June 2015–January 2017
Chicago, IL
Performed as jack-of-all-trades designer immersed directly within the luxury commerce and fine art community. Crafted brand guidelines to reflect the refined customer profile. Produced sleek, hundred-page catalogs weekly. Managed site updates, national building displays, direct mail, and email comms. Managed marketing budgets and facilitated print vendor relationships. Proctored auctions. Fair warning!
In collaboration with cataloguers, photographers, and fine art consultants, we worked efficiently to put images on display and flow detailed product descriptions across hundreds of pages. Production on catalogues of this caliber sometimes had to be completed in as quickly as a week.
Print and proofing deadline rate remained at 100% for my entire time at Hindman.
2017 Midwest Auctioneers Contemporary Catalogue of the Year
These publications were an exercise in inter-departmental compromise and resilience—at times, products were obtained or rescinded in the eleventh hour. Repagination was the inevitable devil!
While typical auction houses provided sample booklets and stapled packets, our luxury business crafted coffee table books that put the artwork on full display. Hindman's catalogues were made to be savored and pored over, providing the full-scale, high end experience.
With a distribution list in the tens of thousands, sales of this particular auction topped $1M.
The Marketing department shared space with the Fashion department, making for a very colorful and entertaining working environment. Birkins by the dozen!
An important part of my role as in-house designer was creating ads to raise interest about upcoming auctions. In accordance with niche publication guidelines and restrictions, I worked to create enticing and concise ad spaces that spoke to the prospective dealer or collector.
The eternal challenge in this role was creating visually impressive ad spaces, regardless of how banal the subject matter.