Carolyn Wagner, Inc.

Creative Catalyst Brand Alchemist

Launching Companies · Building Brands · Leading Workshops

Where Vision is the Work.

Award-winning · Global Fractional Chief Creative/Brand Officer · Advisor · Mentor

How we work together
  • Terry’s Toffee rebrand, website, and product photography
    Terry’s Toffee · Rebrand
  • International Truck CF, 4100, and 8000 Series product-launch advertising
    International Truck · Product launch
  • CDOT distracted-driving education campaign
    CDOT Distracted Driving Campaign · 35.6M impressions

Select a case to see the story behind it.

Starbucks Vanilla Latte outdoor campaign installation

Starbucks  ·  North American retail launch · Contract work with iLeo / Leo Burnett

When Starbucks Decided to Go Big

In their first few decades, the company famously avoided traditional advertising. Then, conditions changed. The brief: Launch five new heated beverages and run Starbucks’ first paid retail advertising in North America.

The regional test-market campaign extended across print, direct, radio, out-of-home, events, coupons, and sampling. An out-of-store Marketing Effectiveness Test quantified the return on the work. Sales increased in target markets, unlocking greater investment in future programs and helping shape the brand’s voice for decades.

View the full Work case
Platinum Guild campaign with portrait and platinum ring advertisement

Platinum Guild  ·  National brand campaign · Contract work with The Shand Group

It Takes a Heart of Platinum to Live Boldly

Platinum Guild International’s first lifestyle campaign began with bridal and expanded into gift-giving, special moments, self-purchase, men’s categories, and designer co-ops. The work ran nationally in publications including Vogue, Elle, and Wired.

The campaign drove an upswing in sales and growth. Within two years, desire for platinum reached an all-time high of 80%, and awareness among bridal customers reached 100%.

80%
platinum desire within two years
100%
awareness among bridal customers
View the full Work case
Privoro silver guard-dog identity on black Privoro initial product design sketch

Privoro  ·  Start-up · Direct client · Brand from scratch

The Engineers at Privoro Needed an Architect

A founder on a mission. A team of former Boeing engineers. A real-world problem: the smartphones in our pockets are surveillance devices that their owners cannot fully trust. The vision existed. The genius did too. The brand didn’t. The work involved naming the company, building the brand identity, writing the manifesto, and directing initial product design.

Privoro is now in a hardware-to-hardware partnership with Samsung’s flagship phones. Its SafeCase is the first mobile device solution approved by the NTSWG for use in classified federal spaces. Investors include John Chambers, former CEO of Cisco.

View the full Work case
Mercedes-Benz M-Class launch brochure Mercedes-Benz M-Class Lost World dealership launch kit Mercedes-Benz M-Class Lost World teaser creative

Mercedes-Benz  ·  National dealership product launch · Work at The Designory

The M-Class Meets The Lost World

Mercedes-Benz partnered with Universal Studios to launch the M-Class alongside The Lost World: Jurassic Park. The national dealership program gave a new vehicle introduction a cinematic world of its own.

The work created at The Designory included the dealership launch program and the M-Class brochure.
Denver International Airport environmental campaign in the terminal

Denver International Airport  ·  Environmental design & wayfinding · Work created at CIG

Oh, the Places We’ll Go

During construction, Denver International Airport needed to reroute the baggage claim area without making the passenger experience feel like an interruption.

Environmental communications made the changing route clear and more pleasurable, while a campaign roadmap established the direction for future initiatives. Work created at CIG.
IQNavigator environmental graphics: The Force at Work

IQNavigator  ·  SMB · Direct client · Six-month engagement · team of 20

Steering IQNavigator Into the Present

A respected 11-year-old SaaS company had grown into a global leader in services procurement, but the brand had not grown up with the business. Partnering with the CMO, I assembled a 20-person cross-functional team with the domain expertise to rebuild it.

In six months, we tackled positioning, identity, messaging, website, sales materials, environmental graphics, trade shows, Advertising, Print & OOH, campaign videos, and brand guidelines. Within the first year, sales doubled, the sales cycle compressed from 11 months to 9, web traffic rose 164%, ColoradoBiz named the company the Top Technology Company in Colorado, and Forrester named the product line a Leader in its category.

