Team.
Sophie Kaady
Strategy DirectorHedvig Rausing
DesignerJustin Tejada
Associate Creative DirectorAfton Aurand
Senior Project ManagerKyle Merwin
Co-Founder & Strategy DirectorJordan Stokke
Senior DesignerAdriana Gonzales
Art DirectorVictoria Martin
Senior DesignerRaf Sanchez
ProducerGeorge De'Ath
Co-Founder & CCOArt Director
Known as the âvetâ of Born & Bred, Anastasia became B&Bâs first employee as a senior graphic designer in 2018. The Russian-born designer came to America for three main reasons: her passion for nature, to work with the Latin alphabet, and, of course, a love story.
Besides just being a graphic designer, Anastasia serves as a printmaker, an illustrator, a copywriter, a production designer, and sometimes even a scientist. The reason for having this diverse skill set, as Anastasia explains it, is her secret ability to quickly pick up new techniques and passion for learning.
Working at an agency has allowed Anastasia to look inside all possible industries and learn about other peoplesâ jobs through her projects. In her tenure here, she has already worked with a technological coffee brand, a florist boutique, and learned how bioengineering works for a hangover cure. If youâre interested in getting in touch with her, we recommend searching the local nurseries on weekends. Sheâll be there talking to the plants.
Strategy Director
Co-leading brand strategy at Born & Bred, Sophie ensures that the brands we build are crafted with intentionâbalancing insight with imagination. She loves working with early to mid-stage founders ready to explore the future of their brands and businesses. She guides that exploration, pushes it further, distills it, and ultimately gets people excited about it.
Sophie entered the world of brand through the lens of business. She brings a breadth of experience, spanning from her consulting career with one of the worlds largest firms (EY) to her pivot to brand and innovation strategy.Â
Prior to B&B, Sophie was Brand Strategy Director at branding agency DesignStudio, bringing to life new and reimagined brands ready to think beyond product. She also worked as an independent brand consultant supporting BIPOC women in the earliest stages of their ventures. Sheâs worked with age-old behemoths and freshly crowned unicorns, sheâs worked tasting rooms, and toured alpaca farms. Sheâs led countless workshops, learned priceless lessons, and is always on the lookout to dive into something newâour clients never disappoint. Sophie holds an MBA from UC Berkeley-Haas, and a MAcc from University of Virginia, but values experiences over credentials every time.Â
Fun stuff: Sophie was born and raised in Portland, Oregon and is a tribal member of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians of Oregon. Recently re-established in the City of Roses, she loves spending free-time getting reacquainted with traditional skills and crafts with the help of tribal elders. Sheâs a proud auntie to three energetic nephews, that give her an excuse to always be working on some arts and crafts project or another.
Designer
Born in Sweden, Hedvig grew up surrounded by minimalist Scandinavian design. Despite its popular appeal, Hedvig prefers to buck the trend in her own design work, opting for a more daring and attention-grabbing approach that is rich in details and complexity. Hedvig is a faithful believer in the philosophy that, âMore is (almost always) more.âÂ
When sheâs not basking in her computer monitorâs rays, Hedvig can most likely be found in the corner of a rundown bar hunched over a bowl of ramen, or violently screaming in a park for her runaway dog, whoâs usually busy inhaling a kindergarten classâs picnic.
Hedvigâs other superpowers include being ludicrously fast at going through airport security, and watching almost every reality show known to man. Sh3 c4n al50 wr1t3 1ike th15 w1th00t pr0b13m.
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Associate Creative Director
Justin is Born & Bredâs resident storyteller. It doesnât matter if theyâre short stories or long, serious or funny. As long as theyâre interesting, Justin not only wants to tell stories, but tell them well.Â
After many years working as a journalist for magazines (remember those?) and digital publications such as Sports Illustrated, Complex, and Fast Company, Justin shifted his attention to helping brands bring their stories to life in meaningful and engaging ways.
A natural tinkerer, Justin likes to look under the hood to identify what makes a brand special, and then translate that into messaging that connects with an audience. An editor once told him, âThe job of a storyteller is to give people what they want and what they donât yet know that they want.â Justin strives to succeed on both fronts.
Senior Project Manager
Originally from the Midwest, Aftonâs desire for creativity and extensive familiarity with the 405/101 interchange led her into entertainment events and promotions for Warner Bros. in the city of swimming pools and movie stars. After five years of straight California sunshine, she followed her passion for travel and lived in Chicago and New York City, where she stretched her legs as a Project Manager and Producer for advertising, design, social media, and branding campaigns, working with a client roster that included SC Johnson, PepsiCo, Comcast, Jim Beam, and Nestle.Â
More recently, Aftonâs career focused on major music festivals, artist development, and events including The Academy of Country Music, Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, Outside Lands, Clusterfest, and even The Zombies. Until 2021...
