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.
Header_Jif-Squeeze-Gladiator_1920x540

Jif Peanut Butter - Jif Squeeze "Gladiator" Social

Moxie work for Jif Peanut Butter / The J.M. Smucker Co. | December 2020–January 2021

We pitched a LOT of work for Jif, and the only one I was able to see through to completion before I left Publicis Groupe in February 2021 was the matching social campaign for the "Gladiator Arena" broadcast spot set to air in April 2021 for the new Jif Squeeze product line.

Our team had to take an in-progress broadcast spot and make compelling social content out of whatever we could, which made for a fun challenge.

"Would You Rather..." Instagram Story Poll

When I say that Jif social hadn't been very active AT ALL, this kind of low-lift activation blew their minds with the amount of engagement they received organically.

After starting the poll with the full, "Would you rather..." copy, we shortened it to the more text-friendly, "WYR" for two of the frames.

Instagram Story - Jif Squeeze - Frame 1 - Arena
Instagram Story - Jif Squeeze - Frame 2 - Celery or Bread & Apples
Instagram Story - Jif Squeeze - Frame 3 - Spread or Squeeze
Instagram Story - Jif Squeeze - Frame 4 - Arm Wrestle
Instagram Story - Jif Squeeze - Frame 5 - Visit or Eat

Art History-Inspired In-Feed Posts

"That Jif'ing good" was a tagline Jif had adopted in 2020, so we found a couple of ways we could work that into either post copy or in-feed headlines in a very tongue-in-cheek way.

Hughston had way too much fun Photoshopping Jif Squeeze into historical Roman art.

That Jif'ing Good - Art History - Statue
That-Jifing-Good_Arena-Text

Jif GIFs

Because sometimes you need a good reaction GIF.

Jif Squeeze GIFs - Gladiator
Jif Squeeze GIFs - Knife in Jar
Jif Squeeze GIFs - Knife Breaking
Jif Squeeze GIFs - Ouch

The Team

Scott Hunt, Creative Director, Peanut Butter Artist

Hughston May, Art Director

Orin Heidelberg, Copywriter

Some bonus content...

Jif Squeeze - Colosseum Drawing

My history of drawing in Arby's Sauce was VERY helpful when we pitched using Jif Squeeze as a potential medium for making social content.

Jif-Squeeze_3D-Colosseum-Fail

We originally pitched using Jif in a 3D printer as a unique social stunt (it had been done by individual content creators who had adapted 3D printers to work with food, but not one sponsored by Jif).

When we were asked to TRY making it work with Jif Squeeze for the "Gladiator Arena" social posts, I did.

And FAILED.

Jif Squeeze was just too creamy (and warm from my hands squeezing the package) to hold its shape for more than 30 seconds before it slumped into the mess above.

← The Home Depot – TikTok Channel Launch
→ Arby’s Missing Menu TikTok Influencer Campaign

Wanna find me elsewhere?

You'll get bored quickly... it's a lot of photos of my adorable husband, our kids and our rescue dog, Porter.