✦ Elisha Eldritch · Creative Director

Brand, product, and
the build that ships it.

Twelve years designing brand systems, interfaces, and storefronts — from regulated enterprise commerce to independent brands. I lead creative at Growth Factor and run brand, UX, and front-end work end to end through my own studio.

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Available for contract & project work

Role
Creative DirectorBrand, UX/UI, and front-end — hands on the work, not just the deck
Experience
12+ yearsDesigning brands, storefronts, and platforms since 2013
Based
Tampa Bay, FloridaRemote across the US; on-site in the Bay when it helps
Engagement
Contract · retainer · projectEmbedded with a team, or running the whole thing solo
Elisha Eldritch, creative director ✦ Elisha Eldritch · Creative Director
✦ Who you'd be working with

A designer who also builds.

I'm a creative director who genuinely likes the hard, structural problems — the brand, UX, and commerce puzzles most people would rather hand off to someone else.

A lot of the last decade has been leading creative on enterprise engagements at Growth Factor, where I'm lead creative director — regulated categories where the details are load-bearing and a sloppy interface is a legal problem, not just an ugly one. The rest is my own studio, which I've run since 2013.

The thing that connects both is that I build what I design. I've never been able to hand off a file and stop caring what happens to it.

✦ Selected work

Taken end to end, by me.

Studio projects I can name and show in full — positioning, identity, UX, copy direction, and the front-end build, with one person accountable from first conversation to launch.

Mancave 409 brand system and drop-based WooCommerce platform
✦ Retail · brand & platform

Mancave 409

Brand system · WordPress + WooCommerce · content system · ongoing

A drop-based retail platform where the merchandising model and the compliance rules were the design problem, not a footnote. I built the brand system, the storefront, and a five-voice content system so the team could write in-character across channels without drifting — including category-specific language rules that keep promotions on the right side of the line.

I also handled the unglamorous half. A database cleanup cleared more than 131,000 stale scheduler rows with zero downtime, and a retention filter keeps it from returning.

Brand systemWooCommerceContent systemCompliance languagePerformance
Visit mancave409.com →
Xtreme Fitness Nutrition e-commerce page system design
✦ Supplements · e-commerce

Xtreme Fitness Nutrition

E-commerce page system · goals-based discovery · design

A supplement store where shoppers arrive with a goal rather than a product in mind. I designed a complete page system — homepage, shop and category landings, a goals-based discovery path, product page, and the supporting content pages — so the catalogue could grow without the navigation collapsing under it.

E-commerce UXPage systemDiscovery designArt direction
Sharon Kelly, LMT wellness brand and website
✦ Wellness · brand & web

Sharon Kelly, LMT

Brand identity · website design & build · booking journey

A licensed massage therapist's practice, where trust does most of the selling before anyone reads a word. The brand had to feel calm and credible without tipping into the soft-focus wellness clichés that make people doubt a practitioner is serious.

I built the identity, designed and shipped the site, and kept the route to booking short enough that a first-time client doesn't lose their nerve on the way. It's also built to be run by one person — no dependency on me to change a price or a time slot.

IdentityWeb designFront-endBooking UX
Visit the site →
✦ Enterprise engagements

Under confidentiality, described by sector.

Creative-direction work delivered as lead creative director at Growth Factor. These were multidisciplinary team engagements; what's described here is the creative and design lane I was accountable for. Happy to talk through any of them in detail on a call.

Global critical-communications manufacturer Graphics programme · solutions IA

A ~90-asset iconography and imagery library behind a solutions-led IA, for hardware sold into six sectors and 150+ countries. Handed over with editable source so their team could keep extending it.

Global medical-education platform Rebrand · colour system · templates

A rebrand across three clinical disciplines — structured colour system, typographic direction, and a reusable page-template system. 21 screens delivered against a 31-item scope, gaps documented rather than quietly dropped.

Heritage firearms optics manufacturer Interactive homepage · product system

An interactive hotspot homepage, a product-page system across the optics range, and a managed reseller locator — built inside ITAR and firearms-advertising constraints for a brand with nearly two centuries of heritage.

Regulated payments platform Dual-audience IA · disclosure UX · copy

Dual-audience IA and application-flow design for a financing product where the disclosures and compliance pages are load-bearing parts of the experience, not footer links.

US firearms manufacturer Mega-menu IA · homepage

Mega-menu navigation and IA for a very deep catalogue, plus homepage design. The kind of problem where the answer is structural, not decorative.

Direct-to-consumer outdoor brand Brand from scratch · graphics system

A brand built from zero on a headless storefront — brand book, logo system, and the site graphics system that carries it across the catalogue.

Concealed-carry accessories retailer Guided finder UX · accessibility

A guided finder built on a fitment matrix, so a shopper reaches the one correct product without knowing the taxonomy. Plus a WCAG and POUR accessibility programme, measured rather than asserted.

✦ Experience

Where the twelve years went.

Current

Lead Creative Director

Growth Factor · enterprise brand & commerce engagements

I own the creative and design lane on multidisciplinary client engagements — brand systems, UX and information architecture, visual and graphics programmes, and front-end direction. Engineering, paid media, SEO, and analytics are handled by the wider team; my accountability is the creative.

