I build brands:

the kind people love

retailers want

and competitors fear.

  • Brand Innovation Expert

  • Creative Director

  • Workshop Facilitator

  • Strategist

SARAH MCDONNELL

  • Brand Innovation Expert

  • Strategist

  • Workshop Facilitator

  • Creative Director

Women

Global brands. Ambitious startups. Agencies who need a creative rocket under a brief.

I'm the person you call when strategy needs to become something real. I work with a small roster at any one time. Chosen carefully. Worked on obsessively.

01

Brand Innovation

Messy strategy in, sharp ideas out. New products, packcepts, adcepts, innovation platforms, the kind that move through a global system and still feel like something. Ideas that end up in baskets, not just boardrooms.

02

Creative Direction & Strategy

Ideas that look as good as they think. I bring creative direction that bridges the gap between strategy and something people genuinely want, visually sharp, commercially grounded and impossible to ignore.

03

Brand Building

Full brand worlds, not just a logo and a colour palette. Positioning, naming, identity, tone of voice, the whole thing. Built to compete across FMCG, fashion, lifestyle and beyond. No hipster fluff.

04

Workshop Facilitation

High-energy sessions that actually unlock ideas, not just generate Post-its nobody acts on. Built around your brief, your team, your challenge. Clients call them the best workshops they've ever been in. (Ask KFC.)

Brand Innovation

Messy strategy in, sharp ideas out. New products, packcepts, adcepts, innovation platforms, the kind that move through a global system and still feel like something. Ideas that end up in baskets, not just boardrooms.

Creative Direction & Strategy

Ideas that look as good as they think. I bring creative direction that bridges the gap between strategy and something people genuinely want, visually sharp, commercially grounded and impossible to ignore.

Brand Building

Full brand worlds, not just a logo and a colour palette. Positioning, naming, identity, tone of voice, the whole thing. Built to compete across FMCG, fashion, lifestyle and beyond. No hipster fluff.

Workshop Facilitation

High-energy sessions that actually unlock ideas, not just generate Post-its nobody acts on. Built around your brief, your team, your challenge. Clients call them the best workshops they've ever been in. (Ask KFC.)

Brand Innovation

Messy strategy in, sharp ideas out. New products, packcepts, adcepts, innovation platforms, the kind that move through a global system and still feel like something. Ideas that end up in baskets, not just boardrooms.

Creative Direction & Strategy

Ideas that look as good as they think. I bring creative direction that bridges the gap between strategy and something people genuinely want, visually sharp, commercially grounded and impossible to ignore.

Brand Building

Full brand worlds, not just a logo and a colour palette. Positioning, naming, identity, tone of voice, the whole thing. Built to compete across FMCG, fashion, lifestyle and beyond. No hipster fluff.

Workshop Facilitation

High-energy sessions that actually unlock ideas, not just generate Post-its nobody acts on. Built around your brief, your team, your challenge. Clients call them the best workshops they've ever been in. (Ask KFC.)

I've shaped innovation for Coca-Cola, KFC, Unilever and beyond. I've built brands that beat legacy giants to No.1. I know what big-brand rigour looks like and I know what founder instinct feels like. I do this because I genuinely love it. That probably shows.


Most of my best work lives under NDA's, but here's a small window into what that actually looks like.

Woman

Ideas that sell. Brands that grow. Creative you can measure. From a scribble in a workshop to a brand on a shelf, I'm the person who makes the leap from strategy to something the world actually wants. 

Ideas that sell. Brands that grow. Creative you can measure. From a scribble in a workshop to a brand on a shelf, I'm the person who makes the leap from strategy to something the world actually wants. 

15 years in and the thing that keeps it fresh is simple... PEOPLE. Consumers change, trends evolve, categories shift, and there's always something new to get under the skin of. That curiosity is what makes me tick and the work land.

15 years in and the thing that keeps it fresh is simple... PEOPLE. Consumers change, trends evolve, categories shift, and there's always something new to get under the skin of. That curiosity is what makes me tick and the work land.

  • Available for the Right Brief

  • Available for the Right Brief

  • Available for the Right Brief

  • Available for the Right Brief

“Sarah is creative, curious and most importantly, brilliantly fun to work with. she is able to communicate a client’s story, brand and ideas into fantastic creative and artistry. Can’t wait for the next project!”

Red Woman

Melda Simon

Global Marketing Consultant, Unilever Brand

Sarah is a highly creative and strategic brand expert, combining curiosity with strong commercial thinking. She brings brand strategy, storytelling and creative direction together to turn ideas into distinctive, high-impact brand work. She has a clear ability to translate a client’s vision into compelling creative that resonates with consumers and drives results. A brilliant collaborator and genuinely great to work with. I look forward to working together again.

Red Woman

Melda Simon

Head of Global Marketing, Unilever

I've worked with Sarah for over 10 years now. What stands out as not being your traditional agency, she lives up to her promise, working with pace & flexibility around your needs and with work which is nothing short of excellence.

Man B&W

Alessandra Tassinario

Global Front-end Innovation Lead, Jacob-Douwe Egberts

Sarah always knows how to design so consumers engage immediately. she works ten times faster and with results that will out do anyone else in her field, quickly bringing to life ideas we haven’t been able to yet develop ourselves. To top it all off, she’s an incredibly lovely individual, so if you need quick ideas that look like they have taken months to develop and create, sarah is your gal!

Black Man

Kirsten Collis

Dove Senior Brand Manager

Sarah is a delight to work with, she has been a valuable member of our innovation workshops, bringing our ideas into life with impressive drawing skills. Her FMCG knowledge means she understands what’s important to the shopper. Sarah has quickly adapted to our brand guidelines, reacting to brief with very little rework required. Indeed, the quality of concepts got highly praised by our research agency. Strongly recommend for workshop and concept work, we wouldn’t want to work with anyone else.

Woman Side Pose

Elsa Deshiere

rand Manager at Campari

I have worked with Sarah multiple times and she is always a great value for innovation teams . She has the amazing ability to convey innovative ideas into design concepts ....that make the original ideas even better ! She is relentlessly looking into how to express innovation in a way that excite & intrigue consumers , and her designs are always beautiful . She is also very collaborative and fast and is a great contribution to multifunctional teams innovation sprints/ or consumer labs iterative co- creations . She is a delight to work with.

Woman Laughing

Laurence Fischer

Vice President Marketing

WHO WITH...

FAQ.

WHO WITH...

WHO WITH...

01

Global Brands

02

Startups & VCs

03

Agencies

Global Brands

Startups & VCs

Agencies