An Average Man Traveling the Tigris and Euphrates with a Heart.
Alfred Angelo was the second largest wedding dress designer and manufacturer in the world. Founded in 1934, It had over 1,600 wholesale accounts across all of the US, Canada, Europe, the UK, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Australia. It was officially licensed in China and had 60 retail stores across the United States.
I was the Senior Creative Manager in 2014—2017, and also the in-house photographer from 2016—2017 for their Fall lines and Injection photoshoots. My roles involved brand management & restructuring of 8 distinct clothing lines, direct marketing materials, coordinating and selecting talents for photography, set-design, and art direction. I supervised 2 graphic designers and I had first pass at creative decisions. I reported directly to the off-site Creative Director, with whom I often shared equal roles, and the VP of Marketing. I was the Creative Lead and Digital Artist for their Disney Fairy Tale Wedding Line from 2014—2017. Alfred Angelo unexpectedly filed bankruptcy in July 2017 before the launch of their Spring 2018 collection to wholesale accounts.
2014: Evaluating the Dept. Situation
My employment came at a time when Alfred Angelo was in the middle of restructuring. The corporate offices were split between Delray Beach, FL and Fort Washington, PA. The entire marketing team, from the VP downward, were all recent hires to the company. Working with the Creative Director and VP, we implemented several cost savings measures immediately after being hired.
Instant Changes/Suggestions made to the Marketing Structure
Made production of final files internal, thus eliminating outsourcing that cost the company over $250,000 a year.
Restructured & began complete re-branding of the Disney Fairytale line.
Rebuilt and maintained a new system of all assets on a local server.
Began applying Coca-Cola brand standards to the Alfred Angelo collections.
Created an annual calendar of all trade shows, market schedules, and hallmark events.
Having no prior bridal experience, I had to discover within myself why this brand was a right fit for my talents and creativity. Realizing that a wedding is something dreamt of since childhood was enough for me to understand that we all dream of something perfect and uniquely ours. In our first main collection shoot, I art directed and composited those childhood dream images based upon my mother's favorite portrait from Norman Rockwell.
Cleaning Things Up
For the 2015 collections, the changes outside of the Disney line were subtle. The main belief I instilled in my bosses' minds was a carryover from Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola knows its target for every one of their brands and advertises accordingly. Disney was the beginning stage of "franchising" the bridal lines for Alfred Angelo. In order to do that with the main bridal lines, there had to be more than just backdrop changes. We began differentiation with types of flowers, approachability, casting, and not having any carryover models into the other collections.
Starting in 2015, we began a complete overhaul of the company's website.
Working hand-in-hand with the digital team, Marketing strove to make the website mobile and responsive utilizing a visually clean and modern approach for consumers' ease of use in the user experience.
2016: Adding a Personal Touch
In 2016, the method in which Alfred Angelo was producing dresses had changed drastically. Where there once was only the main Spring line and a smaller, secondary Fall line, both now carried equal weight and importance for the company. With the Fall shoot growing, there were also pocket "injection" collections of 5-10 dresses at any given time in the year. This became problematic with our photography budget having been cut by 10-20% annually since 2015.
Beginning in 2016 to offset costs, I took over full photographic responsibilities of the Fall season collections for Alfred Angelo in addition to my original roles. I was tasked with photographically replicating the previous creative endeavors in order to form a seamless transition of brand recognition.
The application of photography was for both catalog and advertising purposes. The benefit of taking over the role was the creative freedom that came with an extensive knowledge of individual brands and a full understanding of the future application of images for both print and web. It also allowed for me to personally add what I felt the brand needed in unique imagery to connect with the consumers. By working internally, I was able to provide an annual savings to the photo budget by 30-40%.
Building a Brand on Personality
The Truly Yours Collection was launched in Fall 2017. This new collection was to represent “casual elegance” and the destination bride. While all the other collections had visual styles all to themselves, this collection was the most broad, design-wise.
My creative solution to the problem of portrayal of this collection was to spotlight the individuality of the bride, rather than focusing on one universal backdrop; as each bride is different, so should the imagery be different. The idea was to focus on and replicate images that real brides post by researching Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram.
Keys to the Magic Kingdom
Disney Fairy Tale Weddings by Alfred Angelo was an official licensee product of The Walt Disney Company. The collection of wedding gowns inspired by Disney’s Fairy Tale Princesses, launched internationally in 2010. It was Alfred Angelo's most visible collection, bringing in immeasurable social and media interaction. I was the Creative Lead/Brand Manager/Digital Artist for this line for three seasons from 2014-2017. Our 2018 collection was only a few weeks away from being shot, with yours truly taking over full visual responsibilities as photographer,
Consumer Interaction
In the digital age, a brand is only as strong as it’s digital presence. It is the usually the first impression of any company as shopping shifts from the in-store experience to being completely done via a virtual one.
In 2016, we began to adapt to the digital age as both a testing tool for new products and concepts before tapping into budgetary assets but also as a way to hone in discovering who our markets were and what content they desired.
Headed by Alfred Angelo’s digital team, we approached our users with behind-the-scenes images, candid shots and focused more on being the best friend along the way towards our customer’s own wedding day vs. our competitor’s approach of studio photography and advertising sales. Shifting to this format across all of social media increased brand user engagement over 4000% from 2016 to 2017 and was the center point of our 2018 marketing plan.