2×
sales within the first year
+164%
web traffic
11→9 mo
sales cycle
#1
technology company in Colorado
View the full Work case
Element environmental solutions website shown on a desktop display

Element  ·  Well-funded start-up / VC · Work at CIG New Business

Rebalancing With Impact

Element invests in and works with companies helping the planet across air, fire, and water. The identity included the statement: “We identify, invent and execute products that benefit people, portfolios and the planet.”

The work included brand development, strategy, naming, creative direction, website design, and investor materials. Work created at CIG New Business.

View the full Work case
JobAppPlus convenience-store staffing campaign JobAppPlus Quick Serve staffing solutions campaign

JobAppPlus  ·  SaaS brand & launch · Direct client

Convenient Stores Need Convenient Staffing

A SaaS platform built for the hourly workforce needed a brand that spoke directly to decentralized operators, high turnover, and applicants without reliable internet access.

The work included strategy, naming, identity, website, sales materials, and industry-specific campaigns built around finding, hiring, and managing people.
Colorado Express Lanes Strategically, I know where the bottlenecks are billboard

CDOT & HPTE Express Lanes Campaign  ·  Multi-channel campaign · Work at CIG

When It Matters Most

The campaign educated drivers about Colorado’s new Express Lanes through the memorable tagline “When It Matters Most.”

Digital ads, digital bulletin boards, social media, resort media, radio, billboards, and bus advertisements generated 35.7 million impressions, drove a 76% surge in new Express Toll accounts, and increased website traffic 41%.

35.7M
campaign impressions
+76%
new Express Toll accounts
+41%
website traffic
View the full Work case
Avon video campaign tools for sales leaders, representatives, and customers

PointAcross for Avon  ·  Video-embedded product content

Product Stories Built for Every Audience

PointAcross, an innovative SaaS company, partnered with Avon to create video-embedded content for new product launches. Each campaign tailored the story for sales leadership, new representatives, and customers, designed to drive stronger engagement and click-through rates for Avon’s most successful quarter yet.
New World Girls Breathe animated SEL app New World Girls Connect app screens featuring Monica

New World Girls™  ·  Founder work · World building · SEL apps

Superheroes of Emotional Intelligence

New World Girls is a universe of multicultural, intergalactic superheroes with special powers rooted in emotional intelligence. Each character brings a unique inner strength, helping girls navigate real-world feelings and relationships.

Through books, ebooks, animated stories, interactive SEL apps, and after-school programs, their universe turns emotional growth into a multi-sensory experience for girls today and every day.

Read the full case study
New World Girls First Mission picture book Introducing New World Girls and their five cross-cultural superheroes

New World Girls™  ·  Founder work · World building · Picture books

Superheroes of Emotional Intelligence

New World Girls is a universe of multicultural, intergalactic superheroes with special powers rooted in emotional intelligence. Each character brings a unique inner strength, helping girls navigate real-world feelings and relationships.

Through books, ebooks, animated stories, interactive SEL apps, and after-school programs, their universe turns emotional growth into a multi-sensory experience for girls today and every day.

Read the full case study

Clients

  • Starbucks
  • Sony
  • Mercedes-Benz
  • Samsung
  • Avon
  • Platinum Guild International
  • IQNavigator
  • CenturyLink
  • Level 3 Communications
  • Colorado Department of Transportation
  • Denver International Airport
  • Timberland
  • Marshall Field's
  • Organic Valley
  • FjällRäven
  • Terry's Toffee
  • Hallmark
  • Qwest
  • Nissan
  • International Truck
  • Suzuki
  • Fastmore
  • PointAcross
  • PuebloPlex
  • Bookmaker
  • Petroflow Energy
  • JobAppPlus

There is a promise at the heart of every brand. The craft of finding it, sensing it before the world has named it, shaping the direction before the path has been laid, is older than any tool we are currently evaluating.

Creative Visioning is the art of reaching into the invisible, into what has not yet been spoken, built, or known. It's a journey through time itself: seeing what others haven't, moving before the market does, building new worlds before anyone else knows to look.

For three decades, I have been called to this work, not just to transform brands, but the hearts and minds behind them. For Starbucks, Sony, Mercedes-Benz, and a long list of founders most people haven't heard of yet.

Where Logic Meets Intuition.
Where Brand Meets Humanity.

