CASUAL ANIMAL BREWING

Adobe Express · Social, operational, and multi-platform design

I joined Casual Animal as one of their first employees when the owners became pregnant and couldn’t keep up with content. What started as photography evolved into reverse-engineering a brand aesthetic from scratch — working directly with an owner who was a graphic designer himself, which meant every piece went through multiple rounds of revision. It was my first real lesson in the difference between executing a vision and chasing approval, and eventually I learned to separate the two.

Over time the work expanded beyond social media into SEO, copywriting, website content, and a pitch calendar for Visit KC. I also contributed to wayfinding and operational signage — bathroom signs, water station markers, menus — which taught me that design isn’t just aesthetic. When signage doesn’t work, the whole operation slows down. We grew from a 150-person taproom to a 500+ capacity venue, and I was credited with contributing to that growth.

What I’d do differently: Start with a brand discovery session. I later witnessed that process firsthand through a civic branding project with Whiskey Design and understood immediately what had been missing — a shared creative brief before any design begins.