PROBLEM: Deluxe was having a hard time attracting the right people to hire to work for them.

PHASE 1: Create two distinct employer brand concepts that would align to their brand pillars and EVP. It should compliment and partner with the consumer branding, but carry it’s own look and tone that targets the audience Deluxe wants to attract.

The first concept, ‘Business in Motion’, asked and answered commonly asked questions by job seekers as a reason to believe in Deluxe. Visual look features employee imagery with big bold headlines. Messaging and Imagery are both backed by dissection shapes of the X in Deluxe’s logo, found in their style guide. The palette is mostly light in white and gray, peek-a-boo colored border creates a composition that has a modern edge.

The second concept, ‘Own It.’ was a play on the fact that each Deluxe employee owns a share(s) of the company and therefore are literally owners with invested interest in the success of the company. Therefore, this concept was based on testimonials of employees telling us how they ‘Own It.’ in the work they do everyday at Deluxe. It was important that Deluxe’s audience finds employees they identify with, so our concept boards were based on a diverse group of people that work in different departments of the company. We backed the employee imagery with a textured image that helps visually explain the type of job each employee works. The dissection shapes for Deluxe’s ‘X’ are behind the employee as a visual way of representing Deluxe backing each and every one of their employees, empowering them to succeed.

Both concepts were well received by the client, so much so that they wanted to marry the visual looks of each concept under the ‘Own It.’ copy and tone. That marriage is represented in the next phase of the project, the career site.

PHASE 2: Career websites are built on a base of core web pages that you see here: homepage, search results and job description. Each page features content tailored to where the viewer is in their career search journey, all with an end goal of converting the audience into believers and applying for a job. Our homepage features top of mind content or link-outs as well as a dominantly placed search bar so the user can jump into searching for a job opening to apply for at any time.

Deluxe also chose to create a content page. We recommended an employee generated stories page to bring their campaign to life. It features employees in different departments answering commonly asked questions by job seekers as well as a short video they filmed talking about their career journey and Deluxe as a company.

Testimonials have been proven to be engaging, help convert, and convince the audience to apply. This concept has performed well for them. Their applicants to hire as well as employee retention has increased since the career site was launched.

Although at first glance Takeda and BioLife appear to be two companies, BioLife, a plasma donation center, is a subsidiary of Takeda pharmaceuticals. Therefore, they come as a package deal and we worked on both brand’s social presence by developing posts for each of their platforms. Although we do not manage their entire feed, we create four to five social posts a month that they put money behind to prompt or run organically.

It’s no surprise that videos are performing better than static art in the current market so they are what we make the most frequently. I work directly with content strategists, copy writers and creative directors to come up with executions that solve a problem, change a perception or educate on the employer.

I develop detailed storyboards for client review. Once the client approves, I work directly with a video artist as the creative director to produce the video. Once I’m happy with the work, I share with the creative director and greater team.

For this account specifically, like I had done on the UPS account previously, I play a heavy hand in the day-to-day communications between creative, account services and content team in an unofficial associate creative director capacity. I very much enjoy doing that as I hone in on ACD skills and work towards that promoted title.

SOME BACK STORY: For five years, I was the lead art director on the UPS employer brand account managing all their non-professional/not-in-the-office jobs vetted through recruitment advertising agency, Radancy. Myself, a copywriting partner and a creative director took the account from a simple career website refresh to a retainer client and from there, with the help of other departments they became the largest account Radancy, the full-service global agency had. I oversaw and owned the day-to-day needs and communications between the creative team and other departments in an associate creative director capacity. It was beyond a rewarding experience that I learned and grew a lot from and worked towards an associate creative director job title.

IMAGE RETOUCHING: When the pandemic hit, UPS was quick to put safety measures in place. Without a doubt, they were considered essential workers and during a time when the recruitment business was slow for many companies, UPS was hiring more than ever. We were in a time deemed ‘perpetual peak season’, when the hiring peak prior to the pandemic only took place during the holiday season.

We needed to push harder and put more out to reach as many candidates as possible at this time.. Anything hitting the market from that point forward had to show appropriate imagery for the time we were living in. All UPS employees had to be depicted wearing masks. Armed with a UPS image library and masks shot against a white backdrop in different angles, I created a few images that would get us through immediate needs, while we waited for new images from a photoshoot. But as the pandemic raged on, a photoshoot was deemed unsafe so it was canceled.

