Young’s Market Company

I joined Young’s Market Company in Tustin, California in the summer of 2013. They are one of the largest distributors of wine and liquor throughout the western part of the US, selling and delivering for companies such as Brown-Forman (Jack Daniel’s), Bacardi Limited, and Proximo Spirits (Jose Cuervo), to name a few.

While I was originally brought on as a graphic designer for their California team, they soon realized I could fill their need for someone to work exclusively with their sales reps in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming. These sales reps would go out to their accounts⏤bars and restaurants across their region⏤and work to ensure Young’s’ brands were prioritized on their menus. In return, we would create menus, table tents, and other signage (vinyl banners, floor stickers, posters) using those brands’ assets.

I became a project manager, managing the influx of design requests for the sales reps in those states and portioning out the work between myself and one to four contract graphic designers, depending on workload. I worked with the sales reps to approve the final designs, prepared them for print, and then packaged and shipped the final products. Sometimes, when the print shop was busy, I would print and trim my own work as well.

Due to the overwhelming amount of design requests from my reps, I created an “Instant Template” program, providing a catalogue of forty-eight table tent designs in a variety of styles that they could choose for their accounts in a “fill in the blank” fashion. I also created forms and processes for submitting design requests. This helped simplify the design process and resulted in more time for custom designs for accounts that requested them.