AIGA ATL Insider

Andy Epstein began his career as a freelance illustrator and designer before transitioning to in-house creative services - establishing and leading creative teams and actualizing operational and organizational infrastructure. His professional expertise includes creating, documenting, and implementing creative services and general business best practices. With a passion for professional development, leadership and team coaching, and creative team business strategy, Andy has supported dozens of in-house agencies. In addition to his professional pursuits, Andy has contributed to the creative services community, having written the book “The Corporate Creative.” He has also contributed extensively to industry online and print publications, delivered training through workshops and presentations for industry organizations, and led outreach and support initiatives for groups including AIGA and HOW. Andy Epstein firmly believes in the potential of in-house creative teams to drive substantial positive change within their host organizations. He sees their impact extending beyond the creative they deliver to clients. Andy is dedicated to advancing this positive impact by consistently establishing and supporting in-house creative agencies. He believes that business can change the world and that creatives can change business.

This month we have a special episode of Insider where we will interview three members of the UPS Global Communications Creative Studio. They're expert storytellers, strategists, creatives…who know there audiences and craft remarkable and memorable messages that move them. They know where and how to reach them, and the voices influencing them. And above all, they protect and deliver UPS's world-class brand in all they do. Each member that we are speaking to today have distinct roles that balance their team. There is Ben Rivers, Vice President of Creative Studio; Neil Secretario, Creative Director, and Kelli Stoudenmire, Manager and Senior Graphic Designer. 

Kevyn Faulkenberry is the Creative Director at The Brand Studio, an agency within Cox Communications. In late 2019, Kevyn came on board as one of two employees. One pandemic, forty-five employees, and 286,372 Teams meetings later, Kevyn can tell you a thing or two about building an agency from the ground up, leading through change, and always striving to do the best creative. Under his leadership, The Brand Studio went from a “what if” to a full-service creative powerhouse supporting America's largest private broadband company.  Before coming to Cox, Kevyn worked with brands like McDonald's, American Heart Association, Winn-Dixie, Jacksonville Jaguars, Atlanta Falcons, and more. Kevyn is a self-described pop culture addict. He lives with his beautiful wife, two daughters, and one celebrity, his dog, Phoebe Buffay.

Jermaine Barnwell is a Creative Director at RR Donnelley working onsite at The Home Depot. He leads and manages a team of more than thirty Creatives responsible for brand and creative strategy for The Home Depot's In-Store Environment.   As a leader, problem solver and designer, Jermaine believes that with passion, pencil sketches and a “go for it” attitude you can achieve truly amazing things. In fact, earlier in his career while working a day job as a graphic design team lead for the Michigan-based retailer Meijer starting in 2005, he simultaneously explored a lifelong interest in fashion and design, essentially building a leather goods brand from the ground up on lunch breaks and at night. Sketches soon evolved into footwear, luggage, outerwear and accessories that were shown on runways and sold at stores in Chicago. Although he's turned a chapter on fashion and product design, that determination and commitment to creativity have led directly to the leadership and mentoring roles he holds today.

Karolina Akimov is the Creative Services Manager at Mellow Mushroom. Her responsibilities include managing and creating brand campaign assets, working with freelance artists and directing photoshoots for food imagery. In addition, Karolina also is responsible for the holistic creative direction of the Yellow Room, Mellow Mushroom's lifestyle brand. On the side, Karolina also enjoys illustrating private commissions and selling her own art prints and merchandise.

Darnell Baker is an award-winning, multi-disciplined visual designer and creative leader. Recently working as an Art Director supporting Chick-Fil-A's in-house agency, Darnell led a team of creatives while spearheading ideation and execution of compelling deliverables including assets for POP ad campaigns, key partnerships, internal presentations, and more.  His most highlighted projects during his tenure were for Chick-Fil-A's partnerships with professional sports franchises such as the Philadelphia 76ers, San Antonio Spurs, and New York Yankees. He and his team's work with the renowned fast-food brand can be seen today in sports arenas and Chick-Fil-A locations around the U.S.  Based in Atlanta, Darnell's passion for leadership and solution-driven design has allowed him to work with brands such as Honeywell, ADP, Twitter, Toshiba, and more. He attributes his growth and success to "always remaining a student." 

Ellen Westing is a Creative Service Manager at WestRock. Since becoming part of the team in 2020, Ellen has helped push the brand's creative direction, developed a visual strategy for their social media, and has designed various collateral such as tradeshows, animations, and Sustainability Reports. She has also helped grow the design team to support both external and internal communications, social media, and website design. Prior to joining WestRock, Ellen enjoyed working in several different industries such as experiential design with 160/90, working as an Art Director at N+A Advertising and as a Graphic Designer at Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Ellen grew up in the Midwest receiving her Bachelor's in Biology from Bradley University and attending the Portfolio Center, completing their Graphic Design program.

