Rachel Dacks

-Own and Operate:
Design and Brand management consultancy with clientele in the fields of juvenile furniture, home decor, outdoor furnishings and lighting solutions.
Sole Design Developer of hard and softgoods and brand application for multiple high profile juvenile brands, including Carter's, Child of Mine, Just One You, Summer Infant, Amy Coe, Disney Princess, Disney Winnie the Pooh, Urbini , Evenflo, Good Baby, Storkcraft, and Butterfly Living collections. Key points of sale through Mass-Market Retail channel at Target, Walmart, Wayfair, and Amazon.
-Design and Project Manage:
All categories for juvenile brands specializing in niche products, with turn-key engineering, retail, trend, and cost analysis, through leadership in product design and development to open new markets for clients such as RBO and Breathable Baby
-Business Unit Ownership and People Management :
Depending on the needs of my clients, tasks undertaken include management of entire business units/categories seamlessly within their organizational structure for companies exploring entering markets and throughout footprint building period. Hired, managed and directed outside design staff of more than 3 separate consultancies in related areas to support workloads and categories outside my specialties. Sales presentation lead and provide key connections to retail channels, supporting my clients through travel and integration of support at key stakeholder meetings, directly resulting in purchase order contracts at major retailers throughout my career.

-Developed
Sustainable and Modern Nursery Lifestyle brand from concept and business plan in 2017 through public launch in a less than 2 year turn around.
-Drove
A ground-up domestic production supply chain, through domestic ASTM testing, labelling and successful certification by Bureau Veritas
-Managed and Directed
Website and e-commerce development with custom build modules, brand development and marketing, photoshoot art direction and production, graphic design art direction and management, packaging and shipping plan, instructional literature.
-Managed
Vendor identification and development of softgoods supply chain and retail network.
-Led and Managed
4-6 contracted employees and multiple outside vendors throughout, marshaling all resources to a successful launch and social engagement plan for continued target market development through digital and in person engagement and growth.
-Negotiated
A profitable licensing agreement for the hardgoods product rights with a major juvenile industry manufacturer in 2019

-Designed and Led:
Seasonal trend and color forecasting, project and team management, along with design of over 50 yearly products in home decor, adult indoor and outdoor furniture, soft home, cleaning products, appliances and tabletop for a "modern lifestyle" private label brand.

-Developed and Initiated:
Hardlines collections across multiple home decor categories, including Furniture, Lighting, Wall Decor (Framed Art, Clocks and Mirrors), Seating, Kitchen Solutions, and Frames, integrating new technologies and processes to visualize, design and manage in-house and vendor-developed product lines.
-Designed and Project Managed:
Product collections for Classic, Casual, and Global Home lifestyles in the Furniture category, in addition to identifying design direction across all Target-branded Home Decor product in direct partnership with key buyers and vendors, supporting over $500 million in sales.

-Classes Designed and Instructed:
Technical Drawing for Furniture Design; Rendering for Furniture; Materials and Techniques: Wood; Design Presentation; Electronic Furniture Design - Solidworks.

-Designed and Launched Product:
Co-Efficient Teaming and Tasking to the contract furniture market, with forecast of $400,000.
Series 2000 Desking, in a 8 month period, with first year projections exceeding $350,000.
-Developed and Implemented:
Methodologies and procedures for identifying untapped market opportunities, including trend/competitive analyses and New Product Initiatives.