It was at that point, after I had created some very convincing masked employee photos by retouching in masks, everyone realized they could continue to utilize the extensive image library if we were able to continue to retouch masks in. It kept me busy beyond belief while I worked on the rest of their collateral development, but I found it really rewarding to create, especially when others tried and couldn’t do it as well as I could. ;)

Every year, UPS has a major hiring event that they deemed “Brown Friday,” which takes place the last Friday of October. The goal is to hire at least two thirds of the staff they would need to get through the holiday season when package deliveries are at an all time high.

I know what you’re thinking, but no they didn’t want a recommendation on a new event name. What they did want was a campaign promoting the event.

You may think it's UPS, I bet they have a large budget and could bring all your big ideas to life, but honestly most fortune 500 companies don’t allocate a budget for recruitment needs like you would see for consumer facing ads.

On a budget we pulled together the concept ‘Get Your Spot.’ Spot, meaning your job at UPS for the holiday season as a Package Handler, Package Delivery Driver, Personal Vehicle Driver or Driver Helper, during the holiday season.

I visualized this concept as being a literal spot or dot that appeared on every ad as the look’s hook. The rest of the icons I illustrated, saving them money on stock assets. We pushed hard on all social media platforms creating a detailed strategy as the event approached, as well as, other ads on billboards, website banners, emails and more.

We had to divide and conquer to develop all of the asset deliverables needed in a short timeline. Therefore, one of the top video artists at the agency was brought in to develop a commercial from the ground up. He partnered with my copywriter partner and creative director, but used my idea of having the dot travel in and out through each screen. Even though I had little to do with its final creation, I want to show it to give full breath to the campaign deliverables.

When Disney decided to refresh their employer brand and needed to come up with a new campaign, it was all hands on deck to present a breath of perspective to give Disney something new and fresh for their employer rebrand.

Paired with a copywriter, we developed the concept ‘That’s Disney.’ The idea was to insert Disney’s magic into everyday life moments as a way for the audience to relate and see themselves at Disney. Lifestyle images are featured with a little added flair. Mickey Mouse painted Disney uniforms on top giving each composition that Disney magic. The idea was further supported by the copy that featured headlines like “Being able to whistle while you work: That’s Disney” with an image of someone cleaning for the housekeeping audience.

This concept went over well with the client, and made it to phase two. However, they wanted to see the concept evolve by changing the illustrated magic from flat white painted lines to Disney’s illustrated cartoon style. I worked with an illustrator to develop the final composition with illustrated uniforms and other elements of magic only seen in a cartoon on each concept board.

We shared the Disney cartoon style illustration by updating the concept boards and also created banner ad examples as we knew those would hit the market first in this refreshed campaign. To meet the deadline, we whipped together simple gifts that we had envisioned later creating in HTML once client approved. Sadly, it wouldn’t make it past that round of review. Although the concept didn’t make it into the market, it was a lot of fun to work on and I still think of it fondly.

Just like the company I work for, UPS is global. Therefore, even though I managed UPS’ everyday recruitment creative needs vetted through my agency in the United States, any needs overseas in the UK were handled by our UK location.

In the UK, UPS isn’t as well known, and therefore didn’t have as much work flow. So when UPS UK needed a campaign that targeted women, which they had a hard time hiring, it was well suited for the my US team to take on and lend our expertise in the years of research we had on this employer’s audience.

In order for UPS to retain employees they needed to attract the right ones so the campaign had to be straightforward and honest in it’s representation.

The first concept, ‘Future You’, connects the attributes of an UPS employee by using it as a definition of what ‘Future You’ could become. The imagery has an instagram quality in which it has a bit of a filtered user generated look. There’s added color, motin and feels like a genuine moment in time, giving you a peek into the real life of a UPS female employee.

The second concept, ‘It’s My Life,’ connects the demands and requirements of the job with activities and perspectives that candidates already have in their lives. It depicts lifestyle imagery of activities women already do to show them that if they can do those everyday tasks, they can thrive in a job at UPS.

The UPS employer brand in the US already leaned heavily into UPS’ secondary colorful color palette, so using it heavily for this women’s campaign in the UK felt right, too. It’s a really nice way to give the campaign it’s own unique look, visually separated from the consumer phasing ads. The copy is big, bold and in your face. We ask a challenging question and it’s answered confidently in a smaller script font giving the feeling it’s being answered by the woman featured in the lifestyle photography.

The client ended up selecting the ‘Future You’ campaign and the UK team executed on our concept.

ASSIGNMENT: Amana brand was changing their brand pillars which meant it was time to refresh and rebrand. We were tasked with creating a completely new, robust, multi-channel branding and campaign. Sky was the limit.

