Geraldine Taaffe Email and Phone Number

-Focusing on demographics, I developed a turn key retail and design development plan for Sensi, Saudi Arabia, which is part of Al Musbah group.The overall plan featured concepts for design collateral, marketing, visual merchandising, store design, giftware and cosmetic stories.-Concept development for a event's location in Canada, featuring requirements for room layout, decorative aesthetics, lighting, furniture and the overall business function for the events space.-Turn key product development for QE2 featuring 4 collections in various styles. Creating collections tailored to the IP for kids or adults including; keyrings, ceramics, fashion accessories, bags, apparel, confectionery, stationery.- Completed 4 extensive product collections for Emirates airlines. Featuring captions that encapsulate the vision of the IP. Selected functional products include, keyrings, travel accessories, bags, apparel.

Giftware design and development for the Middle Eastern Market. Creating unique evocative collections that retail at major tourist attractions and in the Duty Free Environment.Driving millions of dollars worth of revenueWorking with major players such Ain Dubai, DDF, Qatar Duty Free, Bahrain.Creative direction for world renowned product ranges such as 'Impressions of Arabia', Ain Dubai, 'The Grand Mosque', 'Atlantis Royal'

-Developed artwork for range of merchandise for Mattel Play! Town, The Green Planet and Laguna Waterpark.-Working with IPs and their brand guidelines to ensure the integrity of the brand is upheld when translated into merchandise.-Developed visual merchandising guidelines for Laguna Waterpark, The Green Planet, Hubzero and Laguna Waterparks.-creative direction and content development for our websites photography and copy.-Developed wall graphics for Roxy Cinema in La Mer.-Responsible for creative direction for Roxy Platinum Plus Menu.Creative copywriting for all assets-Developed marketing campaigns for marketing team, outdoor signage, flyers, EDMs and digital banners.

As creative director and partner I was responsible forDriving millions of dirham worth of revenue, bringing projects to fluition from start to finish.-Design and development of diverse souvenir collections for global retailers such as Dubai Duty Free, At the top, DFS Galleria, Billy Beez, Hallmark. Krispy Kreme.-Training designers and giving creative direction on projects.-Sourcing new reliable suppliers and price negotiations.-Creating range plans that meet the customer's commercial requirements.-Creating Brand concepts from scratch and implementing them on a range of products.-Creating technical artwork that is then sent to suppliers for sampling and production.-Visiting trade shows and gift fairs in Hong Kong to source new suppliers.-Working closely with Chinese suppliers on a daily basis to bring a project right through from sampling stage to production.-Diversifying and segmenting product ranges to help retailers capture a larger segment of the market.-Sales analysis and range implementation based on data.

A varied role that includes design and development for the Middle Eastern, European and American market.-Instrumental in creating a design and development office in Dubai. -Design and development of giftware for key retailers in the Middle East. -Creating unique, highly commercial giftware brands and implementing them on a diverse range of products. -Character Illustration and development of brands-Created popular brands from scratch that are still on sale today such as Kooky Kamels, -Dubai/Bahrain/Abu Dhabi Fun, Formula Fun, Magical Muscat, Dubai Classics and Dubai Bling, for key airport retailers such as Dubai Duty Free.-Working with retailers such as AT THE TOP and Al Jaber, to create commercial collections that fit their retail locations.-Creating display stands and visual merchandising graphics.-Sourcing products and attending trade shows in HK and China.-Working closely with Chinese suppliers to bring projects from sampling stage right through to fluition.

A varied role that included design and development of giftware for Irish and global retailers.-Spearheaded the creation of design and development department that developed and sourced products from Chinese factories.-Created a design blueprint/format that was later rolled out by the company.-Created and developed unique giftware brands from scratch for the Irish Giftware market that are still on sale today. Some of the Brands include: Wacky Woolies, Wooley Jumpers, A Little Irish Luck, Croi, Irish Classics, Lucky Leprechaun, Irish at Heart.-Illustration and character development- created innovative memorable brands with characters that were different, fresh/ unique to the souvenir market at the time - enabling the company to gain market share.-Created and developed unique highly commercial giftware brands for the Russian souvenir market, that are still on sale.-Created and developed unique souvenir brands for the UK market.-Developed technical drawings and worked with Chinese suppliers to bring the project right through from sampling to production stage.-Attended trade shows in London, HK and China to source new suppliers.