Creative Leadership · Brand Strategy · Technology

Building brands through creativity, technology, and leadership._

For more than 25 years, I've helped organizations navigate growth, change, and complexity. I find the story that matters, then build the teams, systems, and technology that help it matter to everyone else.

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Justin L. Johns — creative director and brand strategist JUSTIN L. JOHNS — CREATIVE LEADER / OPERATOR / MENTOR

Numbers I'm willing to be held to.

Good work earns attention. Good decisions create momentum. These numbers are simply evidence of both.

300%revenue growth after repositioning Chroma Coatings from a residential painter into a leading commercial business across the Southeast.
<90 daysto take a rebrand that was six months behind schedule, and a fragmented design team, across the finish line at OSG.
22→1subsidiary websites consolidated under a single, uniform brand.
100+client brands led at WindsorCircle, including L'Oréal, Levi's, New Era, Forever 21, and PacSun.
$1M+in annual contract value serviced by a creative department I built from zero.
80%faster production cycles through custom tooling — without trading away quality.

The work should show the thinking.

Not a gallery of surfaces — four situations, the moves I made, and what they returned. Full credentials live in the CV.

CHROMA COATINGS Chief Marketing Officer
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Repositioning a residential painter as a commercial leader.

Chroma had a strong residential reputation and commercial ambitions, with a small team and no brand strategy to carry the move. I researched the customer personas, built the brand and marketing strategy around them, and implemented agentic-AI workflows so a small team could deliver fast, accurate work at a scale that usually requires a much bigger one.

300% revenue growth, a 10x increase in project estimates, and a solid commercial footprint across the Southeast.

OSG Creative Director → Director of Digital Marketing
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A rebrand six months behind. Then twenty-two websites. Then a prototype for a luxury auto icon.

I was brought up from a subsidiary to rescue a rebrand launch that had stalled — a fragmented design team, a disjointed project, and no momentum. We launched in under 90 days. Then I led design and development to consolidate 22 subsidiary websites under one uniform brand, and designed prototypes for EverView, OSG's flagship omnichannel product — including one built for a top luxury automobile company.

Launch delivered in under 90 days; 22 web properties unified; flagship product prototype put in front of one of the world's most demanding brands.

Justin standing beside a Rolls-Royce Spectre in a showroom during prototype review
FIG. 01 — PROTOTYPE REVIEW. CLIENT TOLERANCE FOR ERROR: ZERO.
WHATCOUNTS Sr. Director of Creative & Implementation
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Two creative groups, one brand, ten months.

Tapped to merge two creative and implementation teams into a cohesive unit — different tools, different habits, different ideas about what good looked like. I built shared production systems, scoped inbound work and client pitches, and served as the subject-matter expert on design and dynamic content while the new organization found its identity.

Two groups merged and the combined organization rebranded within ten months.

WINDSORCIRCLE Creative Director
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Building the creative engine from a standing start.

No team, no department, no tooling — just demand. I recruited, trained, and led a creative and implementation team supporting marketing strategists across more than 100 clients, built custom tools that cut cycle times by 80%, and ran a studio delivering over 3,000 email projects a year for brands like L'Oréal, Levi's, New Era, and Forever 21.

An internal creative services department servicing $1M+ in annual contract value, while adding capacity to teams well beyond its own walls.

Where I create leverage.

I do my best work where brand clarity, creative standards, business pressure, and new technology all show up in the same room.

N.01

Creative direction

Brand platforms, campaigns, identity systems, and digital experiences — plus the standards and feedback culture that keep the work honest after launch day.

N.02

Brand & growth strategy

Sharper positioning, clearer offers, and the connective tissue between what a company says and what its customers actually believe.

N.03

Technology & AI

New tools create opportunities. Good judgment creates results. I help organizations apply technology in ways that create leverage without creating chaos.

N.04

Leadership & mentorship

Recruiting, developing, and steadying creative teams — and helping individual creatives find their footing while the industry redraws itself.

Justin listening attentively in a studio setting
FIG. 02 — THE MOST UNDERRATED CREATIVE SKILL: LISTENING PAST THE BRIEF TO THE ACTUAL PROBLEM.

Three doors.
Pick the one that fits.

Let's figure out our next step — not just take a tour of my ego.

Hiring for a leadership role

Executive creative, brand, and digital leadership — for organizations that want tomorrow's playbook run by someone who has actually shipped.

Connect on LinkedIn

Bringing me in to consult

Positioning, brand strategy, creative standards, and AI adoption that respects your team. Bring the real problem — the obvious answer is usually already in the room.

Email me the problem

Looking for a mentor

A focused coffee chat for creatives, marketers, and founders working through direction, AI, burnout, or what comes next.

Schedule a coffee chat

The short version.

I learned brand strategy the unforgiving way — as a small business owner whose ideas had to make payroll. Since then I've run creative, UX, digital, and marketing organizations as a director, VP, and CMO. The titles changed; the job never did: find the story, sharpen it, and build the team and systems that can tell it consistently.

Most organizations don't suffer from a lack of ideas. They suffer from a lack of alignment. The story drifts from the customer. The technology drifts from the strategy. The team drifts from the mission. My work has always been about bringing those pieces back together.

What keeps me forward isn't nostalgia for how this industry used to work — it's that I keep rebuilding my own toolkit. Right now that means agentic AI workflows, rapid prototyping, and automation that gives creative teams their time back. The reps are deep; the tools are this year's.

BFA in Graphic Design, Liberty University. Off the clock, I answer to a higher authority: my family.

Justin L. Johns handwritten signature JUSTIN L. JOHNS
Portrait of Justin L. Johns
FIG. 03 — AVAILABLE FOR THE SERIOUS CONVERSATIONS TOO.

Bring the real problem.

justin@justinljohns.comEmail linkedin.com/in/justinljohnsLinkedIn Coffee chatCalendly Curriculum vitaePDF