Founder Story
Born and raised in New York’s Hudson Valley and now living in California, Christy long dreamed of creating a studio for people who are game to use the phenomenon of branding for good. In 2020 she turned her decade long freelance practice into Bess to make it happen.
Christy’s love of brand, unbeknownst to her, started in early childhood and took off from there.
Christy grew up in a small Hudson Valley town next to a horse farm with neighbors few and far between. It was here that the seeds of artistic expression, the thrill of the unexpected along with doing good took root.
Christy’s sister Jill was her best friend and playmate. They filled their days inventing and producing the kid equivalent of ongoing, long running television series, movies, theater plays, and musical productions. They turned the family compost pile, creek bed, small apple orchard, grassy lawn, country fields, and even tulip tree into performing stages.
“I realize now I learned how to develop my inner creative world and trust in it at an early age because of our escapades,” Christy recounts. She goes on to say, “I also realized brands are like characters, you have to define who they are and tell their story. You have to make them perform beautifully in the world and move their audience.” She continues, “Little did I know our childhood play was my earliest training for creating brands.”
Additional early training for branding came from childhood trips with her parents to antique and secondhand shops in her native Hudson Valley. The thrill of the eclectic, the unanticipated and the mix and match are now an integral part of her artistic approach to branding.
When Christy popped up from play she took notice of the importance her family placed on looking out for others. “Early on my parents, and people like my great aunt Bess, the studio’s namesake, made me aware that inequities exist,” she explains. “My family modeled how to seek out opportunities to make the lives of others better. Their actions also showed me you don’t need to have a lot yourself to begin doing and giving.”
Christy goes on to say, “We were a middle-class family with just enough. Yet I have memories of my parents giving away fruits and vegetables from our gardens and clothing we no longer needed to feed and clothe families in our community. I will never forget the day my parents gave our two-door, white Ford LTD with its vinyl navy blue roof to our school bus driver Betty. The act of giving away something of such high value, and not expecting or asking for anything in return, will stay with me forever.”
Christy left her Hudson Valley nest, went on to study chemistry and humanities at the University of Iowa, and eventually landed in the San Francisco Bay Area. For Christy, it was love at it first sight. Creatively she never felt more at home or more entrepreneurial. Finally, all the individual and unique pieces of her early childhood began to come together in her work. Early branding projects with employers like Nokia and McAfee introduced her to the power of brand. She learned that no matter the size or type of organization people can – and should be – at the center of brand. This approach is not only good for people + the planet, but good for a company’s bottom line, standing and impact in the world.
Christy transitioned from working exclusively with global corporations to establishing a freelance practice that allowed her to add hyper local organizations and initiatives to her world. This shift helped solidify her concept that almost any brand can change entire experiences and outcomes for people. She discovered brands are even more powerful when they are beautiful too and launched Bess from there.
Christy explains her philosophy when she tell us, “I get joy from artistically and creatively using brand for good. I live to use brand as my form of art and activism. It’s my dream come true to create human centric, collaborative brands under these tenants. I see Bess as a haven for making brands and collaborations of any origin stand up beautifully for good, just like my Aunt Bess. I feel like I’m home sweet home at long last.”