Jenni Kayne — Art Director, Apparel
Role: Art Director
Scope: Brand Creative, Campaigns, E-commerce, Print, Email, OOH
Overview
Jenni Kayne is a multi-category lifestyle brand with a loyal following and growing e-commerce business. I joined as the first design-led art director embedded within the marketing organization, responsible for leading creative execution, maintaining visual consistency, and developing the design team across brands.
Challenge
When I joined, the brand lacked centralized design leadership. Campaigns, email, and catalog design were largely template-driven and inconsistent, with no formal visual systems or brand standards. This limited creative impact, operational efficiency, and the ability to deliver cohesive brand storytelling across channels.
Impact
During my time at Jenni Kayne I introduced design-led visual systems and type-driven campaigns, improving brand consistency and supporting strong product launches. My work continues to inform creative execution today, providing a scalable foundation for future growth.
Credits: Photographer Angi Welsch, HMU Chanel Cross, Stylists Kate Brien, Patricia Lagmay
Responsibilities
Led the design and production of monthly 30+ page apparel catalogs, serving as the foundation for campaigns across email, web, retail, and events
Developed type-driven campaign frameworks to elevate brand storytelling across channels
Art-directed bi-monthly e-commerce photography shoots, defining performance-driven shot lists in collaboration with merchandising and marketing teams
Oversaw on-set image selection and post-production workflows, ensuring assets met brand standards and conversion goals
Designed high-performing email campaigns, print ads, internal merchandise, and collateral for special projects
Built scalable creative systems and workflows to improve cross-team efficiency
Oversaw selection and rollout of a Digital Asset Management (DAM) platform
Leadership
Managed and developed designers across apparel and home, with cross-brand collaboration based on seasonal needs
Led hiring for new design roles and onboarded team members into established creative systems
Represented design in cross-functional meetings, advocating for brand clarity and consistency
Led design initiative to update email programming from standard Klayvio templates to unique, targeted designs, with seasonal type treatments, templated formats, and series franchises. Created the first “winning” email design with a “value prop” template email format, proven to lead directly to high sales (or even selling out) of the target product.