Lead Avanti’s creative team in continually creating original new products that delight consumers and increase sales for our retail partners.

Privately owned Detroit greeting card publisher, with a NY creative office. Reporting to owner, I direct, inspire and mentor Avanti’s creative teams in both NY and DT. Our primary focus it to develop unique funny ideas and then translate those raw ideas into striking photographic images or graphic designs primarily for cards made in the USA. Directing internal staff of 9 and external resources through all creative development for all products, brand marketing, sales communications, trade advertising, catalogs and displays/in-store merchandising. I am also responsible for hiring, personnel management, annual reviews and financial responsibility to establish and maintain the creative budgetProduct Innovations to increase revenues:• Just led the creation of Avanti's "Brand Book", featuring image assets for licensing to extend the brand into new product categories• Full-color pop-out card interiors - 20% increase in profit per pocket • Lenticular motion cards - 40% increase in profit per pocket• Led the invention of A*Press - 20% more profit per pocket. This collection combines humor and contemporary style using bold icons and narrative graphics enhanced with foil, glitter, flocking and emboss - 10% of total company sales.Innovations to improve business processes:• Initiated, trained and implemented the “design brief” process to drive more focused and strategic thinking prior to investigating creative executions• Instituted formal brainstorming sessions that take place three times a week to deliver more original narrative humorous ideas than ever - generates about 4,000 ideas per year• Led the development of Avanti's first 18 month product planning process to improve category balance and inventory levels• Established the Merchandising Guideline team and created Avanti’s first in-store visual standards to establish consistent presentation of products and signage• Partnering with sales to present, educate and sell the brands to key customers

Lead and manage internal staff and freelancers through the development process of creating industry defining humorous greeting cards, from weekly brainstorms resulting in pencil sketches through to final photographic images. Creative directed 90% of all the final Photo Shop and all the graphic design through to final print. Delivered 200 unique greeting photographic greeting cards per year. Invented award winning Halloween cards that transformed from cards into wearable masks. Created fun round holiday greeting cards that could be used as tree ornaments. Leveraged existing images for repurposing with humorous gift books, calendars, and journals.

Unilever is a Fortune 100 company that manufactures and distributes consumer goods worldwide. Led cross-functional teams in new product development, using qualitative and quantitative consumer research to identify consumer product concepts that performed high on uniqueness and purchase intent. Worked very closely with Brand Marketing, Research & Development, Purchasing, Package Development, Sales, Creative Services, and external innovation resources with a budget of $3 MM.

Lever Brothers, was a US manufacturer and distributor of many familiar #1brands that are now part of Unilever US portfolio. Awarded design leadership for Lever's most profitable brands. Primary brand focus was product/packaging/innovation development for the global brand - Dove Beauty Bar. Unilever sold more $300M worth of Dove per year. Led cross-functional team in the design of a new custom shower gel container saving $750K within the first year. Also led packaging for Caress Body Bar, All & Rinso Detergents as well as all new packaging concepts for Lever's Innovation marketing teams.Partnering with Brand Marketing, I led the creative development of custom containers and closures, dynamic package graphics and in-store displays. Selected, briefed and directed the internal and external creative resources for structural and graphic design on each project. Worked very closely with Marketing, Research & Development, Purchasing, Package Engineering and Sales.

Partnered with Brand Marketing in each of the 3 business units (Foods, Household and Personal Care). Redesigned Imperial Margarine line to create a more upscale package graphics while saving $750K per year in materials savings. Strategic new package design and POP displays for all 3 divisions, brands included: Close-Up & Aim Toothpastes, Signal Mouthwash, Wisk Detergent, Imperial Margarine and Mrs. Butterworth's.

Package graphics for Poland Spring Water, Great Bear, Ice Mountain and Zephyr Hill’s Waters