Overview

For over 40 years, Mor Furniture has been committed to offering high-quality furniture at an outstanding value.

Mor Furniture started in 1977 in San Diego, California as a single water bed store and quickly grew to multiple locations.

In 1983, the company opened a location in Spokane, Washington, followed by Portland, Oregon in 1984. By 1987, there were stores located throughout San Diego, Portland, Spokane, and Seattle, Washington.

During the 1990s, Mor Furniture grew along the West Coast, under the name Bedroom Superstore, with locations throughout Washington, Oregon, and California, including Bakersfield and Fresno. In 2000, the first Mor Furniture locations opened in Reno, Boise, and Phoenix and we have been growing ever since!

Responsibilities

  • Oversaw daily production for website, email, social media, display ads, signage, billboards, and all customer-facing design assets.
  • Updated and maintained brand guidelines to ensure ongoing relevance.
  • Established an in-house photography studio, creating a streamlined photography process for weekly photoshoots.
  • Implemented a digital asset manager (DAM) for efficient organization of photo and video assets.
  • Contributed to UX design for a new website and provided ongoing support for re-platforming initiatives.
  • Designed internal workflows and assets for employee use.
Year

2018 – 2022

Position

Design & Photography Manager

Branding

My contributions to the Mor Furniture brand were to refresh the existing brand guide and to perform regular maintenance as needed on assets that didn’t fit going forward.

My work with the Mor Furniture brand focused on refreshing the existing brand guide and maintaining assets that no longer aligned with our vision. I shifted the color scheme to a more monochromatic palette, emphasizing the brand’s primary color and subtle gradients of the secondary colors. By implementing a clear text hierarchy, I aimed to simplify the customer experience and create a modern look that highlights key messages.

Click here to review the brand guide.
Note: the brand guide is an ever-changing document, meant to change based on market and business needs. 

UX

My role in user experience (UX) emerged as part of an initiative to address errors on the outdated site. Collaborating with colleagues, I developed a plan to enhance our UX process, aiming for structured documentation despite its ad hoc nature.

Research: I began by reviewing the current production assets to identify areas for improvement.

Roadmap Development: I created a roadmap for deliverables that aligned with company objectives, focusing on how to standardize the structure across various pages.

Wireframing: I conceptualized the new site’s user flow, designing wireframes that considered the customer journey from start to finish. During this phase, I taught myself Sketch to collaborate effectively with our development team.

Creation: I produced numerous pages and customer funnels, guided by peer feedback, business requirements, and developer constraints. Eventually, we launched the new site, although some funnels were deferred to meet our timeline. I continue to provide UX design and direction, striving to understand user needs deeply and creating functional, desirable designs.

The fun didn’t stop there though, to make a predetermined launch window we ended up leaving out certain funnels that we quickly returned to afterward. I continue to provide UX design and direction and I’ve broken down the things I’ve learned as a UX designer. My goal is to understand the users and their needs accurately and deeply, creating a design that is useful, functional, and desirable as possible.

Studio Creation

In conjunction with refreshing the brand guide, I identified the need for an in-house photography studio to enhance our visual consistency. I analyzed existing processes to identify efficiencies and proposed converting a section of the loading dock into a dedicated studio.

This project required collaboration across multiple departments. If you’re interested in the specifics of this initiative, I’d be happy to discuss it further.

Studio Direction

Once the studio was established, I defined the photography guidelines and integrated them into our brand guide, facilitating quick onboarding for new photographers, stylists, and studio staff. My responsibilities included:

Product Coordination: Partnering with the Merchandising team to manage weekly product shoots, ensuring quality assurance from the Product team and coordinating missing items for sets.

Team Management: Directing a photographer, studio assistant, and movers during shoots, as well as editing images post-session.

Studio Direction: Overseeing the studio operations and collaborating with team members to style sets.

Digital Asset Management (DAM): Creating and managing our company’s DAM, ensuring all visual assets were organized and accessible.

Process Adaptation: Continuously adapting the studio and processes based on evolving business needs.

Campaign Production

While leading efforts in brand enhancement, studio development, and website improvements, I also contributed to regular marketing operations. This included producing campaigns for various platforms, such as site, email, in-store print, third-party displays, billboards, and more.