Den & Delve Design is the result of personal creative pursuits which have culminated into a small brand/business that enables me to develop and create products, offer interior design services, as well as general creative consulting. My eclectic but curated tastes have formed a singular brand image that focuses on rethinking the familiar. Sustainability is a major theme amongst my handmade accessories and home decor, as vintage and repurposed textiles are transformed into pieces of "functional art". My approach to interiors is an equation that combines old and new, balances textures, scale and color while never overlooking environmental details like comfort, scent, and the presence of nature in some form.

My previous role at Anthropologie changed direction while brick and mortar expansion was reduced. Within this role, my focus has turned to support the creative process and experience throughout the West Coast regional market. As a liaison between the home office creative team and stores, I serve as an ambassador and mentor for creative execution in the field. I support visual teams within each store by reviewing individual seasonal merchandising and floor plans, providing feedback, and pushing idea generation to elevate execution. Additionally, by spending time working hands-on with teams, I am able to train and develop their merchandising skills and build bench strength within the market. This occurs through both individual store visits and leading larger district workshops in high profile stores. A specialized part of my role is that of supporting seasonal rollouts of furniture showrooms in select stores throughout the region. My passion for interiors, experience with new store openings, and extensive work history and focus in our home product categories has made me an ideal candidate to manage and inspire the execution of these environmental lifestyle spaces. The overall objective of this role is the development of visual teams and their aim for consistent, ever evolving visual execution that results in the unimagined, creative experience for the customer through merchandising, display and service.

Within this role, I oversaw all visual aspects of new store openings within the US. I partnered with store design to allocate fixture packages, choose found object furniture and objects to enhance each space, and pre-planned store conceptual layouts. Additionally, I worked with District Managers from the field to recruit and form traveling visual teams (specialized for each location) to support each opening. When not personally attending and leading an opening, I serve as point of contact and visual manager of the process, directing and guiding teams to meet deadlines and visual expectations. Each year, I trained and mentored a team of Visual Managers from the field who will serve as Visual Leads for new store openings throughout the year. A major accomplishment throughout this role has been visually overseeing the opening of our newest retail reincarnations: Anthropologie & Co. and large format locations. These larger than life, multi-level stores include extensive product departments such as beauty, shoes, furniture showrooms, and include partner brands BHLDN (wedding), Terrain (garden) and a restaurant. Applying all typical store opening processes previously mentioned to these newly approached environments has provided me hands on opportunity to develop and execute new approaches to merchandising, display and the development of our overall retail environment. Additionally, the complexity and extensiveness of product categories within these stores enabled me to work closely with buyers and allocators to align on product messaging and presentation. Lastly, as part of this role I also partnered with the Home Office Visual Team to support in the development of seasonal visual concepts and direction which roll out to all stores in the brand. While frequently participating in seasonal prototypes in Philadelphia, my contributions of merchandising skills and interpretations within the home product categories often became part of company wide direction.

As the Anthropologie brand launched brick and mortar stores in the UK, I served as the District Visual Manager, overseeing 3 stores (2 in London, and 1 in Scotland) as well as a brand concession shop within Selfridge's department store. For each store, I was responsible for the training and development of the visual teams, which consisted of Visual Managers, Merchandisers, and Display Coordinators and oversaw all visual merchandising and display execution. As part of the local Home Office team based in London, I was also able to partner and collaborate in many aspects of the business, from giving feedback to buyers on localized product to woking with PR to develop and execute brand appropriate events. Designing and installing a space to merchandise seasonal collections for press previews twice a year was another responsibility of mine which brought multiple departments together. Throughout the many aspects of my role, I served as an ambassador of the brand to both maintain the integrity of the Anthropologie image and aesthetic while also finding new ways to move forward, find relevance and relate to a new market.

Throughout these six years, I held visual manager positions at several Los Angeles area store locations, while in the latter half, achieving Senior Visual Manager status at the district's highest profile location at The Grove shopping center. Within this role I was responsible for overseeing all visual merchandising and display while partnering with the store manager to ensure all merchandising decisions resulted in positive contributions to projected sales plans. I oversaw an in-store team of merchandisers and display artists who contributed to our daily, weekly and seasonal merchandising and display installations. As part of my senior role, I also trained and acted as a New Store Opening Visual Lead, overseeing several opening processes throughout the US and supporting the first overseas store opening in London, England.

As part of the visual team for the flagship Michigan Avenue store, I was responsible for fashion styling, implementing visual presentations and creating display elements for particular departments, while partnering with department sales managers to maintain merchandising standards. Additionally, our team supported the development and execution of special events both in store and off site, such as trunk shows, designer appearances and major seasonal fashion shows. The talent of our team and high profile of the store location also allowed for the deviance from standard company visual direction, as we reimagined and redesigned window installations and display layers throughout the store. Throughout my time at Nordstrom, I was also chosen as a member of multiple new store opening teams, supporting several store openings across the US.

Oversaw and executed all aspects of merchandising, display and promotions for a full-assortment apparel and home department store. Trained and managed a merchandising team to run an efficient and effective visual department, while meeting the needs and demands of a fast paced, broad range retail environment. Chosen to support store remodel projects and visual rollouts throughout the midwest.