JANE CORMIER

In January 2020, I spearheaded the in-house development and launch of the Emburse brand. Within just three months, we successfully rolled out a new brand identity, website, custom icons, a bespoke font, a social presence, and comprehensive brand guidelines.

Over the following years, I led the creative unification of the Emburse portfolio, harmonizing the visual identity of each legacy brand. This process involved pressure-testing various creative approaches to ensure seamless application of branding across future products and offerings. With a customer-first mindset, we strategically blended existing brand equity with newly developed Emburse brand elements. This resulted in visually aligned logos for each brand, updated color palettes, expanded brand guidelines, icons, spot illustrations, a customized font, and cohesive brand collateral, including our core values. Additionally, I guided the design development of our branded Emburse Cards—both physical and virtual—in collaboration with our product management team.

In early 2023, recognizing the need to elevate Emburse’s brand presence and stand out in a crowded market, I led the creative team in developing four distinct concepts. Working closely with the broader marketing team, we rigorously tested these ideas and identified a clear frontrunner. After refining the winning concept, we finalized our direction and developed refreshed brand guidelines, templates, toolkits (including custom illustrations, fonts, colors, "waves," photography, etc.), and resource libraries.

The results of our efforts were significant. After launching the refreshed website creative in August, we observed a 241.5% increase in average time on site, a 352.6% increase in website link clicks, and a 46% rise in conversions. Simultaneously, our refreshed social presence led to a remarkable overall engagement rate of 14.6%, far surpassing the industry standard of 1-2%.

This success laid the foundation for the exceptional work that followed. Over the subsequent months, the creative team revised templates and collateral to align with our updated brand standards. From the newly designed wave elements to line icons, filled icons, and custom illustrations, Emburse evolved into the vibrant, standout brand it is today.

Creative Credits for Emburse: Jane Cormier, Mike Cormier, Annie Dailey, Jennifer Wilson
Content Credits for Emburse: Jane Cormier, Aaron Williams

I led the creative direction and branding for Emburse's primary office locations, beginning with our Portland, Maine office. This initiative included overseeing the creative direction and execution of both interior and exterior environmental graphics, carefully selecting vendor partners, and identifying the appropriate substrates for each design element. I managed the project budget and presented concepts to the executive leadership team, ensuring alignment with our brand vision and company goals.

Creative credits: Jane Cormier, Jennifer Wilson, Andy Robbins, Shane Ernest

While working in the roles of Senior Designer and Creative Services Manager, I directed the design, production, and installation of branding and environmental graphics for the primary office locations of Dealer.com and Dealertrack. This project included the production of large-scale wall graphics and hand-painted murals in multiple office locations.

In addition to my creative duties, I was responsible for overseeing the budget and logistics for the entire project, including the production of 300+ posters sent to 29 locations across North America, and the drop-shipment of over 6000 brand books to geographically dispersed team members.

Creative Credits: Brad Cameron, Erik Van Hauer, Jane Cormier

Photo Credits: John Sappo

While working in various creative and brand roles at Dealer.com and Cox Automotive, I concepted the overall look and feel of our events and directed our on-site brand experiences. I managed vendor relations as well as the sourcing and production of all on-site signage, apparel, and giveaways. I was also responsible for the implementation of all digital collateral including email blasts and event landing pages.

2016 NADA Client Appreciation Party hosted nearly 4000 attendees and was held at Omnia at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. Performers included Rev Run + DJ Ruckus, DJ Jazzy Jeff, and De La Soul.

2015 Client Appreciation Party hosted 6000 client attendees at Oracle Park (formerly AT&T Park) in San Francisco and featured a carnival experience and musical performances by Gregg Allman, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, and Grace Potter.

2014 Client Appreciation Party hosted over 3000 attendees at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans and featured The Black Crowes.

