Mid-States Member Growth Campaign
Solo-developed recruitment campaign spanning web, welcome kit, out-of-home, and print for a 700-store retail cooperative.
Role: Senior Designer / Creative Lead
Focus Areas
Campaign Concepting, Copywriting, Brand Campaign Development, Web Design, Packaging & Merchandise Design, Out-of-Home, Print Collateral, AI-Assisted Production, Presentation Design
Mid-States Distributing is the largest member-owned buying organization in retail, representing more than 700 farm, ranch, and home store locations. As Mid-States prepared to expand its membership tiers, marketing needed a campaign that could make the case to independent retailers: that joining a cooperative doesn't mean giving up who you are.
Marketing supplied the brief and a working theme — How the West Was Won. I developed the campaign from there.
My Role
I built the concept and every piece of it myself, from positioning line through final presentation.
I wrote the campaign's two anchor lines: "Together, We Build the New Frontier" for the recruitment message, and "Stand Out on Your Own, But Never Alone" for the membership platform. That second line is the whole argument the campaign had to make — independence and collective strength, held together.
The brief asked for website pages and a welcome kit concept. I expanded the scope to show leadership what the idea could become: a billboard, a masterclass pamphlet and journal, branded apparel, and a full kit build-out.
I selected the typography and color system, art-directed and produced all imagery, designed the website, and built the presentation deck that carried it.
Creative Direction & Working with AI
The idea was American heritage that's generational — the older hand and the younger hand on the same rope. Traditional without being nostalgic, forward-looking without abandoning where it came from. Real people doing real work, with the pride that comes with it.
The welcome kit made that physical. The box is built like barn doors with a brass western star, gatefolding open to reveal a gold interior — the plainspoken exterior and the value inside, which is the membership pitch in object form. Each item was chosen to mean something: a knife for craftsmanship, a collectible coin for shared legacy, a bag built for the actual work.
Because the campaign didn't exist yet, none of the imagery did either. I used Adobe Firefly to generate the hero photography, the lifestyle imagery across the website, and the people in the masterclass materials — then took everything into Photoshop to composite, retouch, add branding, and finish. The welcome kit box, the collectible coin, and the branded product mockups were built in Photoshop from source imagery. AI drafted early copy; I rewrote it.
AI let me show leadership a fully realized campaign instead of a mood board — on a three-week timeline, working alone.
Timeline & Outcome
Kickoff October 7. Final deck to the VP of Marketing October 24, presented to leadership November 11. The concept was well received and is on hold pending campaign scheduling.
What else we've built
Each one different. Each one deliberate. A growing body of work across brand identity, digital experiences, and motion design.