Heather Bahr

Back to School had a new reality this year because of Covid and Target was here for the community. Target wanted to assure the family we have what they need to go back to school, whatever that might look like.

We needed our community of teachers, parents and their children to feel reassured that Target is prepared by demonstrating we are trusted partner in providing everything they need to go back - at the prices they can count on. And that’s what we did!

For Promo Creative I captained the creative team from print to digital. Our creative challenge this year was how to creative a campaign without any new photography.

I captained the team by brainstorming ideas and leveraging resources. So we went to work and created a successful campaign by repurposing past creative and working with our merchant partners to update the school supplies and clothing to current merchandise.

We had a successful campaign. We delivered a strong brand perception impact among all consumers, and continued to positively impact value perceptions among Deal Driven shoppers.

Our social and digital had the highest YTD performance, along with brand awareness.

As the Captain:
• I set-up and managed calendars to include defined brainstorming sessions, creative review moments with internal creative and Planning, so we never missed a deadline.

• Gave feedback and direction to the working teams prior to the ACD reviewing to make sure objectives were met and the work is on brand while also encouraging the working teams to bring innovative ideas and insightful creative solutions.

• Streamlined discussions with the Creative Producers to talk about budget and timing for the project, making sure we were timely and on budget.

• Optimizing presentation decks for easy review and discussion.

• Lead the photoshoot, social and digital banner creative.

Role: Art Director Captain

ACD: Samantha Jiménez

AD: Stephanie Hofmann, Mycha Bueche, Morgan Schiferl

Writer: Susan George

The goal was to create a campaign for Valentine’s Day focused on assortment & value. Our solution works hard from a strategic point of view because it’s based on our Target brand promise: Expect more. Pay less.

We wanted to drive urgency & disrupt the creative landscape for Valentine’s with an “explosion” of products like a burst of love, showcasing Target’s assortment, deals, and low prices. We made sure to infuse humanity into the creative through the use of hands, focusing on the many “exchanges” and moments of giving during Valentine’s Day.

The result: An explosion of deals to celebrate.
The creative ran in print, social and digital banners.

For this project I was the “Captain”. I assisted the ACD in leading the team from concept to final execution while also creating.

As the Captain:
• I set-up and managed calendars to include defined brainstorming sessions, creative review moments with internal creative and Planning, so we never missed a deadline.

• Gave feedback and direction to the working teams prior to the ACD reviewing to make sure objectives were met and the work is on brand while also encouraging the working teams to bring innovative ideas and insightful creative solutions.

• Streamlined discussions with the Creative Producers to talk about budget and timing for the project, making sure we were timely and on budget.

• Optimizing presentation decks for easy review and discussion.

• Lead the photoshoot, social and digital banner creative.

Role: Art Director Captain

ACD: Samantha Jiménez

AD: Stephanie Hofmann and Mycha Bueche

Writer: Susan George

Mother’s Day was extra special in 2020. We all desperately needed a reason why to celebrate life and find joy in the middle of a pandemic.

We concepted a multi-channel campaign for Promo that aligned to what the Target brand was doing enterprise-wide while also giving our initiatives a special twist. We took the illustrated flowers originally designed for the Store Marketing Experience and we brought them to real life with a crafty touch. The idea was to transform the digital vector illustrations into paper flowers. Dozens of paper flowers big and small were created and then, we animated them in stop-motion. The result was almost magical and so appealing that our stop-motion animation inspired other teams and ended up on a display at the very top of Target HQ.

For this project I was the “Captain”. I assisted the ACD in leading the team from concept to final execution while also creating.

As the Captain:
• I set-up and managed calendars to include defined brainstorming sessions, creative review moments with internal creative and Planning, so we never missed a deadline.

• Gave feedback and direction to the working teams prior to the ACD reviewing to make sure objectives were met and the work is on brand while also encouraging the working teams to bring innovative ideas and insightful creative solutions.

• Streamlined discussions with the Creative Producers to talk about budget and timing for the project, making sure we were timely and on budget.

• Optimizing presentation decks for easy review and discussion.

• Lead the photoshoot, social and digital banner creative.

