RESUME

EDUCATION

The Chicago Portfolio School
Graduate School
Chicago, IL Focus: Art Direction 
September 2011 - January 2013

Western Michigan University
Haworth College of Business
Kalamazoo, MI
Bachelor of Business Administration
Major: Advertising and Promotion
Minor: General Business
Graduation: August 2011

EXPERIENCE

DIRECTOR, DESIGN MANAGER, FASHION & BEAUTY
WALMART FASHION - STYLE TEAM - SITE, CRM & SOCIAL
Remote - NYC, LA, SF , USA | March 2023 - Present

Art Director & Design Manager of the Walmart Fashion Style Team, Seasonal Pod. Overseeing, concepting, and managing of seasonal campaign work flowing through the Fashion Style Pod. Leading a team of 6 internal designers (Senior, Junior, UX) and directing approximately ~20 external agency partner designers in the Fashion & Beauty verticals. Assigning and overseeing multiple projects, ensuring compliance with brand standards and timelines. Executing creative and marketing initiatives, championing unique customer focus areas while driving the development and execution of multiple seasonal fashion campaigns. Designing and delivering strategic creative initiatives targeting business objectives while maintaining brand standards and meeting timeline requirements. Integration in the pre- and post-production process for campaign execution, assisting in reviews, approvals, and communications with design and production teams regarding versions and extensions of strategic concepts. Additionally, fostering relationships across all style pods [Fashion, Beauty, Home] to create cohesion in the style pod initiative and vision, ensuring a unified and consistent approach to Walmart's fashion strategy.

• Lead a team of 6 internal designers and oversee 20 external agency partners to deliver high-impact, seasonal campaigns for Walmart’s fashion and beauty verticals, achieving a 20% increase in customer engagement across digital platforms.

• Spearhead creative direction for cross-functional seasonal projects, integrating customer insights to align campaigns with evolving brand strategy and business objectives.

• Project management and resource allocation for up to 140 projects, particularly during the largest holiday and annual event seasons, ensuring smooth seasonal concept execution for campaign photography. Developed a visual identity and toolkit for designers to maintain brand cohesiveness and achieve design goals effectively.

• Streamlined pre- and post-production workflows, resulting in a 15% reduction in production timelines and improved cross-team communication.

• Foster collaboration between internal style pods (Fashion, Beauty, Home) to ensure cohesive brand vision across campaigns and customer touchpoints.
  

SENIOR DESIGNER LEAD, FASHION & BEAUTY
WALMART FASHION & CONSUMABLES TEAM - SITE, CRM & SOCIAL
San Bruno, CA | September 2021 - March 2023

Senior digital designer of digital marketing materials under the Fashion, Beauty & Consumables verticals, including site assets, dynamic emails, and push content, that align to content strategy. Conversion of UX design to a unified native experience. Overseeing external agency partner creative content to align with content strategy and visual asset guides. Lead Sr Design on elevated, Walmart Exclusive brands, such as Scoop, Free Assembly, and others, partnering with Senior Management to complete each category-specific asset of an elevated brand experience on site. Assist senior creative leadership on seasonal concept decks for fashion campaign launches quarterly. Oversee and approval of production projects for Walmart Fashion Landing & Category pages. Onboarding of new Senior, Mid-level, and Junior talent. Mentor of new Adfellow cross-category talent on a monthly basis.

• Managed creative execution for digital marketing assets, including site updates, email campaigns, and push notifications, contributing to a 12% increase in conversion rates on targeted campaigns. 

• Played a key role in UX design strategy, improving user experience and delivering a seamless native shopping experience across digital platforms. 

• Mentored and trained new team members, improving team onboarding efficiency by 10% and fostering a collaborative team environment. 
  