IDEATION: This project began as a big group and broke into three teams of three to four creatives. Many ideas per group were presented and after much discussion many were eliminated. Only two ideas were selected to move forward, the first being from my team. And thus, Hamana was born. Hamana is a sassy red piggy bank that embodies the Amana brand customer’s point of view. He knows what he wants in an appliance and extra bells and whistles just aren’t on his list. He’s all about the essentials and saving the money he could have spent on something more fun for himself.

ART DIRECTION: A team of two, a copywriter and myself, developed all the creative that was presented. When I started working on a look and feel for the campaign I knew I wanted it to feel fun, but in a clean modern way. We had creative freedom to develop any look we wanted. We could even change the brand colors, however I felt that there was too much equity in Amana’s red so I opted to keep it. I then took their existing white and dark gray color pallet and flipped it to make gray more prominent instead. To keep the gray from feeling too heavy I broke it up by creating patterns out of the icons I developed. I chose a hand written font for a personalized feel and followed suit by illustrating icons in the same way.

In terms of program deliverables, online we had a landing page, banners, proposed contest and engagement platforms, videos, games and informational pieces. Off-line deliverables included sales associate pieces, P-O-P, PR events and a post-purchase marketing strategy. Hamana’s jumping off point started with the development of the hub page. This is where a customer would meet and engage with Hamana to learn about a proposed contest as well as our new brand pillars. Also included on the page were fun videos and a social aspect to help build brand awareness.

ASSIGNMENT: To further deliver on Amana brand pillars of eco friendly and cost-efficient savings, the brand teamed up with Boss Controls to create a Smart Plug Program for appliances. This program would allow customers to plug their Amana appliance into the Boss plug and monitor their energy consumption using a mobile app. This program was initially designed for testing purposes in a small market (three stores) to determine if this added benefit would help sell Amana appliances.

I teamed up with another art director and a copywriter to ideate direction and design for the plug materials, and produce quick-turn deliverables. I would personally handle all the materials that went to print while the other designer focused on the web/mobile experience.

ART DIRECTION: With this being a new program, I wanted to make the materials engaging and playful so they would have a greater presence on the sales floor. After realizing the plug itself looked like a face, I had fun adding talk bubbles to further bring the plug to life. This direction was also applied to the interactive piece to deliver a cohesive program.

Since this was to be tested in only three stores, Amana brand was willing to expand their budget in order to best jumpstart the program. A training box was developed to house all the printed materials that would be delivered to the stores. This was to get the associates informed and excited about the program, as well as explain how the program itself would help them sell more appliances. Included inside the box was a program guide, customer redemption card, P-O-P and a Boss plug for in-store demonstrations.

ASSIGNMENT: Tasked with completing a photoshoot by providing retouching direction and using the finished assets to create an associate training guide for Kenmore brand’s new dishwasher launch.

ART DIRECTION: While taking over the photoshoot to manage retouching, I was immediately struck by the beautiful photography. Inspired by the imagery, when it came time to design the associate training guide, I knew I wanted to make something clean and elegant that let the feature images do the talking. This was a challenge given there were so many feature touch points the client wanted to include.

I found a nice balance between design and content that not only pleased the client, but had our other agencies talking, too. The guide had been so well received that it was passed around as a “go-by” for Kenmore brand training guides. Within a few months, it made a full circle when it was presented back to the company as a reference for future materials. Once they came to find out that it was developed within my agencies walls, our clients were reassured that they were in good hands.

ASSIGNMENT: Kenmore brand wanted a new, easier-to-digest quick start guide for their top-load washing machines. It was a very quick turnaround project, with us being given only one work day to complete.

DESIGN: We were given creative freedom to design the guide as we saw fit. I love vector illustrating and saw this as an excellent opportunity to break out of the Kenmore photography mold and do something fun by illustrating and adding color. The color coding and numbered sections make it easy to follow, while the bright colors and fun illustrations make it an engaging experience.

ASSIGNMENT: Create a content driven, monthly e-newsletter that would engage and inform the Kenmore community, as well as customers post purchase. This piece serves as continual communication for the brand and a value added experience for readers by featuring content for cooking, cleaning and living.

ART DIRECTION: Kenmore newsletters are so much fun to design. Each newsletter is open in terms of direction and theme allowing us to give our own input on what we think our subscribers would want to see. Working with a copywriter, we gear each newsletter according to season and the user generated content we receive from our lifestyle bloggers, Kenmore brand executive chef Kari Karch, and recipes from the Kenmore branded site cookmore.com. A Kenmore newsletter wouldn’t be complete without weaving in appliance sales. To make sure the piece didn’t turn into a hard sell, we baked the content in with the rest of the layout and content.