Photo credits: John Sappo, Aaron Barton 
Creative credits: Jane Cormier, Bree Ripley, Erik Van Hauer 
Event credits: Jane Cormier, Amy Kirvan, Dennis Lemoine

While working as the Senior Design Manager at InStyle, I supported our Fall Must Haves program by designing and producing select event collateral including in-book ads, a 24pp booklet consisting of fall’s top trends and advertiser ads, OOH videos, printed invitations to advertiser and InStyle events, tickets to a private concert featuring Estelle, environmental and wayfinding signage, countercards, email blasts and more.

While I was the Senior Designer at Men’s Health Magazine, I was the design lead on several platform event programs. My role was to brand the events and produce all related materials, including promotional animations and video reels, email invitations, and banner ads. Additionally, I designed and oversaw the production of printed materials such as invitations, mailers, countercards, onsite signage and graphics, and other printed collateral.

Sample Men's Health Magazine events included Aspen Winterskol, The Men's Health Urbanathlon, The Men's Health Grooming Awards, and our exclusive event partnership series with Soho House New York, which was typically themed after a special issue such as the Guide to Style or Tech Guide. Guest celebrities appearing at these events included Common, Ryan Reynolds, and Tyler Florence.

Creative credits: Jane Cormier, Dan Venditti, Jay Lathigra

Event credit: Melissa Poll

During my time in the role of Senior Designer at Dealer.com, I was responsible for the art direction, design, sourcing, paper selection, and production of the 40pp 2013 Dealer.com brand book.

Design and production credit: Jane Cormier

Photo credits: John Sappo, Aaron Barton

While at InStyle, I designed "Gifting in 3D", the platform program featured in the December 2009 issue. My responsibilities included sourcing a photo stylist, art directing photoshoots of 8 highly textured and unique sets, and designing an interactive microsite. To use this microsite, the reader would prompt a unique 3D experience by holding up each unique page to their webcam and choosing a logo to interact with.

I also arranged and art directed photoshoots, including the photography and styling of over 300 products for InStyle's 15th anniversary platform program "15 for Fall". Other elements I contributed to and oversaw the creation of were the microsite and our app.

Additionally, I was responsible for creating promotional pages, advertorials and remnant ads for InStyle, InStyle Weddings, and InStyle Makeover. I also designed and coded event and advertiser promotional email blasts, and redesigned the InStyle promotional in-book and online pages.

As the Senior Director of Creative at Emburse, I led our creative team in crafting and delivering impactful thought leadership campaigns and brand awareness collateral that resonated with a global audience.

Leveraging insights from comprehensive global surveys, our team transformed data into compelling content that drove engagement and brand recognition. These campaigns featured a diverse array of assets, including in-depth reports, striking infographics, immersive landing pages, dynamic animated reels, targeted email campaigns, engaging social media posts, video mailers, webinars, and more. Notable content pieces include the annual Spend Management Trends Report, the SpendSmart Report, and Craziest Expenses. To maximize reach, we launched key content in multiple languages, including English, German, Spanish, and Italian.

Creative Team: Jane Cormier, Jennifer Wilson, Michael Cormier, Annie Dailey, Andrew Robbins, Laura Punzano
Content Team: Shane Ernest, Aaron Williams
Animation: Aaron Barton

While working as Senior Designer, I was responsible for art direction, photo styling, and photography for this sweet project. This signage was rolled out to multiple café coolers around our Burlington, VT locations. Each cooler was branded with unique, fun, and refreshing creative using food to spell “Dealer.com”. Also sourced and purchased produce for photo styling.

Creative credits: Jane Cormier, Michael Cormier

In 2021 and 2022, Emburse participated in various tradeshows both domestically and internationally, marking a pivotal phase in introducing the Emburse brand to the market. It was crucial that our customers—and the broader audience—clearly understood who we were, what our legacy brands represented, and had a positive experience with our brand.

As the Head of Creative, I drew upon my extensive experience in managing event presences to ensure that Emburse made a lasting impression. In collaboration with our internal event team and our booth vendor, Tangram, we developed a modular tradeshow booth that seamlessly aligned with our brand's needs and strategic goals.

