STEFINITLY

Over the summer I took an assignment in the Sports Illustrated...

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:05:00 -0500

Over the summer I took an assignment in the Sports Illustrated marketing department. Talk about a fish out of water. I’m pretty much a non-athlete ; I have coordination issues following my aerobics teacher and I used to do a bit of surfing but that was 3 years ago prior to becoming a mother and now I’m afraid of inflicting bodily harm now that I have someone else who depends on me.

But while I’m totally unaware of what goes on in the sports world, I have a small working knowledge of golfers that only can be chalked up to my husband’s 24-7 obsession with the sport. TV is always burning a hole in our house Sunday and Monday night due to football; I have even considered messing with his fantasy football line ups. The guys at SI took a chance on me and let me play around with one of the Sportsman of the Year campaign, its way to commend heroic and fair play in the world of sports. My take on the ad campaign never made it into production but I feel that it put up a good fight in the ring.

(Note: photos are part of SI archives)

Post Holidays

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:05:00 -0500

Last spring, I had the good fortune of contributing to the west elm holiday packaging. It’s amazing how far in advance you think about the holidays when it comes to retail.

In over my head

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 22:03:00 -0500

As per usual, I think I can pull off making my own gifts along with working, keepinghouse being in touch with the world and very importantly, being a mom. Some out there can accomplish this, I on the other hand, am stretched thin; jack of all trades but king of none most aptly describes me at the moment. I think quite possibly, that this year will be the last DIY Christmas.

Tartan pj pants (in many sizes) and felted necklaces for the kiddos this year. My son pictured is modeling the flannel tartan lounge wear. Other projects include bow ties and stockings for later posting.

10 years

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 18:33:00 -0400

West Side Highway

34th Street and 9th Avenue

While I have no direct loss to the horrors of the day, I feel the heaviness as many of us do about September 11th. I find it hard to watch footage of the planes beating into the Towers or listening to the saved messages of cries for help that have aired recently.

I went photographing the streets as far as I could get and on a mission to give blood, only, there were not enough people coming out of the wreckage to give it to. The city was so quiet in the days after and more compassionate. People actually asked random strangers if they were ok. We lost so many things but I think the one of legacies is our the ripping down of our naivety. Now stepping into a subway car or tall building becomes a bit of a leap of faith that it will be uneventful. I can only hope that this feeling will go away with time but I’m not sure that it should.

A year and half in the making and my swan song debuts: price...

Sun, 07 Aug 2011 12:49:00 -0400

A year and half in the making and my swan song debuts: price tickets at J.Crew appear on fall merchandise.

McQueen

Thu, 26 May 2011 21:37:00 -0400

I’m not talking about the nansy-pansy dress Kate wore to marry William nor the farce of Lady Gaga. I’m talking about the dark romantic interpretations of 19th century fashion, nature and pure genius. Visit the Met now; I’ll be there at least 5 more times before the exhibit closes trying to figure out how you can fit so much in to such a short lifetime. Really. Go.

It couldn’t get any better than this.

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 09:18:56 -0400

It couldn’t get any better than this.

Just pieces of paper.

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 12:42:00 -0400

A collection of items from flea markets, tears, travels, family history of law enforcement and the laundry business. Luckily, I’m a long time friend of the owners of Three Potato Four, so they help fuel my cork board of inspiration and as do the streamer trunks filled with treasures in my childhood home.

The colander in my kitchen

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 16:01:00 -0500

Over the years, my grandmother tried and tried to teach me the recipes of our family but I only can remember half the things she demonstrated. Honestly, I was better at eating then than cooking. Occasionally, when I attempt a recipe, I get it right and as I pour my steamed veggies or noodles into her old colander, I privately thank her in an internal monologue. These photos are some that took on one of my lessons. The shapes and the light were just right at the moment.

Food, is one of those things that are so important to most families and that could not be less true to our group. My cousin said it best in his eulogy at my grandmother’s funeral; regardless of whether you were visiting tomorrow or a month away, she asked what you would like to eat and made sure you would be full when you left.

One of her favorite recipes was that of fish steamed with ginger and green onions topped with sesame oil. Out of tradition, my father and his siblings gathered at her apartment one last time before her funeral and left an offering of this dish for her with a cup of tea by the window she would watch for visitors. I often conjure up a scenario in my head about what happens after they’ve left. I see her ghost watching her children pack into their cars as she eats. She then takes a stroll thru the apartment she had only lived in for a short while before she became sick. In my imagination, she returns to her perch and waits for someone to stop by for a visit, vanishing when one of her children return to clean up the meal.

