Designing Brands People Feel — and Remember.
I combine strategy, storytelling, design, and hospitality thinking to shape brands people don’t just recognize — they experience.
My Approach
I believe the strongest brands are the ones people don’t just recognize — they feel.
My approach blends strategy, storytelling, design, hospitality, and real-world customer experience to create brands that connect emotionally and perform commercially. Whether through packaging, environments, retail, or visual identity, every touchpoint should communicate clearly, create feeling, and leave a lasting impression.
Selected past work shown for portfolio purposes. All trademarks and brand assets belong to their respective owners.
Building Retail Merchandising Systems for a Consumer Products Brand
My Role: Brand Strategy • Product Development • Packaging Systems • Retail Merchandising • Creative Direction
The brand had strong products, but retail presentation varied across wholesale accounts. The opportunity was to create a merchandising system that improved consistency, strengthened shelf presence, and made the brand easier for customers to shop.
Challenge
I developed a scalable merchandising framework that aligned packaging, displays, planograms, and visual hierarchy into one cohesive retail system, improving clarity, product discovery, and the overall in store experience.
My Approach
Stronger brand consistency across retail locations
Improved shelf visibility and product discovery
Scalable merchandising systems for wholesale partners
Better support for gifting and multi item purchases
More consistent retail brand experience
Results
Retail Merchandising Evolution
RESEARCH
MERCHANDISING
PACKAGING
DISPLAY
RETAIL EXPERIENCE
Concept work created to demonstrate a scalable retail merchandising system.
Scaling a Consumer Brand Across Retail, Wholesale & E Commerce
• Grew brand approximately 500% in under three years
• Expanded wholesale distribution to all 50 U.S. states and Canada
• Unified retail, wholesale, and e commerce brand experience
• Modernized packaging and merchandising systems
Results
Brand Strategy
Unified brand positioning
Lifestyle focused visual direction
Packaging
Packaging modernization
Shelf visibility
Giftability
Strategic Approach
Retail & Merchandising
Merchandising systems
Retail displays
Product discovery
Digital Experience
Website structure
Mobile usability
Collection organization
As the business expanded across wholesale, retail, and direct to consumer channels, the brand needed a cohesive system that could scale while improving customer experience across every touchpoint.
The Opportunity
My Role
Brand Strategy
Packaging Design
Merchandising Systems
Creative Direction
Product Development
Marketing Leadership
E Commerce Strategy
Photography Direction
Wholesale Growth
Elevating Brand Perception Through Visual Direction & Marketing Assets
To support this shift, I helped guide the creative direction of product photography, styling, and marketing assets with a focus on creating imagery that felt more aspirational, polished, and aligned with the desired customer experience.
This included:
elevating the visual direction of product photography
refining styling, composition, and prop selection
creating stronger emotional and lifestyle cues
improving consistency across marketing and e-commerce assets
developing imagery designed to increase engagement and perceived value
Throughout campaign development, I collaborated closely with photographers, stylists, and creative partners to shape the overall aesthetic and presentation of the products.
The goal was not simply to create better photographs, but to create a visual system that communicated quality, occasion, and brand personality at every customer touchpoint.
As products move across retail, e-commerce, and social media environments, visual presentation becomes one of the strongest drivers of customer perception. There was an opportunity to elevate how products were photographed, styled, and presented in order to better communicate quality, increase engagement, and strengthen overall brand appeal.
While existing imagery effectively documented the product, it lacked the atmosphere, storytelling, and emotional connection increasingly expected in modern digital commerce. The objective was to evolve the visual identity from purely functional photography to a more refined and experience-driven
The Opportunity
The Strategy
The updated imagery significantly elevated the overall presentation of the products across digital and retail channels.
The visual direction helped create a more premium and emotionally engaging customer experience by:
strengthening e-commerce presentation
improving marketing asset quality
increasing social media impact
enhancing product desirability
reinforcing perceived value
This work demonstrates how thoughtful creative direction, styling, and visual storytelling can transform how customers perceive a product, even when the product itself remains unchanged.
The result was a more cohesive and elevated visual identity designed to support stronger engagement, brand recognition, and customer connection.
The Outcome
The product itself didn’t change. The experience surrounding it did. Through stronger visual direction and elevated creative execution, the brand presentation evolved from purely functional to more lifestyle driven and emotionally engaging.
© 2026 Josh Lewis. All rights reserved.
Where Brand Strategy Meets
Real-World Experience
Great brands are more than visuals — they’re environments, experiences, and emotional connections. My work focuses on shaping how brands are felt at every touchpoint.
© Josh Lewis. All rights reserved.