Project:
Creative direction and management for online retailer
Client:
The BabyCenter Store was the eCommerce arm of BabyCenter.com, a leading, Webby Award-winning parenting site. During the life of the store, BabyCenter's 1.6 million registered members accounted for more 60% of BabyCenter Store’s sales.
Project Expertise:
Creative Direction
User Experience
Online/offline Marketing
Personnel Management
Revamping the look, redesigning the structure
For 10 years, the store sold a massive catalogue of product hitting all stages of parenting from pregnancy to toddler years. When I took the helm as Senior Art Director, BabyCenter had recently undergone a brand refresh and the Store had to be seamlessly updated with the new branding. The Store refresh demanded a comprehensive redesign from the homepage to the product detail level, including new creative direction more in line with the competitive landscape. User interviews, A/B testing and taxonomy audits informed the new design.
Seasons change
On a fairly rigorous schedule, I was responsible for producing entire seasonal site releases, including UI, promotional materials, weekly swaps, added features, and any associated creative. Also under my purview were art directing email and brand boutiques, and assisting external clients and the internal buyer team to achieve revenue goals and brand awareness on BabyCenter, the parent site.
Design solutions for different touchpoints
In addition to seasonal art direction, I managed all photography efforts and led design for all on- and offline marketing including email, brand boutiques with commerce partners, interactive tools, package inserts, and magazine advertorial.
The takeaways
The BabyCenter Store presented me with the opportunity to lead and manage on every aspect of end-to-end creative direction, from pushing pixels to managing staff. This was in-the-trenches, day-to-day, demanding retail design, and gave me deep experience early on in my career. Among my accomplishments were:
• Creative direction for large-scale sitewide redesign
• Maintaining market competitiveness with design of seasonal campaigns and working with the merchandising team
• Providing creative direction and individual contribution for all Store campaigns, promotions, and email and direct marketing with the marketing calendar
• Managing design work in cross-departmental team of copywriters, photographers, designers and developers