The keepsakes in my closet...J.Crew.

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 16:09:00 -0500

I’ve established that I’m pretty much a tomboy but if you ever looked down on my feet, I would most likely be wearing impractically high heels of metallic leather or green satin collected from my years at J.Crew. However, lack of space and the practicality of chasing a 13 month old son prohibits me from glamming up and continuing to add pairs to my collection.

Whipping up marketing confections to target the ladylike consumer was also a huge part of my role as a designer. The look of most of my work for women’s was restrained and modern, with hints of blush or a flicker of silver, unlike the previous preppy era. I helped update the entire store packaging program propelling it way past the dated brown paper bag that had lived too long. Should you go into the J.Crew Bridal Boutique and buy something, you might have it wrapped up in the packaging program that I created to keep treasures for a special day to come.

The desire to elevate the shopping experience also fell to updating the staid look of the credit card program, store signage, various look books, clothing labels and event invitations. It was like cutting off waist length hair to a chic bob; away with the hunter green and happy fonts, in with silvery gray and tall, slim Avant Garde.

I hope that one day soon, I too one day will get a makeover and fill those lonely shoes collecting dust in my closet.

J.Crew and bridal packaging, women’s seasonal look book, promotional items and credit card.

Seasonal editorial showroom invitation.

Seasonal editorial showroom invitation detail.

Women’s suiting button envelope hang tag.

Burning down the house

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 15:57:00 -0500

We live in a fairly old apartment with old steam heat that flows via radiators and heat risers. While I kind of enjoy the smell of the heat when it comes on, it doesn’t quite make for a very safe environment when raising a child. These pipes get pretty hot and my son had become pretty inquisitive and mobile recently so I had to come up with a guard of some sort, especially in his nursery.

As with most projects, I weighed my options: commission someone or DYI. I recieved estimates versus the time I had plus resources and in the end, I said the fateful words, “I can just make it myself.” In the time I hee-hawed back and forth, I could of built this project several times over. As always, a project takes ten times longer than it should but there is true satisfaction when you keep walking into a place where your handiwork lives.

I had quiet a bit of scrap wood stored away next to my fridge (doesn’t everyone keep their lumber there?) I mitered a frame, installed brackets to side panels and added a radiator screen to help allow the hot air to escape. Stapled ticking fabric (of course it was ticking!) to the front, added a decorative molding to keep the screen in place and covered it with Benjamin Moore no voc paint. Wah-la. No burns and no money spent!

Before

Steam riser cover, bare bones.

After

Detail of top.

Never enough denim...Madewell.

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 16:19:00 -0500

Madewell, the girly utilitarian brand, was very new when I started at J.Crew. While I was pretty enveloped with designing J.Crew materials, I occasionally got a chance to help shape the early iterations of this jean shop with packaging and environmental graphics.

Madewell Soho storefront window, zipper decal.

Madewell holiday tissue paper.

The J.Crew man and the tomboy.

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 13:33:00 -0500

I’m a tomboy at heart. Sure I love frilly, girly clothes but you are more likely to find me in motorcycle boots, jeans and some sort of workwear plaid shirt. I get crazy about ticking fabric on the inside of a chino waistband and rugged looking bags that only get better with wear and dirt. Plus menswear with a peek of a distinctly feminine item is just plain sexier than something very obvious.

J.Crew Men’s Shop promotional items, packaging and seasonal lookbook.

During my last year at J.Crew, I helped shape how marketing spoke to the customer. The menswear business was enjoying a face lift; updates on basics like polo shirts to heritage items spoke to function but designed with fashion in a quiet enough way that the old consumer base would purchase without knowing it and magazines would take notice because the clothes were so darn good. The infusion of partnerships and openings of smaller, edited boutiques gave way to a renaissance.

I had the good fortune of designing packaging for the 484 Broadway shop, grand opening marketing materials and created some in store graphics turned handpainted signs. To round that out, I worked with the clothing designers to publish several lookbooks, invitations to showroom viewings, and developed advertising. Lastly, I art directed an initiative capsule called “Jack know best,” aimed at dispensing fashion dude do’s and don’ts with the copy and online teams. It continues to evolve today.

J.Crew 484 Broadway Men’s Shop Newsletter detail.

Unpublished New York Times advertising.

Spring 2008 Lookbook

Ask Jack campaign online component produced by interactive team.

