AIGA ATL Insider

Andy Epstein began his career as a freelance illustrator and designer before transitioning to in-house creative services - establishing and leading creative teams and actualizing operational and organizational infrastructure. His professional expertise includes creating, documenting, and implementing creative services and general business best practices. With a passion for professional development...

This month we have a special episode of Insider where we will interview three members of the UPS Global Communications Creative Studio. They’re expert storytellers, strategists, creatives…who know there audiences and craft remarkable and memorable messages that move them. They know where and how to reach them, and the voices influencing them. And above all, they protect and deliver UPS’s world-cla...

Kevyn Faulkenberry is the Creative Director at The Brand Studio, an agency within Cox Communications. In late 2019, Kevyn came on board as one of two employees. One pandemic, forty-five employees, and 286,372 Teams meetings later, Kevyn can tell you a thing or two about building an agency from the ground up, leading through change, and always striving to do the best creative. Under his leadership,...

Jermaine Barnwell is a Creative Director at RR Donnelley working onsite at The Home Depot. He leads and manages a team of more than thirty Creatives responsible for brand and creative strategy for The Home Depot’s In-Store Environment.   As a leader, problem solver and designer, Jermaine believes that with passion, pencil sketches and a “go for it” attitude you can achieve truly amazing things. In...

Karolina Akimov is the Creative Services Manager at Mellow Mushroom. Her responsibilities include managing and creating brand campaign assets, working with freelance artists and directing photoshoots for food imagery. In addition, Karolina also is responsible for the holistic creative direction of the Yellow Room, Mellow Mushroom’s lifestyle brand. On the side, Karolina also enjoys illustrating pr...

Darnell Baker is an award-winning, multi-disciplined visual designer and creative leader. Recently working as an Art Director supporting Chick-Fil-A's in-house agency, Darnell led a team of creatives while spearheading ideation and execution of compelling deliverables including assets for POP ad campaigns, key partnerships, internal presentations, and more.  His most highlighted projects durin...

Ellen Westing is a Creative Service Manager at WestRock. Since becoming part of the team in 2020, Ellen has helped push the brand’s creative direction, developed a visual strategy for their social media, and has designed various collateral such as tradeshows, animations, and Sustainability Reports. She has also helped grow the design team to support both external and internal communications, socia...

Andrés Prieto is a Sr. UX Designer for Primerica Financial Services. Andrés joined Primerica in 2017 as part of an initiative to kickstart a brand new UX team. Since then he’s helped grow the company’s UX-Maturity Model and establish a UX CoE within the organization. He is responsible for leading the experience for all client facing products and tools. Before Primerica, has enjoyed working in prod...

For the past 8 years, Christopher Lapides has been the Creative Services Production Manager for Acuity Brands. In this position, he leads a team of production artists that work on a variety of marketing and product collateral to help improve brand equity, increase product sales, and drive market innovation. In addition, he manages the company’s Digital Asset Management System, develops multiple st...

I consider myself a lucky creative. Lucky that I’ve been working hard designing and leading creative for over 20 years. Lucky to work tackling design projects independently or alongside amazing designers and mentors. Lucky to use my skills in branding, art direction and concepting to tell a story or solve a problem in a creative and impactful way. Lucky that I’ve continually enhanced my skills and...

Roy is the brand creative director lead at Stella & Chewy’s, a global natural pet food brand. Since joining the pack last summer, he’s built the in-house creative department  Offleash,  that services the brand, in all aspects of the business globally. Throughout his 15+ years in the advertising industry, Roy has created, led and inspired dozens of teams (Art Directors, Designers and...

Jeremy is an award-winning, media agnostic, modern-day marketer, writer, content maker and former Global Executive Creative Director at J. Walter Thompson where he had the pleasure of managing a motley crew of 20 creative individuals across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Currently he’s the Global Creative Campaigns Director for the SaaS marketing platform darling Mailchimp helping build a...

Heath Hancock is a graphic designer based in Atlanta, Georgia who has been working in the film industry for a decade.  His work can be seen in projects such as Stranger Things, The Vampire Diaries, and Loki. He is currently working on a feature for Apple centered around the Beanie Baby boom. Besides Apple, Heath has worked on projects for Netflix, Disney/Marvel, Blumhouse &...

Tad Roberts is the Creative Lead at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Since 2014, he’s been responsible for refining and safeguarding its brand guidelines as well as overseeing its strategic and creative messaging across print, digital and social channels. He manages a multidisciplinary team of designers and external vendors, providing guidance and direction to maintain consistent alignment of tho...

Brandie Barton has forged an upward creative career path working as a leader in creative concepting and creative direction for BGCA. Brandie admits that her most recent role as National Director, Creative Services for Boys & Girls Clubs of America has been the most creatively rewarding and professionally challenging of her 20-year career. As a creative team lead Brandie val...

Paul Stechmesser is a visual designer with 20+ years’ experience in creative direction, design strategy and motion graphics. He currently runs the Creative Studios design team at The Coca-Cola Company. Prior to Coke, Paul earned his BFA in Graphic Design from The University of Tennessee and later worked for a small, now-defunct design shop in Chattanooga, TN. From there, he spent several years wor...

Insung Kim is the Sr. Creative Director of the 2021 World Champion Atlanta Braves. Since joining the team in 2016, Insung has built up a creative team that produces creative for all of the Braves marketing campaigns, manages the Braves brand across all platforms and creates graphics and signage at Truist Park and The Battery Atlanta. He is responsible for the look and feel of the Braves brand and...

Britt has been working in professional sports and entertainment in Atlanta since 2015, most recently as a Digital Media Manger with AMB Sports+Entertainment. She also co-founded the LCKR ROOM with Kaila "KP" Pettis - a creative content platform and unique collective of personalities connected through design, culture and sports. As part of their passion for service, their time, talen...

Jerry Braccia is an award-winning senior level design director developing 360˚ brand solutions with measurable results directly impacting profitability and consumer engagement for multi-million-dollar national CPG retail brands in on/off premise, drug, grocery, chain, hospitality and super-retail channels.

Simon is a creative director with over 14 years of industry experience. He works to help companies and organizations to implement strategic campaigns with engagement and impact at it’s core, utilizing creative/innovative approaches that create products and platforms with a mission of transformation, and base growth.

Larry Sorrel is a creative strategist with a broad background within the design industry. He has worked on global brands such as Sharpie, Calphalon Cookware, Hermes of Paris and Graco Baby Products and several more Fortune 500 companies.

Insider is a monthly series where we interview Atlanta in-house designers, learn about their teams and work, and discuss the themes that inspire them. This month, meet Katie Kirschner, NCR’s Vice President of Brand, Content + Digital Marketing.

AIGA ATL Insider is a monthly series where we interview Atlanta in-house designers, learn about their teams and work, and discuss the themes that inspire them. This month, meet Brian Rice.

AIGA INsider is a monthly series where we interview Atlanta in-house designers, learn about their teams and work, and discuss the themes that inspire them. This month, meet Sam Zellefrow, Global Design Manager, Kimberly-Clark.

Insider is a monthly series where we interview Atlanta in-house designers, learn about their teams and work, and discuss the themes that inspire them. This month, meet Ed Roberts, Brand and Creative Director, Georgia Power.