Format 01
Runway Recap
Designer runway distilled into actionable commercial signals within days of fashion week close. High-fashion directional cues translated into merchandisable categories for the buying team.
2 weeks
Format 02
Travel Recap
Street-level signals from international market trips, Paris, Milan, London, Tokyo, synthesized into visual briefs for the buying team within one week of return.
1 week
Format 03
Quick React
When a cultural signal breaks, the Quick React pipeline turns it into a curated, designed product brief within 48 hours.
48 hours
The System at Speed
This slide is produced within 3–5 days of runway close. The template is pre-built; the work is curation and content decisions, not design from scratch. Speed is only possible because the system exists.
Why This Matters
The design work here is synthesis and communication. Unstructured input is transformed into a strategic brief, then extended into a prototype that makes the concept legible for decision-makers.
Product density and rack arrangement
Atmospheric environment — lighting, materials, mood
Stakeholder alignment before any floor space committed
Design the brief – 48-hour pipeline
Signal confirmed → report designed → product links embedded → handoff → emails + site pop-ups
A mature design system doesn't end with the enterprise deliverable. It proves itself at every speed. The same typographic system, visual hierarchy, and editorial logic that runs a 5,000-person Symposium also runs a 48-hour trend alert.
3
distinct formats sharing one design system
48 hours
fastest window from cultural signal spotted to designed, approved, live brief
1
sole designer across all formats, all seasons. I had to create a scalable system so I can help multiple teams build at the same time.
Weekly
cadence sustained across 3-4 months per season. The briefs shipped directly to customer-facing emails and site pop-ups every season
The Quick React pipeline was the most clarifying work I did at Macy's. Not because it was the most complex, but because it was the most constrained. 48 hours from signal to approved brief forces a kind of decision-making clarity that longer timelines can hide.
You can't second-guess a layout when the trend is already moving. You learn quickly what the system actually needs versus what you were adding out of habit. Every unnecessary element becomes obvious when you're racing a cultural moment.
That discipline of knowing what to cut, what to keep, and what the reader needs to act is what I carried into every product I've designed since. Not just making something beautiful. Making something that moves people to the next decision.
The React Reports proved the system worked. But more than that, they proved I could work inside it and trust it even under pressure.
Cynthia Rhee
©
2026