Dwell Store

Creative direction, commerce, strategy

I was on the founding team that launched the Dwell Store with the goal of creating an emblematic collection of products for the modern home and lifestyle.

Role: Creative director

- Chief merchant: Josh Mintz
- Designer: Bek Gilsenan
- Copywriter: Marianne Kipp
- Merchandising + Ops: Brian Bruegge
- Photo editor: Susan Getzendanner
- Photographers: Michael Graydon and Nikole Herriott

- Ecommerce site
- Email
- Events
- Marketing collateral + direct mail
- Pop-up stores
- Print (Advertising + editorial)
- Social

- Advertising
- Art direction
- Brand development
- Brand identity
- Client relations
- Commerce optimization
- Curation
- CX
- Editorial
- Integrated marketing
- Photography
- Product design
- Product strategy
- Publishing
- Storytelling
- Strategy
- Visual merchandising

I led our brand, creative, production, and user experience initiatives while working with over 300 international brands and 500 independent designers. As the overall experience and design lead, I worked closely with product and engineering to ensure we were delivering what was best for our customers and partners—all while creating a world-class commerce experience.

As the lead on contextualized commerce, I worked closely with the Dwell Magazine Editor-in-Chief, Photo Editor, and entire team to tastefully integrate the Dwell Store and maintain cross-platform consistency and standards as well as complement content and features.

The story

Curating from products featured in Dwell Magazine and from around the world, we created a comprehensive collection and full in-house retail experience.

In two years, we grew to over 3,000 products and 7,000 SKUs while working with over 300 brands and 500 product designers. Each product had in-house copy, photo research and retouch, brand and designer info, and intensive QA.

We also built and managed our own marketing, creative, customer service, and led technical and product development efforts to speak to our continued growth.

Growing to success

As a growing sector of Dwell, we sought out many opportunities to promote the Dwell Store and to seamlessly integrate our products. We managed to achieve profitability within two years, and with a super small but dedicated team.

Photography

When we launched, we only had inconsistent vendor photography to work with. I strongly advocated for us to do in-house shoots, which also helped us build our “brand within a brand” and overall style.

Email

Year-around campaigns. Email marketing was executed via weekly dedicated store campaigns and Dwell editorial integrations. Email marketing was handled via an outdated system and template when we launched the store. I advocated for and led a redesign of not only the commerce emails but all of Dwell’s marketing emails.

Print

The Dwell Store featured at least one ad in every issue of Dwell magazine and special Dwell editions as well as ads in supplemental publications.

Catalogs

We put out several catalogs, including a 26-page Buyer’s Sourcebook with the editorial team.

Events

For our New York pop-up installation in SoHo, we made product cards for visitors to take home if they were interested in the product shown—or just wanted a design keepsake.

Co-branded products

We launched both new and co-branded products, and promoted them through magazine ads, at trade shows and pop-ups, and online (site, email, social, and digital advertising ).

Site visual merchandising

To keep the site fresh, we updated the homepage banners to reflect that week's planned curated collections and special promotions.

Packaging

Thank You card inserts were created for customer packages. I suggested these be modeled off of postcards—with a blank back—so they could be used by customers while also serving as marketing.