Betabrand is on a mission to make create a communication platform that inspires participation and purchasing through live social commerce.

In addition, we’re here to make your life more enjoyable by providing incredibly comfortable clothing, build a highly engaged community, and make only the products that you vote for.

At the top of this page, you’ll see some examples of graphic design, our homepage which features our daily live show, a fashion design pitch inspired by future concepts, and direct mail.

The second half of the page shows how far we’ve come in very little time. These examples are from late 2018 and early 2019, prior to my arrival and rebrand efforts.

I knew we needed to learn more about who she is and what makes her her. After leading a few design sprints and community outreach, we were able to tighten our focus, establish our point of view, and connect with her more directly.

If you’d like to learn more, we are live every day Monday through Friday. During this time we chat with her, answer any questions, run through some styling ideas, show our personality, and drive the highest engagement of any ecomm company in the US.

NatureBox Summary:
NatureBox delivers delicious, better-for-you snacks right to your door (you can now find them in-store as well!). Food subscription services were such a hot trend around 2015 and we needed to figure out a way to not only stand out but to also create an ownable brand with a compelling story. After a lot of research, we developed a recognizable brand that is approachable and fun while expressing our commitment to high-quality (in both our snacks and our visual communications).

The Problem:
When I arrived at NatureBox there wasn’t much of a brand and no positioning presence. As NatureBox became more popular we eventually extended sales into Target and Safeway and we needed to evolve the packaging as well as the newly-minted positioning to optimize the experience across all channels.

Because we were driving people directly to the site after their in-store purchase, we needed to create a seamless experience across all touchpoints.

The Solution:
Using data from focus groups, user-testing, additional consumer-insights, and constant testing (within emails, social, and onsite), we established a new brand positioning and jumped into strategic execution. The first step was new art direction for our entire catalog (over 120 snacks), new snack photography throughout the site, integrated campaigns (new landing pages for specific offers, emails, and social), social media, and finally packaging.

With these updates, we increased the conversion rate by 3X, increased sales by 30% within the referral program, and our packaging (including POS, and endcaps) launched in Target and Safeway with great success.

Social media became a focus because we have unique snacks and flavors that you may have never tried. By tapping into our customer quotes, we brought reviews forward and used them to attract new members and taste buds.

In late 2016, we transitioned from a subscription model to a strictly e-comm model which allowed us to concentrate on our member's feedback and quickly develop snacks/flavors they were craving. With the new model, we are also able to create more testing platforms, whether it's testing our snacks or our landing pages (copy, images, and CTAs).

My Contributions:
Creative direction, art direction, site design, landing page design, email design, attended focus groups, monitored user-testing, managed internal and external creative teams, designed in-store signage and displays, worked with the corporate team to deliver consistent but varied in-store experiences for different stores

Martha Stewart Collection Summary:
I spent nine seasons working on the Martha Stewart collection for Macy's. Through the years, we created compelling ads while highlighting her hands-on approach to every product.

The Problem:
Martha had just been released from prison when I started on this project. The challenge was to recreate a persona that women would want to reinvite into their homes after some questionable finance activity.

The Solution:
We needed Martha to be approachable again. We decided to show America just how involved Martha is in the process of creating each of her products. We wanted to literally capture her as a very active team member and decision-maker when it came to how these products came to life and that she wasn’t simply sitting in some ivory tower far from the creative process.

My Contributions:
Art Director (both on and off set), liaison between Martha’s team and the Macy’s team, set designer (worked with a set design team after my sketches were approved by Martha), pitched ideas to both my internal CD, Martha herself, and the internal MSC team, helped merchandise products within each collection to tell a cohesive story, worked with producers to ensure we were shoot-ready and every detail was accounted for (with backup plans), found and vetted photographers, stylists, and locations for each shoot

I had the pleasure of working with some of the best talent in the industry.

