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The Candy Difference

I start drawing the moment I hear the marketing strategy, and my broad and deep CPG experience catapults me down resourceful paths providing category-changing results.

 

Experience

FREELANCE CREATIVE DIRECTOR—Chicago 

Produced diverse deliverables including brand strategy, logo development, package design, and production art for a growing roster of CPG clients. 

  • Awarded“2018 Vendor of the Year” for initial project for Buddig lunch meats, resulting in continued stream of successes.

  • 2020 PAC Award in the Food & Beverage Rebrand category for Carl Buddig   

  • Imaginatively visualize food to continually develop arresting ways to display products 

Brand successes include Buddig, Nic-Pack, Sprouts, Columbia Fruits, Harkin Popcorn, Frigo, Organa Inc, Perdue

2017-present

CREATIVE DIRECTOR—Strategia Design, Virginia

Directed and inspired creative team, shaped brand strategies and designed award-winning 

portfolio of marketing materials exceeding customers’expectations.

  • Increased product coverage for Weis Markets’ from soda segment to canned fruit and vegetables, frozen foods, snacks and crackers, dairy, juice and the creation of a premium house brand

  • Grew representation with Wegman’s from seaweed snack to applesauce segment, feminine products and the restructuring of the cereal category

  • Designed more than 1500 items in a single year for Smart & Final

  • Industry honors included GDUSA and Vertex Awards

Brand successes included Agro Seville, Atlantic Foods, CH Guenther & Sons, Cintron Beverage, Ellumen Healthcare, Fattorie Giacobazzi, H-E-B Texas Grocery, Kum & Go, Jackfruit, Magi Foods, Market Basket, Massimo Zanetti Beverage, Mindless Products, Red Door Decor, Reston Town Center, Rize Corporation, Seneca, Smart & Final, Wegmans Food Market, Weis Markets

2005-2017

CREATIVE DIRECTOR—ForeFront Creative, Virginia 

Created startup agency’s brand identity, generated new food brand business and increased supermarket chains representedsupermarket chains to the growing roster. Managed creative team and stable of freelancers.

  • Defined agency creative standards, and design processes, created website and 

marketing materials 

  • Surpassed expectations for clients with marketing strategies and creative executions

Brand successes included Allen Foods, Cuisine Solutions, Fresh Farm Supermarkets, Safeway, SuperValu

2004-2005

2000-2004

CREATIVE DIRECTOR—MLR Design, Chicago

Developed strategies, designed creative and delivered successes for some of the world’s best-known food brands. 

  • Created a brand that uniquely captured the emotional bond between pet and owner fueling a 33% increase in market share for Companion pet food line 

  • Generated major new client business and assumed lead role in growing the agency

  •  Named one of the “50 People to Watch in 2001” by Graphic Design USA

Brand successes included Quaker Oats, Kraft, Coca Cola, Minute Maid, Pepsi Cola, HJ Heinz, Alberto Culver, Jim Beam, World Kitchen, Ahold USA Foods

DESIGN DIRECTOR—Lipson Alport Glass and Associates, Chicago

Design lead on key domestic and international accounts, overseeing all brand 

identity and package design projects. 

  • Innovative work for H-E-B Texas Grocery’s Easy Melt cheese catapulted the brand to a 30% market share and put a scare into Kraft

  • Our creative for H-E-B’s frozen pizza stole significant share from category giants Tombstone and DiGiorno

Brand successes included Best Foods, Dean Foods, Keebler, Kraft, Coca Cola, Perrier, H-E-B Texas Grocery, EJ Brach, Dolefam, Corning Glass Works

DESIGNER—Wencel Hess Design, Chicago 

Made such an impression as freelancer, I was hired after three weeks.

Brand successes included Borden, Jim Beam, Sara Lee, Kraft, Quaker Oats, Mountain High

1990-1991

1991-2000

Proficent

Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Microsoft Office

Education 

BFA, Packaging Design—Fashion Institute of Technology

 

YOU CAN'T USE UP CREATIVITY.

THE MORE YOU USE, THE MORE YOU HAVE.

~Maya Angelou

© 2024 Candy Piemonte

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