SENIOR VISUAL DESIGNER, SOCIAL
WALMART SOCIAL CREATIVE COMMERCE
Team Location Hoboken, NJ | Remote | February 2021 - August 2021

Social designer and visual storyteller for Walmart’s social media pages. Social platforms include Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok, Youtube, Snapchat and Twitter. Supporting creative needs for social commerce projects ongoing throughout the year on a rolling monthly and weekly basis for all verticals under the Walmart family of brands. Collaborating with Strategic Partnerships, Marketing Project Management & Ops, eComm Ops, & Product teams, as well as external channel advisors, in order to provide the Walmart creative point-of-view & to ensure brand cohesion across all user touchpoints.

• Led creative development for Walmart’s social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube), driving a 25% increase in follower engagement and contributing to Walmart’s social commerce strategy. 

• Developed a consistent visual identity for Walmart’s fashion content across social media, supporting cross-functional teams and external partners.
  
  SENIOR VISUAL DESIGNER, FASHION
  WALMART FASHION TEAM - SITE, CRM & SOCIAL
  San Bruno, CA | June 2020 - February 2021

Fashion design lead for Instagram on the Walmart Fashion Handle, working with cross-functional partners to establish visual aesthetic. Elevate and push the envelope on the look and feel of the Fashion aesthetic. Design of digital marketing materials, including site assets, emails, and social and video content, that aligns to content strategy. Conceptualizing and designing Fashion creative assets across site, email, social media content, and video content, that aligns to content strategy.

• Led fashion design launch for Instagram, pushing creative boundaries and elevating the Walmart Fashion handle’s aesthetic.

• Designed digital marketing materials, including site assets, emails, social, and video content that aligned with content strategy.

• Worked with cross-functional teams to develop a cohesive visual identity across platforms and campaigns, increasing engagement with key fashion audiences.

PHOTO ART DIRECTOR
SHUTTERFLY | TINY PRINTS | THE WEDDING SHOP | LIFETOUCH
Redwood City, CA | January 2019 - March 2020

As Photo Art Director for Shutterfly, concepting and executing all brands under the Shutterfly Umbrella, including Shutterfly Core, The Wedding Shop, Tiny Prints Boutique, and Lifetouch Shoots on set. Assisting and supporting Senior leadership in the visual execution of each brand quarterly, as well as partnering with all Digital E-commerce Creatives to execute Photography for all digital and print assets needs. Managing, planning and leading weekly shoots on-set with a crew of producers, photographers, set stylists, photo stylists and post-production teams. Point person bridge between marketing, creative, and photo, for consistency across all platforms for each of the business partners goal for imagery.  Managing relationships with Post Production Retouchers and of visual assets after retouching revisions, including press checks and editing of photography. Extra responsibilities include improving post-production processes as well as creative timelines and asset delivery, hiring, managing, coaching and directing photo crew, and attending learnings for leadership.

• Directed on-set photo shoots for Shutterfly brands, managing creative teams and ensuring consistency in visual identity across digital and print assets.

• Improved post-production processes and timelines, reducing asset delivery time by 10%, while ensuring brand cohesion and quality across all touchpoints.
  

SENIOR PHOTO STYLIST
ULTA BEAUTY
Chicago, IL | June 2018 - September 2018

As Senior Photo Stylist, concepting and creating the visual look & feel for all photography in the studio and for the brand across the company. By creating mood-boards based off seasonal campaigns that then translate into the visual photography utilized in the Magazine, Direct Marketing, In-Store, Online, Social and internal brand work. Assisting with pre-planning of page layout and design. All while hands-on styling and executing the creation of photos on-set alongside a team of photographers, prop stylists & designers with a curation of props or textures to make them look beautiful.

• Led and styled all photography in the studio for Ulta Beauty’s seasonal campaigns, ensuring cohesive visual aesthetics across magazine, in-store, online, and social platforms.

• Collaborated with photographers and prop stylists to conceptualize and execute visually engaging photoshoots, contributing to an increase in in-store and digital engagement.

• Developed mood boards for seasonal campaigns, translating them into stunning visuals for multi-channel marketing efforts.