Photographers: Liz Von Hoene, Ditte Isager, Ilan Rubin, Johnny Miller, Andrew Eccles, Lisa Charles Watson

Prop/Set Stylists: Forest Watson, Kim Ficaro, Pamela Duncan Silver, Lance Boyd, Theo Vamvounakis, Sarah Smart, Charles Bumgardner

Food stylists: Susie Theodorou, Alison Attenborough, Maggie Ruggiero, Victoria Granof

Martha Stewart Collection Summary:
I spent nine seasons working on the Martha Stewart collection for Macy's. Through the years, we created compelling ads while highlighting her hands-on approach to every product.

The Problem:
Martha had just been released from prison when I started on this project. The challenge was to recreate a persona that women would want to reinvite into their homes after some questionable finance activity.

The Solution:
We needed Martha to be approachable again. We decided to show America just how involved Martha is in the process of creating each of her products. We wanted to literally capture her as a very active team member and decision-maker when it came to how these products came to life and that she wasn’t simply sitting in some ivory tower far from the creative process.

My Contributions:
Art Director (both on and off set), liaison between Martha’s team and the Macy’s team, set designer (worked with a set design team after my sketches were approved by Martha), pitched ideas to both my internal CD, Martha herself, and the internal MSC team, helped merchandise products within each collection to tell a cohesive story, worked with producers to ensure we were shoot-ready and every detail was accounted for (with backup plans), found and vetted photographers, stylists, and locations for each shoot

I had the pleasure of working with some of the best talent in the industry.

Photographers: Liz Von Hoene, Ditte Isager, Ilan Rubin, Johnny Miller, Andrew Eccles, Lisa Charles Watson

Prop/Set Stylists: Forest Watson, Kim Ficaro, Pamela Duncan Silver, Lance Boyd, Theo Vamvounakis, Sarah Smart, Charles Bumgardner

Food stylists: Susie Theodorou, Alison Attenborough, Maggie Ruggiero, Victoria Granof

Being on set is one of my most favorite places in the world. I thoroughly enjoy the process.

I start by doing a lot of research and looking at trend forecasts. I then move into the brainstorming phase and narrow down the ideas based on the ability to bring these ideas to life in an appealing and cost-effective way. Depending on the budget, I manipulate resources and materials to make sure each project shines regardless of cost. I then move into the sketching phase and create moodboards to help bring each shot or campaign to life in a clear way.

My hope is that these visuals are defined enough that I don’t have to say much in the presentation, the work should speak for itself. After approvals, I build the team (photographers, designers, stylists, locations…) and start finding specific types of lighting, props, and surfaces as I get very detailed with the overall vibe.

After the shoot, I make selects and do retouching notes. Finally, after managing expectations throughout the process, you can draw a clear line between the plan and the execution.

Photographers: Ditte Isager, Liz Von Hoene, Rikki Will, Michael Bailey

Prop stylists: Kim Ficaro, Forest Watson, Nan Whitney, Natasha Louise King

Food stylist: Susie Theodorou, Allison Attenborough, Maggie Ruggiero

FoodMatch evolved the idea of savoring every moment to specifically mean within food and meals. In support, we created a set of 16 recipe cards, available at many specialty food retailers, to help people shopping at an olive or food bar take their ingredients to the next level, easily.

I planned, designed, and art directed each recipe card.

Photographer: Eric Issac

These illustrations adorn new packaging, business cards, menus and a variety of other spaces, like Derby Parties. 

Below are a variety of designs I created over a few decades that range from corporate logos to packaging to restaurant logo/signage.

Macy's Culinary Council celebrated it's 10th Anniversary in 2013. In honor, we hosted a number of events throughout the year, including a Great American Chefs' Tour, events throughout the country in various stores, and a food truck tour.

Olivista is a private label olive oil that decided to rebrand a number of its oil products. While we weren’t able to change any structural packaging elements, we were able to update the illustrations and typography across the line.

Restaurant North, located in Westchester County (North of NYC), boasts a seasonal farm to table menu.

Renaissance Clothing and Accessories was pitched to a Detroit developer as a possible boutique to help liven up a growing creative community.

Before every shoot, I go through a detailed process of pulling all sorts of inspiration for color, light, props... anything. Once fleshed out, I grab my pencil and try to set up a shot. Sometimes this works better than others, but at the very least I think it helps get the photographer, stylist and talent on the same page. And I kinda enjoy it...