NiamhJohnson

Urban Threads Lookbooks

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 — a magazine for a community, not just a catalog.

Giving Bunny Campaign

The Giving Bunny Project transformed a simple free plush bunny pattern into a global community experience. Designed as a grassroots marketing initiative, it invited customers to create handmade bunnies and leave them for strangers to find, spreading small moments of kindness while connecting participants through a shared interactive map.

The campaign quickly expanded beyond its original audience, with tags translated into multiple languages, bunnies appearing on every continent, and even one making its way into space. More importantly, it demonstrated the power of community-driven storytelling to generate meaningful engagement, advocacy, and lasting brand affinity.

Embroidery is Magic

Embroidery is Magic was created to reposition machine embroidery as something more editorial, expressive, and fashion-forward, shifting the work from traditional hobby craft into a space with more drama, style, and couture potential.

I handmade the embroidered items, and led the creative direction on set, guiding photography and video to create a cohesive visual language around dramatic styling, rich detail, and the handmade precision of the embroidery itself. The campaign helped introduce the brand to audiences who may never have seen machine embroidery as anything beyond a traditional hobby craft.

Maker Edition

Maker Edition was developed as a new premium product category designed to deliver a more complete, guided making experience. I helped lead the creation of the Maker Edition brand system, defining how these products would be positioned, presented, and differentiated from the rest of the catalog.

Beyond the branding itself, I collaborated across product development, content creation, and ecommerce to shape the full customer experience. This included developing supporting visual content through photoshop and AI-assisted workflows, refining the premium project guides included with each release, and helping design the product page experience to ensure Maker Edition products felt distinct, elevated, and worthy of their flagship status.

Welcome Center Design

The Welcome Center was designed to create a more thoughtful introduction for customers who were new to embroidery, new to the brand, or both. As part of a broader onboarding initiative, it brought together educational resources, free starter projects, and brand storytelling into a single, easy-to-navigate experience. The goal was to reduce friction, build trust, and help customers get started with confidence while creating a stronger connection to the brand.

Following a successful launch on Embroidery Library, the concept was expanded and adapted for Urban Threads.

The Lab

Lab Projects were created to explore the creative potential of machine embroidery beyond its traditional boundaries. Through collaborations with local fashion designers, artists, and makers, Urban Threads developed a series of ambitious projects that introduced the brand to new fashion, cosplay, and creative audiences.

From bespoke blazers and couture gowns to kilts and custom-upholstered furniture, each collaboration challenged expectations, expanded the possibilities of the medium, and brought new energy to the brand.

Colorways

Created for the Urban Threads blog, this series paired embroidery designs with carefully selected photography and artwork to explore new color possibilities for the craft. Each study translated the inspiration palette into thread colors, revealing how dramatically a design could change through color alone. The result was equal parts education, inspiration, and product discovery—encouraging customers to experiment while giving existing designs renewed life.

Remerchandising

Growth doesn't always come from creating more products. Sometimes it comes from helping customers better understand the products you already have. I led ongoing remerchandising efforts that refreshed older products with stronger photography, finished samples, and clearer visual communication. We improved the customer experience while giving older designs renewed visibility and marketing potential. The result was a stronger, more discoverable catalog that didn't rely solely on new product launches for growth.

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, ahead of where the market was heading.