Leanin' Tree is a 77-year-old greeting card company started by a family in Colorado and later passed to its employees as an ESOP. It was an incredible and unique place to work. In addition to the daily work of creating 1500-2000 new SKUS annually across six distinct brands as a part of a two-person design team, I was also responsible for Willow & Ivy Press (see W&I work on a separate page) and helping out with my fair share of the work for Leanin Tree. During my time at Leanin' Tree, they expanded, not only with the addition of W&I but also with other brands like Ranch Rebel Co. and WagTales, and I stepped in to take on some of the collateral creation for these two as well as LT and W&I. Again, with no budget for photography, I turned to the use of Adobe Firefly to generate the backgrounds and place the product.
PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY FOR AMAZON SALES
When I was hired my background in photography was of immediate interest as Leanin Tree was expanding into selling on Amazon. They needed specific items that are hard to Photoshop effectively so I set about using my personal photography equipment in my living room to shoot the images and create collateral for Amazon. This was in 2023 right before the AI explosion, so these are all shot with a digital camera, studio lighting and manipulated by hand in Photoshop. How far we have come eh? I also shot solo, edited, and personally starred in all of the product videos for each assortment, but we will spare you that monotony here.
WAGTALES
WagTales was added as a brand in early 2026 and was a primarily animal and pet-focused line. This was a fun one to create social media for and the bright and colorful nature of the cards lent itself to the marketing team and I creating a grid plan to follow where we alternated solid and lifestyle backgrounds.
PRODUCT IDEATION FOR BRAND COLLABORATION
We were tasked with using Scout patterns and color schemes and creating ready to sell product that Leanin Tree would produce in an effort to collaborate.
DISPLAY SIGNAGE
We were asked to produce new signage for in-store displays seasonally, usually a a group of different sizes that had to be distinct but cohesive.
