11.20.18
Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand | Audio

S5E8: Todd Waterbury


Todd Waterbury is chief creative officer of Target.

Waterbury has seen Target through the launch of owned brands such as Cat & Jack, a line of children’s clothing that grew into a $2 billion business in a year, and Smartly, a line of household essentials that is meant to be affordable without compromising on design or efficacy. When talking about Smartly, he talked how consumers balance desire and reality:
I think that there's always a relationship between an initial emotional expectation that you have looking at an object or seeing something and the expectation of what might be necessary to have that in your life. And when you then see that object in relation to the price, the surprise is the fact that it is available in a way where you feel like you can have it.

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Posted in: Design of Business | Business of Design




Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand Jessica Helfand, a founding editor of Design Observer, is an award-winning graphic designer and writer. A former contributing editor and columnist for Print, Eye and Communications Arts magazine, she is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale and a recent laureate of the Art Director’s Hall of Fame. Jessica received both her BA and MFA from Yale University where she has taught since 1994. In 2013, she won the AIGA medal.

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