SelectedWork

A directory of the work we keep returning to. Six chapters from 2021 to 2026, organized by the decision point, not the deliverable.

  1. Acquisition

    National Educators Coalition A trial-to-member funnel that paid for itself in one cycle.

  2. Conversion

    Subscribers into Members Reframing the offer so subscribers chose to belong.

  3. Alignment

    American Society of Civil Stewards A quiet rebrand that finally matched the work inside.

  4. Engagement

    Institute for Practicing Architects A first-ninety-days program built around small wins.

  5. Belonging

    National Guild of Pediatric Nurses Member stories, told plainly, in their own rooms.

  6. Renewal

    American Trade Federation The mailer the renewals team had been waiting on.

National Educators Coalition

2024 · Direct mail · Strategy

A trial-to-member funnel that paid for itself in one cycle.

Context

NEC's 14-day trial was converting at 6 percent. They were spending six figures a year on lapsed-trial reminders that no one opened, and the membership team had begun talking about the trial as a sunk cost instead of an opportunity.

We were brought in to rethink the trial-to-member moment — not to touch up the touchpoints, but to question whether the funnel was shaped right at all.

Solution

We pulled the trial back from fourteen days to seven, retired the lapsed-trial email cadence entirely, and replaced it with a single high-stakes direct-mail package delivered on day five.

The offer was rewritten in the voice of teachers who had renewed three years running. The package paid for itself in eleven weeks; trial-to-member lifted to 17.4 percent by quarter close.

Credits
Client
National Educators Coalition
Year
2024
Discipline
Direct mail, copywriting, offer design
Channels
Print, mail, follow-up email
Strategy
Rottman Creative
Design
Rottman Creative
Copy
Rottman Creative
Print partner
Allied Letterpress, KC
The day-five package, opened on a kitchen table in Topeka. The teacher who took the photo had been a member since 2019.

"This is the first piece in years that the membership team actually fought to put their name on."

— Director of Membership, NEC
Envelope, front. The address window doubled as the headline.
Inside spread. One offer, one deadline, one signature.

Applications

How it shows up — across mail, web, and the conversation that follows.

Day-five mailer An eight-page signature, hand-addressed, posted first-class on Tuesday.
Trial dashboard, redesigned The first screen after sign-in stopped selling and started teaching.
Member card, year one.
Welcome insert.
Renewal echo, sent at month nine.

Next Chapter →

Conversion

Subscribers into Members
2024

Subscribers into Members

2024 · Digital · Editorial · Offer design

Reframing the offer so subscribers chose to belong.

Context

Their membership program — premium events, peer councils, deep archives — was a soft upsell at the bottom of every article. It performed like a soft upsell does: 0.3% click-through, 8% close rate on the clicks it got.

Subscribers were not refusing the offer. They were never seeing it. The membership team had been ranking 'rebuild this' ahead of every other roadmap item for two years running.

Solution

We stopped treating membership as a feature. We rebuilt the offer around a single question — 'who do you read this for?' — and moved it from a footer module into a quarterly editor's letter.

The letter ran in print, in the inbox, and as the first dropdown of the site nav. Conversions tripled in the first month and held through the year.

Credits
Client
Subscribers into Members
Year
2024
Discipline
Digital · Editorial · Offer design
Channels
Print, mail, follow-up email
Strategy
Rottman Creative
Design
Rottman Creative
Copy
Rottman Creative
Print partner
Allied Letterpress, KC
The editor's letter, October issue. The membership pitch sits inside a longer essay, signed and dated like every other piece in the front of the book.

"We had asked for a redesign. What we got was an argument — and the argument worked."

— Editor in Chief
The letter, opened. One question, three paragraphs, one decision.
The print echo, in the back of the book. Same pitch, different room.

Applications

How it shows up — across mail, web, and the conversation that follows.

Quarterly print letter Three paragraphs, signed by the editor, set in the same column as the rest of the magazine.
Inbox edition One email, sent the morning the issue hits newsstands. No follow-ups.
Letter, first quarter.
Letter, second quarter.
Member roll, updated quietly each month.

Next Chapter →

Alignment

American Society of Civil Stewards
2023

American Society of Civil Stewards

2023 · Brand · Identity · Print

A quiet rebrand that finally matched the work inside.

Context

ASCS had spent fifteen years building real authority on infrastructure ethics. The brand still looked like a conference badge from the year they were founded.

The board didn't want a refresh. They wanted the brand to stop being the thing the press release had to apologize for.

Solution

We did the smallest, slowest rebrand we could responsibly do. A single typographic system. Two pieces of paper. A stricter color palette. One sentence about who they were.

We didn't relaunch. We changed the masthead and went silent for a quarter. The next press cycle, three of the publications they had been chasing called them first.

Credits
Client
American Society of Civil Stewards
Year
2023
Discipline
Brand · Identity · Print
Channels
Print, mail, follow-up email
Strategy
Rottman Creative
Design
Rottman Creative
Copy
Rottman Creative
Print partner
Allied Letterpress, KC
The new masthead, set against the old. The only difference visible from across the room is the one that mattered.

"You took fifteen years of work and let it finally look like itself."

