Joni’s Objective
Create a non-traditional cook book, straddling the genres of photographic memoir and culinary souvenir, offering an intimate look at Joni’s life through her family, her stories, her recipes, and the iconic community of Montauk that has shaped her beloved namesake restaurant.
Redesign Joni’s website to reflect the creative direction of her book and promote the book.
Secure media coverage promoting Joni’s book.
Ashley McGee & Co. Role
Strategic Planning + Creative Development
Defined the roadmap for achieving the objectives through thoughtful approaches.
Ensured all creative, marketing, and press communications aligned with objectives.
Studied trends and competitive landscape to help shape the creative development and retail price.
Developed creative briefs for the Writers, Creative Director/Art Director, Designer, Photographers, and Stylist to set the vision and foundation for everything we created together, guide the project, and ensure creative outputs aligned with the goals.
Acted as a bridge between the objectives and creative execution.
Press Communications
Developed national + regional press targets, crafted and distributed press release/media kit.
Pitched stories and announcements to media outlets.
Coordinated interviews and provided talking points.
Secured media coverage and book signing events.
Responded to media inquiries.
Website Redesign
Planned, designed, built, and maintained a website redesign.
Delivered a site that is functional, visually appealing, and aligned with the objectives.
Created a website tree navigation to outline the structure and user journey.
Crafted layouts, color palette, font, and imagery that aligned with the goals.
Tested quality assurance and identified/fixed any issues in functionality or design.
Connected the domain and deployed the new website.
Monitored the site and addressed any issues post-publish.
Book Launch Event
Developed and managed timelines, vendors, and sponsors.
Designed branding elements, including event invite and RSVP app
Sourced and managed relationships with event sponsors and contractors.
Negotiated contracts with vendors.
Promoted the event via press and or other channels.
Project Management + Production
Defined the scope of work and oversaw the entire project.
Oversaw the technical execution, managed logistics, and ensured the deliverables were aligned with client expectations.
Managed pre-production, production, and post-production across the book, photography, graphic design, website redesign, launch event, and more.
Designed and implemented work streams that enabled the team to operate as efficiently and productively as possible.
Sourced, hired, briefed, and managed freelancers, collaborators, vendors, and resources.
Communicated regularly with client, provided updates and next steps.
Gathered client feedback, coordinated revisions, and refined approaches as needed.
Served as a liaison between client, team members, collaborators or vendors.
“Thank you for making my dream a reality, your perfectionism, timeless energy, enthusiasm, determination, focused attention, compassion, kindness, love, support, and long hours. I’m eternally grateful.”
— Joni Brosnan, Book Author/Owner
“Ashley’s innate ability to keep projects in line while keeping teams grounded is so rare. Ashley leads with collaborative energy and luminous positivity, merging left and right brain thinking with third-eye intuition. She understands the nuances of the end-to-end creative process across many mediums and creates efficiencies where they didn't exist. We worked on the book launch of Joni’s: A Love Letter to Summer in Montauk from cover to cover. I can't wait for our next project.”
— Jackie Gentilesco, Story Writer/Editor