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Laura Schmalstieg

Creative Direction
Brand Strategy
Design

Based in Chicago 
Works Globally

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Building brands that feel human in a world of endless content. 

Chicago-based creative director, strategist, and designer translating business strategy into brands people genuinely connect with.

See select curated work

Design For Your Life
Yardzen

Designing a campaign to reimagine how customers discover and shop for landscape design.

​CUSTOMER JOURNEY DESIGN

PRODUCT POSITIONING
CREATIVE DIRECTION
CAMPAIGN DEVELOPMENT

MERCHANDISING

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As part of a larger merchandising and product segmentation strategy for Yardzen, the leading online landscape design platform, I helped launch Design Your Life. Instead of asking customers to shop by package type, we invited them to shop by how they actually want to live.

Through naming, art direction, UX, and storytelling, we transformed abstract services into something people could see themselves in before ever making a purchase.

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Mailboxes Designed to Delight
Adoorn

Brand transformation that led to Architectural Digest's top overall mailbox pick

CREATIVE DIRECTION
BRAND IDENTITY
PRODUCT MARKETING
RETAIL EXPANSION
EMAIL MARKETING

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Joined Adoorn to elevate a founder-led brand into a cohesive, design-forward experience. Led a holistic brand transformation, translating business goals and customer insights into a refined visual system, comprehensive brand guidelines, packaging, lifecycle marketing, advertising, and content.

 

Partnered on a complete website redesign ahead of the holiday season, helping drive a 3x increase in sales year over year. The work helped position Adoorn as Architectural Digest's top mailbox pick and opened doors to retail partnerships including Rejuvenation and Walmart.

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Brand Launch
Noshly

Leading brand strategy, content, and go-to-market for a next-generation dining platform

BRAND LAUNCH
CREATIVE DIRECTION
GO-TO-MARKET STRATEGY

CONTENT CREATION
SOCIAL STRATEGY

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Led Noshly's brand strategy and launch, beginning with a comprehensive discovery process and translating customer, market, and business insights into a cohesive brand experience. Refined and expanded the existing brand system into a comprehensive brand book and six-month go-to-market plan, then brought the brand to life across web, email, social, events, and video.

 

From launch campaigns and hands-on video production to email journeys and social content, I helped define how the brand looked, sounded, and showed up across every key touchpoint. Designed to feel distinctly human and culturally relevant, the brand helped attract both chefs and diners to a new kind of pop-up dining platform.

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We Exist For Joy
Artifact Uprising

Bringing Artifact Uprising's purpose to life through a 1.3M-view brand film

CREATIVE DIRECTION
BRAND POSITIONING
STORYTELLING
CONTENT PRODUCTION
CAMPAIGN DEVELOPMENT

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As employee number two at Artifact Uprising, I spent six years helping grow the business from $500K to more than $50M in annual revenue. This campaign was an opportunity to revisit the heart of the brand and articulate why we exist: to preserve joy.

I led an award-winning production team in creating a 60-second brand film featuring real customer stories, translating fleeting moments into lasting keepsakes. The campaign generated more than 1.3 million views while reinforcing the emotional foundation that helped define the brand.

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Creative Direction
Wildist

Building and selling a brand-led business from the ground up.

COMPANY BUILDING
BRAND DEVELOPMENT
CREATIVE DIRECTION
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
CONTENT CREATION

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As Co-Founder, CEO, and Chief Creative Officer of Wildist, I helped build an online education platform for outdoor and adventure photography from the ground up. Working alongside Studio Mast, I led the research, creative direction, and rollout of the brand across web, social, email, content, and product launches.
 

The result was a distinctive brand that resonated with students, established Wildist as a trusted name in photography education, and contributed to a successful acquisition.

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Sony Partnership
Wildist

Launching a Sony partnership that generated 50K+ new subscribers

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS
CAMPAIGN DEVELOPMENT
CONTENT CREATION
COMMUNITY BUILDING
AUDIENCE GROWTH

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Partnered with Sony and renowned photographer Chris Burkard to launch an integrated campaign around the Sony Alpha 7C. Working within Sony's brand guidelines, I led the creative development of campaign assets across social, email, and digital channels, ensuring a cohesive experience across all partner brands.

The campaign generated more than 50,000 email subscribers while elevating Wildist's visibility and credibility through strategic alignment with two of the most respected names in photography.

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Rebrand 
Aligned

Transforming a complex subject into a human-centered brand.

POSITIONING
MESSAGING FRAMEWORK
BRAND IDENTITY
WEBSITE DESIGN
DESIGN SYSTEMS

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Led the evolution of Aligned's brand, transforming an early visual identity into a fully realized brand experience. Through research, positioning, messaging, and creative direction, I helped make negotiation feel more approachable and accessible to a broader audience.


In partnership with Swiss designer Jonathan Cheseaux, I led the website redesign and established a cohesive brand system that translated across digital channels and customer touchpoints.

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as seen in

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Artifact Uprising
 

Holstee

City Lifestyle

Artifact Uprising

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