Maggie Ha, Making Her Mark as M. Gemi's Creative Director

October 14, 2019

Maggie Ha is making her mark as Creative Director of M. Gemi, a cult-favorite shoe brand that offers handmade, Italian crafted leather shoes. Always having a great eye for design, Maggie graduated from University of South California with a degree in Communication and Marketing to pursue a career in the creative field. Her early positions in graphic and web design helped forge her career in building captivating and awe-worthy brands. Formerly the Creative Director at POPSUGAR and Art Director at Anthropologie, Maggie has mastered the skill of utilizing her creative skillets to shape a brand’s current image and future direction.

In this feature, Maggie shares with us how valuable a good eye for design is, the skillets needed to succeed in the competitive creative world, and what she does on a day-to-day basis as a Creative Director. Read along to soak up her incredible career advice for ambitious women, such as yourself.

Early career

When you went to college, did you have a clear idea of what you wanted to do for a career?

Yes, always. I’ve always had a passion for art and design. I started college with a scholarship for the Fine Arts program and knew I would end up in design in some way. I interned as often as I could at design firms and agencies. I actually changed majors to Communication and Marketing in my junior year so I could focus more on advertising in my last couple years of school. In my senior year, I was already working full time as a junior designer at an ad agency.

The first few positions you held were in Graphic Design and Web Design. How did your early positions influence your career as a Creative Director?

I could go on forever about the value of good design. Aesthetics and a finely tuned eye are skills that are mastered over time. When I went to art school, it was at a time where teachers would pull your work down and rip it up into pieces if it wasn’t good enough. This was pretty much the normal at some of the agencies I worked at as well. Tough feedback and harsh critics were a part of the learning process. This certainly doesn’t happen anymore and I make it a point to never give feedback in a negative way. There are multiple skills you learn as a young designer from basics like typography, color, and composition to things that are not taught in a classroom and learned over time like conceptual ideation, putting together treatments, the production side of creating imagery and the nuanced skill of working with many other talents.

M. Gemi

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You are currently the Creative Director of M. Gemi, a cult-favorite shoe brand that offers a range of high-end, handmade Italian leather shoes. What exactly does your role entail?
I am in charge of bringing the brand to life on a daily basis. Whether that’s in stores, on our homepage, in an email, through the image you see, the experience you feel and the words you read – it is all a part of building a brand. I oversee all creative work including photography, site design, packaging and experiential. I also chime in on the product development side of the business as well. I understand our customer and what the trends are in the industry to help make product decisions while we’re months ahead. On my team, I have designers, art directors, copywriters and a badass project manager that makes it all run smoothly.

What skills did you realize you needed to succeed in your role and how did you go about learning them?
I’d like to tell you that being a Creative Director only requires you to be incredibly creative all the time. That is certainly a small part of it but it is not the only thing. My role is a part of an executive team that runs the entire business from merchandising, operations, technology, marketing and planning. I balance the creation of content and owning the brand experience with driving the business objectives, staying on budget, keeping to timelines and managing/mentoring my team. Skills that are on the right of the brain are exercised more often than the left when you get to this level. A lot of it include people skills, time management and business acumen.

As fashion trends are emerging and then disappearing faster than ever, how do you - as M. Gemi’s Creative Director - choose which ones to drive forward with M. Gemi’s products and which to pass by?

This is a hard one to answer. Many times it’s trusting your gut since I’ve been doing this for a long time and it comes down to taste. Many other times it comes down to data. You can see what other brands are doing and take cues from runway shows that still operate a season ahead. For M.Gemi in particular, it’s choosing the right trends that fit with the customer. We keep her top of mind when making decisions.

Advice

What do you wish you knew when you were first starting your career?
It’s important to try different things. Your strengths might be areas that you have not even tried yet as the creative field has so much to offer. You may think you want to be an illustrator but you could be an even more stellar designer instead. Never stop learning and trying different industries, tools, and skillsets.

What advice do you have for aspiring business women looking for positions in the creative industry?
Creative positions are very competitive. To build a good portfolio, you need experience. To gain experience you need a good portfolio. Take opportunities to get your foot in the door, even if it’s not your dream role. The opportunity is yours to take once you are in there working on real life projects. Some of my most successful creatives on my team are those that take initiative and work on projects because they want to and not because it was just assigned to them. That type of passion is easily spotted and doors will open for you.

***Maggie is hosting our next event - “Behind the Scenes: Launching a Buzz-worthy Campaign”, in partnership with M. Gemi! Join us on Tuesday, October 29th to learn more about the creative process of launching a captivating brand. Get your tickets now! ***