How I Transitioned from Magazine Beauty to Corporate Branding and Helped Transform a Fortune 500 Company

Back in late 2016, after leaving another struggling magazine, I decided to shift my career from the glamorous world of beauty and fashion to corporate branding—a move I initially thought might be boring, but turned out to be quite the opposite. Through a recruiter, I was introduced to a position as a “presentation designer” at a logistics and transportation company I had never heard of. Intrigued by their impressive size—85,000 employees in 32 countries and $15.5 billion in revenue—I decided to pursue the opportunity.

During the interview, I discovered the company had been formed largely through M&A, and the executive team was establishing the corporate headquarters with a new communications function. I interviewed with the SVP, who had only recently joined, and realized they needed a creative leader, not just a presentation designer. Recognizing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I was contracted for the project and quickly gained their trust by completing the task successfully.

Upon starting, I found the brand in disarray due to the various legacy companies. There was no centralized art department, and each department—sales, internal comms, marketing, talent acquisition—had its own interpretation of the brand, leading to inconsistency. The guidelines were confusing and ambiguous, with each collateral looking different from the next, affecting the digital ecosystem, signage, equipment, and print materials.

Over the next two years, I built an internal brand studio from the ground up. We revamped the brand guidelines to be highly functional and created a digital asset management (DAM) system to control and share high-quality images. With a small team of three designers, we tackled the branding issues head-on, collaborating with other departments to implement a consistent brand across all materials. This effort resulted in a unified digital ecosystem, consistent signage, and equipment branding.

Running an internal brand studio kept me busy, as I needed to stay updated on the company’s services and products while supporting nearly every function within the organization—internal comms, HR, safety, legal, marketing, sales, etc. I was fortunate to travel to various locations to photograph and videograph advanced robotics and other solutions for our sales materials.

At the onset of the pandemic, as an essential workplace, I stayed in the office creating safety materials, guidelines, posters, and all communications pertaining to COVID and how to stay safe. The CEO never left the office, wanting to serve as an example. Despite the challenges, we continued working to ensure everyone's safety and kept operations running smoothly.

We emerged from the pandemic stronger than before, and the sales process turned into a spin-off. In record-breaking time, we developed a new company name, logo, and branding video, and created all new assets, from photography and videos to employee handbooks, websites, and digital ecosystems, as well as physical changes like equipment signage and uniforms. Despite working two jobs simultaneously, we successfully launched the new brand, which went public the next day.

Soon after, another spin-off was announced, and we repeated the process even more efficiently. Both new companies became Fortune 500 entities. Commanding a significant budget, we completed the rebranding of over 1,000 locations worldwide, more than 8,000 tractors, and 500,000 uniforms, all with a team of five. Throughout this process, I worked closely with the CEO and Head of PR, running the brand studio I had established seven years prior.

The company's strong brand governance played an important part in its recognition as one of the best stock performers of the decade. Reflecting on this journey, it's rewarding to see how in our efforts won awards and transformed a fragmented industry into a powerhouse, helping the company achieve such significant milestones.