Experience
2018-PRESENT
OWNER
BIG FROG CUSTOM
T-SHIRTS & MORE, MEQUON
Founder and operator of Wisconsin’s first Big Frog Custom T-Shirts franchise, a full-service garment decoration and promotional products boutique.
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Specialized in direct-to-garment (DTG) printing, embroidery, screen printing, heat transfer, and promotional products.
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Developed and executed business plan and long-term growth strategy.
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Recruited, trained, and led a team of 4–8 employees; fostered a high-performance, customer-focused culture.
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Created internal training manuals and operational handbooks to streamline onboarding.
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Implemented quality control procedures to maintain print and garment standards.
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Managed all financial aspects: budgeting, capital acquisition, and bookkeeping.
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Executed digital advertising, social media, and community-based marketing campaigns.
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Built vendor partnerships and established pricing models
2002-2018
KOHL'S
Extensive experience in creative leadership for the nearly every area of Kohl’s marketing:
2013 to 2018
Director Photo Studio/Creative Services
2011 to 2013
Director Direct Mail/CRM/Loyalty Creative
2009 to 2011
Director Fashion and Home Creative
2004 to 2009
Director Newspaper Insert Creative
2002 to 2004
Director Brand Management Creative
LEADERSHIP IN ROLE
Responsible for the development of both in-house teams and agency resources to create advertising that consistently breaks through to the retail market place.
Drove business by defining the “promotional” branding of Kohl’s and championed those applications with effective business results in all media.
Provided the creative influence that defined key icons of the Kohl’s value proposition, (Kohl’s Cash, Power Hours, etc.).
Highly recognized as a mentor, developing associates to Manager, Director and Vice President roles.
Champion of associate engagement. Regularly posting some the highest employee engagement scores in the company. Led the way in developing workshops and associate/manager discussion sessions which were copied by the rest of the company as best practices for coaching highly engaged teams.
Innovatively managed budgets and creative concepts jointly to “value engineer” the creative output and maximized the R.O.I.
Oversaw Operational, Capital and Facility budgets and provided forecasting projected budgets.
OPERATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS
Redefined operations and report structures, defining workflow, processes, and established on-board training
Redefined roles and responsibilities for associates in workflow, leading to over a 400% increase in productivity while reducing the need for freelance support and overtime.
Championed “cross-training” of artistic teams to reduce “down time” caused by specialization.
Simplified work process providing a higher-level of service and automation to our business partners as well as our internal teams.
Defined and built web base brand guidelines, for consistent on-boarding for both staff, agency and freelance resources.
Simplified equipment and technology for the Photo Studio, saving over $2.5 million dollars in capital expense.
Set vision for, developed, then implemented, proprietary technologies for photo capture, retouching, and associate performance evaluation…all innovations are now patent pending Kohl’s intellectual properties.
PRIOR RELEVANT Experience
TARGET
Managed the internal fashion advertising team (6) for one of the most innovative retail brands in the world, during a time of significant growth for Target.
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Introduced “best practice” of executing seasonal photography by batching multiple business together instead of treating each project as a separate effort. This saved both money in startup production costs, and time by eliminating the need for scheduling a photo shoot for each project.
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Influential in developing the branded “look” for promotional advertising particularly for weekly inserts.
Scope included:
Fashion team creative lead for weekly newspaper inserts, In-store fashion POS and seasonal graphics, print collateral, magazine advertising, press kits, and fashion packaging and hang tags.
AMBROSI BLACK DOT
Creative Director
Managed the creative teams serving Ambrosi retail clients which included brands such as Godiva, Sunbeam, Subway, Ulta Cosmetics and Sears the Great Indoors Primary over site for Sears retail division, focused on newspaper inserts and all other print media.
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As a team, moved from being production support, to be a strategic partner for
Sears Creative Services.
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Pitched businesses for various industries and successfully acquired accounts.
Scope of responsibility:
Creative planning for sales events and weekly newspaper circular communication, creative concepting for seasonal events, creative for ethnic market advertising, for Hispanic, Asian and African American markets,
Sears gift card creative
EDUCATION/SKILLS
Bachelor of Science Graphic Design
Class of 1980 La Roche College Pittsburgh, PA
Skills
Adobe CS
Corel DRAW Creative Suite
Microsoft Office
CONTACT
Web sites and resumes are only part of the story. If you feel I could be the right fit in your organization, and want to hear the rest of the story, send me a message and I'll get back to you in short order
Tel: 262 707 9192
As the Director of the Kohl's Photo Studio/Creative Services I was responsible for driving a dramatic evolution in operational efficiency. Today "The Studio" creates assets for all channels of Kohl’s print media, marketing collateral, in-store graphics, social media,
digital adverting, E-commerce and even broadcast.
CREATING 3000 images WEEKLY
Developed exclusive studio TECHNOLOGY
collaborative PROCESS BUILDING
Innovative and engaged teams
raised production, lowered costs
While under my leadership in 2015, Fortune Magazine recognized the Kohl’s Photo Studio team, as one of only five featured groups in the article: “Team’s of the 500”
Noted, was “The Studio’s” ground breaking advancements in collaboration, associate development and technology innovation.
Basil BEARER
CREATIVE DIRECTOR &
CREATIVE SERVICE LEADER
Creative
LEADERSHIP
Creative operations leader and business owner with many years of experience in leading large-scale teams and award-winning marketing and production for top national retailers. Proven ability to streamline workflows, reduce costs, and elevate brand presence through innovation and collaborative leadership.
Now I am seeking new opportunities to apply strategic vision, mentoring, and creative problem-solving.