What got you into designing – is there a memory
that you had that made you want to do design as a career?
Yeah, that’s a great
question. I actually started on the creative side on the writing, I was a
creative writer and journalist in middle school and high school and actually
started my university degree as a journalism major. I really loved the idea of
just telling stories and kind of creating these narratives that brought people
into a new experience but, I was the editor and chief of my high school magazine
and I realised I loved doing the layouts more than anything else. So, when I
started at university as a journalism major, I loved the idea of telling
stories but I liked telling them visually more than verbally. So, I switched to
a fine art major with an emphasis in design and I found my calling because I
think for me, it’s really about creative problem solving and that’s kind of how
I started.
Have you always liked designing even though you
did journalism?
Yeah, I was always art
minded. I think you know, at the time, 15/20 years ago design was less at the
forefront as it is today. I was always the kid that went to art supply stores
and made clay pots, I did drawings and sketches. I didn’t think you could
actually create an experience and career from that and once I saw the graphic
design routes, I was obsessed.
Do you know what go you into designing? Such as
artists or inspirations?
I really do think it
started with magazines – as simple as that. I always tore out – I had a lot of
magazines that I would follow from art forums, communication arts – kind of the
art in America. I was like obsessed – I would tear them out and put them on the
wall and create collages – they were the Pinterest days. And so, for me it was
bringing stories to life via print was my first inspiration.
You’ve been a Birchbox for 4 years, how did that
happen?
So, I graduated from
college 10 years ago and I moved to New York. I went to school in Wisconsin and
then I moved to New York and joined an architecture firm in the design department.
It was very corporate; I wore suits and stuff which wasn’t really my vibe. And
my boyfriend at the time, now husband was in a start-up in the technology side
and I would love the idea of creating new brands and experiences that just don’t
exist today. And so, I left the architecture firm and joined Thrillist which
was a start-up at the time in the media space, which was much smaller and now
is a much larger company. And I was there as the Creative Director but also
designed all the digital experiences from the site designs, emails – kind of
all those editorial moments. When I was there, they acquired a company called ‘JackThreads’
that is a men’s fashion company, and that was my first experience with digital
and physical design and I was hooked. And so, I had my eye on even smaller
companies and loved the idea of a company led by women and reached out to the
Birchbox team when they were super small; and joined when they were about 12
people, 6 years ago. I loved the idea of creating this mini brand story on your
doorstep every month and so that’s how - It’s kind of a fortunate series of
events.
So what did a day-to-day entail as a Creative
Director at Birchbox?
In the beginning, it was
12 people. I did everything. I was the Creative Director, I was the lead
designer, I would illustrate, I would design emails, I would create the box
designs but as the company got bigger, I was able to build a team and managed
all the designers that were in-house. So, the design in-house were physical and
digital so the box design moments were the print/packaging team and then the
site - emails and marketing were the digital team. And then we had a third team
which were the photography team because we had a studio in-house, and we got to
photograph mascara and lipstick and all of that great stuff. And so, at the end
of it, I was very much more like the manager - making sure that all the teams
were creating their best work. I always say my number 1 role as a Creative Director
is actually translation; it’s hearing the company objectives, knowing what the
goals are and translating them into creativity. So how do you hear about sales
numbers next year, how much we want to sell, how do we figure with those
objectives creatively? So, that’s creating more exciting Instagram posts that
people like more, that’s creating more exciting patterns on the box that people
are really excited to sign up for. So, it’s kind of how to marry both the
business and the creative together.
You also created the app. Did you prefer that over
creating the monthly box designs?
I think what is interesting
about the monthly design is that you’re telling a mini sub-story every month,
which is interesting and more of a ‘how to keep it fresh’ every month. Which is
the beauty of creating the app is you create this foundation where people can
go to as a foundation resource which doesn’t have to change every month, the
pieces inside can to keep it exciting but it’s meant to be a bit more permanent
even though it’s an app. I think they’re very different and hard to compare.
How long do you usually have to create a monthly
box and how long in advance do you have to design it?
The monthly boxes, we
would make them, we would start them 3 months ahead of time and we work on the
design probably like 4-6 weeks and then the actual production of the box will
take the other 4-6 weeks.
I’m really intrigued by when brands collaborate
with other designers. So, when Birchbox did a collaboration with Rifle Paper
Co., was that any different to a standard monthly box design?
