I’m a hands-on Creative Director, Art Director, Illustrator and Maker with over twenty years of professional experience and a track record for creating thumb-stopping social creative and developing high-performing teams. So yes… I’ve been around the block a few times; and starting my career post-grad in a small town and exhausting all the creative roles there meant that I learned a lot—but the job titles I had never matched what I did. I led all Creative for Dippin’ Dots, Inc. for over five years—and helped develop “Minion Madness Cookie Dough” as a co-branded tie-in with Illumination Entertainment when the first “Despicable Me” came out—but my title there was only ever “Designer.” I’ve driven initiatives for scalable digital creative solutions in addition to leading custom social content and video productions that resulted in double-digit sales increases. My career began in print design and gave me a strong grounding in production specs and “doing work right the first time” to avoid costly reprints. I’ve championed the power of social and new media; leading the launch of Facebook for Dippin’ Dots, Inc. (2007) and TikTok for Arby’s (2018) and The Home Depot (2022). I empower and challenge my teams to think strategically—not just creatively—as we work to elevate the brands we touch and make content that resonates with our audiences. I enjoy passing along what I’ve learned and teach new shooting, editing and software techniques to my teams on a regular basis to help everyone develop new skills. I’ve worked freelance, long-term contract, in-house and agency-side as a single contributor on a larger Marketing team as well as a Creative team leader and mentor—hence the number of titles that don’t accurately reflect the job I was hired to do. I identify as a member of the LGBTQ+ community and proudly bring my whole self to every role. I’ve won awards for my work, including a Cannes Silver Lion and a Shorty Award for Art Direction; but the one that means the most to me is the HOW Design award for the wedding invitations I created for my husband and me in 2014.

“Adventure is Out There” Egg

April 12, 2019

Vanessa Toro is one of the masterminds behind Bombshells ATL, a free "artful egg hunt for adults" in Atlanta. Green plastic eggs are hidden in lieu of the art eggs, and each has a number inside that corresponds with one of the donated eggs. Usually, 50 eggs or more are decorated and donated by local artists, and I've been told that competition and trading are fierce. My friend Jessica Larkin got me tuned in to participate for the first time in 2019, and I had an absolute blast making this egg.

Unfortunately, Atlanta weather being what it is, they had to postpone the 2019 hunt due to rain several weekends in a row... which means "Adventure is Out There" still doesn't have a home.

You can see the community reactions to the egg on Bombshells ATL's Instagram. I'm definitely making another one in 2020... maybe this one will be "Down" and I'll build Hades' realm from Hercules.

BONUS

I may have taken too many photos of the house and egg in progress (this isn't even all of them)... but I was honestly IN LOVE with this build. I worked on it almost exclusively at night, so the time stamps on the photos are usually 2 or 3 AM.

I drilled a hole in the top of the wooden egg and placed an 18-gauge wire down it about an inch for stability; and built the chimney on the house hollow so I could slide it right over the wire. I knew the balloons were going to need all the support I could give them, and the wire going through the chimney worked perfectly.

The tiny house

The tiny house

Tagged: Bombshells ATL | paper craft

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