I am a passionate Industrial Designer with experience in Project Management, Design Planning & Business Operations.
In addition to seeing my work on this website, you can learn more about me and my resume on my Bio Page. Feel free to reach out through LinkedIn or the contact info on my resume to request password access to my full portfolio.
My roles from 2011-2015 focused on Visual Merchandising & Retail Design with companies like Restoration Hardware, Enesco and Kirk Market, as well as freelance packaging design with Enesco.
Kirk Market is a mid-size company located about 10 minutes from the cruise ship terminal in George Town, Grand Cayman. I joined their Marketing Team at a time when the store was being fully renovated, with the Marketing Team at its helm for re-branding.
In my Visual Merchandising Designer role from 2013-2015, my proudest success at Kirk Market was standardizing the processes of merchandising. I partnered with the in-house buyers to help plan their purchases and my displays based on their incoming deals with distributors, and vice versa, they made purchases based on my upcoming themed displays. Previously, the marketing team and buyers had functioned independently where buyers filled shelves and marketing pushed a theme through ad hoc displays. Endcaps had been filled with low-priced bulk toilet paper or jugs of water, essentially used as extra storage for the warehouse.
We pivoted to instead feature product with a story, pairing the product with complementary items, educational info and/or a recipe card! We essentially turned all 40 endcaps into fully marketed displays. I enjoyed seeing the affect of this change, from seeing customers (and employees!) get curious about a product (and add it to their shopping cart), or hearing folks get excited to see the week’s recipe card feature.
The 10-15 buyers and I would meet weekly to plan 6+ weeks out, as well as go over the changes to take place the coming Wednesday morning (shipment day). Weekly changes were typically 4-5 endcaps to be switched out. This would be carried out by warehouse and floor managers who followed maps and planograms created by me.
For promotional efforts, about 4 weeks out, I partnered weekly with our Graphic Designer for the applicable signage and/or educational info for each display. I then scheduled our Social Media Manager for photos and posts on our website / social once the product was set on the floor, and worked with our Food Sampler to showcase featured food items.
Occasionally we would have a full launch of new product (like when announcing a new partnership with Tesco), or the annual overhaul for holiday floor-set, which would require changes to every display and would be done on a Sunday with all-hands-on-deck while the store was closed. I personally approved each update, large or small, for quality control or necessary solutions (if a product arrived late, etc. )
At the start of my role, the merchandising position was quite cut-off from the day-to-day motions of the store. It was meant for straightening displays or decorating the lobby for Christmas. I saw a major opportunity to push product that better aligned with the brand that Kirk Market was shifting to, and to do so in a way that would benefit and give purpose to our internal buyers’ purchases and get our end customers excited to explore our store. I truly enjoyed getting the cogs into place to change the process, and in doing so, built great relationships with every member of “my team,” from warehouse to sales floor to marketing office.
What follows in these photos from my time at Kirk Market are some of the more “Visual Merchandiser meets Industrial Designer” concepts I proposed and/or carried out in the store, as well as some examples of planograms and finished endcaps at the market. From there, you’ll see photos prior to 2013 of my work with Enesco and Restoration Hardware.
While a beautiful concept, we only implemented the functional shelving and storage on the back wall due to budget constraints.
The layout prior to this proposal was similar, but the ~36 buckets of flowers were not a showstopping wall of flowers; instead, they were set 3 rows deep on the ground, making it precarious and difficult for customers to shop. We commissioned the display bases from a local Caymanian woodworker.
Keep Cup is a brand that promotes bringing your travel mug to coffee shops to reduce waste. We placed this display in our coffee/cafe area of the market to both boost Keep Cup and travel mug sales and reduce the market’s use of disposable cafe cups.
Prior to this proposal, the salad bar offerings were noted with laminated cards that would be taped to the glass top of the bar each morning, and removed multiple times throughout the day for the glass to be wiped down for cleaning. The wear-and-tear on the cards, the time spent on their maintenance, and the overall aesthetic begged for a solution.
We commissioned these to be made by a local Caymanian woodworker.
After! Pulled from the @kirkmarket Instagram, still in use 6 years later.
At the same time as updating the signage, we wanted to update the storage and functionality of the salad bar. Salad boxes had previously been stacked sky-high on top of the salad bar, and dressings were cluttered on a single crate at the end of the bar. I proposed a custom fixture that would store these things and encompass chilled “everyday” dressings in large pump-dispensers, as well as feature house-made dressings in Oxo Salad Dressing Shakers.
We commissioned this fixture to be made by a local Caymanian woodworker.
The house-made salad dressing in Oxo Good Grips Salad Dressing Shakers, with branded stickers to list contents.
Additionally merchandised with pumpkin carving kits and pumpkin pie shells + recipe.
Prior to this proposal, pallets were placed in the walkway and product was stacked to eye-level. The depth of the pallets protruded into the aisle (dotted line) and congested walking space. While additional storage on the floor was a plus, the product wasn’t moving because it wasn’t easily shop-able. These new fixtures (made by a local Caymanian woodworker) gave an extra foot of walking space, allowed for ~6” of protected inlet for shopping space, and the lattice behind gave support for stacking product as well as space for marketing to hang.
Each pay day, we would have a line queuing perpendicular to the Western Union window, which was located in our front lobby as you’d head past Floral into Produce. This queuing solution fixed traffic flow and offered a new space for floral display. We were also able to add a privacy area for the ATM, which had previously been in the Pharmacy area, but made more categorical sense next to Western Union.