Andrés Prieto is a Sr. UX Designer for Primerica Financial Services. Andrés joined Primerica in 2017 as part of an initiative to kickstart a brand new UX team. Since then he's helped grow the company's UX-Maturity Model and establish a UX CoE within the organization. He is responsible for leading the experience for all client facing products and tools. Before Primerica, has enjoyed working in product development and user-centered design across different digital multimedia agencies and companies, within and outside the US, like Univision, Goal.com and SunTrust.

For the past 8 years, Christopher Lapides has been the Creative Services Production Manager for Acuity Brands. In this position, he leads a team of production artists that work on a variety of marketing and product collateral to help improve brand equity, increase product sales, and drive market innovation. In addition, he manages the company's Digital Asset Management System, develops multiple standard work and brand identity guidelines, and provides support for interdepartmental software and hardware launches. When he has free time, he enjoys playing tennis, hiking, and writing fantasy novels. So far, he has self-published twelve and is currently working on his thirteenth and fourteenth books.

I consider myself a lucky creative. Lucky that I've been working hard designing and leading creative for over 20 years. Lucky to work tackling design projects independently or alongside amazing designers and mentors. Lucky to use my skills in branding, art direction and concepting to tell a story or solve a problem in a creative and impactful way. Lucky that I've continually enhanced my skills and leadership in all kinds of print and digital creative within several in-house Atlanta companies, nonprofits and agencies. Lucky that my current role as Creative Lead is both challenging and rewarding as I build branding and creative solutions for merchandising, marketing, communications and more. Lucky that I still wake up every day excited to bring creative solutions and showcase why it's good fortune to have me on board.

Roy is the brand creative director lead at Stella & Chewy's, a global natural pet food brand. Since joining the pack last summer, he's built the in-house creative department Offleash, that services the brand, in all aspects of the business globally. Throughout his 15+ years in the advertising industry, Roy has created, led and inspired dozens of teams (Art Directors, Designers and Copywriters) to concept and execute national and global marketing campaigns for some of the world's biggest brands: Converse, Land Rover, Interface, Hasbro, Toyota and Verisign...to name a few. Torres also spent time at top agencies across three countries including Grey, Saatchi & Saatchi, Anomaly, and Y&R in New York, TBWA in Paris, and Droga5 in Australia. With a background in art direction, a passion for film, and a keen eye for design, his work has been lucky enough to be recognized in every major advertising award show including Cannes, One Show, Clios, London International, YoungGuns, Andy's and Fast Company.

Jeremy is an award-winning, media agnostic, modern-day marketer, writer, content maker and former Global Executive Creative Director at J. Walter Thompson where he had the pleasure of managing a motley crew of 20 creative individuals across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Currently he's the Global Creative Campaigns Director for the SaaS marketing platform darling Mailchimp helping build and scale a new in-house team. For more than a decade, Jeremy has been helping brands accelerate growth and scale through digitally led business transformation ideas, new technologies, branded content entities as well as good ol' fashion advertising. He's been a keynote speaker at the Ad Age Digital Conference, a consultant for multiple global collision workshops and is responsible for one of the top product launches in the history of SXSW. He's also helped set two Guinness Book of World Records for clients and his work has been honored by every major award show while being featured in publications like Fast Company and Wired with appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Heath Hancock is a graphic designer based in Atlanta, Georgia who has been working in the film industry for a decade. His work can be seen in projects such as Stranger Things, The Vampire Diaries, and Loki. He is currently working on a feature for Apple centered around the Beanie Baby boom. Besides Apple, Heath has worked on projects for Netflix, Disney/Marvel, Blumhouse & Amazon Streaming. Prior to film, Heath attended Georgia State University where he received a BFA in Graphic Design and interned at Adult Swim. Outside of design, he is beginning to focus on 3D concept art as well as other creative projects with friends relating to film and other media.

Tad Roberts is the Creative Lead at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. Since 2014, he's been responsible for refining and safeguarding its brand guidelines as well as overseeing its strategic and creative messaging across print, digital and social channels. He manages a multidisciplinary team of designers and external vendors, providing guidance and direction to maintain consistent alignment of those visual standards.

Brandie Barton has forged an upward creative career path working as a leader in creative concepting and creative direction for BGCA. Brandie admits that her most recent role as National Director, Creative Services for Boys & Girls Clubs of America has been the most creatively rewarding and professionally challenging of her 20-year career. As a creative team lead Brandie values a diverse team of talent and ideas, team feedback, individual workstyles, and working collaboratively through the creative process.

Paul Stechmesser is a visual designer with 20+ years' experience in creative direction, design strategy and motion graphics. He currently runs the Creative Studios design team at The Coca-Cola Company. Prior to Coke, Paul earned his BFA in Graphic Design from The University of Tennessee and later worked for a small, now-defunct design shop in Chattanooga, TN. From there, he spent several years working for the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company. He earned his MFA in Graphic Design from the Savannah College of Art and Design and lives in Atlanta, GA with his wife and three children.