In April 2022, we elevated our brand presence by launching our first out-of-home (OOH) campaign during the Ellucian Live show in Denver. This campaign featured branding on digital billboards around the event, as well as on pedicabs and tuk-tuks, with a sponsorship for rides near the Convention Center. To drive traffic to our booth, I created bounce-back cards that encouraged attendees to visit us, pick up a limited-edition beanie, engage with our sales team, and enter to win an iPad Mini.

Building on this success, in August 2022, we executed an even larger OOH campaign at GBTA in San Diego, focusing on travel and the launch of our first mobile app, Emburse Go. Having played a key role in designing the Emburse Go logo and app, this campaign was an exciting opportunity to showcase our new product. We branded 50-foot barricades, mobile billboards, pedicabs, Circuit shuttles, a Paletas cart and umbrella, and created custom "Hidden Gems" travel guides, bounce-back cards, and t-shirts. Additionally, we produced an Emburse Go video for American Airlines, which was featured on domestic flights, in our booth, and on Circuit shuttle screens.

On the GBTA tradeshow floor, we created a memorable experience by sponsoring a pavilion space next to our booth, branding it as "The Zen Zone," where attendees could enjoy chair massages and spa water. Booth visitors also had the opportunity to win an eBike, further enhancing engagement.

In 2023, I led a data-driven refresh of Emburse's brand creative and messaging. The refreshed design, applied to our industry event booths, resulted in a 46% increase in booth scans, a 33% increase in influenced opportunities, and a 21% increase in demos and meetings. This updated design and messaging continues to drive success at our 2024 industry events.

Creative Credits: Jane Cormier, Mike Cormier, Jennifer Wilson, Andy Robbins

Content Credits: Jane Cormier, Aaron Williams

Event Credits: Ahna Holloran, Jenna Heino, Jane Cormier, Christina Gruen

Brand Strategy Credits: Jane Cormier, Christina Gruen

While at InStyle, I created event invitations (concepts, designs, material sourcing, and execution) for InStyle Magazine and InStyle Weddings.

InStyle Oscar Viewing Party invitation & collateral: This invitation consists of reflective foil mounted to black board with foil-stamped fuchsia on front and back; there is also white foil stamped on the back. Other collateral created included valet/parking sign, directions and email blast.

InStyle “A Diamond is Forever” Luncheon with Black & White Theme: Invite V1: This invite utilized Stardream Quartz paper with a White Pearl Foil Stamp diamond pattern and Black Foil Stamp text front & back (chosen); Invite V2: This concept used Black Plike with a Black Foil Stamp pattern and affixed Crystals with a White Matte Foil Stamp Type.

Bridal Events for Pronovias and InStyle Weddings: These invitations were created on a strict budget using stock, foil-stamped logo cards that I previously designed and produced. From there, I elected to print in one-color black and have a laser-etched a flower pattern included to give the invitations a unique look and feel.

Shopping Event with Hal Rubenstein and Tommy Hilfiger: This golden ticket invitation mimics the look of a real ticket, but at a much larger scale. The print execution selected was screenprinting white text on a one-sided gold paper. I also used an all-over UV coating to protect the print job from scratches and fingerprints. These tickets were invitations for select recipients to attend an exclusive style and shopping experience.

While working at Senior Designer at Men’s Health, I was responsible for the art direction, design and production of various in-book pages and advertorials as well as special advertising sections. I also designed and coded email blasts, and created and edited interactive video reels and banner ads.

Creative credits: Jane Cormier, Michael Boyd

While at Dealer.com and Cox Automotive, I sourced, directed and produced a variety of brand-building apparel and giveaways for Dealer.com and various other Cox Automotive brands using a variety of vendors, partners and processes. Each item was produced in limited-edition quantities. This "swag" was sent to VIP clients and internal team members as a "stoke piece". Additionally, I created and directed the creation of departmental team-building apparel, location-specific apparel, and giveaways for the Dealer.com brand.