  • Built a custom graphics programme of roughly 90 assets — solution iconography and thematic imagery — for a global critical-communications manufacturer, handed off as flat exports plus editable source files
  • Directed the rebrand of a global medical-education platform: structured colour system, typographic direction, a reusable page-template system, and a 21-screen mockup set delivered against a 31-item scope
  • Designed an interactive product homepage and product-page system for a heritage optics manufacturer, including a managed reseller-locator experience
  • Architected mega-menu navigation and IA for a firearms manufacturer with a very deep catalogue
  • Built brand-from-scratch for a new direct-to-consumer client — brand book, logo system, and site graphics system on a headless storefront
  • Shaped compliance-forward interface patterns for a regulated payments platform serving two distinct audiences
2013 – present

Founder & Creative Director

Eldritch Exchange · independent design studio

My own studio, where I take projects end to end: positioning, identity, UX, copy direction, and the front-end build. Clients are independent and founder-led businesses that need the whole thing done properly rather than assembled from parts.

  • Designed and built brand systems, storefronts, and marketing sites on WordPress and WooCommerce
  • Ran a drop-based retail platform including a five-voice content system and category-specific compliance language rules
  • Handled the unglamorous side too — a database cleanup that cleared 131,000+ stale rows with zero downtime
  • Currently building ThirdEyeOS, my own product, in private beta
12+
Years across brand, UX, and commerce design
40+
Brands, storefronts, and platforms shipped
6+
Regulated sectors, firearms to fintech
1:1
Direct with the creative director, no handoffs
✦ Capabilities

Brand through build, under one roof.

Identity, interface, and front-end handled by the same person — which means the idea that gets approved is the one that actually ships, and nothing is lost in the handoff.

Brand identity & design systems

Identity that survives contact with a real team — not just a logo, but the rules that let other people use it correctly.

  • Positioning and naming support
  • Logo and mark systems
  • Colour systems and typographic direction
  • Brand books and usage guidelines
  • Graphics and iconography programmes

UX / UI architecture

Structure first. Most interface problems are actually information-architecture problems wearing a visual disguise.

  • IA and navigation for deep catalogues
  • Page and template systems that scale
  • Guided finders and product discovery
  • Application and multi-step form design
  • Accessibility measured against WCAG

Front-end execution

I build what I design. Pixel-faithful, fast, and structured so it can be maintained by someone who isn't me.

  • WordPress theme development, hand-built
  • WooCommerce storefronts and checkout
  • Headless storefronts and custom front-ends
  • Performance and Core Web Vitals
  • Technical SEO, schema, and safe migrations

Creative direction

For teams that have the hands but need the eye — and someone willing to make the unpopular call about what to cut.

  • Art direction across a programme of work
  • Design review and critique for in-house teams
  • Photography and content direction
  • Freelancer and vendor oversight
  • Design-system governance

Design

FigmaAdobe IllustratorPhotoshopInDesignAdobe ExpressDesign tokensComponent libraries

Build

HTML & CSSJavaScriptPHPWordPressWooCommerceHeadless ShopifyGit

Practice

Design systemsInformation architectureAccessibility / WCAGTechnical SEOSchema markupRegulated commerceCreative direction
✦ How I work

Four phases, no mystery.

Understand

What the business needs, who it's for, and what's genuinely in the way. Usually one long conversation and a lot of listening.

Direct

Real territories, not mood boards. You see two or three directions and pick one before anything gets expensive.

Build

Design and front-end together, in the open. You watch it come together rather than waiting six weeks for a reveal.

Hand over

Files, guidelines, logins, and a walkthrough. You own all of it outright, and you can reach me afterwards.

Structure before surfaceMost interface problems are information-architecture problems in disguise. Fixing the structure usually removes the argument about the styling.
Design it, then build itThe gap between the approved file and the shipped page is where quality quietly disappears. Closing it myself is the whole advantage.
Constraints are the briefCompliance rules, dealer networks, deep catalogues, disclosure requirements. The restriction is usually where the good idea is hiding.
Credit where it belongsOn team engagements I say plainly which lane was mine. Overclaiming other people's work is the fastest way to be found out.
✦ The journal

How I think about the work.

Notes on brand systems, interface craft, regulated commerce, and the parts of a project that never make the case study.

Read the journal
Building Eldritch Exchange: Why a Studio Is a Point of View, Not a Service List
Studio

Building Eldritch Exchange: Why a Studio Is a Point of View, Not a Service List

Plenty of designers describe what they do with a list of services. UX, branding, web design, illustration, front-end. I can produce that…

4 min read
 Brand

Heritage as the Spine, Not the Wallpaper: Modernizing a Legacy Brand

Every legacy brand hits the same tension when it decides to modernize. Lean too hard into the heritage and you look like…

3 min read
 UX

Making Precision Tangible: An Interactive Homepage for a Precision Brand

Some products sell themselves the second you hold them. Pick up a well-made riflescope and you understand it immediately: the weight, the…

5 min read
✦ Available for work

Let's talk about the role.

Contract, retainer, or a single build. Tell me what the team needs and what the constraints are, and you'll get a straight answer about fit, timeline, and cost — including if the answer is that I'm not the right person.

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