— Executive Director, ASCS
Annual report cover, before — and the press cycle that followed.
Annual report cover, after. Quieter, by design.

Applications

How it shows up — across mail, web, and the conversation that follows.

Masthead system One serif, two weights, set tight. Everything else got cut.
Letterhead A single sheet, in two colors. The dignity is in the margins.
Member pin, redrawn.
Field report cover, Q2.
Conference program, revised.

Next Chapter →

Engagement

Institute for Practicing Architects
2025

Institute for Practicing Architects

2025 · Program design · Member experience

A first-ninety-days program built around small wins.

Context

Exit interviews said the same thing every time: 'I joined for the network, and then nothing happened.'

The orientation packet was forty-eight pages long. Nobody read it. The welcome email was a wall of links. Nobody clicked it. The first ninety days of membership were, by any honest measure, the worst part of being a member.

Solution

We replaced orientation with a 90-day sequence — one small, finishable thing each week. A profile to write. A peer to message. A meeting to attend.

The packet became a postcard. The welcome email became a calendar invite. First-year retention improved from 61% to 79% in eighteen months.

Credits
Client
Institute for Practicing Architects
Year
2025
Discipline
Program design · Member experience
Channels
Print, mail, follow-up email
Strategy
Rottman Creative
Design
Rottman Creative
Copy
Rottman Creative
Print partner
Allied Letterpress, KC
Week one, in the kitchen of a new member in Providence. The postcard has a checkbox. The checkbox is the program.

"You gave them twelve small wins instead of one big promise. The promise was breaking them."

— VP of Member Experience
The postcard, twelve weeks running. Each one is a different size.
The calendar, year one. Twelve dates the member made themselves.

Applications

How it shows up — across mail, web, and the conversation that follows.

Welcome postcard Replaces the orientation packet. Lives on the fridge for ninety days.
Peer message prompts One sentence, written in the member's voice, sent on a Tuesday.
Week one card.
Week six card.
Week twelve card.

Next Chapter →

Belonging

National Guild of Pediatric Nurses
2025

National Guild of Pediatric Nurses

2025 · Documentary photography · Editorial

Member stories, told plainly, in their own rooms.

Context

NGPN's recruiting materials had always used stock photography of nurses in unfamiliar hospitals. Prospective members said the brand 'didn't look like them.' Existing members said it didn't look like their work either.

The Guild had tried twice before to commission new photography. Both projects had produced more stock — same poses, same lighting, same waiting-room teal.

Solution

We commissioned a year-long documentary photography project. Eight nurses. Eight hospitals. Eight cities. No styling, no captions written for them.

The work ran first in the member magazine, then on the recruiting site, then everywhere else. The next intake cycle was the largest in the Guild's history.

Credits
Client
National Guild of Pediatric Nurses
Year
2025
Discipline
Documentary photography · Editorial
Channels
Print, mail, follow-up email
Strategy
Rottman Creative
Design
Rottman Creative
Copy
Rottman Creative
Print partner
Allied Letterpress, KC
Cara Mahoney, fourteen years a pediatric oncology nurse, in the corridor she walks every morning at 6:42 a.m.

"For the first time, the brochure looked like the locker room."

— Recruiting Director, NGPN
Spread one. The photograph is given the room it needs.
Spread two. The caption is one line, set small.

Applications

How it shows up — across mail, web, and the conversation that follows.

Member magazine Eight portraits across the year. One per issue. Front of the book, always.
Recruiting site The same eight portraits. No carousel. No stock.
Portrait, Cleveland.
Portrait, El Paso.
Portrait, Asheville.

Next Chapter →

Renewal

American Trade Federation
2026

American Trade Federation

2026 · Direct mail · Production · Strategy

The mailer the renewals team had been waiting on for six years.

Context

ATF renewals had plateaued at 71% for the better part of a decade. The renewal package — a tri-fold, a return envelope, a discount sticker — had been the same shape since 2014.

The team had asked for permission to redesign it for six straight years. Each year the package went out, untouched, with a different discount stamp on the cover.

Solution

We threw the tri-fold away. We replaced the whole package with a single hardcover keepsake, mailed on the member's anniversary date, signed by the chairman.

It costs three dollars more per piece. Renewals lifted to 84% in the first full cycle and held through the second.

Credits
Client
American Trade Federation
Year
2026
Discipline
Direct mail · Production · Strategy
Channels
Print, mail, follow-up email
Strategy
Rottman Creative
Design
Rottman Creative
Copy
Rottman Creative
Print partner
Allied Letterpress, KC
The keepsake, year one. Cloth-bound, foil-stamped, mailed in a kraft sleeve with no marketing on the outside.

"You took the thing we sent because we had to and made it the thing we send because we want to."

— Chairman, ATF
Cover, opened. The chairman's signature is real.
Endpapers. A list of every member who joined the year you did.

Applications

How it shows up — across mail, web, and the conversation that follows.

Anniversary keepsake Hardcover, cloth-bound, mailed first-class on the member's join-date anniversary.
Outer sleeve Kraft paper, no logo, hand-addressed. Looks like a gift because it is one.
Front matter.
A page from the chairman.
Back inside cover, with room to sign.

Next Chapter →

Acquisition

National Educators Coalition
2024