SENIOR DIGITAL DESIGNER - PHOTO
ULTA BEAUTY
Chicago, IL | February 2017 - June 2018

Senior Digital Designer creating all original content for Ulta Beauty Social, Conceptual Photo Art Directing, Styling and Shooting on set with a Photographer weekly. Working with post-production for retouching needs and preparing files for digital asset handoff. Also, collaborating with copywriters and other Design Leads for all of Ulta Beauty’s Social platforms on a weekly content calendar managed by Strategy and Marketing. During my time in this role at the company, contributing to the growth of 1.2 million followers to 3.2 million followers on Instagram.

• Directed and produced all social media content for Ulta Beauty, driving brand engagement and contributing to Instagram follower growth from 1.2M to 3.2M in 18 months.

• Conceptualized and led weekly photo shoots, working closely with photographers and post-production teams to maintain on-brand visuals across all digital platforms.

• Managed end-to-end content creation processes, from initial concept through final digital asset handoff, ensuring high-quality, on-brand content across multiple channels.
  
  E-COMMERCE PHOTO STUDIO ART DIRECTOR
  CRATE & BARREL | CB2
  Chicago, IL | December 2016 - February 2017 

Photo Art Directing all e-commerce Photography for both Crate and Barrel & CB2, managing multiple on-set photographers and stylists to execute campaign and evergreen assets. Including, Journey & Silo product photography as well as in-studio spacial scenarios.

• Managed all e-commerce photography for Crate & Barrel and CB2, overseeing photographers and stylists to deliver high-quality product imagery that elevated online sales.

• Collaborated with merchandising and creative teams to ensure product visuals aligned with broader campaign strategies.

INTERIOR DESIGN
NATE BERKUS ASSOCIATES
Chicago, IL | September 2016 - December 2016

Assisting in Executive Design Decisions. Handling, ordering and receiving of samples and organization of design library within company. Photo Art Directed and Assisted Design Director's Home Photo Shoot with Professional Photographer, Designed by Design Director Lauren Buxbaum Gordon and Nate Berkus himself.

• Assisted in executive design decisions and managed the organization and ordering of design samples.

• Photo art directed a home photo shoot with Design Director Lauren Buxbaum Gordon and Nate Berkus, ensuring high-quality execution for promotional materials.

• Managed and organized the design library to streamline workflow and improve resource accessibility.
  

EXPERIENCE CONTINUED:

DIGITAL ART DIRECTOR - SOCIAL PHOTO
FCB CHICAGO | Global Advertising Agency
Chicago, IL | February 2016 - Sept 2016

FREELANCE PHOTO ART DIRECTOR
INDEPENDENT, CHICAGO
Remote | Present

FREELANCE DIGITAL ART DIRECTOR
MANIFEST, CHICAGO | Content Marketing Agency
Chicago, IL | December 2015

ART DIRECTOR - PRINT | DIGITAL | SOCIAL | OOH
OGILVY & MATHER CHICAGO | Global Advertising Agency
Chicago, IL | July 2014 - October 2015

FREELANCE ART DIRECTOR - PRINT | DIGITAL | SOCIAL
REDWORKS, OGILVY & MATHER CHICAGO
Chicago, IL | Nov 2013 - June 2014

CREATIVE INTERN: JR ART DIRECTOR
MCGARRYBOWEN CHICAGO | Global Advertising Agency
Chicago, IL | June 2013 - Sept 2013

SKILLS

Creative Leadership: Team Management, Cross-Functional Collaboration, Campaign Strategy

Creative Strategy: Branding, Multi-Channel Marketing, User Experience (UX) Design

Art Direction: Photo Styling, Concept Development, Post-Production Oversight

Digital Design: Social Media, Site Assets, Email Campaigns, Retouching Management

Software Proficiency: Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign), Capture One, Workfront, Figma, Airtable, 

Smartsheets, Frame.iO, Google Suite, Microsoft Office, Chat GPT, Open Ai

Platforms: Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube

CONTACT

EMAIL - MAEGIN.E.COOPER@GMAIL.COM

PHONE - 616.890.9952

Social Links: 

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/maegincooper
Instagram: @cooper.inspired

CONNECT WITH ME