Insung Kim is the Sr. Creative Director of the 2021 World Champion Atlanta Braves. Since joining the team in 2016, Insung has built up a creative team that produces creative for all of the Braves marketing campaigns, manages the Braves brand across all platforms and creates graphics and signage at Truist Park and The Battery Atlanta. He is responsible for the look and feel of the Braves brand and also works with the league on updates to the team uniforms. Prior to joining the Atlanta Braves, Insung worked as the Sr. Designer at Populous in Kansas City, an architectural firm specializing in designing stadiums and sport venues. He grew up in Southern California and received a BFA in Communication Arts at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles.

Britt has been working in professional sports and entertainment in Atlanta since 2015, most recently as a Digital Media Manger with AMB Sports+Entertainment. She also co-founded the LCKR ROOM with Kaila "KP" Pettis - a creative content platform and unique collective of personalities connected through design, culture and sports. As part of their passion for service, their time, talent, and resources are used to fund community programs and educational opportunities that bring awareness and access to creative careers. The goal being to uplift the next generation of creative minds and elevate minority owned and operated businesses.

Jerry Braccia is an award-winning senior level design director developing 360˚ brand solutions with measurable results directly impacting profitability and consumer engagement for multi-million-dollar national CPG retail brands in on/off premise, drug, grocery, chain, hospitality and super-retail channels.

Simon is a creative director with over 14 years of industry experience. He works to help companies and organizations to implement strategic campaigns with engagement and impact at it's core, utilizing creative/innovative approaches that create products and platforms with a mission of transformation, and base growth.

Larry Sorrel is a creative strategist with a broad background within the design industry. He has worked on global brands such as Sharpie, Calphalon Cookware, Hermes of Paris and Graco Baby Products and several more Fortune 500 companies.

Insider is a monthly series where we interview Atlanta in-house designers, learn about their teams and work, and discuss the themes that inspire them. This month, meet Katie Kirschner, NCR's Vice President of Brand, Content + Digital Marketing.

AIGA ATL Insider is a monthly series where we interview Atlanta in-house designers, learn about their teams and work, and discuss the themes that inspire them. This month, meet Brian Rice.

AIGA INsider is a monthly series where we interview Atlanta in-house designers, learn about their teams and work, and discuss the themes that inspire them. This month, meet Sam Zellefrow, Global Design Manager, Kimberly-Clark.

Insider is a monthly series where we interview Atlanta in-house designers, learn about their teams and work, and discuss the themes that inspire them. This month, meet Ed Roberts, Brand and Creative Director, Georgia Power.

Meet Kamilah Benjamin from State Farm. Kamilah shares what she learned on the agency side and how that prepared her to take on an in-house role at State Farm.

Evelyn is a multidisciplinary designer with 10 years of industry experience. She's passionate about making sense of complicated problems and figuring out simple solutions. Currently she's a Senior Visual Designer at Pandora | SiriusXM where she combines her love of music, technology, and advertising to help brands build interactive digital experiences that entertain and produce results.

Insider is a monthly series where we interview Atlanta in-house designers, learn about their teams and work, and discuss the themes that inspire them. This month, meet Jailyn Easley, an Atlanta-based, transdisciplinary designer who enjoys creating user-centric designs and tailored experiences for companies such as Accenture to Atlanta's iconic brand the Slutty Vegan.

Rodrigo Posada is the Associate Creative Director at Interface with over 15 years of experience in the field, including creating his own studio Hot Pot Creative to working at large agencies like Wunderman Thompson. We will be talking about his personal experience and how to work through some of the complicated challenges we all face in today's market, while switching jobs.

Nick Fecteau is a multidisciplinary artist, designer and creative director. He began his career as a menswear designer for Ruehl No.925, a high end clothing brand owned by Abercrombie & Fitch, before making the jump to fashion advertising. His ability to understand a brand from a designer's perspective helped create highly successful campaigns for a large breadth of high profile fashion brands, such as Gap, Hermès, and Juicy Couture. Nick was instrumental in developing the fragrance and beauty business at NYC ad agency Laird + Partners, creating a multitude of award-winning campaigns, many of which garnered FIFI awards. His custom of perfectionism and steadfast determination to make all projects he touches look better, has left its mark on the industry. He soon found himself being asked to lead in-house creative at the Atlanta based team of billion dollar furniture retailer, Rooms To Go.

The AIGA ATL In-House Team hosted William Treadwell from Floor & Decor to learn how to build trust beyond labels, make mistakes that allow for breakthrough and how to foster a culture of inclusivity with William.

Katie Daniels from Turner Classic Movies brings 20 years of design experience to our audience and is full of tactics to stay inspired even when you're on your own “in-house island.”

AIGA ATL Insider is a monthly series where we interview Atlanta in-house designers, learn about their teams and work, and discuss the themes that inspire them. This month, meet Jay Musselwhite, FLEETCOR's Vice President of Creative Services.

The AIGA ATL In-House Team hosts Doug Sprinkle from The Home Depot to learn from Doug's 15+ years of design experience.