LIZZY JOHNSTON
Photo Art Director | Photo Editor | Creative Producer | Creative Lead
PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY
My biggest strength is my dual perspective as a photographer and art director. With over 15 years behind the camera and 10 years leading brand photography as an art director, I bring an expert eye for both the creative brief and the production book. The result is a deep respect not just for the deliverable but for the entire process of concept to photoshoot to the final images, because craft and execution are of the same value as the end result. My relentless curiosity for photography continues to push me towards greater fluency within the industry, and toward work that challenges and expands what this medium can do.
Core Skills: Creative vision & photographer direction, brand visual standards, photography style guides, end-to-end photo production, photographer & talent sourcing, on-set art direction, budget management, asset curation & DAM, cross-functional collaboration, team mentorship
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Photo Art Director / Brand Photo Lead
Mailchimp – Wink Creative (In-House Agency) | Atlanta, GA | 2019 – 2025
•Contributed to Mailchimp's Wink Creative winning Ad Agency of the Year.
•Shaped and evolved Mailchimp's brand photography by establishing aesthetic standards that defined how the brand expressed itself photographically.
•Authored and revised three versions of photography brand guidelines used by internal teams, external agencies, and freelance photographers to maintain brand standards.
•Served as the photography resource across brand design, marketing, product marketing, events, and culture. The photo team produced imagery that was used across all of Mailchimp's marketing channels — web, social, email, OOH, print, and targeted advertising.
•Developed scalable photo production systems for the Fictitious Brands initiative, directing photography for 20+ distinct brand identities across lifestyle, fitness, food, and professional verticals, with each library requiring a dual narrative: the brand's own visual identity and its relationship to Mailchimp's product.
•Managed end-to-end photo production for 20-25 campaigns annually: managing all aspects of production from budgets, shot list development, assembling the production crew, photographer selection, casting, on-set art direction, to retouching and deliverable oversight, and asset management including rights compliance and library organization in CANTO DAM.
•Managed a range of budgets from $18K–$150K per campaign; developed quarterly forecasts, tracked costs, and identified opportunities for reallocation across production cycles.
•Navigated production during COVID-19 including a $180K Los Angeles shoot with full crew and 7 remote productions directed entirely via Zoom across time zones.
•Led a team of two photographers while collaborating closely with design ops producers; regularly assumed expanded production responsibility based on trust built over time.
•Mentored brand designers with an interest in photography on how to art direct photographers in both the creative development stage and on-set during shoots.
•Built and maintained relationships with production vendors and creative agencies that grew into a dependable bench of talent and crew across regional markets and production contexts.
•Worked as on-set photographer for rebranding initiatives, social campaigns, and culture events including Mailchimp’s Coffee Hour series featuring speakers such as Marjane Satrapi and Spike Lee.
Senior Brand Photographer
Mailchimp | Atlanta, GA | 2018 – 2019
•Expanded Mailchimp's photography capabilities by building its first dedicated photo team — growing from a single photographer to a three-person team to meet the demands of the rebrand and beyond.
•Authored Mailchimp's Photography Style Guide for the 2018 rebrand — a departure from previous brand photography guidelines by introducing three photography principles — Vibrant, Offbeat, and Genuine — that gave creatives defined parameters to work within rather than prescribing what photography should look like.
•Served as photo lead on the Customer Stories series, producing 20 multi-deliverable shoots (photo, video, and gif) featuring real Mailchimp customers; at times sole shooter including video, at others directing external videographers and vendors.
•Art directed editorialized product photography for The Rainbow Room, Mailchimp's employee swag store, when it launched as an internal website — shooting products in real environments rather than standard studio setups. The social team ended up using this photography on social channels to attract potential employees.
•Photographed subjects at every level of the organization — from employees to executives and CEOs — as well as social campaigns and culture events.
Brand Photographer
Mailchimp | Atlanta, GA | 2016 – 2018
•Served as Mailchimp's sole brand photographer, self-directed in building cross-functional relationships with marketing and brand design partners to identify photo needs and develop projects.
•Contributed to the launch of the What's In Store customer story series — defining the look and feel of the visuals; photographed approximately 30 customers for the series.
•Pitched and executed stylized brand headshots for all 240 members of Mailchimp's 24/7 customer support team, shooting overnight shifts to capture full coverage. This project led to an unexpected promotion to Senior Photographer.
•Collaborated with the lead motion designer to produce a gif library for the customer support team, casting team members as models to add a brand moment of delight and personalization to customer communications.
Freelance Art Director & Creative Producer
Various Clients | 2008–2019
•Produced brand, editorial, and documentary photography and video for clients including The New York Times, Whole Foods, Southern Foodways Alliance, PeachDish, and Community Farmers Markets.
Creative Producer & Editor
HowStuffWorks | Atlanta, GA | 2008 – 2013
•Contributed to two Webby Award-winning podcast series - Stuff You Should Know and Stuff You Missed in History Class. Served as staff photographer for talent headshots and promotional campaigns.
•Produced and edited 15-20 pieces of content weekly across 10 podcast series — including top-performing shows Stuff You Should Know, Stuff You Missed in History Class, Stuff Mom Never Told You, and TechStuff — using Final Cut, Premiere, and Pro Tools in a fast-paced daily publishing environment.
EDUCATION & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
BFA, Photography – Georgia State University
Creative Director Course – ELVTR
Brand Strategy & Storytelling – Hyper Island
Design Leadership & Ideation Workshops – Cooper Professional Education
Entrepreneurship in the Arts – Savannah College of Art & Design
AWARDS & RECOGNITION
AdAge In-House Agency of the Year, 2023 (Wink Creative, Mailchimp)
Webby People's Voice Award, 2013 (HowStuffWorks)
TOOLS & SYSTEMS
Production Management: Workfront, Slack, Miro, project management systems
Creative Tools: Adobe Premiere, Photoshop, After Effects, Illustrator, Lightroom, Bridge; Capture One; Figma; Pro Tools
Asset Management: CANTO, digital asset management systems, rights compliance workflows