Yeah, it is very
different because your working with other artists. Because Anna Rifle was the
one we wrote emails with and we got to talk to her about colours and geek out
about Pantones. It was a really fun experience so it is really different in
terms of that process because you’re dealing with her brand and that’s her baby,
but you’re also dealing with the Birchbox brand and that’s our baby and so, how
do you combine those two visualisations into something we know our customers at
Birchbox would like, but also keeps the elevation and polish that Rifle Paper
kind of has in their brand? So, it’s just more collaborative and also is more
creative because you have another mind thinking about it.
Did you ever do any freelance work outside of Birchbox?
I really didn’t do a lot
of freelance work at Birchbox; we were very busy but I did do freelance world
when I was at the architecture firm and Thrillist, which ranged from logos and
print design to site designs.
You were really successful in both businesses as
you were Creative Director at both. What made you want to open your own studio?
I’m not sure the start
up scene is where you are but, it’s very obvious Silicon Valley in San
Francisco is the number 1 spot, but New York is hot on its heels as a close
second. So we have a lot of new kind of brands in New York and entrepreneurs
and founders that are really passionate about what they looking to launch. Some
of my favourite memories at Birchbox were in the early stages where we were
creating something we don’t know if it’s going to work, and we love this idea
of designing with thoughtfulness but in fresh ways. And so, I miss having that
when I left Birchbox a year and a half ago, the company is 300 people and when
I joined it was 12 so it was a very different landscape.
Was it more difficult towards the end as there
were more employees?
Yeah, exactly, it was a
little bit more – it has to scale because of that size of 300 people when you
have more meetings, more structure to help the business move along but it also
misses that scrappiness that I like and so when I left, I launched Communal
Creative about a year and a half ago, the idea was to how to bring all that
in-house creative direction design thinking, the idea that we can pop on a
whiteboard, design live and design out of house for start-ups.
How big is your team at Communal Creative?
So, we are small. We are
a 3 person team. But we would most likely get larger this year but we do use a
lot of freelancers since there’s 3 people, we have copyrighters, UX designers
and a couple others that help out like photographers, studios so it always
feels bigger than we are.
Do you think working at your own studio is more
difficult than working for someone else?
It has its ups and
downs. Birchbox is so wonderful, the founders Hayley and Katia are so
supportive and were instrumental in helping me grow and I think it allowed me
the confidence to do this now. I wouldn’t have felt as capable without that
experience and so it’s different. I really like the challenge of figuring
things out so as a founder, I get to do that both visually but also business
wise and being able to pitch our work to clients, and knowing we’re so proud of
it, and by the end of the day, yes of course we care about the clients and we want
them to feel great but we also want great work. And so what’s exciting is that
we get to design for lots of different types of companies, and that’s something
that is a little bit different and more unique than being in-house like
Birchbox because you’re talking about the same products whereas, we get to
balance between dog food and fashion design and light bulbs, so it keeps it
fresh.
How do you get clients? Do you pitch to them or
do they come to you?
So, when we launched, so
fortunate to have many years in this space, that I emailed everyone that I knew
and I was like “We’re starting this new idea, how can we help you create your
design dreams?” So we started small and then as we were able to publish more
work and get out there we’ve been so fortunate to have referrals from our
clients and then we just have a lot of people finding us on the internet which
is unique.
What is you company ethos at Communal Creative?
Like who are we as our
spirit? It’s an interesting question. It’s something we work on all the time
because part of it is creating brands for other people, but we also are a brand
and so for us, designing for ourselves our differentiator really is our
partnership and how we listen to clients. We act like an in-house team and so
we kind of become obsessed with the products if we’re talking about fashion
design, become obsessed with the bag or whatever it is. We have a client right
now that’s in the food space so we just spent yesterday morning at the grocery
store looking at the competitors and then we had a whole taste test in the
afternoon before designing illustrations and packaging. So that’s kind of what
our spirits all about, we are just passionate about creating great design and
then they give us the content to create around.
What type of design do you like creating the
most?
We really focus on brand
identity so it’s everything from someone just raised some money and has an idea
and then we bring them to live, to somebody who has just launched a couple
years ago and never really able to focus on that experience, we help them
refine it. There’s obviously an expertise in packaging because of Birchbox and
so were able to provide that service. But really at the core, it’s about
creating that brand story. I don’t know if you’ve seen on the site but there’s
a company called ‘Ollie’ which is a dog company, we started with them before
they had a name, they had raised some money to start a ‘natural food’ for dogs
idea and then we helped them from the very beginning.
