An Evening with the White House Creative Team
The White House creative team — designer Shae Greene, associate creative director Abbey Pitzer, and creative director Meena Yi — shared how they work with Creative Factor’s editor Matt McCue. Photos by Barbara Cadorna, Julianna Collares, and Kathy McCue.
What is it like to work in the high-stakes environment of the White House?
That was the big question we explored on Wednesday night during our creative salon at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in downtown Washington D.C.
The evening featured a conversation with the White House creative team: Creative Director Meena Yi, Associate Creative Director Abbey Pitzer, and Designer Shae Greene, moderated by Creative Factor Editor Matt McCue.
The first thing attendees learned is that the team’s remit is huge. Meena, Abbey, and Shae sit on the digital team, so their priorities are President Biden’s and the White House’s digital channels, including websites and social media. Their work extends to designing physical collateral, everything from pieces for events like the White House Easter Egg Roll to the Fourth of July celebration. They also get to work on unique collabs: Last year, they partnered with NASA to send an egg from the Easter Egg Roll to space. (The egg had to be quarantined when it came back down.)
Designers Julianna Collares and Barbara Cadorna with Abbey Pitzer, Meena Yi, and Shae Greene at the event.
One memorable story they shared involved trying to track down a projector to share their designs for a Bidenomics project. While the White House has a full IT team, no one could track down the right projector. As they got closer to their deadline, the creative time finally sent their request up the ladder — This projector is for the President.
They got a call from a military official and — like magic —within two hours an unmarked black van pulled up outside the White House and military personnel hopped out to deliver them the projector. Success!
Guest included (left to right): Tucker Margulies, Daniele Menache, Rebecca Ballard, John Means, and Douglas MacMillan, with Matt McCue.
It if sounds like Meena, Abbey, and Shae’s workdays aren’t like the rest of ours, trust your instincts. But, at the same time, they noted they experience typical work moments, such as moving designs through an approval process by managers who don’t always have a creative background. In those situations, they said they explain the “why” behind their work and then use the language “My preference is…” to highlight which creative option they recommended.
Another tactic Meena shared is how she determine where she might push back on feedback. She has a personal scale of one to 10, with 10 being the most meaningful to her and one the least signifiant. If something is really important to her — say an eight or higher — she will push more for her ideas. If it is five or less, she tries not to stress about the feedback. And if it is somewhere between five and eight, she picks her moments based on the project and the person she is working with.
Sponsored by Fiverr, the event was Creative Factor’s first Washington D.C. salon. These gatherings of artists, designers, storytellers, architects, and entrepreneurs offer the chance to discuss the biggest issues creative professionals face today. Those in attendance included creative leaders from Microsoft, Smithsonian, The Washington Post, Wide Eye, The Watergate Hotel, and Rooted Communities.
The conversation with Meena, Abbey, and Shae reminded us all to chase our dream jobs and showed us how we can use our creativity to shape our culture, community, and even the country.
If you’d like to read more from Creative Factor, find our latest stories here. And if you would like to host or participate in a future creative salon, please send a note to our team: editors@thecreativefactor.co.