Design culture and advertising culture rarely overlap. Fewer still have been trained deeply in both.

European-trained, American-practiced. European design taught me that craft and tradition come first, that the art shapes the commerce, and that beauty built with intention outlasts trends. American marketing added its own creative force, the boldness to go big, and to make beauty that's impossible to ignore.

For decades I have moved between both worlds, from design firms to ad agencies, from New York and Chicago to Munich and Helsinki, with years at Leo Burnett, Bagby Design, The Designory, Heil BBDO, and Lowe Lintas & Partners Worldwide. Always collaborative. Always with people who still believe the work matters.

Embedded, retained, or by project. I partner with founders, CEOs, CMOs, agencies, and in-house creative teams to reveal a brand's actual promise, that place where logic meets intuition, where strategy meets soul, and then make every part of the marketing keep it.

Whether crafting brands, multi-channel campaigns, leading brainstorms that feel like creative ceremonies, or mentoring founders toward their authentic voice, I approach every engagement as an opportunity to capture attention, mindshare, and hearts.

From Startups to Icons

Brands Built. Rebuilt. Markets Moved.

When Starbucks Decided to Go Big

Contract work with iLeo / Leo Burnett

In their first few decades, the company famously avoided traditional advertising. Then, conditions changed. The brief: Launch five new heated beverages and run Starbucks’ first paid retail advertising in North America.

The campaign came together at 11 pm, built from a 1930s black-and-white photograph of a woman visiting a shrine, a writer stirring his coffee, and a Starbucks “Sumatra” shipping box rescued from the trash and repurposed as the binder for the pitch. The campaign was called Stirring the Human Spirit. What Stirs You? Two decades later, Starbucks’ mission statement still reads: to inspire and nurture the human spirit.

Starbucks Vanilla Latte What Stirs You? outdoor campaign

Steering IQNavigator Into the Present

SMB · Direct client · Six-month engagement, team of 20

A respected 11-year-old SaaS company had grown into a global leader in services procurement. But the brand hadn’t grown up with the business. In six months, partnering with their CMO, I assembled a 20-person team of designers, writers, developers, and specialist vendors with deep domain expertise to rebuild. We tackled positioning, identity, messaging, website, sales materials, and environmental graphics. Within the first year, sales doubled, the sales cycle compressed from 11 months to 9, web traffic rose 164%, ColoradoBiz named the company the Top Technology Company in Colorado, and Forrester named the product line a Leader in its category.

sales within the first year
2×
web traffic
+164%
tech company in Colorado
#1
IQNavigator environmental graphics: The Force at Work

The Engineers at Privoro Needed an Architect

Start-up · Direct client · Brand from scratch

A founder on a mission. A team of former Boeing engineers. A real-world problem: the smartphones in our pockets are surveillance devices that their owners cannot fully trust. The vision existed. The genius did too. The brand didn’t. The work involved naming the company, building the brand identity, writing the manifesto, and directing initial product design.

Privoro is now in a hardware-to-hardware partnership with Samsung’s flagship phones. Its SafeCase is the first mobile device solution approved by the NTSWG for use in classified federal spaces. Investors include John Chambers, former CEO of Cisco.

Privoro silver guard-dog identity on black

Three Ways We Work Together

Built for well-funded startups, SMBs, independent agencies, production houses, digital agencies, content studios, and the in-house creatives who power them.

Fractional Chief Creative & Brand Officer · Advisor · Consultant

I partner with founders, CEOs, and CMOs to lead brand transformations, set creative vision, build high-impact campaigns, and mentor teams. Every engagement begins by seeing clearly where things stand, before we build or change a thing. Available on a retained basis or as a consultant for phased project work.

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Creative Workshops & Mentorship

An invitation to slow down, dig deeper, and reconnect with the work that first pulled you in. Built to refill the well and rekindle the spark, for creative, content, and account teams, and for the managers and executives who care about lifting their people up.

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Ideation & Innovation

Products, worlds, characters, stories, and programs, conjured from nothing. We chase the ideas, untangle the hard problems, and imagine where things are headed so we can lead you there. Bringing the not-yet-real to life is the part we love most.

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“The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind: creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers, and meaning makers.”

Daniel Pink, writer

If your brand has a promise worth keeping, I would love to connect.

Write to me