Building a Vertical Brand

RAA leadership challenged a small founding team to build a company-owned brand from the ground up. As Creative Director on that team, I led brand development for Damen + Hastings.

Act 1 · Brand foundation

Named after the Chicago street corner where our century-old building stands, the brand needed to do something uncommon for a company-owned label: feel independent, credible, and community-rooted rather than corporate-adjacent. Partnering with design, product, merchandising, and leadership, I helped establish the visual identity, brand guidelines, and creative strategy — with a clear point of view on craft, material quality, and customer relationship. Every decision, from the wordmark's geometric precision to the palette's warmth, signaled a brand built to last and proud of its Chicago origin.

Act 2 · Product & brand standards

Working with design teams across categories, I helped establish cohesive brand standards for belts, wallets, and bags that held the identity together while giving teams creative flexibility. We focused on quality materials, refined details, and accessible price points — premium but approachable, ready to support both pop-up shops and wholesale. Rather than a rigid brand book, we built a working framework of guardrails so teams could ask “does this strengthen the Damen + Hastings story?” instead of “does this match page 47?”

Act 3 · Retail & ecommerce growth

We launched with local Chicago pop-ups, refined the model, and scaled into direct-to-consumer and ultimately a national wholesale partnership with Kohl's — including a Made-in-USA collaboration with Pintrill. The arc from a single pop-up to national retail is the part I'm proudest of: it proved the brand idea held up commercially, at scale, across channels.