Sarah Butler | Brand & Creative Director

[ EXPERIENCE ]

Fifteen+ years. Various leadership roles. Always team-first.

PARALLEL TRACK

Archetypal is my client practice and has run alongside in-house roles from time to time. The two sides of the table make each other sharper.

2024-Present

Articulate Global

Built "brand" as a function from zero at a 20+ year tech company where no one owned it, turning a reactive design org into strategic partners. Backed the shift with AI-native workflows that moved the team to daily AI-assisted production.

2022-2023

Retrospect Studios

Creatively directed a Penn Station campaign for a global streaming platform that became one of the highest-performing in its category. Also led the agency's own rebrand.

2021-2022

Pawp, Inc

Designed creative ops infrastructure from scratch (intake through production) that tripled project effectiveness, then used it to reposition the brand for a new dual-audience model in 9 weeks.

2019-2023

Hally Hair

Part of the two-person founding team that took a brand from zero to mass retail at Ulta Beauty, Walmart, and Urban Outfitters. Creative work helped secure a $4M seed round, press in PEOPLE, Cosmopolitan, InStyle, and Byrdie, and inbound licensing interest from Disney/Pixar and Universal.

2017-2019

Jetblack (a Walmart, Inc Company)

Landed a national retail partnership with Paper Source and led Jetblack's flagship holiday activation. Joined as the company's first brand hire, delivering a full rebrand in 90 days ahead of stealth launch.

2015-2017

Greenhouse Software

Promoted from individual contributor to Associate Creative Director as the company's second design hire. Along the way, launched Greenhouse OPEN—a flagship event still running as a core brand property a decade later.

EDUCATION

SCAD, B.F.A. Graphic Design | Class Salutatorian

Augment M.B.A. | Course Completion

Emory University, Start:ME Business Accelerator | Graduate

AWARDS

Content Marketing Institute | Finalist for "On Purpose" [2026]

AIGA Atlanta | Poster Show Winner [2025]

MarCom Awards | Gold Winner for Articulate @ DevLearn [2024]

Webbys | Award Winner in Video (Corporate Social Responsibility) [2024]

Fashion Scholarship Fund | Alumni Grand Prize Winner [2020]

COMMUNITY

AIGA Atlanta | Atlanta "Rise Up!" Mentor [2023]

Fashion Scholarship Fund | Accelerator Grant Juror [2021]

New York Festivals Advertising Awards | Executive Juror [2023]

SPEAKING & TEACHING

Stacklist | "Design Advice for Startups & Entrepreneurs" [2018]

Poppin × General Assembly × Greenhouse | "How Culture Impacts the Workplace" [2016]

[HOW I WORK]

Data informs. It doesn't decide.

Data has nuance. The audience, the test design, the assumptions behind the scoring all shape what it actually tells you. Brand and cultural signals don't always surface cleanly in a survey. I generally follow the data, but on a close call, instinct is still part of the equation.

I can still do the work. That's not the point.

The cost of swooping in is that the team never develops the muscle to get there themselves. They see the finished product but not the how. When I catch myself wanting to take over, I run a quick diagnostic: is this a process problem, a personal one, or a personnel issue? It's usually one of those.

Enablement before expectation.

The work doesn't stop at delivery. It stops after documentation, walkthroughs, the point where another teammate or client could pick it up tomorrow. That's how systems outlive the person who built them and keep improving without needing the author in the room. The foundation gets to 80%.

Impact-to-effort is a real filter.

Impact isn't only the performance number. Cultural impact, team impact, and relationship impact all belong in the calculation. Sometimes the filter says no for the same reasons. The point is thinking through the full lens before deciding.