I work at the intersection of art and science — the place where a brand becomes something people feel, not just something they notice. For 25 years I've built brands, marketing, and products that resonate emotionally and perform commercially.
I founded Brinca Dāda, a premium design-forward children’s brand whose products reached 2,000+ stores worldwide — Bergdorf Goodman, MoMA's Design Store — and earned 40+ press placements in the New York Times, Architectural Digest, and Elle Décor, without a dollar of paid placement. Before that I ran $50M+ in categories at Toys R Us, learning how products actually move through retail.
Branding is where it starts: who a company is, why it matters, and how that belief shows up in everything from positioning to voice. I've built brand systems from scratch — including ones still in use more than a decade later.
Marketing is how that brand meets the world. I've led integrated brand campaigns across retail, wholesale, and digital — earning that 40+ media coverage with zero paid spend and driving a 694% lift in conversions on a single campaign.
Product development is where my RISD training comes to the forefront. I've developed 35+ award-winning products and built the Child-ish Design Rubric — a proprietary framework for pressure-testing a concept against everyone who has to say yes to it: the user, the buyer, the retailer, and the content creator.
Columbia MBA | RISD Certificate in Industrial Design
Services
-
Branding
I help companies define who they are and why they matter — positioning, brand strategy, identity, and the story that ties a product line to the people meant to want it. The goal is a brand that's coherent across every touchpoint and credible to customers, retailers, and press alike.
-
Marketing
From go-to-market strategy to retail positioning and content, I help brands reach the four audiences that decide whether a product succeeds: the user, the buyer, the retailer, and the content creator. Drawing on a Columbia MBA in marketing and 25 years of getting products onto shelves and into the press.
-
Product Development
I work across the full arc of new product development — from identifying the opportunity and defining the design brief, through concept development, refinement, and handoff to manufacturing. The result is a coherent product line with a clear consumer rationale, a strong design identity, and a credible path to market. My proprietary Child-ish Design Rubric pressure-tests every concept along the way.
My Background
My education and work experience put me in a unique position to help manufacturer-designers bring great products to market.
Education
BA - Art History (BYU)
MBA - Marketing (Columbia)
CID - Industrial Design (RISD)
Experience
25+ years of experience in branding, marketing and product development in premium, design-forward consumer goods
Validation
Distribution to 2,000 retail locations (Bergdorf Goodman). 40+ media placements (NYT, Arch Digest). 18 awards (Top Toy).
Child-ish Design Rubric
The rubric is a proprietary, nine-part evaluation tool that helps manufacturer-designers determine the strengths of a new product early in the production process, before significant investment is made. It is also useful for evaluating competitive offerings.
The rubric is based on the idea that design is a critical element in any product and drives desirability among all stakeholders. But design is only one of the nine evaluation criteria. Using the nine elements, a score is created for a product’s appeal to children, parents, retailers and content creators.
-
The rubric was created as a tool for product manufacturers and designers.
-
I developed it based on my education in business and industrial design. I add to those decades of experience working as both a buyer and in product development, branding and marketing. And finally I layer on my experience as a parent.
This experience has taught me that for any given product there are multiple stake holders from children to parents to retailers to media/press.
-
Just contact me. If you are a manufacturer, I’ll be happy to send you examples.
