Concept, Direction Design & Production

SITUATION

My role as Creative Production Designer at Foot Traffic included the opportunity for me to design some novelty socks that would go in the line. Due to the woven construction of our socks, designs could not exceed more than seven colors of thread per row. Additionally, since designs would either be repeated or reflected on the other side of the sock, it was necessary to consider and account for where each side comes together to avoid awkward seams.

PROCESS

My process began by taking a deep dive into current and upcoming trends, and identifying what subjects might resonate the most with our customer. I strove to create authentic, customer centric, conversational designs with a personal touch. Next, I designed my socks using Illustrator for its flexibility in creating multiple iterations, especially to show color variation options.

RESULTS

My Llama sock quickly became a best seller and today is still one of their best selling products. It’s now offered in additional colors. My “Alien Abduction”, “Hemmingway”, and “Avocado Nut” also performed well.

Product Shot Strategy, Styling, Design & Direction

SITUATION

My role was in providing image and content production for our catalogs, catalog covers, full-page magazine advertisements, website sliders and social media highlighting new merchandise. The team felt our brand was outdated, but wasn’t ready to commit to a refresh. I helped the art director in creating content that’s relevant, current and more relate-able to millennials.

PROCESS

I noticed the majority of our brand’s photo-shoots had taken place inside a studio with a backdrop. Location shoots, props and clothing were repeated and recycled often and over many seasons. I suggested we venture outside of the building and scout new locations around town, solicit apparel stores that were trending in our target market, and borrow items that I felt would help compliment and highlight our product the best. I also suggested the photographer use natural lighting instead of a flash when shooting outdoors. Additionally, I took the initiative to remove any extraneous elements in our previous ads and marketing materials that I felt were distracting (like multi-colored borders).

RESULTS

Freshening our imagery and content helped to humanize a stale brand and give our product context, We illustrated how our customer might experience our product being worn in real time, making excellent long-form content marketing material. Combined with clean design we opened up our product for better reception and welcomed a wider market.

Product Photography, Marketing Materials, Content for Social Media & Brand Awareness

SITUATION

As competitive sock companies were gaining in popularity in Kansas City, I felt the team could do more to build awareness around our brand and gain a stronger micro-local following.

PROCESS

I worked with the art director in developing a growth hacking strategy comprised of press kits, gift packages and social media campaigns. Additionally, I made sure to get plenty of ‘behind the scenes’ footage from our photo-shoots in the form of videos and stills to share on social media.

RESULTS

By sending out gift packages we gained traction that led to a call-out in Spaces Magazine. We created a buzz of web traffic by including mailers featuring new novelty sock designs which were included with every order we shipped. We also put together a thank you mailer to include in our packages being sent to our wholesale accounts.

I edited all of our website titles and descriptions for better SEO, simplified website product categories to improve CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) and created CTA buttons and links within the digital look-books we sent out. We scheduled posts in advance to have a consistent presence and interacted with customers, bloggers and influencers personally and regularly. We had contests and free give aways to encourage user generated content.