Everything looks better smaller

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 13:03:00 -0500

Baby kimono sewn out of repurposed fabric from men’s button down shirt.

Credits: Kimono pattern by Heather Ross.

A very frugal Christmas

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 13:02:00 -0500

Before December began, I updated my 1920’s Singer sewing machine with a newer model that quite honestly, might put old faithful out of business. The new girl actually has multiple stitches, a foot pedal (1920’s one has a knee) and a back stitch. What threw me for over achievement during the holiday season of gifting was this great book by Heather Ross called Weekend Sewing. Nieces and other special girls received something springy in the form of a dress or skirt, while growing boys were the proud owners of canvas growth charts (a little something I designed on my own.)

I also started a small apothecary business in my kitchen which I could also combine my graphic design skills for the labels. Ever the collector, I felt bad about throwing out the baby food jars, knowing some day I would be able to parlay them. Armed with a can of silver spray paint and my fire escape, they got a little bit of shine and I jarred up some salt scrubs for my friends and family’s stocking stuffers.

Flower Girl Dresses (pattern by Heather Ross & fabrics by PURL SOHO).

Growth chart in DIN typeface numerals.

Homebrewed salt scrub in ylang ylang and sandalwood.

Molly and Chris get married.

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 15:33:00 -0500

I designed invitations as a wedding present on a budget and inspired by the 1920’s.

Technicolor life at Bloomies

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 15:33:00 -0500

I was like Dorothy going from Kansas to Oz when I started this turn. I didn’t have any idea how to work a new program called InDesign when I started with Bloomingdale’s but like fashion marketing, I picked it up pretty fast. The customer was highly varied from newly engaged couples, international visitors, children, men and the main base of fashion consuming 20-something woman. Color, illustration, sparkles…these are not things I used on a regular basis at my previous financial publication experiences.

Promotional mailers, wedding event materials and gift card packaging.

San Fransisco store newspaper advertising.

Concierge magazine advertising.

Odds and Ends...

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 14:51:00 -0500

I’m always on the hunt for creating new storage solutions in my home. I have a hard time buying brand new item of furniture out of cheapness, so I’m constantly trolling the streets and junk shops for good bones. Watching my mother completely transform Salvation Army gems over the years, I received a good education in the refinishing and renovation.

This relatively unfinished piece came with slatted doors and no love. I gave it a little bit of a Asian look with glossy red paint, new knobs, hinges and geometric grates to allow the electronics housed in behind the doors a little breathing room.

Before

After

My first job at The WSJ

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 13:33:00 -0500

Mutual Fund Research Survey Cover.

Mutual Fund Research Survey inside detail.

I attended a medium sized college in Virginia with a modest sized graphic design community. My favorite professor, Trudy Cole-Zielanski was always funny, honest and very down to earth. One of the most traumatizing and extremely informative exercises she had the students run through was “The two-hour logo design”. Now I realize Trudy kept this project close to the end of graduation because had students understood that this would be asked of them in the real world, they would of become business students instead. I can’t say I even remember what my logo looked like, but I was just a little inkling closer to being ready for a real job.

The fall after graduation, I landed a junior design position with the in house marketing group of The Wall Street Journal becoming not Stephanie Lee but the “new Julie” for the previous designer who had just been promoted. My cubicle was positioned amongst a couple research analysts, which turned out to be an asset in education and focus. During my time with the Journal, I created a variety of packaged research studies for use by the ad sales team plus promotional materials, flash based websites (when it was the hot new thing), advertising, trade show booth art. My coworkers, from the research analyst to my right to the 30 year old design veteran to my left, taught me to have fun with stuffy projects, print production, diplomacy and to always ask, “Who are we targeting with this project?”.

Research Resources Broaster cover.

Research Resources Broaster detail.

Perhaps it may not make sense to mention the other ways this particular job shaped me as a person, but I would feel amiss not to. The feeling of family was something that I’ve not been able to recreate any where else. The friendships I made while working at The WSJ are long standing and continue to this day. We worked together on September 11th, watched colleagues walk into our offices recounting horrors they witnessed on the way to work and those who needed to leave their Battery Park homes because the air was full of dust. The days of hoping for one of our own reporters, Daniel Pearl, would come home and trying to give support to his wife and child while waiting to hear news. Maybe it was youth or living several hundred miles from my parents that helped create these bonds however, these people equally adopted me as part of their lives as well. It’s 4 1/2 years that I’ll always be grateful to have stumbled upon.