journal / creative direction
I am Shona Neary, a creative director, product builder and founder. Bring me in when a company’s proposition, product, customer experience and route to market need to be decided together. My work combines full startup creative ownership, founder-built software and institutional retail and production delivery.
By Shona Neary
A company may ask for a website, a campaign or a visual identity when the real question is what the company offers, who it is for and how people will experience it. Making the output without resolving that question can leave the product, story and customer journey pointing in different directions. I start by understanding what needs deciding, then connect the creative direction to the work that must be delivered.
At VC-backed startup, I owned all creative across brand, website, creative strategy, marketing, go-to-market, retail, customer touchpoints and production. The company positioning and investor pitch decks I developed with the CEO helped raise millions, and I joined investor meetings. I then carried the work into the Ku’damm store floor plan and build with engineers and construction workers. That experience matters because the brief did not end when the company had a presentation. The direction had to become a website, a launch and a physical customer encounter.
Sources: VC-backed startup project record ↗
I founded Countercult and built its product and software. Public discovery, local knowledge, permissions, member workflows, editorial, partnerships and paid-work models have to operate together. It is a direct record of working on the proposition and the system, not only advising a technical team from outside. For a product or AI brief, I connect the user need, information boundaries, UX, prototype and implementation plan. The role is to make the system useful and appropriate to the people using it, not to add technology for its own sake.
Sources: Countercult founder and product record ↗ AI product strategy and prototyping ↗
My work for the MoMA in New York City and Japan connected retail business development, visitor movement, wayfinding, product mechanicals and installation support. At Tommy Hilfiger, I worked within a retail system spanning more than 500 U.S. touchpoints, with documentation, mechanicals, visualization and supplier handoffs. Those records show why I keep the people producing and using the work inside the brief. A direction needs to be specific enough for another team to make it and coherent enough for a customer to encounter it.
Sources: MoMA and business development ↗ Tommy Hilfiger retail rollout ↗
I do not ask a company to stop working with specialist designers, engineers, marketers or producers. I take responsibility for how the decisions connect: whether the product supports the proposition, whether the experience supports the brand, and whether the direction can be built, launched and used. The operating reason to hire me is that those relationships become part of someone’s remit, rather than an assumption between separate suppliers or teams. The scope is agreed around the actual problem.
An ongoing fractional Creative Director or Head of Creative role can hold direction across a growing team. A fixed-term embedded engagement can focus on a launch or transformation. A project can cover a product prototype, brand and experience system, cultural or place brief, or work across U.S. and European markets. The engagement should state decision rights, collaborators, time commitment, deliverables and how progress will be assessed. The scope follows the actual company need, with clear responsibility for the decisions and work involved.
Send the situation, what needs to change, the team and decision-makers involved, the deadline and the budget range if known. My hiring profile shows commissioning routes, my CV sets out the professional record, and the linked cases let you assess the work behind it. We can then decide whether you need connected creative leadership, a focused delivery brief or a wider Countercult Studios engagement.
Sources: Hiring profile and commissioning routes ↗ Current engagements ↗ CV and career record ↗
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