About

Im a passionate creative having over 18 years of advertising, brand, design, innovation, strategy and business experience. I have worked on both the agency and client side and use those experiences and learnings to cultivate creative environments where people are insanely inspired, can be their authentic selves and bring their freakiest ideas to the table. With my background in Communications design, I have a sweet spot for building global brand systems and helping those visions come to life.

I most recently helped launch YUM!’s first in-house agency, Taco Bell Creative, growing the team from 17 to 60+ people which delivers award winning creative for Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and The Habit Burger Grill. I also led Taco Bell through a Global repositioning and rebrand where we created new brand standards and assets that were launched and managed worldwide. Prior to that, I built and led the design department at the Publicis Agency, MRY, working with clients like Visa, JetBlue, Google, Adobe, AT&T, and Neutrogena.

My passion for art and design keeps me on the pulse of creative trends within the industry and my authentic leadership style (a healthy mix of teacher, mentor and therapist) empowers the teams I work with to be more inspired, creative, and confident in their approach to solving creative problems.

Aside from my professional life as a creative leader, I am also a visual artist, painting every morning in my studio before starting my 9-5. I specialize in alcohol inks, resin and encaustic wax to create abstract universes and feel-good art. I share creative learnings, insights and inspiration to my Instagram art community of over 68K (@manifest.jess) to inspire other artists and help them get over their creative fears so they can pursue their passions. 

NERD ALERT
I love making lists (so I can check things off), I'm a stickler for strong brand guidelines and pantones, I love hand-drawn typography and can't help but put things in color order (including all the books on my shelves).

#HUMBLEBRAGS
I’m proud (and humbled) to say that I'm an award winning designer, always looking to compete in various industry competitions. I’ve competed in NYC's Art Battle Painting competition (see my finished product below) and I ended up taking home the winning ‘Furious Pixel’ trophy at the live, Pixels of Fury design competition hosted by Shutterstock and Chuck Nice.

I’ve spoken on various panels, given presentations and served as a jury chair for Adobe, The Dieline, The One Club, AIGA, ANA, Front and Center and a ‘Leadership in Design’ panel along with other female leaders from Instagram, Spotify and Coca-Cola.

SEE MY LINKEDIN