Custom giveaways included: Luxury beach towels, tote bags, beanies, hoodies, tees, button-down shirts, glassware, coffee mugs, travel mugs, custom-packaged hot chocolate and coffee, custom-branded and bottled maple syrup, lapel pins, wristbands, lanyards, buttons, pens, stylus pens, golf balls, golf towels, Moleskine notebooks, notecards, folders, giftbags, trucker hats produced with embroidery and screenprinting, embroidered patches, custom labels, and more.

Custom-packaged gifts (VIP gifting program): Kits and packaged gifts were shipped to partners and clients and featured both locally sourced goodies and high-end, custom-branded and packaged tech items.

Creative credits: Jane Cormier, Erik Van Hauer, Brad Cameron, Bree Ripley, Michael Cormier, Danielle Vogl, Ariana Brogan

From 2011-2017, I had the pleasure of working with a tight-knit team to concept, develop and execute our annual Dealer.com employee appreciation parties. These parties were anything but your average company events. They were complete music festivals with various tents, stages, food trucks, and other themed entertainment, including an outdoor roller skating rink, fortune tellers, tarot card readers, an Old West saloon, mechanical bull rides, and more. Attendees rose from 800 in our first year to over 2000 at Burlington Waterfront Park.

Performers have included Rev Run + DJ Ruckus, Morris Day and The Time, Arrested Development, Naughty By Nature, Salt 'n Pepa, Big Gigantic, Escort, The Village People, Purple Reign: a Prince Tribute Experience, as well as many other talented performers, including several employed by the company.

Creative credits: Jane Cormier, Bree Ripley, Erik Van Hauer
Event credits: Amy Kirvan, Dennis Lemoine, Jane Cormier

The Dealer.com Annual Fall Family BBQ, a family-friendly employee appreciation event, was held at various themed locations including Shelburne Farms, Oakledge Park, and the Shelburne Museum. I was responsible for concepting the annual theme as well as the overall look and feel of event including invitations, landing pages, giveaways, and on-site signage. I also worked closely with our event team to develop and execute these events, which included food trucks and a carnival atmosphere.

Creative credits: Jane Cormier, Michael Cormier
Event credits: Dennis Lemoine, Amy Kirvan, Jane Cormier

While at Dealer.com, I was responsible for concepting, art direction, content creation, illustration and design of brand and community ads in the print and digital space for Dealer.com.

Creative Credits: Jane Cormier and Bree Ripley

Clark McDowall is a boutique NYC-based branding agency specializing in new brand creation, strategy and vision, innovation, and design and expression.

I held the role of Junior Designer while at Clark McDowall and worked with a variety of CPG clients, ranging from small boutique brands to global industry leaders. Clients included Masterfoods USA, Unilever Bestfoods, Unilever HPC, Slim-Fast Foods, Schieffelin and Somerset (LVMH and Diageo, PLC), and FIDEC.

While in the role of Junior Designer, I was responsible for the creation of mood boards, schematics, pictographs, brand guidelines, logo development, back-of-pack layouts, promotional postcard design and direction, inner label designs, holiday gift ideation, and sourcing, presentation/pitch designs, competitive set research and analysis, assisting with qualitative and quantitative research, and participated in client brainstorming sessions.

Design and illustration credits: Clark McDowall creative team, Tom Montini, Jane Cormier

In addition to my full-time roles, I am the owner and creative director of Jane Cormier Branding + Design, LLC. Since 2001, I have worked with a variety of luxury, beauty, fashion, healthcare, wellness, financial, real estate, technology, CPG, and e-commerce companies. I have concepted and designed logos, packaging, business cards, letterhead, websites, social presences, high-quality promotional items, and other collateral such as signage, advertisements, brochures, and flyers. Clients have included The BrandID, Element Marketing, Soozy’s Grain Free, Harper's Bazaar, eLuxury.com, Freeze 24-7, ASR Holdings, Moxxie Makeup, Vermont Community Acupuncture, The Good Juju Foundation, Living Well Center for Integrative Health, and more.