CREATIVE DIRECTOR · BRAND + TEAM BUILDER · DESIGNER
I build creative teams and systems that help organizations move faster without lowering the bar.
I shape the vision and stay close enough to the work to help make it real.
01 / CREATIVE LEADERSHIP
Build a creative function that could grow beyond Marketing without losing quality or speed.
Seven departments, international partners, senior leadership, and the readers our work ultimately serves.
Creative demand could earn investment when connected to business priorities and the cost of outsourcing.
Create an embedded agency with specialists who understand the business and work closely with internal partners.
I built an eight-person studio, hired specialists, developed managers, and established creative and accessibility standards.
Trust grew department by department, with each partnership shaping the next capability we added.
A shared request form, queue, and clear routing connected each assignment with the right expertise.
Branding, campaigns, motion, catalogs, retail environments, and creative production brought together in-house.
Annual demand grew from 75–100 to just under 4,000 tasks, with support spanning seven departments and international partners.
A repeatable way to turn demand into investment, build specialists, and reduce reliance on outside vendors.
Make workload, skill gaps, and delivery pressure visible enough to support staffing decisions.
Senior management, seven requesting departments, and the creative team managing the demand.
Leadership needed to see where pressure lived and which capabilities would resolve it.
Connect a company-wide intake process with a GPT-assisted demand and capacity dashboard.
I designed the intake, defined useful categories, and translated workload data into an executive investment story.
Requesters improved briefs, designers maintained the queue, and management helped refine the staffing evidence.
Shared views tracked volume, work types, completion, capacity, capability gaps, and early stress signals.
Request forms, queue architecture, workload views, capacity forecasting, and leadership reporting.
The evidence secured three additional design hires and improved briefing and workload visibility.
A repeatable way to identify missing capabilities and invest before strain compromises creative quality.
Unify selected Sourcebooks Fire thrillers and mysteries under a recognizable consumer identity.
Teen thriller readers, plus adults who enjoy the pacing and accessibility of YA suspense.
Tested language and imagery had to resonate while the identity remained recognizable on shelves and small screens.
A distinctive red wrap linked covers and spines into one recognizable Midnight Reads brand.
I directed the identity and messaging from concept through testing and rollout, writing and refining project copy for the audience while guiding advertising copy developed by my team.
Creative, Ecommerce, Marketing, Editorial, and Sales translated audience insights into a workable brand system.
A flexible toolkit connected covers, ecommerce, social, seasonal campaigns, retail displays, events, and merchandise.
Consumer ads, retailer creative, trade campaigns, displays, promotional items, and coordinated author programming.
About 50 titles annually carried the brand; expanded retailer orders, a larger Target display, and a BookCon panel followed.
A repeatable brand and campaign platform, with periodic testing refining positioning, language, and imagery.
Produce six annual 100-plus-page catalogs without consuming the team’s available design capacity.
Sales, Editorial, designers, proofreaders, printers, and the buyers using the finished catalogs.
Data collection, asset hunting, and first-pass assembly were taking time away from design judgment.
Automate routine assembly while keeping storytelling, refinement, and final quality in human hands.
I mapped the workflow, built the GPT and scripts, and established templates and review checkpoints.
Sales and Editorial confirmed content; designers shaped the pages; printers guided production requirements.
The assistant collects title data, locates approved assets, flows templates, and supports initial proofing.
Flexible catalog templates, structured data flow, asset management, proofing, and print-ready production.
Total production fell from about 70 hours to 20 hours per catalog, including human refinement and quality control.
A human-led automation workflow that returns capacity without handing over creative accountability.
Evaluate DAM platforms against company-wide needs and build a clear case for changing systems.
Departmental users, software vendors, and executives weighing the recommendation.
A feature list becomes persuasive when it connects software capabilities to everyday workflow roadblocks.
Bring use cases, obstacles, and software-fit criteria into an executive-ready dashboard.
Across three DAM transitions, I tested platforms, evaluated vendors, presented recommendations, and supported purchasing and rollout.
Departments across the company informed requirements; vendor discussions and testing helped assess platform fit.
A detailed checklist connected departmental needs to proposed solutions and expected efficiency gains.
Needs assessment, platform testing, software-fit checklists, executive presentations, purchase support, and rollout support.
Contributed to three company-wide DAM transitions; expected time savings informed recommendations, rather than being claimed as measured results.
An enterprise buyer’s perspective transferable to SaaS, gained inside publishing through software evaluation, internal advocacy, and adoption support.
Help a major bookseller see why priority titles deserved larger orders and premium space.
Retail buyers and merchandising teams, with Sales presenting the creative story.
Buyers need the reader hook and a believable retail opportunity, beyond a cover and sales copy.
Pair a sharp title story with a scalable in-store concept, from endcap to immersive display.
I set the creative direction and wrote presentation and display copy, translating title positioning into a persuasive story for retail buyers.
Sales, Marketing, Editorial, and Cover Design aligned positioning, campaign support, and exclusive-edition details.
A modular preview framework connected each title’s hook, audience, marketing plan, and retail opportunity.
Preview decks, endcaps, displays, signage, exclusive-edition callouts, and presenter-ready assets.
The work helped secure larger initial orders, exclusive editions, and premium placement.
