ChelseaLavin

Improving the experience of work

We launched just after the pandemic, when work culture had fundamentally changed. Companies were weighing return-to-office against hybrid and remote, and employees expected more from where they worked. I used that moment to set the brand's mission: improve the experience of work.

In the space, that meant a noise policy, an aromatherapy program, and music that shifted with the time of day. In everything we published, it meant beautiful photography, intelligent writing, and stories that put other people's work first.

I built the brand system to carry it, from guidelines and pillars to tone of voice and style guides, and owned creative brand marketing as the company scaled.

An editorial platform about work culture

I launched The Malin Journal and built its editorial strategy around the lived experience of work. Nothing dumbed down. Everything interesting, well written, and relatable.

I commissioned contributors including Liana Satenstein, Elizabeth Goodspeed, and Eliza Dumais, and introduced a career astrology column.

• The Casual Archivist's Short History of the Business CardElizabeth Goodspeed
• Is Bad Office Bathroom Lighting Ruining My Self-Esteem?Liana Satenstein
• Mains and Sides: The Culture of the Side Hustle in New York's Restaurant WorldEliza Dumais
• What to Expect in Q3, AstrologicallySam Manzella

Neighborhood Icons and Neighborhood Guide

I owned content strategy across social, email, and web. Our go-to-market stories focused on the neighborhoods around each location.

Neighborhood Icons profiled local independent businesses that shaped the area long before we opened our doors, shot on Super 8.

Neighborhood Guide commissioned local writers to recommend independently owned businesses, framed around the work day: where to have a power lunch, pick up a client gift, or celebrate a win.

Showcasing others' great work became our great work. Together with the Journal, the two series drove the brand's strongest engagement.

Since not everyone could get in, I got out

Soho House has been a global brand since 1995, but a Chicago member is not a New York or Los Angeles member. Chicagoans are protective of their culture and wary of exclusivity. Rather than highlight exclusivity, I subverted it.

I built a content strategy that was hyperlocal to Chicago and still unmistakably Soho House. It celebrated the people, places, and things that make the city what it is, because a club for creatives has to acknowledge the culture around it. It was diverse, inclusive, and deeply Chicago.

Much of it lived in the writing. The voice knew Chicago the way our members did. It talked about the sound of the "L," explored the architecture and boulevards of Hyde Park, Bronzeville, Logan Square, and the Gold Coast, and suggested the water taxi to dinner in Chinatown. It only ever called it the Sears Tower. It honored Little Village's Cinco de Mayo parade and explained that the jibarito is a sandwich invented by Chicago's Puerto Rican community, then told members where to try one.

I also told the stories inside the House: members who became friends, started businesses, and fell in love through their membership, and the team who kept it running, from the kitchen staff and housekeeping to the membership coordinators. A members' club can't render the people who sustain it invisible.

I oversaw every public-facing property in the House, two restaurants, a bar, and a spa, each with its own Instagram account. I produced monthly photoshoots across the property and gave each space its own voice and identity.

• The results expanded my role to Toronto, where I implemented the same systems.
• The storytelling strategy was referenced across Soho House globally as a model for telling stories across spaces, building local buy-in, and boosting retention.
• The photoshoot operation was replicated across every House.
• I was invited to contribute to the Morning Noon Night book and a Soho Home photoshoot.

Launching Fox Bar

Soho House wanted a public-facing bar that felt like Chicago. I led the launch, from the people behind the bar to what was on the walls.

I hired two well-followed local bartenders and commissioned the late Chicago artist Don't Fret for the art direction: the font, the menu, and the merch. I helped shape the interior design and built the programming, from a Polaroid wall for patrons to a tinsel-laden holiday pop-up every December. For one night only, Chicago institution Calumet Fisheries took over the bar food, with exclusive merch to match.

• The merch program became a successful revenue stream for the business.
• Fox Bar is a regular on Chicago's best bar and cocktail lists, and Soho House Chicago's most successful public-facing outlet.