Did you help with their name?
So, we were part of that
process, so what ended up happening is that they had 3 names, and we designed 3
different logos and identities for each one and they picked based off those
visuals.
What would you say was your favourite project so
far?
They’re all so
different. That’s the beauty of having the different teams and the different
projects to work on ‘Ollie’ is a great example because it was so holistic. It
was the brand and the identity, it was the site design, it was the packaging
system, we even helped them with their launch party so that is very top of the list
but each client is very its own kind of exciting adventure.
Have you ever experienced any difficulties in
being a designer? How did you overcome them?
Yeah absolutely! Yeah,
this is something I think you probably have encountered as you continue on with
your career. It’s really hard to explain – so there are two things,
One - It’s challenging
to explain design and creative to someone who isn’t in that world and so the
faster you figure out how to explain your work in a way that can translate to
someone like marketing or someone in sales or someone on the editorial team,
the more you’ll gain from each others knowledge and so that’s something that’s
always helped.
But the stickiest point
I’ve found when designing or creatively thinking is that it’s not a light
switch, it’s not “Oh! Tomorrow I’ll have the best idea ever! And I’ll design it
and it’ll be perfect”, you kind of have to let it – or at least for me – you
have to let it find me. Of course you can make an email, make a box design I
can go to my go-to design expertise and be able to execute on that however, if
you’re looking for something totally fresh and new, you’re going to fail and
you’re going to have these terrible ideas and they’re all going to be outside
the artboard and then finally you’ll find the one that hits but that’s
something that is trusting that’ll come. I have hit that wall a few times and knowing
that as long as I go for a walk or go into a museum or I try get out of my head
a little bit and then all of a sudden it appears and comes to me.
What do you think motivates you in designing?
I am motivated – there
are a few things. I love working with teams and so the team here at Communal is
highly motivating, we are all creative, we care so much about creating the work
we are most proud of and so that is motivational. I think that it is also I
love just kind of creating stuff that don’t exist today and so going back to
‘Ollie’ dog food, there are tonnes of dog food brands, but how do we create
something that looks different and feels different? Kind of jumps off the shelf
or sticks in someone’s mind and so that is the constant motivator. Even if were
working on a product that potentially feels boring, we can make it so not
boring purely because of design.
Do you think living in a bigger city such as New
York has helped you in your design career as opposed to Ohio?
Yes, absolutely. I would
100% agree with that, I think part of it you’re just exposed to so much more.
Not that’s there’s not much creativity – there’s actually an amazing industry
in Columbus Ohio where I’m from but it’s less prevalent and so I’ve found that
New York is my perfect hub.
Is there as specific reason as to why you moved
to New York?
It was between here and
San Francisco. I knew I wanted to move to a larger city, I’ve always loved New
York and the idea of it. But it was if I moved here and it didn’t work, I’d
move somewhere else but I’ve been here ever since.
What made you choose New York over San Francisco?
I visited both and there
was something about the energy in New York that just clicked with me more. San Francisco
is beautiful and it’s lovely and it has the California vibe which I love but
New York, there’s something about it that has that crazy chaotic-ness that I
thrive off.
You’re a very successful business woman and
creative. At what point do you think you had succeeded?
Oh never! I think it’s
that we always have other aspirations. I think for me is that I’m excited to
make the team larger, I’m excited to have clients that are in different spaces.
I think it’s exciting and it’s kind for you to feel that way and I feel that
way for many friends and people in my life and I’m like “Oh my God you’re so
successful” but they say the same thing, you’re always chipping away at the
next thing.
Do you think you’re happy in the place you are
now in your design career?
Very happy with it. I
would never have pictured this 10 years ago when I graduated. The idea that I
would find my niche here and be able to support designers and their endeavours
and create a reputation for design that feels authentic and genuine; to me that
is an amazing feat and I’m very happy with the adventure I’m currently in.
Going back to clients, how many do you have on
average at the same time?
We normally have 3-4
clients at once, we are as I said a 3 person team so it’s just balancing that
work flow that’s part of the challenge and none of those clients are at the
same phase. So we never kick off at the same time, so when we kick off one
we’re probably wrapping up another and on average they last 3-4 months from
start to finish in terms of having that kick of meeting where we talk about
their values and their missions, to their ethos like the same question you’re
asking me. And then all the way through to iterations, the rounds of reviews
and the final hand off.