You can now find her steering projects for Born & Bred down in Nashville with her dwarf-like pup Ziggy, as âyâallâ and âyee-hawâ slowly worm their way into her vocabulary. Aftonâs self-proclaimed âSaved by the Bellâ trivia championship, stint as Fleetwood Mac fan club president, and her love of silent films, photography, vinyl, and all things Cardinal/Cubs baseball are all featured in her E! True Hollywood Story, which is currently in post-production (maybe).
Co-Founder & Strategy Director
Leading strategy and new business, Kyle Merwin makes up 50% of the founding team at Born & Bred. Kyle first linked up with his future partner, George De'Ath, in 2017 as B&B's first Strategy & Growth Consultant. After a few successful collaborations together, George asked him to be the Chewie to his Han Solo for this Millenium Falcon of a company he was building. Kyle accepted with zero hesitation; and the two have continued to create and grow brands at hyperspeed ever since. Â
Prior to B&B, Kyle was a ground-floor employee (#18) at the cannabis-tech startup Eaze. At the intersection of growth and brand, Kyle created and managed programs that grew Eaze to over 1 million deliveries without the use of paid digital channels. A few of these programs include: college brand ambassadors, content (SEO, Video, Social), white-label brand creation, and the Eaze Insights Report seriesâwhich was the company's #1 driver of awareness and covered by the New Yorker, New York Times, Forbes, AdAge, and dozens more.
Fun stuff: Kyle was born in La Paz, Bolivia but grew up in Marin County. He is a proud graduate of UC Berkeley (Go Bears!) and is a huge Giants & Warriors fan (sorry, not a football guy). Kyle loves Hip-Hop, beach vacations, Hazy IPAs, Popeye's Chicken, and making people laugh.
Senior Designer
After years of building brands in her dreamy NYC stomping grounds, Jordanâs stars officially aligned with the team at Born & Bred, in the midst of a global pandemic no less. As Rihanna sings, âWe found love in a hopeless place.â
Jordanâs creative process is a bit like detective work, searching for inspiration and insight around every corner. She believes that the key is keeping your eyes wide open and approaching the world with a childlike sense of wonder. Although she is a designer by trade, Jordan holistically considers herself a curator of emotions and stories. She uses curiosity and connection as the guiding forces for her creative pursuits.Â
On the rare occasion where her head is out of the clouds, Jordanâs feet are likely planted on a nearby walking path where she is enjoying nature, scrolling her latest playlist, or strategically aligning herself to the nearest Levain Bakery. Because life is all about balance, right?
Art Director
Adriana is an Australian-born designer and art director who first took a bite out of the Big Apple in 2014. After experiencing New York City, Adriana moved to Los Angeles in 2021 where she joined Born & Bred as an art director.
Aside from design, Adriana can be found hiking the many canyons of Los Angeles with her husband and pup Sumi. In her spare time, she enjoys gardening, sharing food and wine with friends, and baking. (If you ask nicely, she may mail you some baked goods).
Senior Designer
After years of slinging toast at bougie diners, Victoria joined Born & Bred. There may not be any bread here, but she fits in nonetheless.You can normally find her pacing by the coffee machine, scouring Pinterest on the couch, or hoarding $5 fancy pens just to scribble all over her own hard work. Her most prized possessions include her doggo Rossi, her wine key, and her ever-growing collection of NSFW dad tees that she wears to work anyways.
Victoria loves to play with type and layoutsâgetting her inspiration from punk posters, hand-painted signage throughout the city, and the magazines she finds in the Japantown bookstore. She likes to pretend that sheâs active on the weekends; but actually, sheâs sunken into her couch, talking to her dog like heâs human, and starting Game of Thrones finally. We know... itâs going to be a while.
Producer
Coming soon
Co-Founder & CCO
George puts the 'born' in Born & Bred. Back in 2017, the agency was a wild dream of his. Since then, the company has grown wild with ideas, people, and bad British accents aimed at his expense.
Culture constantly occupies Georgeâs mind, amongst a million other things. But for him, a company creates meaningful work when people feel purpose in what they do. If the team thrives, so will our output.
Prior to Born & Bred, George worked at agencies in London, Oxford, and San Francisco. There he gained extensive experience amongst multiple industriesâincluding global brands like Samsung, Diageo, and L'OrĂ©al. Working on these legacy brands helped George discover his vision: to bring soul and energy back into design.