Role: Art Director Captain

ACD: Samantha Jiménez

ADs: Jessie Schneider, Mycha Bueche, Rebecca Shalloway

Writer: Susan George

As a senior art director and designer on the Weekly Ad I have worked on every category Target has to offer, from Style and Hardlines to Food and Beverage.

I have designed and art directed covers, seasonal, own brands and everything in-between. Aligning with Target campaigns, staying on brand and always making a lot of product on the page look good!

I lead photo teams in the studio and on location to bring my concepts and layouts to the page, while always pushing the creative to be better.

2015 AdFed Bronze Winner

These photographs will be featured in May/June Communication Arts Illustration Annual 2015

Featured at 2015 SXSW Instagram gallery in Austin.

This concept brings back to school products to life through fun illustrations that are instantly shareable.

It was a simple and fun idea we came up with, but really came to life when I shot it in studio. I worked with the stylist, photographer and illustrator on set as we shot these doodles. We only needed 10, but shot and designed over 50.

Target was one of the first brands to create a sponsored Instagram campaign. Here are just a few that went to over 2 million Instagram users as a sponsored post and some that appeared on the Target Instagram feed.

AD: Heather Bahr

CW: Jesse Gadola

Illustrator: Sherwin Schwartzrock

Best Buy did not have a presence on Instagram. One of my first personal goals was to change that. I created a strategy and style guide for Best Buy Instagram to be used as a tool for internal social managers to sell through to their business partners and external agencies to carry out the creative.

I directed, created and managed internal and external creative teams, photo studio and social managers to get the Instagram feed running.

Our followers went from 3500 to over 29K in less than 4 months.

We also created social for Facebook and Twitter.

CD: Heather Bahr

ACD: Brigette Lynch

Senior AD: Sami Foust

CD Writer: Brian Santa Maria

Production Studios: Yellow Tag, CD

Agencies: KNOCK, MAKE

Featured on the cover of Communication Art Magazine Design Annual 57. Design winner.

Featured at the PULSE art show in Miami Beach. 2015

Product at play.

We were challenged to concept art pieces inspired by Target products, in a fun and artful way. 

Our concept was using EOS lip cases to form lips and for it later to become interactive. Scale was key for this installation to be impactful. I was inspired by the colors of EOS cases and pointillism. I directed this piece with a painter and set builder.

This piece hung in a gallery space in Chelsea, New York with other Target pieces of art. It opened in March 2014 and created buzz for the Target brand and still does today.

AD: Heather Bahr

CW: Jesse Gadola    

Painter: Davie Daily    

Set Builder: Shawn Powers

SCD: Jason Langer & Travis Robertson

SVP Chief Creative Officer: Todd Waterbury

This year Target is focusing on the Millennial mom. She has style and so does her baby.

For the baby room, we wanted to show our new mom that she can get her style too in her baby's room, with Target. What gets this Millennial mom excited about having a baby? How can we show her Target has it all, and that we have her back? We did it by keeping it bright, graphic and inspirational for mom.

Concept, layout and art direction for Target Baby 2015 Welcome Card, Registry Planner and Completion Offer.

Art direction for Target.com online registry, Pinterest, and Facebook.

AD: Heather Bahr & Karie Lazarowicz

CW: Jeff Barbian

Recruited to be on the Social team that shaped the look and feel for Target Brand Social. It was exciting! It was a new space for Target to play and our team was ready.

Small budgets and little time, we dove right in and created posts we loved, and learned along the way what our guests wanted to see without compromising the brand.

Here are just a few of the posts that appeared on Target Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and sometimes Pinterest.

AD: Heather Bahr

CW: Jesse Gadola

March Remodel
Our assignment was to suggest to our audience, it's time to update your kitchen with Best Buy appliances. Like many of our assignments, we had about 2 weeks from concept to live date.

We'll take the challenge. We used a viral video, of an older gentleman getting rid of his appliance, paired with existing photography and added some motion graphics. 

We only could use 1 video, so we cut it 2 ways. I included them both, because they make me laugh each time. Unfortunately KitchenAid did not run their video with the older gentleman, but Samsung did!

CD: Heather Bahr

CD: Brian Santa Maria

Media House: HDMG

#WinTheHolidays Promoted Trend
We needed to create a promoted trend for Best Buys, #WinTHeHolidays campaign. It was a whole day devoted to #WinTheHolidays on the twitter feed.

