Geiger has been the leader in craftsman-quality wood furniture for executive workspaces since 1964. Leading the annual introduction of new products for six consecutive years, I was responsible for product naming, messaging, photography art direction, public relations, and design and writing of all materials deployed before, during, and after each year’s NeoCon World Trade Fair.
Highlights of four of those product launch campaigns, from pre-show PR, e-vites, and trade advertising to showroom design and execution and on-site sales training, are included here. In addition to creating marketing materials, I also led product sampling and sales enablement programs for a nationwide team of business development pros and a national network of independent dealers.
My six-plus-year tenure had no shortage of other interesting ways to flex my creative muscles while supporting our national network of dedicated account managers and dealers. Here are some favorites.
As the brand’s go-to resource for environmental marketing, I prepared support materials and responses to RFPs pertaining to Geiger products’ compliance with LEED, UL GREENGUARD, and FSC standards for a nationwide network of account managers and dealers.
I also created the brand’s first-ever library of LEED sheets, which provided 24/7 online access to product-specific information and the points each product could contribute to a project’s LEED certification goal.
With the redesign of the website in 2010, I wrote all-new content, created all visual assets, and assembled every page (with amazing support by the Herman Miller IT team). A three-month, seven-days-a-week project leading up to NeoCon, the relaunch was a huge success. My work even earned me Herman Miller’s annual CEO Award, singling me out among 6,000 employees globally.
The company’s 2012 National Sales Meeting was held in Asheville, North Carolina, in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Visual branding was inspired by the mountains themselves, with a twist: the ridges were rendered using veneer finishes and paint colors from the Geiger Color Portfolio.
Every touchpoint was branded, from the welcome kit with personalized itinerary and name badge, to dinner menus and place cards, to the bookplate included in the keepsake distributed at departure.
I wrote and designed case studies directed toward various vertical markets, including the legal and financial professions that have been loyal Geiger customers for decades.
Geiger’s commitment to sustainable forestry was the inspiration for this holiday card: messages of renewal were letterpress-printed on recycled card stock embedded with maple seeds. After using each perforated section as a gift tag—hence, the hole drilled in each one—the recipient need only place the tag in moist soil to plant a new tree.
Printed sales materials and corresponding web pages inspired confidence in A&D specifiers by credibly showing and telling Geiger’s story of craftsmanship, beauty, and quality. Rigorously designed brochures, tear sheets, and web pages were anchored with renderings of imaginative furniture layouts and finish combinations. A few of those brochures are shown here.