Retailer feedback informed clearer pitches, stronger positioning, and better-targeted creative investment.
Shorten approval cycles that depended on outside vendors for every display or environment visualization.
Marketing, Sales, authors, retail partners, event teams, senior approvers, and fabrication vendors.
Believable visuals help stakeholders make decisions earlier; long vendor loops discouraged iteration.
Bring rapid visualization in-house so teams can explore ideas before committing to fabrication.
I built GPT-assisted workflows, established review standards, and taught where production expertise remains essential.
Creative, commercial, and production partners aligned around the same visual before fabrication began.
Reusable workflows translated approved brand directions into displays, promotional objects, and event environments.
Retail mockups, promotional materials, trade-show booths, event spaces, and environmental concepts.
The workflow removed as much as four weeks of vendor review and enabled more iteration before production.
Visualization became a shared decision tool, improving the concept, the brief, and the final build.
02 / DESIGN WORK
Deep craft is the foundation of how I lead. These selected applications show the range behind the direction, critique, and quality standards I bring to a creative team.
brands with a heartbeat
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Bloom Books I helped build Bloom from the ground up, translating E. L. James’s author-empowerment vision and Sourcebooks’ business goals into a refined identity and collaborative creative process. That foundation supported Bloom’s Joint-Venture Authors and Bespoke Publishing Model, helping the imprint scale quickly while keeping authors actively involved in editing, design, and marketing.
Stonefruit Studio I built this identity by aligning creative teams serving audiences from toddlers through adults, then distilling many competing perspectives into one flexible imprint mark. The result is a single cohesive system broad enough to unify an unusually wide publishing program without losing its playful energy.
a new world for an established series
+I led the visual refresh of How to Catch ahead of the series’ tenth anniversary. I designed and developed the website and wrote its copy, shaping headings, page descriptions, and image alt text around audience questions, search behavior, and tested positioning. Ecommerce and Marketing were close partners throughout the process.
The experience helps families, teachers, and booksellers explore beyond the best-known titles and find useful information. Established publishing metadata informed the content. I applied extensive website accessibility training to decisions about color contrast, type sizing, and descriptive content for people using screen readers.
Business context Sourcebooks describes How to Catch as a New York Times and USA Today bestselling series with multiple bestselling titles. The brand work supported a broader publishing and marketing program; bestseller performance cannot be attributed to the redesign alone.
ILLUSTRATIVE MOTION MOCKUP
turning discovery into a platform
+In a market crowded with one-off hits and bestseller callouts, we gave readers and buyers a different way in: the creators behind the books. Authors Are My Rock Stars used a bold, repeatable visual idea to bring attention to authors’ full catalogs and make backlist discovery a seasonal priority.
The campaign traveled through trade-show environments, trade and gift catalog covers, bookstore and mass-retail displays, and seasonal digital advertising for industry, indie bookseller, and consumer audiences. The same voice and graphic system connected each touchpoint while leaving room for individual authors and titles.
Reported result Sourcebooks’ internal BookScan comparison showed backlist sales up 23% across the title list in the following year, 2016. That is a year-over-year observation, not an isolated measure of campaign impact.
ILLUSTRATIVE PLACEMENT MOCKUP
designed to be held, used, shipped, and seen
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I helped shape these formats from concept to finished product, guiding imagery, copy, and structure with creative and production partners.
Production Focus: My reviews addressed shelf fit, tear-prone pop-outs, reusable stickers, and moving parts so the experience worked beyond the first impression.
For these editions, my direction connected cover imagery, color, and finishes with how the book should feel in a reader’s hands.
Production Focus: Working with design and production, I helped resolve foil and edge-art alignment, material choices, and legibility without losing the creative idea.
These projects show how I helped turn a collection of components into a clear, appealing retail offer through art direction, image selection, and copy.
Production Focus: Shelf-shot reviews and sizing decisions balanced shopper impact with component fit, licensed language, metadata, and retailer label space.
I helped direct the opening experience, connecting campaign imagery and copy across the outside, inside, and contents of each mailer.
Production Focus: With creative and production partners, I reviewed dielines, book fit, closures, and label space to carry the idea through assembly and shipping.
attention-grabbing campaigns that move the needle
+by Freida McFadden · Paperback · Kindle · Audiobook
Discover new books and stories worth sharing.
making the intangible, tangible
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03 / ABOUT
I build creative teams, set the vision for their work, and create systems that help ambitious ideas move through an organization. I connect people, craft, and business priorities by aligning cross-functional partners, developing creative talent, and improving what the team can deliver together.
Design experience is the foundation of how I lead. I understand the decisions behind the work, know when to challenge an idea, and can step into the details when the moment truly calls for it. My goal is not to make everything myself. It is to give talented people the clarity, trust, and support they need to do excellent work.
My hands-on work spans design and copywriting. I develop messaging, write project copy, and refine the language for its audience and purpose. For advertising, I direct copy developed by my team’s ad copywriters.
My approach combines creative judgment with audience research, search-informed content, and accessible design. I work closely with Marketing and Ecommerce to turn tested positioning and audience questions into useful digital experiences, and carry accessibility practices into my team’s everyday work.
EXPERIENCE
