Building a Brand:
Epicenter
Roles: Director, Marketing and Communications &
Manager, Design and Brand Experience
Epicenter exists to connect, support, and expand the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the greater Memphis area. When I rejoined the team in 2017, one of my main goals was to manage the look and feel of Epicenter’s branded communications. As a one-woman design department, I had the opportunity to take Epicenter’s new logo and leverage my learnings from advertising to build a brand persona from scratch.
The rebranding of Epicenter can be grouped into several phases: The initial logo rollout to swap out the old branding, updating existing marketing collateral and establishing a consistent look for new materials, and humanizing Epicenter’s tone of voice across all of our digital platforms to appeal to a wider base of entrepreneurs, business partners, funders, and the media.
What am I proud of?
Being able to completely ditch stock photography, and build an internal photo repository of entrepreneurs that live in Memphis and reflect the diverse population of our city.
Figuring out how to do things that I have never done before like creative direction for video and photography, UI/UX for web, and copywriting for digital communications platforms.
Building and refining lean design processes to produce agency-level work under tight deadlines and high levels of ambiguity.
If I had a magic wand…
I would build a design team so I can focus on directing Epicenter’s brand experience as a whole. Design is just one of the many hats that I wear, so a lot of my big ideas outpace my capacity. I established the look, voice and feel of a brand by myself, so I know that I could do phenomenal things with a dedicated team.
Video Direction
Epicenter gave me the opportunity to grow as a creative in many ways. One of my favorite roles within the organization involved hiring and collaborating with video teams to tell the stories of our entrepreneurs.
BGM Catering:
A Grand Opening
Role: Creative Oversight, Storyboarding
VITAL:
Believe in the Audacious
Role: Creative Oversight