Haband
2013 – 2017 · Haband · Mahwah, NJ
Haband was one of America's longest-running direct-to-consumer apparel retailers, with a catalog program that reached hundreds of thousands of customers across the country multiple all year. Catalog design at this scale is a discipline in itself, every page has to work harder than a magazine spread because every page is also a sales tool.
The Challenge
Design high-volume seasonal catalogs, including Holiday editions, that balanced strong visual presentation with the strict functional requirements of direct mail retail. The work had to look polished and brand-consistent while meeting the production constraints of mass-market print runs, tight seasonal deadlines, and a photography pipeline that fed dozens of layouts simultaneously.
Responsibilites
I joined Haband as a Graphic Designer and was promoted to Art Director, a progression that reflected increasing ownership of the creative process. Responsibilities grew from layout production and photo retouching to full art direction of photo shoots, cover design, and end-to-end oversight of the catalog production. Work was built across InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator, managing everything from initial template development through final print-ready file delivery.
What Was Created
Multiple complete catalogs, each with more than 80 pages of layout design, photography integration, retouching, cover design, and production file preparation, delivered on the fast-moving timelines of a high-volume retail publishing operation. Photo shoots were art directed to ensure the imagery fed seamlessly into the layout system, maintaining visual consistency on every spread.
Outcome
A body of work that built my production discipline, photo direction instincts, and editorial layout fluency that underpins everything in this portfolio. The promotion from Graphic Designer to Art Director during this period reflects the quality and consistency of the creative output and the experience of managing a high-volume, deadline-driven creative pipeline at scale remains one of the most valuable foundations of these projects.
