Creative Direction
These are projects that I either directed or designed myself. Direction included everything behind the magazine not limited to arranging photo shoots and fashion, assigning stories to writers, and coordinating sales personnel. When I accepted the position of Creative Director for HER, the magazine had been experiencing a decline in readership and revenue was at an all time low of $4,000. I was tasked with breathing new life into the publication and giving it a fresh, new look. I reworked the monthly magazine from front to back, adding new sections and bringing in fashion spreads. In the span of just 9 months, monthly revenue had increased to $18,000 and Facebook likes rose by 169%.
I won two awards for the December issue and it was a lot of fun. I worked some channels to get ABC's Castle actress, Ms. Quinn, to do our cover and the fashion shoot for the month. ABC required that all photos be edited to their standards and approved before they could be used for the issue. Molly was shot in a studio. I designed the cover, adding the snow and the background image to add to the 'wintery' effect.
At the time of my hire, the website consisted of a Square.com site with pdfs. It was not linked to social media nor contained any analytics. The last blog entry had been two years prior. One of my self-appointed first tasks was to design and implement a new interactive and seo-friendly website. I designed the site, managed the coding, acquired a dot com domain, and oversaw the sites maintenance when it was up. The new site was live within three weeks. (New site's screen shot was taken 5/3/2016)
Here is an example of the photo edits required by ABC. They wanted the wrinkles in the skirt removed. This was an edit done by me.
Behind the scenes of a cover and fashion shoot I directed. We went with a natural look as the end of summer was quickly approaching. I arranged for the styles to be provided by the local Dillard's.
An article that I took photos for, wrote, and designed the layout.
Smart Tech was a new section I added after I became the Creative Director and Editor-in-Chief.
A handful of ads that I either designed or directed for placement in the magazine
We often featured local women of inspiration, whether they were veterans, political figures, business women, or super moms. I liked that they had great stories and were motivational .
A cover I designed featuring the local Junior League president.
