Mattel
Design Lead
Present
Embark on a Journey Through Mattel’s Beloved Girl Brands:
As a Senior Designer for Mattel’s iconic girls’ brands, I work on the Dolls team, crafting engaging visual experiences for Monster High, Disney Princesses, Polly Pocket, Harry Potter, Trollz, and more. Each project offers an opportunity to develop visuals that are not only eye-catching but also resonate deeply with fans, capturing the unique personality of each brand through chip art, packaging, fabric patterns, and key visuals.
Problem-Solving Through Design:
In my role, I take on the challenge of ensuring brand consistency and cohesiveness across a variety of assets, often integrating feedback from cross-functional teams. Each project begins with identifying the core narrative and visual tone that will best align with the brand’s essence while addressing the needs of both fans and internal stakeholders.
From concept development through to execution, I partner with marketing and production teams to ensure every design element—from colors and textures to typography—reflects the brand’s story and values. This collaborative approach not only brings Mattel’s beloved brands to life but also drives consistent customer engagement, resulting in a product experience that keeps fans returning season after season.
Driving Audience Engagement:
My focus as a Senior Designer is on creating solutions that enhance the fan experience, deepening audience loyalty and engagement with each brand. Through thoughtful design strategies and problem-solving, I work to ensure each brand’s visuals connect authentically with audiences and enrich the overall brand experience.
Tiny Worlds, Big Adventures:
The Challenge:
Designing each Polly Pocket compact meant crafting miniature environments that would resonate deeply with fans, capturing the spirit of play and discovery. The challenge here was to create a compact that felt cohesive, interactive, and engaging while fitting intricate details into a small scale. Balancing nostalgia with modern appeal was crucial, especially for a beloved brand with a rich history.
The Solution:
I designed the 5in Compact to be a vibrant, immersive experience that brings out the whimsical charm of Polly Pocket. Each feature was chosen carefully: the bear plushie, the colorful jacket, and the flamingo floatie in the pool scene were all designed to evoke a sense of magic and familiarity. By incorporating vivid hues and playful details, I ensured the compact felt like a world of its own—a place where ordinary items turn into extraordinary treasures. This approach allowed the compact to feel fresh while staying true to the brand’s identity.
Why It Works:
The compact’s design invites fans into a charming, miniature universe, sparking curiosity and creative play. Every detail, from the decor to the accessories, captures the essence of Polly Pocket and encourages imaginative storytelling. This blend of nostalgia and novelty makes the compact appealing to both new fans and those with fond childhood memories, achieving a lasting emotional connection.
Polly Pocket:
Bringing Imagination to Life
As a passionate Senior Designer and Illustrator, I have the joy of contributing my creativity to the vibrant world of Polly Pocket, a brand with a deep connection to my own love for playful and colorful design. Polly Pocket’s whimsical charm perfectly aligns with my artistic style, giving me the opportunity to infuse each project with a touch of magic and imagination.
A Personal Connection to the Brand:
Working on Polly Pocket is not just a professional journey but a personal one. As a child, I was captivated by Polly Pocket’s enchanting, pocket-sized worlds, and each set fueled hours of imaginative play. Created in 1983 by Chris Wiggs, Polly Pocket’s compact playsets opened to reveal tiny, interactive environments filled with miniature dolls and accessories—a design that continues to inspire my work today.
Crafting Visual Narratives for Today’s Fans:
Now, as part of the design team, I aim to capture Polly Pocket’s charm in every stroke of design and illustration, creating visual narratives that resonate with both nostalgic fans and a new generation of imaginative minds. From playful packaging to engaging brand visuals, each project is an opportunity to recreate the magic of Polly Pocket, honoring its legacy while bringing fresh, engaging experiences to fans.
Tiny Spaces, Big Play:
The Challenge:
Designing a compact that balances intricate details and functional play areas, all within a limited space. Each element had to be vibrant and engaging without overwhelming the miniature environment, and to reflect the unique charm of Polly Pocket’s world.
