Stephen Preston

Brand Experience Architect

Driving brand systems, creative leadership, and cross-channel execution at scale.

Work Built for Clarity + Scale

My role is to help teams build systems that hold up under real-world volume; where consistency, judgment and craft matter more than one-off moments.

Building the AFF Brand
at Scale

Led the development and governance of a scalable visual identity system across digital, print and internal platforms.

  • Established the AFF brand foundation, including visual principles, typography, color and layout systems

  • Designed and documented a comprehensive brand style guide for internal teams and external partners

  • Created a flexible layout system to support consistency across digital, product and marketing touchpoints

  • Led alignment across stakeholders to ensure the brand system could scale with the organization

System Design & Early Execution

This work focused on building a clear, scalable brand foundation — including visual identity, governance, and execution standards, designed to support high-volume output across channels.While I exited the organization prior to full rollout, the system was intentionally built to enable continued execution by internal teams and partners, with clear guardrails for consistency, quality, and speed.

  • Established brand standards and decision frameworks to support repeatable execution across digital, performance and partner-facing channels

  • Built modular design foundations intended to scale across campaigns, formats and use cases

  • Led critique and quality reviews to align teams around shared standards and expectations

  • Designed the system to support handoff, iteration and long-term use beyond my tenure

"You definitely left your trademark all over the place and I wish you could've still been a part of it all."

— Former AFF Colleague

Teriyaki House
Brand Identity Development

Foundational identity directions for a new restaurant launch.

  • Developed three (3)distinct brand identity directions to explore positioning, tone, and visual expression

  • Applied each direction consistently across logo design, menus, staff apparel, and social presence

  • Enabled stakeholders to evaluate brand options holistically before final alignment

Active Loan Shopper - Integrated Campaign + A/B Testing

Active Loan Shopper was an integrated campaign developed at American First Finance before their brand refresh. The goal was to engage customers actively preparing to make a purchase but unable to use traditional financing, credit, or cash.

To challenge existing category conventions, I initiated an A/B test that introduced a thematic shift in messaging. One creative direction followed the category-standard, functional approach, while the alternate concept reframed credit limitations through a familiar metaphor — acknowledging financial constraints while emphasizing possibility, resilience, and forward progress.The campaign focused on payment-based options, primarily rent-to-own products, and was developed prior to formal brand standards. Creative variants were deployed across direct mail, display, email, and landing pages to evaluate how conceptual framing influenced engagement and intent among a credit-constrained audience.

Variant A

Variant B

Creative Leadership

Creative Director with 25+ years of experience leading brand systems, campaigns and product storytelling across B2B, SaaS, financial services, healthcare and enterprise organizations. I specialize in translating complex business challenges into clear, scalable creative solutions while building and guiding high-performing teams.

  • Led and scaled cross-functional creative teams across brand, product and marketing

  • Partnered directly with executive leadership to align creative strategy with business outcomes

  • Established brand systems and creative standards that improved consistency, speed & impact

Creditcorp
Brand Storytelling Film

Concepted and directed a brand storytelling film for CreditCorp, translating complex financial services into a clear, human narrative.

What Leaders Say

Feedback from executive and cross-functional partners.

“He was a valuable part of our leadership team and will be an asset to any organization lucky enough to bring him aboard.”Nate "EJ" Jarvis, CMO
American First Finance

“Stephen excels at translating vision into actionable plans and delivering successful creative solutions.”Dawn Hyde-Burger, Executive Director | Growth Marketing

Open to the Right Next Role

If you’re looking for senior creative leadership with experience across B2B, SaaS, financial services, healthcare and enterprise organizations, I’d welcome the conversation.

© 2026 Stephen Michael Preston