Creative Director · Designer · Founder · Minneapolis, MN

NiamhJohnson

I’ve spent 18 years working at the intersection of brand identity, design, and ecommerce—founding a brand from the ground up, growing it into an industry leader, and ultimately expanding into leadership across two distinct brands within one organization. From that exerience I bring a rare combination of strategic leadership and hands-on creative execution — leading teams, designing products, directing or shooting photography, creating graphics or building campaigns, to redesigning websites and user experience.

Concept to Execution — I can guide the vision or do the work.

18 Years Creative Director & Designer

MCAD BFA — Illustration

1 Brand Founded Urban Threads

1 Brand Elevated Embroidery Library

Areas of expertise

Illustration & Original Product Design

Brand Identity & Visual Systems

Product Photography & Direction

Graphic Design & Art Direction

Web & UX Design

Marketing Campaigns & Creative Strategy

Ecommerce Creative & Conversion

Creative Team Leadership & Mentorship

Product Management & Production Systems

Background

Two brands. One vision.

18 years across two distinct brands — one founded, one transformed. Different audiences, different voices, same standard of craft.

Founded & Art Directed · 2008–2026

Urban Threads

Founding Brand

I founded Urban Threads from the ground up, transforming an idea into one of the most recognized brands in its market. By developing a distinctive visual identity, product strategy, customer experience, and brand voice around an underserved audience, I built a passionate community and a brand that carved out its own space in the market and stood apart from competitors.

The experience taught me how to identify opportunities, connect authentically with customers, and translate creative vision into products, experiences, and campaigns that transformed a niche creative concept into a lasting business.

Brand FoundedIdentity DesignProduct DesignIllustrationArt DirectionTeam Building

Inherited & Elevated · 2017–2026

Embroidery Library

Parent Brand

In 2017, I expanded to take over creative direction of Embroidery Library — the larger, established parent company. The challenge was a different kind of creative problem: not building from scratch, but elevating and evolving a brand with an existing identity, customer base, and catalog of thousands of SKUs.

I led a reimagining from stock design catalog to artisan quality leader — raising the visual standard, restructuring the ecommerce experience, and developing creative systems that could sustain quality and consistency at real scale, while keeping both brands distinct under the same roof.

Brand EvolutionEcommerce UXWeb RedesignVisual SystemsCreative StrategyTeam Direction

Illustration & Product Design

From original art to market ready product

Years of product design taught me to create with both purpose and intention. Every concept had to be more than visually compelling — it required balancing creativity, usability, production realities, and customer needs—an approach that continues to shape how I solve problems and build experiences today.

⇄

Concept

Final Product

← Drag to compare →

Concept to product — Winter Wolf

Fine Art Illustration

Typography · Graphic Design

Whimsy · Character Design

Home Décor · Product Design

Apparel · Illustration

Fine Art · Illustration

Full range

Product Photography

Art direction & product photography

Rather than handing work off at the concept stage, I was able to guide ideas through every phase of development. That meant designing products, directing photography, developing campaigns, and crafting the visual systems that connected them — all while ensuring every touchpoint supported a cohesive brand experience.

UX & Web Design

Website evolution — From replatform to refinement

Following a rapid replatform, both brands were left with websites that lacked the structure, usability, and visual identity needed to support their growth. Across two major iterations, I modernized the experience through incremental improvements that balanced business goals with the expectations of a customer base resistant to dramatic change.

Embroidery Library

Urban Threads

Brand Development

Identity systems & visual direction

Featured BRAND Identity

Urban Threads — an identity evolution

While previous Urban Threads rebrands were developed in collaboration with external agencies, this concept was created as an internal exploration of where the brand could evolve next, pushing its visual identity into a more distinctive space.

FURTHER Selected Logo & Identity Work

Marketing & Campaigns

Urban Threads Lookbooks — Editorial Meets Ecommerce

Marketing · Editorial · Brand Voice

A magazine for a community, not just a catalog

I developed the Urban Threads Lookbook as a new form of content-driven marketing, blending seasonal campaigns, trend editorials, tutorials, fashion inspiration, and community showcases into a cohesive brand experience. Its success led to the concept being expanded and adapted across both company brands.

Multi-issue

Concept → design → photography → content & copy → layout → production

Background & Skills

Beyond the visual work

Marketing Campaigns & Creative Strategy

Designed and art directed promotional campaigns, email creative, social content, and seasonal marketing across both brands. Worked cross-functionally with operations and marketing teams to align creative with business goals and promotional calendars.

Ecommerce & Shopify

Deep hands-on experience with Shopify — building and optimizing pages, directing UX improvements, and using analytics to track campaign effectiveness, product performance trends, and customer behavior. Conversion-focused creative informed by real data.

Creative Team Leadership & Development

Built and mentored multidisciplinary creative teams from the ground up. Developed internal brainstorm and R&D systems to encourage ongoing innovation and new product ideas — creating a culture where the team could grow alongside the brand.

Product Management & Production Systems

Developed internal workflow, tracking, and product management systems that allowed complex multi-stage production pipelines to run consistently at scale. From concept ideation through final launch preparation — building the infrastructure that made quality repeatable.

Process film — drop images/process-video.mp4 here

From idea to reality

Niamh
Johnson

Creative Director & Designer

✉ ✆ 507-250-0560

I can define the vision, build the team, and create the work. Eighteen years later, I'm still just as passionate about making things as I am about leading them.