Solution:
Drawing from my own nostalgic connection to Polly Pocket, I designed this 3-inch compact with both practicality and playfulness in mind. The compact includes an imaginative pool scene in the window and a garden behind the door, creating an inviting backdrop for adventure. By reusing select assets and creating a few new assets that focus on distinct, interactive elements, I achieved a cohesive look that evokes Polly’s signature style.
Why It Works:
This compact offers layers of engagement that spark the imagination—each room has details that captivate, from the mini vanity mirror to the cozy indoor setting. This design encourages young fans to explore and create stories, embodying the essence of Polly Pocket’s motto: Big adventures in a tiny world.
Crafting Tiny Worlds with Big Personality:
The Challenge:
Transitioning from the fast-paced world of Hot Wheels to the intricate universe of Polly Pocket presented a new set of challenges. Unlike the vehicle-focused design of Hot Wheels, Polly Pocket required a deep dive into interior details, creating a miniature world that felt cozy, detailed, and lived-in. Each room in Polly’s compact had to be distinct, with elements that sparked imagination while staying true to Polly’s playful, nostalgic charm. The task was to design a compact that would capture the essence of Polly’s world, ensuring that every tiny piece felt thoughtfully curated.
The Solution:
Drawing from both my own life experiences and an eye for interior design, I approached Polly’s world with a focus on creating authenticity within each room. Shopping for my own apartment sparked inspiration for elements like the china cabinet—a piece that connected with my personal nostalgia, modernized with a playful twist to suit Polly’s style. Each floor of Polly’s house was crafted to convey its own unique personality while maintaining cohesion across the compact. The attention to color, form, and tiny decorative accents allowed each space to feel distinct and immersive.
Why It Works:
This design reflects a careful blend of professional skill and personal influence, aligning with Polly Pocket’s brand vision while also resonating with fans of all ages. By embedding subtle details inspired by real-life decor and ensuring functionality in miniature form, the compact delivers a highly interactive and visually engaging experience. This project highlights my adaptability as a designer, demonstrating a capacity to transition seamlessly between brand worlds while retaining a sense of creativity and personal connection.
The Design Process:
Every detail within Polly Pocket’s world begins with a thoughtful sketch, laying the foundation for a compact that feels both immersive and interactive. From initial concept lines to refined compositions, each stage of development was carefully considered to balance whimsy with intricate detail. The process involved not just designing a playset, but crafting a narrative within miniature spaces—where every curve, texture, and furnishing invites exploration. These illustrations showcase the evolution of Polly’s world, capturing the essence of imaginative storytelling through design, ensuring that every tiny space feels rich with possibility and charm.
Designing Magic for Disney’s Cinderella:
The Challenge:
Designing for Disney’s Cinderella demanded a balance of tradition and innovation. Each element had to honor the iconic story while introducing fresh details to engage new fans. The goal was to create patterns that felt elegant and timeless, echoing the spirit of Cinderella’s character, while also fitting seamlessly with the rest of Disney’s merchandise standards.
The Solution:
I approached the design with a blend of nostalgic and contemporary influences. The pattern incorporates classic elements, such as delicate bows and whimsical birds, to reflect Cinderella’s enduring charm. Each element was meticulously crafted, with an emphasis on intricate details and balanced compositions. From initial sketches to final placement, every choice was made to enhance the storytelling experience, allowing the viewer to feel part of Cinderella’s enchanted world.
Why It Works:
These patterns go beyond mere decoration—they serve as visual storytelling tools. By infusing the design with iconic motifs and layered details, the final product captures both the nostalgia of Cinderella’s legacy and the freshness needed for modern appeal. The careful attention to detail ensures that each piece resonates emotionally with Disney fans, reinforcing the magical appeal that Cinderella has held for generations.