We created 8 videos the week before the promoted trend day, that spoke to different gift recipients and product demos. Giving the audience ideas on how to win with tech for men, women, kids and teens.

The day of the promoted trend, we sent out a video letting the twitter audience know we were there all day to answer questions. We answered live tweets by responding with video we made that day and copy tweets. We were directing a full video crew and managing a team of writers to make the day a success.

Our results were good, really good!

More than 65.7M trend impressions and 7.28M tweet impressions were served.

• #WinTheHolidays promoted trend earned a 19.9% engagement rate, when the 2015 retail benchmark was 4.3%
• 1.4M video views, #WinTheHolidays is the second trend to drive more than 1M+ video views on twitter.
• Gained over 2.6K new followers because of the trend; 3x Best Buys daily average.
• Saw 2.4K @metions; 3x Best Buys daily average.

CD: Heather Bahr

CD: Brian Santa Maria

ACD: Brigette Lynch

Production House: Pixel Farm

Art of the Everyday
The creative challenge was to refine and tailor #TargetRun as a feel good, pop culture phenomenon in a way that inspires a Target trip with Canadian guests.

Our goal was to create something that was instantly shareable, getting quests excited and thinking about the Canada stores in a whole new way.

These videos had very small budgets, but it still had to look amazing and represent Target. We shot each video in 1 day. We worked with local artists for the Cling Wrap and Pantene spots.

AD: Heather Bahr

CW: Jesse Gadola

ACD: Jon Baugh

Production House: Capture

Target Own Brands
With the success of the Art of the Everyday videos, Target Canada wanted us to create more videos using product. This time, it was pet food, pet clothing and dips.

So, we had to get creative but still be unexpected and entertaining.

We had a small budget and not a lot of time. We worked along side our stylist and motion crew (Capture), building sets and even hand modeling.

Target own brand buyers for Boots & Barkley loved the videos so much, they ran on the US Facebook.

AD: Heather Bahr

CW: Jesse Gadola

ACD: Jon Baugh

Production House: Capture

This was an established campaign. but it needed a new concept for wellness.

Using CGI, we created the print ad and short videos for Channel Red and target.com banners.

AD: Heather Bahr

CW: Joey Nielsen

Worked with our Motion team to create and edit this video for all of Target's natural and organic items.

We met and interviewed some of the founders and representatives from YesTo, Seventh Generation and Annie's, to name a few.

DP: NIck Waldman

AD: Heather Bahr

CW: Jesse Gadola

Concept and art directed these Target gift cards. Worked with various illustrators.

AD: Heather Bahr & Brigette Lynch

CW: Aaron Muther & Ethan Miller

Target Holiday Kids Fashion insert

With the success of the 2013 Back to School fashion insert I created, I was also asked to lead the first Holiday Kids Fashion insert. Concept, design, layout and photography.

Partnered with KNOCK inc. to align with what they created for the in store signs.

AD: Heather Bahr & Erin Mercurio

Target Spring Kids Catalog

Lead the Spring kids catalog team. Concept, design, layout and photography.

Partnered with KNOCK inc. to align with what they created for the in store signs.

AD: Heather Bahr & Heidi Anderson

Catalogs are big projects. They are vendor driven, which require you to come up with creative ways to showcase items that do not always go together well. I loved the challenge.

Back to School 2013 Catalog

Lead art director/designer for the Back To School catalog. Our team did the concept, layout and photography. This was the first Target catalog to have a Canada version. We created 2 catalogs on the same timeline as 1. 

AD: Heather Bahr & Heidi Anderson

CW: Jon Gordon

ACD: Beth Lowry

Back to School 2012 Catalog

Lead the first big girl and big boy fashion insert, for the Back To School catalog. With the success of this insert, the kids fashion was incorporated into the main pages, for the 2013 catalog.

AD: Heather Bahr & Brenda Irlbeck

CW: Ethan Miller

The in store signs needed be inspirational to our guest but still obtainable. We used fall colors along with leaf shapes to merry up to what the Christmas ISM reflected, so they looked cohesive and inspirational to the guest.

AD: Heather Bahr & Brigette Lynch

CW: Kiera Jacobson

Concept, design and art directed for target.direct in print and .com