To promote America’s Test Kitchen’s first ever cocktail book, I lead the development of a marketing campaign used across the creative and marketing departments. The campaign centered around the concept of cocktail technique and highlighted the detailed research our cooks put in to help home cooks master the art of the cocktail.

Working alongside editors and cooks, I art directed and designed a series of animated gifs that broke down each of the core techniques into easy to follow steps. The gifs were used in emails, digital ads, and a social media campaign.

Thanksgiving proves to be America’s Test Kitchen biggest marketing opportunity each year, and in 2019 we were challenged with developing a marketing campaign concept that would stand out from the crowd (and our regularly scheduled content) while still staying on brand. Working with a marketing lead and two other Art Directors, we developed a campaign that recognized the realities of the holiday. Naming the campaign “Real Talk” we sought to be bold, punchy and genuine and recognize that mistakes happen and ATK has all the resources needed to pull off a near perfect meal. The design and art direction strategically matched this concept, using bold colors and typography paired with photography that highlighted cooking still in progress and the important steps and techniques needed to get the recipe right.

I worked to develop the overall campaign design direction as well as art directing new photography to be used across the marketing department. I also developed the design for each of our three brands social media posts with the goal of having each page feel within that brand’s design standards while still connecting back to the overall campaign.

All of this contributed to our most successful Thanksgiving ever, resulting in a 149% increase in new memberships and a 63% increase in site traffic.

Photography Art Direction for various projects including the publications Spiced and The Ultimate Burger as well as the marketing campaigns for How To Cocktail and America’s Test Kitchen’s Thanksgiving.

Photography: Carl Tremblay, Steve Klise & Daniel Van Ackere

Styling: Catrine Kelty & Elle Simone

Vegetables Illustrated was the first book I was tasked with developing the marketing direction for. While developing a new process for working cross functionally within the creative and marketing departments, we developed separate and distinct campaign directions which I then pitched to marketing stake holders.

The first concept, “Vegetables A-Z”, focused on the book as the encyclopedic resource that it is. The design for this concept was intentionally text heavy to show off the depth of knowledge the book provides while bringing in our classic illustration style for diagrams and explanations.

The second concept I pitched was “Savoring The Seasons”, playing off the recent rise in farmers markets and seasonal eating as well as food trends, we wanted to position the book as a handy resource that could be used for any vegetable you might happen to pick up. Visually I sought to inspire our audience with lots of color and photos while instilling a sense of urgency in the seasonal content.

While working at Rue La La, brands were often given a dedicated page for a full takeover sale, and I had the opportunity to design a sale in partnership with Le Creuset. Working with both brands as well as an Art Director, I designed the full dedicated web page as well as a dedicated email and digital ads.

Design: Kristen Connors
Art Direction: Kelly Green

When tasked with developing the marketing campaign direction for our first book of pies, I felt that the depth and variety of flavors (180!) in the book were the key element to bring in the widest audience. We wanted to show off our great classic flavors for our core audience, as well as entice the younger millennial audience with a book that could hook them with new modern flavors and the solid techniques to achieve them.

In order to catch the attention of the younger generation, I developed a social media campaign using geometric shapes and typography to really stand out from the crowd while mixing in informative editorial content from the book. We also were cognizant of not alienating our core audience, pulling slightly back on the boldness of color for our internal marketing channels but doing so in a way that still felt cohesive with the social media campaign.

Residual sales at Rue La La consisted of product in all categories at heavily discounted prices that needed to be moved through fast. Sales often would have many categories and doors to draw shoppers in. My goal while designing these was to use typography and color in a bold, impactful way while still creating a home page that felt cohesive with any other sales running that day.

Rue La La is a flash sale website, where members can shop brand name boutique sales at Members-only prices. Each day, new sales would go live for a limited time period.

While working there, I partnered with Art Directors to design the lead sales assets on the homepage for women’s fashion as well as lifestyle and home goods.

While at Rue La La, we partnered with Benjamin Moore on a site takeover who brought a unique challenge to us. We were charged with showcasing soft and hard home products as well as specific paints and swatches in a cohesive and appealing manner.

Centering around the idea of an inspiration board one might use when redesigning a home, we combined photography with paint swatches and drippings to not only show off the paints themselves but also the additional home product we needed to sell through.

Design: Kristen Connors
Art Direction: Kelly Green
& Tabitha Rodrigue