Stef Etow Email & Phone Number

San Francisco Bay Area

When I founded my creative studio, I intuitively knew that I would be challenging conventional industry norms, expanding beyond generic trends and surface-level brand treatments. Through my programs and teachings, I have created a space for community leaders to unlearn the pressures of output as they reimagine a more regenerative way of listening and leading. I guide them in reawakening their sensory awareness and attuning to textures, colors, sounds, and sensations, inspiring a reconnection with themselves, their community, and the world. In 2021, I created the Slow Branding Sessions as an online sanctuary designed for creative empaths craving a more sustainable practice for shaping their brand. My offerings also include creative direction, brand strategy and design, photography, writing, and private business coaching. I have worked as a creative strategist, art director, photographer, and/or copywriter on marketing campaigns for brands such as Curology, Hint, Kimpton Hotels, Nespresso, and J.Crew, among others. My work has also been featured in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, InStyle, and Ad Age, and I was showcased by Instagram as a content creator to follow (@inkandpulp).

San Francisco Bay Area

Oakland, California, United States

San Francisco Bay Area

San Francisco Bay Area

San Francisco Bay Area

Kara Goldin, Founder and CEO of multimillion-dollar beverage company Hint, brought me on board to develop her own brand and establish a more cohesive online presence for her role as a leader in the entrepreneurial and lifestyle spaces. I worked closely with Kara and the Hint social media team to produce original visual content and oversee copywriting that would amplify the Kara Goldin brand, inspiring a growing community of women entrepreneurs building their own purpose-driven businesses.

As a rapidly growing company, Curology brought me on as a creative consultant for their rebrand and new product launch. I mentored their social media team of young talent and collaborated with their in-house creative team to produce a visual brand campaign that would showcase the creative personality of the Curology brand and celebrate the individuality of their growing community. One of my favorite activations I led for the launch was partnering the brand with a diverse group of prominent artists, who shared their stories and produced original artwork for the campaign.

San Francisco Bay Area

Originally conceived as an app for mothers and daughters, I led the transformation of our brand into a more inclusive communication platform that would bridge generational gaps between women. I initiated partnerships with other purpose-driven organizations and women-centered brands like LUNA to resource diverse perspectives and collective learning between and across different demographics of women. I organically grew our dedicated following through engaging content and curated on-and-offline experiences that inspired a sense of belonging among our multi-generational community. I also led our business development, coaching my partners on fundraising strategies, while managing relationships with our seed investors and preparing our monthly reports.

San Francisco Bay Area

As part of inspiring meaningful engagement between our nonprofit organization and our millennial community, I implemented social media as an organizational strategy to build trust and loyalty. I curated and produced all original content across our online platforms (i.e. photography, copywriting, and design) and collaborated on creative marketing campaigns for production partners such as Participant Media, Hyundai, and Silk. I’m most proud of establishing a strategic partnership with the San Francisco Film Society, launching the SOW Media Ambassador Program for aspiring content creators. This program provided valuable resources and mentorship, and several of the young filmmakers, photographers, writers, and graphic designers that I mentored have since blossomed into their own successful careers and made significant social impact through their creative work.

Los Angeles, Ca

When I joined this culturally iconic studio founded in 1984, I took the initiative to guide the principals in reimagining the outdated H + F brand presence and revive their lackluster community. They had missed the internet wave, so I successfully implemented a fresh brand marketing strategy and played a pivotal role in their PR strategy, ghostwriting for the founders in notable publications. I also designed short-list presentations and collaborated with the lead designer on creative direction for proposals. My favorite project was curating 30 years of the studio’s extensive archival collection and coordinating art loans to renowned institutions such as the Getty Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), and the Los Angeles Architecture and Design Museum (A+D).

New York, Ny

As part of my internship in the Director's Office, I managed correspondence with galleries, museums, and trustees for exhibition invitations, object requests, executive arts conferences, and private museum tours. I helped design marketing collateral for the new museum building designed by Renzo Piano and with my fluency in Italian, I was an Italian correspondent for Museum Director Adam Weinberg’s plans at the 2011 Venice Biennale.

London, United Kingdom

In collaboration with two incredibly brilliant women, Dr. Ruth Cribb and Melanie Lenz, I was part of the Exhibitions team for “The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900" exhibition at the V&A. I pioneered FileMaker Pro at the museum, inputting the curatorial details of and programming links between 300 art objects and 82 lenders. I also prepared exhibition loan agreements, helped organize transport and installation schedules, assisted with art handling, and supervised an international workshop for the London Design Festival.

Notre Dame, In

My experience as an academic researcher was not only developed during my Art History studies, but was complimented by my work within what is now known as the Office of Strategic Planning & Institutional Research (OSPIR). My role was assisting with the design of surveys administered to university students and alumni nationwide. I conducted qualitative analysis of survey questions and composed summaries of survey results with cross-institutional comparisons.

Irvine, Ca

In one of my earliest office experiences, I inputted and updated contracts, work orders, job sites, and equipment lists. I was also entrusted with assisting in weekly payroll processing and various other administrative responsibilities.

Irvine, Ca

This experience planted the seed for my interest in gender issues as part of my research involved conducting interviews of UCI professors for a study on Gender Equity in Academia. Before the technology was made available, I manually transcribed these recorded interviews. I also generated a nationwide survey on altruistic behavior, supervised project meetings and analyzed survey results in the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).

Bachelor Of Arts (B.A.), Art History And Italian

While living in Rome, I was drawn to Richard Meier’s controversial Ara Pacis Museum, which in 2005 was the first modern structure to be.

Master Of Arts (M.A.), Public Art And Urbanism

The University of Chicago’s accelerated, interdisciplinary one-year Master of Arts Program in the Humanities advanced my theoretical.

Beginning Level German Language Course (Intensiv 4) In Berlin, Germany

Semester Of Architectural History And Italian Courses In Rome, Italy

International Baccalaureate Full Diploma Programme

Education record