J.Crew Creative Director: Colleen Stokes

The following are excerpts from two pieces that focus on Collen Stokes, the Creative Director over at J.Crew.

People to Watch
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By GDUSA
January 2008

How can new media enhance the user's experience of a brand? Ask Colleen Stokes. The J.Crew creative director has spent her career pondering that question....Stokes' current responsibilities include the creative for all of J.Crew's new media, marketing and PR.

Women to Watch: Collen Stokes
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By Step Inside Design

The creative force behind J.Crew’s catalog and website fell into e-commerce almost entirely by accident. When Colleen Stokes graduated from design school in the early ’90s, she headed straight for San Francisco. It was well before the internet boom, and the young designer cut her teeth on children’s software packaging. “At that time, no one wanted to do new media,” she says. “Everyone wanted to do print.”

Stokes, however, started to develop an interest in interactive design. And a couple of jobs later she got the chance to put those skills to work ...

Today she’s the creative director of Direct Business for clothing retailer J.Crew. Stokes oversees the look and feel of the company’s catalog and website—and makes sure the pair works in concert. “It all stems from the clothes,” she says. And recently those have become higher quality and slightly more expensive. Stokes takes that information and translates it into engaging lifestyle imagery for the catalog. Then her team tries to tell that same story on the website.

Since taking her job roughly two years ago, Stokes has made some significant changes. The catalog and site now feature richer photography that’s more location based. She’s also infused a previously white catalog with a bounty of colors and textures. Website traffic is up, and Stokes’ team produces more catalogs with more pages.

But one of the things she’s most proud of is the time she spends with her team. With her catalog designers, for example, she stresses the importance of telling a linear story with imagery and type. She strives to keep them motivated and not look at the catalog as production design. “I would love at some point to teach,” she says. “I really enjoy watching people grow and get better.”

Since joining J.CREW, Stokes has taken a previously stark white catalog and infused it with colors and textures. She's also introduced richer photography that's more location based.

I really think J.Crew does a fantastic job with their catalogs- they are always so beautifully laid out. As mentioned before (refer to "Love or Hate: J.Crew Catalogs"), I love saving them because I think they are great sources for ideas (for outfits, colors, etc.).

Do you think that J.Crew catalogs tell a linear story (and do you like that story)? Do you think the catalog and website sell the "lifestyle imagery" well? What is your favorite catalog issue of all time (so far)? (My favorite: Paris of last year.) :)