Dinner Service NY

CREATIVE DIRECTor + BRAND STRATegist

Dinner Service is a sustainable, non-gender, elevated merchandise and apparel brand focused on creating garments centered around innovative collaborations. Dinner Service focuses on sustainability and eradicating plastic-based fabrics and toxic chemicals from the apparel industry by making organic, planet-safe apparel. Each garment is created in partnership/collaboration with a cultural pioneer (artist, musician, restaurant, etc) as part of an exclusive limited-edition capsule or collection. Through these partnerships, and the vehicle of fashion, Dinner Service celebrates expression and promotes sustainability with those who wear its garments.

At Dinner Service, I've led and worked alongside a small, agile creative team to cover a range of creative needs that include (but aren't limited to) brand design, brand development, apparel design + direction, fashion photography, video editing, social media management, email + SMS marketing strategy, creative writing, copywriting, and retail design.

CONTRIBUTORS

Creative Director + Brand Strategist + Graphic Design: Joel Porter
Photographers: Nicole Barley + Jacob Ruth + Michelle Baldwin
Social Media Manager: Nicole Barley
Emblem Logo Design: Joel Porter
Pre-Existing Brand Elements: Track & Field Agency (NY)

THE LOOK

To achieve a classic, timeless, heritage-inspired look, one of the first rules we implemented was to shoot all our photographs on film. This allowed for unexpected variations in development, natural grain and texture, and a warmer overall feel to give character to the photos. Paired with consistent styling of Dinner Service garments in clean, minimally accessorized outfits, and the avoidance of flashy trends, it wasn’t long before we found a look that highlighted our garments and gave us an identity we were hyped on.

EDITORAIL ADS

To further establish a classic, heritage-inspired identity for the brand, we’ve consistently created vintage-style editorial ads for our garment releases, social content, paid ads, and website imagery — taking inspiration from the iconic magazine ads found from the 1960s-1990s.

SOCIAL MEDIA

In August of 2023, I took over creative direction and content strategy for Dinner Service’s social media presence. Since then Nicole Barley (social media manager) and I have worked on turning our Instagram page into a pseudo portfolio/lookbook for Dinner Service (as well as growing the account by ~22k followers as of 11/24). Our pillar content pieces include — lifestyle photography, editorial-style ads, fit collages, product features, and fashion reels. Our Instagram page acts as a living breathing business card used to reach out to artists, collaborators, and business partners and, if all goes well, share the works with the world.

Below I’ve references a bit of our work, but to get the full picture of who we are and what we’re about, check out our profile here.