âI never thought it would grow to the team we have today. Watching our family develop, seeing new people start, and adding new diverse perspectivesâit's pretty special to me.â
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Careers
Take a look at our awesome benefits:
- Fully-remote company
- Unlimited PTO
- 100% coverage of your Medical and Dental Plan and 75% of your Vision Plan
- 11 paid holidays
- Lunch on us every Friday
- Yearly wellness stipend
- 401K Retirement Plan with company matching
- Paid Family Leave
- Access to a WeWork desk in your city
- Learning & development opportunities
- Twice-yearly (all-expenses-paid) company off-sites to hang out with the whole b&b team
Senior Designer
What youâll do:
-Work on an interdisciplinary team of designers, strategists, and copywriters to create bold brands for disruptive companies
-Lead brainstorming sessions and set the tone for our clientâs visual identities through mood-boarding
-Be responsible for creating visual identity concepts (logo, color, type, art direction, etc.) for our clients to choose from
-Extend the visual identities you create to the clientâs experiences including websites, packaging, products, collateral, and more
-Own the creative process from brainstorming through production
-Collaborate with project leads, visual designers, and industrial designers on projects
-Meet with clients to refine designs and deliver perfect final products
-Work directly with the Creative Director to elevate and market the Born & Bred brand
-Become a part of a hungry, talented, and exciting team
What youâve got:
-A degree in Graphic Design or a related field
-4+ years of experience working in a brand, creative, or studio environment
-Mastery of Adobe CS: Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, and After Effects
-Experience working with all types of creatives: web developers, photographers, videographers, production designers and illustrators
-A lifelong passion for design and meticulous attention to detail
-Ability to sketch, design wireframes, create mood boards, and have a story for your work
- Please email your resume and portfolio to careers@bornandbredbrand.com and our team will be reaching out to you shortly.
Mid-Level Designer
What youâll do:
-Work on an interdisciplinary team of designers, strategists, and copywriters to create bold brands for disruptive companies
-Participate in brainstorming sessions and set the tone for our clientâs visual identities through mood-boarding
-Support the creation of visual identity concepts (logo, color, type, art direction, etc.) for our clients to choose from
-Extend visual identities to the clientâs experiences including websites, packaging, products, collateral, and more
-Support the Creative Directors in building decks for client presentation
-Participate in the creative process from brainstorming through production
-Collaborate with project leads, visual designers, and industrial designers on projects
-Meet with clients to refine designs and deliver perfect final products
-Become a part of a hungry, talented, and exciting team
What youâve got:
-A degree in Graphic Design or related field
-4+ years of experience working in a design or creative studio environment
-Mastery of Adobe CS: Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, and After Effects
-Experience working with all types of creatives: web developers, photographers, videographers, production designers and illustrators
-A lifelong passion for design and meticulous attention to detail
-Ability to sketch, design wireframes, create mood boards, and have a story for your work
-Ability to take direction, refine concepts, and initiate improvements
-Strong communication skills, team-player attitude, and ability to self-manage
- Please email your resume and portfolio to careers@bornandbredbrand.com and our team will be reaching out to you shortly.
Senior Copywriter
The ideal candidate is someone with a nuanced understanding of what it takes to develop a brand voice and bring it to life in the real world. The Senior Copywriter will be responsible for shaping story & messaging for a diverse client roster. This includes crafting the verbal identity (including voice & tone guidelines, manifestos, taglines) and executing campaigns (including websites, digital/OOH advertising, and social media content.)
We want someone who is always coming up with new ideas and finds the perfect words to make those ideas pop. They have to be amazing collaborators who are able to work with Strategy and Design teams. They will need to know what's happening in the culture and also have a POV on where it's headed.
At Born & Bred, we are all about pushing creativity as far as we can, so we are looking for people who will challenge the status quo in order to create the best work possible. And while itâs important to bring in talented people, itâs also important to bring in people people. That means someone who will add to our culture and make this thing called work even better.
What youâll do:
-Establish verbal identity for brands, including voice & tone definitions, elevator pitches, manifesto, and tagline
-Collaborate with strategy and design teams to ensure that story and messaging is consistent across all touch points
-Develop ideas and concepts for brand campaigns and assist in bringing them to life visually
What youâve got:
-4+ years experience with a brand/creative agency or editorial publication
-Proven track record of taking projects from concept to execution for multiple brands
-A knowing on whatâs popular, trendy, or the current zeitgeist
-Ability to manage multiple projects and deadlines simultaneously
-A willingness to fight for ideas worth fighting for
-Obsessive attention to detail
-A team attitude with a desire to lift up the work of others
- Please email your resume and portfolio to careers@bornandbredbrand.com and our team will be reaching out to you shortly.
Project Manager
What weâre looking for:
Weâre looking for a confident, enthusiastic and hardworking individual to join our Project Management team. They will be working under the direction of our creative directors from whom they will collect project information â deadlines, objectives, budgets, etc. They also assign individuals or entire teams to tasks within the project, while creating and managing detailed schedules throughout the duration of the project. They would exude Born & Bredâs core values in all client relations, molding to each client based on their needs.
What youâve got:
-1 year to 4 years of experience working as a creative project manager or producer, either in-house or at an agency
-Personable, collaborative, professional and easy to get on with any type of client
-You're a great relationship-builder, making sure small clients have as much attention as the big ones
-Proven ability to manage cross-functional team members
-Experience with the creative process, including participation in creative brainstorms and brand strategy sessions
-A solid understanding of brand identity and brand executions that range from packaging to web design as well as marketing campaigns and film
-Ability to manage client expectations and deadlines based on the agency's workflow
-Strong organization and attention to detail skills
- Please email your resume to careers@bornandbredbrand.com and our team will be reaching out to you shortly.