Brand & Content System
cook & capture class
Brand
Cook & Capture Class
Role
Creative Director & Co-Founder
2024
DESCRIPTION
Cook & Capture is a one-of-a-kind interactive experience based in Chicagoland. Part cooking class, part photography workshop, it teaches participants how to cook, food style, and photograph the dishes they make, all in one session.
The concept sits at the intersection of food, creativity, and community, designed for people who want to do something different on a weekend.
RESPONSIBILITIES
As co-founder, I wore a lot of hats. But the creative challenge at the center of it all was figuring out how to position Cook & Capture in a market full of cooking classes and make it immediately clear why this one was different.
My scope covered the full brand buildout: creative direction, identity collaboration, website design and build, photography, and social media creative.
STRATEGY & CREATIVE APPROACH
Chicago has no shortage of cooking classes. The ones that get attention tend to look either overly polished and aspirational, or rustic and homespun. Cook & Capture needed to feel like neither. The target audience was millennial and younger, people who are already on Instagram, already interested in food culture, and looking for an experience worth talking about.
I collaborated with a local graphic designer to bring the visual identity to life, bringing my creative direction into a system that could work across web, print, and social from day one.
The creative territory we landed on was bright, eclectic, and unapologetically fun. Bold colors and modern typography gave the brand a personality that stood out visually without taking itself too seriously. The goal was a brand that felt as enjoyable to look at as the experience itself was to attend.
PROCESS & PRODUCTION
With the brand defined, I designed and built a fully interactive website focused on two things: getting people to sign up for upcoming workshops and making the social proof impossible to miss. Upcoming classes were pushed to the front of the site, and the design was built to funnel curious visitors toward a booking as quickly as possible.
Photo & video
To populate the site and social channels, I directed a lifestyle photoshoot built around the Cook & Capture experience itself: fun, candid, and full of energy. The imagery needed to show people what it actually felt like to be in the room, not just what the food looked like on a plate. Those photos became the backbone of all web, social, and print marketing materials.
SOCIAL MEDIA content & STRATEGY
On social, I designed all brand creative elements and storyboarded and edited short-form video content, keeping the tone youthful and relatable to match where the audience was spending their time.
Results
The brand launched with a visual identity and web presence strong enough to establish Cook & Capture as a credible, bookable experience from day one. The website drove awareness and workshop signups, with upcoming classes surfaced prominently to reduce friction between discovery and booking.
The social content connected with the millennial audience it was built for, growing the brand's following and building a community around the concept before it had even reached full capacity.
LIGHTS
ROLE & CREDITS
Role: Creative Director & Co-founder
Scope:
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Brand strategy and identity
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Logo and icon design
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Packaging design
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Website UI/UX and design
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Photography and video creative direction and production
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Social media management across Instagram, TikTok, and Substack