Justin Griffith

About

Associate Creative Director with 14+ years leading retail experience and brand standards work for The Home Depot, promoted through four creative leadership levels. Builds durable design systems for environmental graphics, wayfinding, and retail signage across large store fleets, and mentors cross-discipline teams while directing campaigns and photography. Also brings editorial and commercial photography background (Getty Images contributor) and early career experience in high-stakes operations as a U.S. Air Force munitions crew chief.

Experience

• Associate Creative Director (promoted through four levels — Senior Designer → Art Director → Senior Art Director → ACD) · The Home Depot (Contract Assignment via RRD)2012

  Designed the Home Services campaign deployed across all 2,300+ Home Depot locations — in continuous use for 10+ years and seen by virtually every customer who walks into a store. First campaign built on THD Customer Insights data; research validated creative instincts from day one. Led the front-end wayfinding redesign across the entire U.S. store fleet — unifying Self-Checkout, Returns, Pro, and Online Pickup into a cleaner system. Post-deployment observation confirmed reduced associate intervention at self-checkout. Co-led Project Mercury: a ground-up refresh of Home Depot’s in-bay sign standards across 2,000+ locations. Applied responsive design logic to print, stripped content to the three highest-impact decision drivers, and built a standards framework that defended work against visual clutter while reducing internal creative overhead. Supported RRD’s $700M+ Home Depot relationship throughout 14 years of output. Art directed Home Depot’s Manhattan 23rd Street flagship holiday window installation program for 11 years — winning the initial competitive pitch as a designer, eventually becoming the sole creative lead, and later using it as a development opportunity for my team. Provided on-site conceptual design support for the Home Depot Store Manager’s Meeting in Las Vegas five years running. Mentored designers across multiple disciplines, helping solve creative and production challenges quickly while developing stronger problem-solvers.

• Graphic Designer · Whole Foods Market2011 – 2012

  Executed seasonal brand campaigns, catering brochures, weekly sales flyers, and large-scale in-store signage for 22 Southeast locations.

• Graphic Designer · USMotivation2008 – 2010

  Designed print and digital campaign materials for Fortune 500 incentive and travel programs — clients included AT&T, BASF, Johnson Floors, and PetSmart.

• Art Director / Staff Photographer · InWeekly2005 – 2008

  Concepted and executed a unique cover design and lead feature layouts every week under hard editorial deadlines — building the discipline to never be the bottleneck in a deadline-driven workflow. Self-funded and built the publication’s first professional photo setup from scratch, teaching myself off-camera flash technique and immediately elevating editorial photography quality for the duration of my tenure.

• Designer / Photographer (Freelance) · Freelance2005

  Getty Images Contributor — commercial lifestyle and product photography licensed for use by national brands. Specialized in lifestyle, brand identity, retail design, and commercial photography for regional and national clients including Whole Foods Market, UPS, The Home Depot, TruGreen, Good Samaritan Health Center.

• Munitions Crew Chief · US Air Force1997 – 2001

  Directed high-stakes logistics ops for conventional and nuclear munitions, ensuring 100% mission readiness under strict safety and security protocols. Maintained a Secret security clearance with additional privileges for nuclear weapons access. Served as key communications liaison between command leadership and critical ops teams during emergency response scenarios in Turkey. Directly supported the first B1-B Lancer combat mission in history while based in southern Oman during Operation Desert Fox, coordinating logistics under high-pressure conditions.

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