LET’S CELEBRATE A TRUE FOOD INDUSTRY TITAN

We would like to take a moment to celebrate our incredible, award-winning Art Director, Danielle Keegan! Calling her a food industry titan may sound like hyperbole, but behemoth or colossus just didn’t sound right. Her talent, experience, versatility, and intuition have given countless food and beverage brands an advantage over their competition, and considering that only a small handful of brands make it in this business, that’s absolutely invaluable.

Joining the core team at Upstart Food Brands isn’t always easy. While there are definite benefits – meaningful work with food and beverage brands, tons of flexibility/autonomy, and lots of wonderful product samples – the stakes and expectations are very high. Our clients, many that are startup businesses, put their faith and trust in us (as well as their precious startup capital). Our art directors are responsible for developing the brand identities, packaging designs, websites, and so much more, that fuel our clients’ businesses. That’s a lot of pressure…but literally from day one Danielle has ALWAYS been up to the task.

Sadly, her time with us is coming to an end. Danielle has chosen a new path after two unforgettable years, and the enviable responsibility of being the awesome driving force of our creative team will now fall to someone new. While we embrace change and always look forward to the next evolution of our business, we sure will miss this chapter in our journey! Danielle’s impact (on our business, our clients’ businesses, and the food and beverage industry in general) cannot be overstated.

So, join us in honoring Danielle by taking a walk down memory lane and appreciating some of the best work she’s produced for our upstart food brands!

Please feel free to leave some nice comments for her at the bottom of the page. 🙂

Josh Schipkowski

Josh Schipkowski is the founder and chief creative officer of Upstart Food Brands, a St. Louis-based branding agency for startup and emerging food, beverage, pet food, and supplement companies. He spent almost 14 years helping build MarketPlace into one of the country’s leading food marketing agencies before launching Upstart in 2015 to give smaller brands top-agency strategy and creative that make every dollar of their investment count. As CCO, he oversees everything creative and strategic that leaves the agency, from naming, brand strategy, and identity development to packaging and web design and development. At home, he does a self-reported 93.25% of the cooking, usually from scratch, often trying a new technique, and frequently using products from Upstart’s own clients. He also grows hops, grapes, and cider apples for brewing, winemaking, and cider, mostly as an excuse to share great food and drink with friends and family.