Liz leads the PKG Brand Design creative team, driving us to create effective, engaging solutions that often exceed expectations. An award-winning, expert packaging designer and brand strategist who has led high-profile client projects for well over a decade, Liz is also well-versed in branding, in-store marketing, photo art direction and promotions. Her breadth of expertise includes the creative development of sales, activation and marketing materials for CPG companies like Sara Lee, Sharpie, Santa Margherita Wines, 3 Vodka, American Italian Pasta Company and many more.

Grady’s time in the Indians’ farm system prepared him well for a career in marketing. Breaking into the industry in radio promotion, Grady ran sales events, concert coordination and marketing events. Called up to the “bigs,” Grady’s spent nearly a decade-and-a-half in event, experiential, consumer and retail marketing. His roster of clients includes Gatorade/Propel, Kellogg’s, Hamilton Beach, Office Max, Diageo, Sara Lee, ESPN, Kraft, American Italian Pasta Company, Pernod Ricard and MillerCoors.

Steve finds ways to translate the client’s goals and marketing objectives into actionable strategies and engaging design—the kind that wins awards. And he believes that all good work stems from a focused sense of pride, ownership and nourishment of the brand he’s been asked to create, protect or refine. Past work includes major design participation and supervision for such clients as Kraft Foods, Quaker Oats, Hunt Wesson, International Paper, Keebler and General Mills, to name a few.

A double-degreed designer, Ryan comes to LAUNCH from America’s Dairyland with B.S. degrees in both Art and French Language & Literature from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Ryan’s specialties include print design, illustration and brand identity, and his approach to work is informed by strategy. At LAUNCH, Ryan’s experience includes in-store, logo/identity, packaging and illustration work, as well as sales materials and POS/shopper marketing across most of our client base. In addition to being an accomplished graphics ace, Ryan is also the “secret sauce” in an up-and-coming rock band and is LAUNCH’s resident cheese maker.

Allison boasts 10+ years of integrated marketing experience—a background that includes agency-side experience developing brand strategy, traditional advertising and integrated consumer promotions for clients including 7-Eleven, Kraft cheese brands, Oscar Mayer, S.C. Johnson, Kellogg’s, Direct Energy and CDW. On the client side, Allison adds brand management for Philip Morris USA and in-market research for an institutional plastics manufacturer to her resume. Allison received a B.A. in Advertising Management from Southern Methodist University before obtaining an M.B.A. with an emphasis on consumer marketing from The Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Originally from Florida, Victoria gets plenty of sideways looks from her LAUNCH coworkers when she tells us how much she loves the snow and cold weather. Since 2010, Victoria’s snowphilia and B.S. in Advertising from the University of Florida have been our gain. Prior to her trek northward, Victoria provided some marketing expertise to Motivated Design and worked as a promotional specialist for Team Enterprises, an event and on-premise marketing company. Victoria currently works across a host of LAUNCH clients and splits her time with the Project Management group.

Responsible for content and concepts for both PKG Brand Design and LAUNCH, Ross is a copywriter who can write it in 14, 140 or 140 thousand characters. And he’s also a strategist. Armed with a Master's in Marketing Communications from Northwestern University, Ross has been “in marketing communications” since the mid-1980s—at retail, and as a radio promotions director, legislative and campaign aide, account executive, strategist and marketing manager. Ross counts McDonald’s, Sara Lee, Jim Beam, VISA, Motorola, Coca-Cola, Ebay and Tropicana as previous clients.

Larry has put his degree in Graphic Design from Chicago’s Columbia College—and his passion for ancient Japanese gardening—to good use. With more than 20 years creating concepts and solutions for brands you probably have in your own kitchen, Larry remains fascinated by how brands evolve, and by how consumers react to them. His design work is grounded in a lasting curiosity: Is the branding appealing? Are the product attributes communicated clearly? Is the brand positioning distinct from its competitors?

Sarah graduated from the Illinois Institute of Art–Chicago with a B.F.A. in Visual Communications, beginning her career on the production side nearly a decade ago. Now firmly grounded on the design side, her design experience includes consumer promotions, packaging, photo art direction and shopper merchandising for clients such as Sara Lee (Bakery, Sweet Goods and Meats divisions) and Sanford. A deft visual artist, Sarah is also our go-to sketcher.

Providing design solutions and rationale that align with project objectives, Romina works closely with Senior Copywriters in creating brand identity and package design, and specializes in corporate identity and new products. With over 11 years in the industry, she has refined her craft working with clients such as Sara Lee, ConAgra, PepsiCo, and Sanford. Romina received her degree from the University of Buenos Aires and has worked at agencies both in the U.S. and South America such as Topco Associates, Faustin Brothers, and Ellenberg Martinez.

In her leadership of both LAUNCH and PKG Brand Design’s account and planning teams, Heather’s unbounded enthusiasm to partner with clients positions us to tackle any business challenge itching for an efficient and effective marketing solution. A graduate of DePaul University, Heather began her career 15 years ago as a market researcher—the kind of experience that grounds everything she does in a solid strategy. By adding event marketing and in-store promotion to her resume, Heather, along with her trademark sparkle, has become a shopper marketing sensei, building successful programs for such brands as G2-Gatorade, Kraft, DelMonte, Pepsi, Tropicana, Walmart, Tyson and Keebler.

Defining his career with a passion for design and marketing innovation, Kevin has grown LAUNCH into an award-winner, consistently ranked in the Promo 100. The leader and “chief vision officer” at PKG Brand Design and LAUNCH, Kevin focuses wholeheartedly on strategy and client needs, expanding the LAUNCH umbrella to keep pace with the changing marketing landscape. Kevin is a B.A. of the University of Illinois, and holds a Master of Science from California State University. His belief in leveraging Owned Media to achieve better results is evidenced by his efforts to strengthen the strategy, branding and packaging offerings within PKG Brand Design. Kevin boasts experience on notable accounts such as Keebler, Kellogg’s and Mars Candy, among others.

While growing up in New Jersey, Jim realized early on that “superhero” wasn’t an in-demand job. So instead, he combined his love of drawing and comic books to work in marketing and become an accomplished and award-winning creative with a B.F.A. from Rutgers University. Jim boldly leads both PKG Brand Design and LAUNCH’s creative and digital teams in the development of strategically-based creative solutions that demonstrably build brands and drive sales. An expert in creative direction and integrated marketing solutions, Jim has spent 18 years crafting in-store, branding and packaging, digital, mobile and promotional marketing. His roster of clients includes Pepsi, Visa, AT&T, Frito-Lay, U.S. Postal Service, The Centers for Disease Control, Tropicana, McDonald's, Staples, Corona, Keebler and Kellogg’s.