When I first started work on the newsletters they were a beast of information, but we made leaps and bounds to push the designs to a more streamlined mobile friendly experience.

ASSIGNMENT: Kenmore brand was coming out with a new line-up of eight different side-by-side refrigerators. Set design, photography and printed promotional materials were needed to get them launched. The timeline was aggressive and because it was my first launch, I had the guidance of another art director.

ART DIRECTION: The process started with developing two completely different set designs. Once the client chose one, it quickly went into production. I teamed with a set design crew to pick final set materials. I also teamed up with a stylist for the scene propping and model hiring. With senior guidance I worked with photographers and retouchers to give art direction throughout the process.

Because of the aggressive timeline I had to developing a training guide while our set builders completed the kitchen for our photoshoot. This was very challenging given I didn’t have the final images in had, but throughout the project I demonstrated my ability to roll with the punches and keep the project moving even when there were gaps in information.

Promotional materials were developed simultaneously with photo in order to hit our deadline. P-O-P (point of purchase material) and a training guide was developed to educate associates and give our new products and their highlighted features presence on the sales floor. The P-O-P took on a realistic look. We wanted customers to be able to visualize the 10 pizzas that could fit in their freezer with the space saver ice machine in the freezer door, the two one-gallon sized shelves in the refrigerator door and the 140 oranges the two crisper bins could hold.

Informational feature step-up cards were also created. These live under the flap where the price is displayed. Kenmore brand offered eight different side-by-side models in their lineup. These cards acted as a quick-glance at the features available on the model. Because we knew that it’s extremely unlikely to get a customer who is looking at a lower end model to jump up to the highest end model, we purposely included only the features of the two upgraded models from the one they were currently looking at. We successfully informed customers that by spending just a little bit more, they could “step-up” and get more features.

This was a very rewarding and fun project to lead, I learned a lot in this experience.

ASSIGNMENT: After a customer demand for a dishwasher that had both the control of a traditional console and the beauty of a hidden display, Kenmore brand launched a line-up of hybrid models which were the first of their kind. A copywriter and myself worked as a team to develop promotional and educational materials.

ART DIRECTION: The project began with a photoshoot in which I designed a kitchen that the dishwasher would be shot in. It was a blank slate and I had complete creative freedom, all the way down to floor layout. Once the client approved the set design I worked with a set developer and stylist to bring it to life. Photography followed suit once construction was completed. I developed a shotlist and oversaw the photography and retouching of all images in the launch.

This dishwasher being the first of its kind, Kenmore brand needed to educate their sales associates as well as customers on the sales floor. A educational flyer, pocket guide and sign holder card (which lives in the same holder as the pricing information) were developed. My favorite piece from all the developed materials is the pocket guide, which answered the clients specific ask of a sales tool. Since it was designed to fit inside the lanyard of an associates name tag they were able to carry the information around with them at all times, making it easy to share with customers on the floor. When the front is closed you are able to see the two traditional consoles on each half with the words “style meets function,” alluding to a new dishwasher style. Then as the piece begins to be unfolded, you are introduced to the new model type. The back of this piece explains the status bar light as well, which is a key visual since the model would not be plugged in on the sales floor.

ASSIGNMENT: Storyboard one 30-second video per feature, for the two new innovative features on the new Kenmore brand dishwasher lineup. The videos were made to live on the brand YouTube page, product page, an informational innovations page on Kenmore.com and their monthly electronic newsletter.

ART DIRECTION: Since these were new powerful features, I wanted the video to be bold, but with a modern feel. Not as soft as past Kenmore brand videos had been.

Starting in, I found this project challenging me in ways that I hadn’t worked in before. Since this was my first time working on video, I had to adapt my brain and make myself think in a different way that I had ever done before while working on print. With some guidance, I developed the storyboards that were then completed by a video production team. The fresh, modern take I had concepted for these came out as I had envisioned, which is some pretty exciting stuff!

ASSIGNMENT: Refresh and bring the Amana brand online Appliance 101 up to date.

DESIGN: During this assignment, Amana brand’s website was in transition. There were issues with consistency on the site, with the Appliance 101 pages being the one of the most out of date aspects. This was a very information heavy piece, so going in I wanted to break down the information to make it as easy to digest as possible for the readers. Iconography was applied when necessary and the style was updated on each category page for a cohesive experience.