Odds & Ends / Misfits Market — brand strategy, evolution, packaging and product system
Strategy / Growth / Creative Leadership
Build what’s next.
I help brands and creative organizations figure out what they’re building, why it matters, and what it takes to move it forward.
For the last decade, I helped build and lead Thought Matter. Now I’m bringing that experience to brands, creative practices, and whatever comes next.
Brand
I think of brand as more than identity. It’s the story an organization tells, the behavior that makes that story believable, and the experience people have with it.
I work across strategy, positioning, naming, identity, creative direction, and brand evolution — especially when an organization is growing, changing, or trying to make a clearer case for why it matters. Selected work shown here was created during my time at Thought Matter, in collaboration with the studio’s teams, clients, partners, photographers, illustrators, and makers. My role varied across strategy, client leadership, creative direction, new business, and practice leadership.
DSNY / Together on Port / Street Vendor Project — public identity, place, access and participation
Wolf Hound / Blended — challenger brands with a clear point of view
Practice
Creative practices have life spans. They grow, change, get stuck, reinvent themselves, and sometimes need to become something else entirely. I’m interested in what keeps them healthy: people, relationships, positioning, market understanding, and the business decisions that make ambitious creative work possible.
01
Growth is about people.
The strongest opportunities come from trust, reputation, and relationships built over time — with clients, collaborators, and the people inside the practice.
02
Positioning is storytelling.
Creative businesses need a clear story about what they are good at, who they are for, and why they matter now. If the market cannot understand the story, it is hard for the work to grow.
03
You have to know how to sell creative work.
Good work does not sell itself. Winning work means understanding the client, the market, the moment, and how to turn creative ambition into a compelling business case.
04
A practice needs to be nurtured.
Talent matters, but so do structure, leadership, margins, staffing, trust, and the ability to adapt. The goal is not simply to get bigger. It is to build a practice that can keep making strong work.
10 years.
One practice.
A national award.
One practice.
A national award.
For a decade at Thought Matter, I worked across the whole life of an independent creative business — shaping positioning, building client relationships, identifying opportunities, leading pitches, growing long-term accounts, guiding teams, and helping the studio evolve as the market around us changed.
In 2026, that practice was recognized with the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Communication Design.
In 2026, that practice was recognized with the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Communication Design.
What’s
Next
I’m interested in the questions that don’t have obvious answers yet — and in where creativity can be useful next.
About Jessie
I’m Salvadoran-American, a mother, and someone who has spent a lot of time thinking about who gets to lead, who gets to participate, and who gets to see themselves in the things we make.
For more than two decades, I’ve worked inside the business of creativity — building brands, relationships, teams, and practices. Most recently, I spent a decade helping lead Thought Matter in New York. As Managing Partner, I worked across strategy, client partnerships, new business, teams, and the long-term shape of the studio. In 2026, the practice was recognized with the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Communication Design.
Before Thought Matter, I worked in-house at Kimberly-Clark and led brand strategy for global clients including P&G and Colgate-Palmolive. Today I teach entrepreneurship and branding at Pratt Institute, mentor through SVA’s MPS Branding program, and speak and write about design, business, civic life, trust, and the role imagination can play in shaping what comes next.
How could this be designed better?
Better to understand. Better to use. Better to participate in. Better to see ourselves in.