Designing Cinderella’s Signature Look:
Creating the perfect look for a fashion doll requires an intricate balance of scale, detail, and alignment with brand aesthetics. For this project, I focused on designing a skirt that reflects Cinderella’s iconic elegance while ensuring it fits perfectly on an 11.5” fashion doll. Using a scaled-down version of the final pattern, I tested the print layout directly on a prototype skirt to assess how the design proportions would translate to the doll’s frame.
This stage was crucial for visualizing the real-life impact of the pattern and refining its placement to ensure that all key elements would be clearly visible on the doll. The mock-up process allowed me to fine-tune details, ensuring that the bows and motifs are appropriately sized and positioned for a cohesive, visually pleasing final product. This attention to scale ensures that the charm of Cinderella’s style is captured flawlessly, bringing a touch of her story into a tangible, miniature form.
Bringing Ariel’s World to Life:
The Challenge:
The task was to create chip art that brings the vibrant and enchanting undersea world of the 2023 live-action The Little Mermaid to life. The challenge lay in capturing the film’s fresh aesthetic and rich detail in a compact, illustrative style suitable for a doll playset. Every element needed to align with the live-action adaptation’s more realistic yet still whimsical underwater scenery, balancing intricate detail with a clean, cohesive layout that complements the physical space of the toy.
The Solution:
Drawing inspiration from the updated visuals of the live-action film, I meticulously designed each piece of chip art to reflect the movie’s lush, aquatic world. Key elements like dolphins, coral reefs, and schools of fish were illustrated with depth and movement, ensuring that every piece felt alive and aligned with the film’s immersive visual style. By using careful placement, layering, and a blend of detailed and simplified illustrations, I crafted scenes that allow the viewer’s eye to flow naturally, capturing the beauty of the underwater environment without overwhelming the space.
Why It Works:
This design approach brings the live-action The Little Mermaid to life in a way that resonates with both new audiences and longtime fans. By staying true to the updated aesthetic, the chip art reflects the film’s enchanting realism, enhancing the playset with a taste of the underwater adventure. The final result is an immersive experience that complements the live-action adaptation, offering young fans an inspiring connection to Ariel’s world while enhancing their play experience with intricate, yet balanced, visual storytelling.
The Final Design:
Bringing this chip art to life with a watercolor-inspired approach allowed me to infuse the underwater world with a sense of movement and vibrancy. The fluidity of this style enhances the dynamic energy of the scene, echoing the liveliness of the film’s aquatic setting. One of the most exciting challenges was illustrating the flying gurnards from the iconic Under the Sea sequence—a first for me and a rewarding opportunity to push my visual storytelling further. Every element was crafted with the intent to capture the wonder and magic of Ariel’s world, creating a rich, immersive design that invites the viewer to dive into the adventure.
Crafting Playful Worlds that Spark Imagination:
The Challenge:
The initial designs for Polly Pocket’s Animal Locket series felt too simplistic and lacked the detail that defines the Polly Pocket brand. While the existing art was functional, it didn’t fully capture the enchanting, immersive worlds that children expect from Polly Pocket. Each locket scene needed an upgrade in both depth and narrative richness, ensuring it could be universally engaging while staying true to the Polly style.
The Solution:
As the lead designer on this project, I infused each scene with greater depth, visual flow, and personality. Guided by the Polly Pocket style guide, I developed enhanced character designs and environments that aligned with brand standards. My sketches included detailed backgrounds, like a dynamic safari scene with a giraffe and waterway, a cozy farm with layered elements for a sense of space, and a whimsical award stage with lights and a backdrop—all designed to encourage imaginative play. Each locket scene was thoughtfully composed with the physical toy’s placement in mind, allowing for seamless integration and added realism.
Why It Works:
By focusing on composition, depth, and on-brand detail, these scenes evoke a sense of adventure and discovery. The added elements like foliage, animal poses, and perspective adjustments create dynamic play environments that draw children into Polly Pocket’s mini worlds. The reimagined scenes stay true to the Polly aesthetic while inviting kids to interact with each scene as if stepping into a story—making each locket a delightful, immersive experience.