What are words you live by?
Oh man! Oh I don’t know.
I really just believe in - there has been some meetings or some unlikely
situations I’ve been in where there’s something about the gut – it doesn’t feel
like the work is right and I can’t put my finger on it and so something I trust
or lean harder on is that gut feeling of pride and I always ask the designers
when I show them something “Is this something you would put in your portfolio?”,
“Would you put this on Pinterest?”, “Would you show this to your
boyfriend/girlfriend/parent?”, “Look what I made!” because that’s what you want
every single time, you want to put it out into the world and be like “I had my
hands on this”, “I feel great about this” and so that’s something I try to keep
on top of my mind, the moment you don’t want someone to see something that you
made, means it’s not quite there.
Do you ever feel nervous about presenting work to
clients or other people?
Always.
How do you overcome that?
I think part of it is
practice. There have been some meetings that have gone better than others and
also it’s trusting your expertise that you went to school for this, that you
spent so many years making this, knowing that – something that’s really been
really helpful to me to is that the people in the room never really get to talk
about design and this is fun for them. They are stuck with numbers or whatever
they’re stuck with, whatever they’re great at and this is the first time they
get to sit in a room and talk about colour or talk about logo. And although it’s
our world everyday, reminding yourself that can help ease the pressure in terms
of the discussion. You still want to be the expert and tell the right story and
present in a way that feels really powerful for the client and knowing that
this is truly unique experience for them and that can calm some of those
jitters.
You said you love the Pantone swatches – what is
your favourite colour?
Oh man! It’s a great
question. I love – I don’t know the exact Pantone colours but I love the
oranges and reds. I love the fiery coral, the idea that the slight blue/red you
can get with a Pantone. Which is funny because I don’t wear any of that in my
life. I don’t wear red, I don’t wear orange. I’m much more in the cool tones
such as the blues and greens but something about that in design pops for me. What’s
interesting about red though is that it’s really hard to print if you’re not
using a Pantone. Obviously with Pantone it’ll match perfect but some people
cannot afford Pantone or it’s not the right red like in your office printer and
so it’s a challenging colour to get right and that’s kind of why I love it.
What is your favourite mini succulent?
Oh man! These are really
great questions. My favourite mini succulent is this one that I have on my
desk. It’s in a little red planter and it’s in the shape of a heart, the actual
plant is in the shape of a heart naturally. My husband sent it me last
year.
What is your favourite typeface and why?
Oh great question
another one. Can I give you two? Well do I really like ‘Brown’, it’s a really
classic, geometric sans-serif it’s very popular at the moment that’s why I
hesitate to say it but it’s a great, great font. We used it a Birchbox, we use
it for clients here. We use this similar font for Communal called ‘Sofia’ but
Brown is definitely my favourite. And my newest one that I’m obsessed with is ‘Haptic’,
the actual letterforms are interesting, what’s cool is that they have this
version of italics called rotalics where instead of the letters rotating
italic-wise, they all rotate. And so it’s different we’ve been trying to find
ways to use it for one of our clients. I don’t think it’ll stick for any of our
current ones but we’ll find one who’d love it.
What is the breed of your dog?
Aw, he’s a Australian
Shephard but a toy size. He’s so cute. Good research.
How long have you had him for?
He’s almost 8, we’ve had
him for 7 and a half years. I would recommend – they’re great.
What are your inspirations in life in general?
The latest one, the one
at Communal, we’ve been doing this thing every month where we’ve been going to
a museum – another benefit from living in New York. And so that’s been really
inspirational to get out of the Pinterest and screen reviews and that to me is
really inspirational. Seeing fresh colour schemes, seeing how painters from the
1950s put colours together, being inspired by those fresh pairings. So that for
me has been my latest inspiration which has been great.
Is that what you like doing in your spare time?
Yeah, we read a lot of
design blogs and we have tonnes of private Pinterest boards that have all sorts
of different inspirations. My primary inspiration comes from Pinterest and in
my spare time, definitely do a lot of consuming on the internet from articles
and witnessing and saving different visualisations but I am a big reader.
What is your favourite book so far?
This is so hard. Last
year, I really liked Fates and Furies, it’s this really cool blue cover. I
really like when they have great covers it always helps. It’s a good one.
What are you reading right now?
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