Yael Eisele, Creative Director & Consultant

💭 Thoughts on reframing limitations, brands that spark excitement, and running your own business.

Yael Eisele is an award winning Creative Director with over twenty years of experience in Graphic Design, Art Direction and Branding. She is focused on creating joyful brand experiences and products driven by striking design and compelling storytelling. Over the years, she has held leading in-house roles at global brands Kate Spade New York and Martha Stewart as well as at innovative and mission driven start-ups like Myro. For the past decade, prior to consulting, she was Creative Director at Deerfield, an interdisciplinary branding studio she co-founded in 2013. She has an irrational fear of partner dancing, but all other creative collaborations are what keeps her inspired.

🎯 Current focus

My husband and I have been working on a DIY home renovation since the pandemic. It is at once the thing I am most excited about currently and also the cause of much stress. Photography, graphic and functional design have always been a source of motivation and inspiration. Professionally, I’ve tried to stay near the cross section between art, user experience and commerce. Now I have this opportunity to bring a personal space/family home to life, both aesthetically and functionally. It’s complex and very exciting and has made me realize how much satisfaction I get from design challenges that not only make me happy to look at, but optimize comfort and joy.

🔄 Reframing limitations

In general, I have been making an effort to reframe limitations/obstacles. Practically speaking, I am finding satisfaction in sourcing as little “new” in the renovation of our home as possible. I’ve realized that there is really very little NEED to buy new things and have found a new appreciation for “upcycling.”  I have always loved the thrill of discovery that thrifting builds but now I also see buying used objects and materials as a really cool and meaningful lifestyle movement with sustainability at its core— from “Buy Nothing” Facebook pages to The Real Real and young talents showcasing brilliant remakes of furniture and fashion on TikTok, this is the actual design within reach. The bonus: not just defaulting to the Amazon monster. (Though I shop there too).

🎶 Fleetwood Mac & Mary Oliver Poetry

Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” is currently my favorite song because my 13 year old daughter loves it and she’s just the coolest. I’ve also been reading Mary Oliver poetry because “I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing—that the light is everything.” And I need an antidote to what’s on the news.

🕉️ Mantra of the moment

Per my earlier note about reframing limitations: “Grow through what you go through” is something I remind my kids—and myself—of often. (Can you see their eyerolls?)

When we accept that life sometimes forces us “through” things we can focus more energy on the learnings and openings presented to us than on circumventing the hard stuff. Tolerating discomfort is required for growth and that’s not a skill most of us intentionally practice.

Also, make good work with good people.

🤝 Running your own business 

Let me tell you who I admire: all the talented and self-employed folks in this industry, all my peers who maintain a creative practice outside of their professional day-to-day and all the women that are making great work, running their own businesses AND holding it down at home. I applaud you all.

🪄 Brands with potential that spark excitement

I am interested in the “seedlings”—clearly, I like the nature related metaphors—the brands in which I see potential get me more excited than the ones that have already matured. Here are a few that spark interest for me currently: 

• Backdrop: a couple reinventing house paint (and Decor). I just love color, what can I say. And the design and lifestyle lens through which they reinvented the category is great—it feels truly fresh and premium in an accessible way.

• Lichen NYC: young Brooklyn-based studio and incubator with an appreciation for classic modern design. It’s exciting to see a new generation of makers and aficionados.   referencing and recontextualizing a legacy that reaches back deeper than the dawn of Instagram.

• Unfinished: I love their take on customizable, flat packed and ready to build, furniture that’s well designed and affordable. I look forward to seeing how they evolve.

• Marfa Stance: Modular outerwear I aspire to afford someday.

• Caddis Eyewear: This brand feels authentic and human. I’m gonna hope it’s not just smoke and mirrors. Also, I’m 50 ;) 

🚗 Convenient comforts to never take for granted

One thing I can't live without would definitely be our car. Living in New York City, it’s a guilty pleasure I don’t take for granted. It represents so much. It’s a vessel of fond memories (so many road trips), it’s a convenient comfort when things get stressful and they often do (load up the dogs and go to the beach, pick up a table I found on FBM, escape the messy apartment, see some trees). And it’s a beacon of freedom and possibility: Where can I go next? What discoveries are waiting to be made? 

Follow Yael on Instagram & Linkedin and check out her portfolio here.

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