design partnerships
about the work
Design Partnerships and Limited Time Offers (LTO’s) are part of what puts the “Tar-jay” in Target.
For each of these special projects within Home, I work up-front with Merchants, Planners, and Product Designers to map and illustrate in-store options to launch the partnership in a meaningful way while creating a compelling guest experience. This work serves as a conceptual roadmap ahead of actual presentation builds, usually about a year before in-store set date and often before product is even designed. It fuels conversations with cross-functional teams and influences business priorities, volume-drivers, and trend direction as the project evolves through the work-stream. These conversations often yield several rounds of illustrations (I sketch hundreds per year).
In addition to the long-term design partnerships with Studio McGee and Magnolia - which are captured on the Home Innovation and Hearth & Hand pages of my portfolio - the following work represents some of my favorite LTO’s over the years!
Project 62 + Leanne Ford
initial concepts
Leanne Ford is an interior designer known for playing with large-scale statement pieces in her modern designs. This LTO presented some operational challenges in that the assortment consisted of mostly boxed, mostly large-scale, mostly ceiling-hanging pendants. It would have been really easy to merchandise the box stock on shelves and call it a day, but that wouldn’t be much fun, would it?
This LTO was being introduced as a mid-season drop-in on the Home Innovation Flat, so I was able to illustrate on top of some of the existing presentation for this round of concepts. I really wanted to create a cart-stopping experience utilizing pendant displays of varying size, scale, and heights to pull the guest into the space - bonus points if they could be lit, too.
After landing on a concept, I worked with the Technical Designer to create display pendants which took into account varying store ceiling heights. I worked with Fixture Design to create ceiling clips to hang the pendants and even was able to develop a light-track adapter so the displays could be lit in about 600 stores!
final set
The presentation set in-store (February 2019).
video
Watch it in motion!
John Derian for Threshold
initial concept
John Derian is a decoupage artist and has launched several collections with Target over the years, but this was his first time designing an elevated Halloween assortment. After seeing some of the initial artwork (which leaned a little “darker”) and the product line plan (which contained “eerie oddities”), I thought it could be fun to lean into the idea of a “Curiosity Shoppe”.
Although in-store space prevented a larger-scale idea like the initial concept, we still were able to create a great stand-alone presentation to spotlight the partnership.
final set
The presentation set in-store (October 2020).
Hilton Carter for Target
initial concept // home innovation
Hilton Carter is a plant enthusiast and interior stylist known for incorporating jungle-like greenery into his designs. This was a really fun one because although we’ve had faux plants on the Home Innovation Flat for years, we never before had incorporated live plants - which is precisely what we did with this LTO.
We merchandised live greenery with plant accessories on the front-line tables and positioned faux plants on the fixtures behind. We flanked the LTO with our core faux stems on one side and faux plants on the other side, which created a “greenery gateway” into the space. Talk about a cart-stopping presentation!
final set // home innovation
The presentation set in-store (May 2021).
initial concept // home gateway
Home absorbed a front-of-store floor-pad in about 200 stores (which we dubbed Home Gateway), so I also concepted how this LTO could come to life in this space.
We merchandised faux plants on the left and back-side of the space and positioned live greenery and plant accessories on the front-line and to the right. This space really amplified the design partnership as a stand-alone shop!
final set // home gateway
The presentation set in-store (May 2021).
video
Watch it in motion!
Opalhouse designed with Jungalow
initial concept // bedding space
Justina Blakeney is the founder of Jungalow, which is a boho eclectic home decor brand. I sketched this illustration when we first started discussing the partnership, which would include items across bed, bath, decor, and furniture. I thought it was really important to pull the entire collection together as a brand shop and this concept shows just that - leveraging our bedding space and creating a connected story across flanking endcaps and adjacent fixtures.
This design partnership launched during the all-important back-to-college timeframe, when in-store space is at a premium, so we had to walk away from this approach… except in our stores with the Home Gateway space (shown below).
final set // bedding space
The presentation set in-store (June 2021).
initial concept // home gateway
When we positioned the design partnership as a stand-alone brand shop in the Home Gateway space, we were able to spotlight the full assortment - merchandising bed, bath, candles, baskets, and wall art as one holistic shopping experience.
We merchandised warm-to-cool across the floor-pad, positioning bed and bath on the front-facing fixtures and decor with art on the back-side of the fixtures.
final set // home gateway
The presentation set in-store (June 2021).
Christian Robinson x Target
initial concept // brand shop
Award-winning children’s book author and illustrator Christian Robinson brought his inspirational art to Target with a limited-time collection consisting of kids’ apparel and home goods.
I sketched this illustration when we first started discussing the partnership, with an in-store presentation that would merge apparel with home on the kids’ bedding floor-pad. I thought it was really important to pull the entire collection together as a brand shop and this concept shows just that - creating an immersive brand experience for guests.
Unfortunately, due to the varying intersections of store prototype fixtures and designs (disconnected between apparel and home), the two categories had to land on two separate floor-pads. But I still love this initial illustration and the over-arching story of “bed time” with the incorporation of Robinson’s books with sleepwear and bedding featuring his artwork (not to mention those mannequins)!
final set // kids’ bedding
The presentation set in-store (August 2021).