I started at Ace as a little tadpole, growing from copywriter to creative director & editor-in-chief over five years with a ridiculously amazing team at Atelier Ace. This was my professional creative training ground: a punk hospitality brand run by a group of freaks with no budget and ridiculous levels of creative freedom.
Initially tasked with building an online presence for an independent brand with brand-new investors and only a Myspace page to its name, I created a hands-on, no-days-off editorial program bespoke to every cultural moment, for
the brand and each of its then-four locations. I interviewed everyone from Philip Glass to Ursula K. Le Guin to Reggie Watts to Janeane Garofalo, promoted collaborations and cultural programming, and built an editorial register that drew wide media attention and huge audience engagement.
Once our voice was established, my role grew to creating new brands and franchises for additional properties (like Lovage, a juice bar at Ace Hotel Shoreditch) and recurring cultural events-cum-institutions (like Summer School & Hands On at Ace Hotel Palm Springs, and 5@5 at Ace Hotel
New York). With our tiny team, I began creative directing staff uniforms, way-finding signage, room design, and major cultural affiliations in new international markets.
This job was the best. No sleep, peanuts for pay, an endorphin / trauma-bonded little posse, and zero creative leash. It’s where I got to work with greats like Loren Day of Love Is Enough and Belin Liu, people who changed my creative life forever. It's also where I learned to be a creative adult, and where I witnessed true cultural and creative leadership from the founder, Alex Calderwood, RIP.
