Target // Domestics
In 2023, when I was promoted from Visual Merchandising Business Partner to Visual Merchandising Manager, my category ownership shifted slightly. I not only became the Manager over Hearth + Hand and Kitchen, but I was also over the Kid’s Domestics space. For Target, at the time, this was 1 Focal space that lived in the Kid’s bedding + room decor shop. The 1 asset in this world where we could tell stories to the guest + help show them room curations. However, over time and with great partnership with SPT (space and presentation), this evolved to include additional adjacent assets like Endcaps + in-line Gondola runs to understand how we could truly create a shop-within-a-shop experience for the guest and tell even bigger stories with greater impact!
Cyclical Work …
When I joined the Kid’s Domestics team, Visual Merchandising was already operating as a part of this CFT (cross-functional team). However, this business fell lower on the priority ranking for the total Home Division, as it was just one storytelling space/ asset and less workload than other businesses. Because of this, the partnerships within Kid’s had not been fully developed, there was not a pre-gained trust for what Visual Merchandising can help the business accomplish, + the VM team was not seen as change makers or influencers for this space. So, there was still a lot to be done to ensure we could keep improving the storytelling for Kid’s Domestics, build better partnerships with the roundtable, + ensure VM was seen as a valuable + trusted member of the CFT to help influence presentation possibilities. This was where I first leaned in! Once trust and partnership were established, my next focus was to unlock hidden potential + really understand what “could be” for the space. This meant looking beyond the one asset we were currently building + understanding how further partnership and “dream big” mentality could further advance possibility here.
This section leans into some of the cyclical work I did as the Manager for Kid’s. At the beginning it was very minimal + low-touch. But overtime it evolved and we were able to influence more change within this space. Eventually, I gained buy-in from Merch partners to go even bigger, and you will see that next step in the following section with the Disney X Pillowfort brand collaboration work! Below are some of the cyclical builds I Managed, inclusive of the up-front concepting work I created, to pass off build strategies + visual merchandising direction to my business partner, to set her up for success with merchandising builds. Again, as we refined the processes of how Visual Merchandising shows up for the Home division and Target as a whole, you will see that the overall approach to concepting work evolved! This evolution explored many ways-in to communicating + bringing the space to life through: a mix of inspirational swipe compiling + curating, CAD planning + mapping, and illustrating + rendering.
2024:
holiday: gifting
2025:
spring: valentines + easter
pre-holiday + holiday: travel and on-the-go gifting
Disney X Pillowfort Partnership Launch …
This was one of my favorite projects to work on while at Target. The Kid’s Domestics team was able to get Partnership alignment with Disney + Marvel to leverage their characters + assets, and infuse them with the Pillowfort for Target Owned Brand aesthetic… for a truly one-of-a-kind, only found at Target limited edition collection of Disney Princess + Marvel Superhero items! Because this was such a big brand partnership, partnering with DISNEY, it called for a big Visual Merchandising lift to make a statement, go bigger than we had in Kid’s Domestics before, and do justice to both the Target Pillowfort guest experience, as well as the Disney/Marvel brand requirements + expectations. With so many characters at play, as well as item types, this needed to be bigger than just the one asset we typically leverage for storytelling moments in the space. This was the first time I was able fully influence the Merch team for Kid’s to trust the process of going BIG. The goal: create an immersive shop-within-shop experience: to be transported beyond what a normal Target shop looks like + feel the magic of Disney + Marvel. In order to create a shop-in-shop, strong partnership with SPT was required to understand surrounding assets, door count nuances, segmentation limitations, etc. This partnership was the golden piece of the puzzle to ensure this shop showed up with integrity in as many doors as possible + it showed up consistently for a great guest experience. This was a HUGE win when we were able to build out this shop to include surrounding assets and really do the storytelling justice! Below you will see my original concepting work for the space, some of the mapping exercises that were done with SPT to ensure full comprehension of prototype variations + door count unlocks, as well as the final Disney X Pillowfort shop builds + some store execution of this idea coming to fruition!
2025:
Disney X Pillowfort brand collaboration
store execution:
