Fictitious Brands
Mailchimp's Fictitious Brands initiative built 20+ fictional brand identities used across marketing and product to show real-world Mailchimp use cases across industries.
As Art Director of Photography, I led the visual direction for each brand from concept through delivery — building the production framework that became the standard for how photo work was executed across Mailchimp.
Flexstart Photographed by: JonPaul Douglass
Flexstart Design Lead: Kristie Fletner
Each brand needed its own visual world while still feeling unmistakably Mailchimp.
Research showed that customers respond to imagery where they see themselves — not bland stock scenarios, but real lived-in environments authentic to the world these brands actually exist in. We solved for this by shooting in textured, real-world environments, casting models with an everyday quality, and balancing that grounded aesthetic with Mailchimp's vibrant voice through bold color, modern wardrobe, and design-forward props.
I owned creative direction across every brand — shot lists, photographer selection, on-set direction, and post-production oversight. The system I built to manage consistency across 20+ brands became the foundation for how all photo productions at Mailchimp were run.
