RUGS USA
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
2022— 2024
The first Creative Director ever employed by the brand, I was hired to oversee all creative for Rugs USA + Nuloom.
Responsible for all visual touchpoints of the brand: print and digital design, photography, video, marketing and social media creative, as well as identity, site experience, and packaging materials. Modernized and elevated standards for all photography, as well as the brand’s approach to storytelling through still and moving imagery. Alongside the Sr Director of E-Commerce and Site Optimization, I redesigned the website and user experience, which included a state of the art platform migration. Built out an entirely in-house creative team, which consisted of a fully functional photo studio, and a graphic design team. Established cross-channel brand guidelines for creative consistency.
Major accomplishments included:
Worked alongside Sr. Director of Brand to launch RugsUSA’s first design collaboration with Lauren Liess, an established interior designer. Went on to introduce and launch 4 additional design collaborations which continue as the top sellers / performers for the brand.
Rebrand including all logos, branding and packaging materials.
Site migration and resdesign
Oversaw all creative for Rugs USA + Nuloom: print, web / digital, photography, video and social media creative. Improved all brand photography as well as led a brand redesign including logo update and site redesign / platform migration. Managed graphic design team and internal photo studio.
CAMPAIGNS &
PHOTOGRAPHY
Reimagined the brand’s approach to storytelling, styling and even how shoots were ideated, produced and executed. Unlike a traditional retail brand with seasonal campaigns, fast fashion retailers refresh their campaigns on a monthly, sometimes weekly basis.
Established new creative standards for product, editorial and campaign photography, and also retouching. Reimagined how locations and props can be used to tell a story.
SITE REDESIGN
Led the redesign of the brand’s e-commerce website, as well as the migration to a Shopify platform. The previous version of the site only allowed for a single story / campaign to be featured at a time, with zero interactive functionality. The redesign and migration enabled multiple product stories to be featured on the site at once, incorporated full width embedded videos, as well as user controlled animations, shoppable look books, UGC and other interactive functionality. The migration also allowed for a more customized mobile experience than was ever possible before.
The updated site design featured; a sophisticated navigation able to house a generous amount of product categories along with imagery, more in-depth product detail pages with video, product category pages with the ability to feature editorial, promotional, and other types of content within the grid, as well as a blog section (which was a first for the brand).
IDENTITY & BRANDING
Developed new concepts for corporate branding assets, as well as updated retail and e-commerce packaging; a cleaner design with colors and substrates that reference an updated brand strategy and positioning. Additionally, designed the brand’s first ever physical gift card and sleeve collection.
other ACHIEVEMENTS
Managed a 200% increase in flow of new product to the photo studio to be shot and retouched, while simultaneously streamlining the process so images were published on site quicker than in the past.
Established a weekly creative asset review with key stakeholders.
Examined and modified the use of creative budget to do more with less, while maintaining top-notch creative standards.
Implemented the use of branded hashtags for important campaigns.
Built out an entirely in-house creative team.