Situation
OptionsHouse needed client-facing email that introduced advanced services and futures trading without looking like a template farm. Visual design, original photography, illustration, layout, and HTML all sat in one delivery.
Constraint
Every campaign coordinated with technology and regulatory compliance. The work had to be buildable in HTML and approvable.
Decision
I owned the craft end to end: photography selection, graphics, layout, and HTML development, so design intent did not die in a handoff.
Outcome
Campaigns reached newly acquired and existing customers with a consistent brokerage voice as the product set expanded.
What I would do again
Keep photography and HTML in the same person’s hands when the brand is the trust signal.
What I would change
I would have instrumented a small set of lifecycle emails (welcome, first trade, dormant) as a system, not only campaign bursts.