Hi, I’m Adrienne.
I’m a creative director, brand builder and designer who really, really likes figuring things out.
For nearly 30 years, I’ve shaped brands and built the creative work, teams and systems behind them. My brain tends to wander freely between the big idea, the tiniest detail, the people involved and the question of how we make the whole thing work better.
Give me something complicated, half-formed or not quite working yet and I’m very, very happy.
- Art, naturally
- Old things with stories
- Plants
- Ephemera
- Beautiful spaces
- Somewhere I’ve never been
- A good rabbit hole
What I believe
Making good things.
Good design is an act of empathy.
It’s not about what I want to make. It’s about what someone else needs to see, understand, feel or do.
Start with the story.
The artifact is never the starting point. Before the logo, slide, campaign, chart or website, I want to know what we’re actually trying to say, who we’re saying it to and why they should care.
Give people direction. Then give them room.
I want the designers I lead to know where we’re going without being told exactly how to get there. I set the vision, give thoughtful feedback and help people develop their own creative point of view.
Taste still matters.
Strategy can make the work smarter. Systems can make it easier. Technology can make it faster. None of them replaces knowing when those last three pixels actually matter.
A brand should work when you’re not in the room.
The creative team shouldn’t have to monitor every piece of work. Build the templates, tools, systems and guardrails well enough that people can make good things without you.
Use technology to make more room for thinking.
I want technology doing more of what it’s good at so humans have more time for what we’re good at: judgment, curiosity, taste and imagination.
If it doesn’t work for people, it doesn’t work.
Accessibility is part of the creative work, not a box to check afterward. Beautiful work that people can’t actually use isn’t good design.
Make something worth people’s attention. Make it useful. Make it well. Make it possible for more good things to follow.
Off the clock
The person behind the work.
At any given moment I am probably researching, making, rearranging or dreaming up something. I live off dopamine hits supplied by art (naturally), old things with stories, plants, ephemera, beautiful spaces and wandering around somewhere I’ve never been before. I am extremely susceptible to a good rabbit hole.
Chicago (Evanston) is home, and I’m an obsessive mama to a preschooler and a teenager, and the main wrangler of two cats and an English Lab.
- One preschooler
- One teenager
- Two cats
- One English Lab
Contact
Let’s make something better.
I’m happiest around ambitious people trying to create something meaningful: a brand, a team, an experience, a system, an organization or simply a really good idea that hasn’t quite found its shape yet.
I’m less interested in owning every great idea than I am in creating the conditions for more great ideas to happen.