture or photo moments and decor. 

Entrepreneur

2014 – 2017

PINT

Started a self funded cold pressed juice company and grew it to a $75k revenue maker within 10 months. My role in the partnership was to develop new products, design all packaging and collateral and take those products to market with creative marketing strategies.

BAKER MILLER

I was brought on by the owners as a Creative & Consumer Experience consultant and shortly thereafter, my partner and I, signed on as ownership partners in the business. I focused on all consumer touch points, digital and physical. I worked as Creative Director and Strategist to created new revenue streams, form creative partnerships, run events, and systemize existing workflow practices for the front of house team.