Previously reserved for endcaps, we began to create destination displays within an aisle as well.
Each week, I updated this two-page map of the store, noting which endcaps and displays would be changing in the upcoming floorset, and included pages of my coinciding endcap planograms (examples below). This floor map in particular was for Holiday floorset, so the garland/Christmas decor is noted in green as well.
America’s Mart is in downtown Atlanta, and the site of some of the largest wholesale trade shows in the South East. I worked as a freelance merchandiser with Enesco to set up for their 2013 Summer show.
In addition to my freelance merchandising work with Enesco at Americas Mart, I was contracted to propose packaging concepts for an adorable new partnership between Enesco and Bea’s Wees (small figurines). The above concept was chosen, and carried through production in a more budget-minded manner.
I've got a thing for clocks. They're decor. They're functional. They're Functional Decor.
In my last semester in college, I enrolled in a studio with a 1:1:1 student-professor ratio. It was just me : my professor : my ideas.
This idea in particular came from my studying abroad in Taiwan - it was 3 months of counting backwards by 13 hours...7 hours...12 hours.
"What's the current time in ______?"
Let's just simplify the question/answer process.
The earring spiral displays your earrings and allows for fun and easy accessory selection.
It is laser cut from stainless steel or two-ply veneer, and holds 62+ pairs of earrings. While the stainless steel model can vary in shape determined by the user, the veneer model lengthens in size with weight.
I've got a thing for clocks. They're decor. They're functional. They're Functional Decor.
In my last semester in college, I enrolled in a studio with a 1:1:1 student-professor ratio. It was just me : my professor : my ideas.
This idea in particular came from my studying abroad in Taiwan - it was 3 months of counting backwards by 13 hours...7 hours...12 hours.
"What's the current time in ______?"
Let's just simplify the question/answer process.
I've got a thing for clocks. They're decor. They're functional. They're Functional Decor.
In my last semester in college, I enrolled in a studio with a 1:1:1 student-professor ratio. It was just me : my professor : my ideas.
The Tree Clock symbolizes the visible passing of time, and was inspired by Diamantini and Domeniconi's Butterfly Clock. I appreciate that this product leaves a portion of the design to the user in both mounting-orientation and leaf placement.
The Tree Clock was laser-cut from a 10"x20" sheet of White Oak Veneer, with the decorative leaves cut from the hidden area of the bottom layer. The top layer was stained, and the two layers were laminated together.
Clients Tony Zodrow and Brent Beall of GulfQuest sponsored this third-year studio to design the interior and entrances of the gift shop in their under-construction maritime museum, GulfQuest, to open in Mobile, Alabama in 2015.
Phase one of this project started in groups proposing different design themes, which were then chosen by Tony and Brent. My team's "shipwreck" theme was selected, and then the studio broke off into pairs to design the ten sections of the gift shop. My partner and I designed the Gallery and T-Shirt Display, which later changed to a high-end gifts display.
Instead of carrying your sandwich to get squished in a Ziploc, tote it to work in the portable toaster to enjoy a warm and toasty sandwich at lunchtime.
This concept has not been tested, but it is designed to operate with a power source to run a Kapton Insulated Flexible Heater.
The heating rack is designed with half-pipes to catch crumbs and drips for easy clean-up, but is stamped with slits to still allow for heat transfer.
From concept sketches, I created a prototype in blue foam, and then finalized my concept in CAD. I vacuum-formed a final model out of ABS, though manufacture would need to be injection molded PP, and laser-cut the living hinge and interface details.
This project was my introduction to the laser cutter - the beginning of a love affair :)
The Rustic Lamp is laser cut from one 32"x46" piece of 1/4" thick plywood. It is designed for flat-pack shipment, and assembly without use of tools, hardware or glue.
The Alexander City Fire Department sponsored my Adv. Product Design studio. A few classmates and I suited up to literally put ourselves in their shoes for some user research. I had two major takeaways from this outing:
1. Their gloves seem to serve two purposes: protect from heat and make all dexterity obsolete.
2. Firemen are supposed to move quickly through fires, and their boots absolutely do not allow for that
After interviewing the men and women on shift that day, and finding that they had the same complaints, I developed concepts to improve the two systems.
1. The glove solution is two-part: replace the thumb sleeve with a form fitting rubber-lined fingerless glove. A major point of feedback I received from the users was that they'll remove their gloves to feel if a surface is hot, and many have lost their gloves in this task. The heat-resistant glove concept is sewn to the base of the sleeve so it cannot be misplaced. It is secured to the users' wrists with a Velcro strap, both when in use and not.
2. The boot solution operates similar to the concept of the Nike Air - you pump air into the shoe to create a better fit.
I've got a thing for clocks. They're decor. They're functional. They're Functional Decor.
In my last semester in college, I enrolled in a studio with a 1:1:1 student-professor ratio. It was just me : my professor : my ideas.
I wanted to design a clock for a masculine audience. The Clock for a Man Cave has a clean and simple body with hidden clock hands.
This laser-cut birdhouse is flat-packed and has joinery designed so that the user can assemble the product without the need of any tools, glue or hardware.
Hip holiday ornaments laser cut from red acrylic to add pizzazz to your holiday decor.
