Orchard Creative
About Sarah Garman (CBM, 2013), Head of Strategy / Orchard Creative
Sarah is a strategist and storyteller who’s spent a lifetime studying culture and over a decade creating strategies for the world’s most influential brands.
After completing her International Relations degree at William and Mary, Sarah was told she asks too many questions for government work. And, in her pursuit to find a career that would be industry agnostic and truth loyal, she found advertising strategy.
She began her ad career at VCU Brandcenter, earned her stripes at CP+B, and then spent five years at Droga5. There she reframed IHOP as a pancakin’ proud brand that flips expectations, repositioned Petco as a pet health and wellness company, redefined the iconic Harley-Davidson, and led strategy for America’s biggest bank. Her work has been recognized with top industry honors and has earned awards for both creativity and effectiveness.
She believes empathy, curiosity, and creativity are the only true prerequisites for great strategy. Oh, and a penchant for the truth.
About Laura Janness, Co-Founder, Chief Strategy Officer / Orchard Creative
A meat and potato Midwesterner with an unstoppable work ethic.
Named one of AdAge’s Leading Women in 2021, Campaign Magazine’s 40 Over 40 in 2020, Business Insider’s 30 Most Creative Women in Advertising in 2016, and Adweek’s 50 Vital Leaders in Tech, Media and Marketing in 2015.
Formerly strategist at Leo Burnett Detroit and Deutsch LA, strategy director at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and Google Creative Lab and chief strategy officer at Barton F. Graf.
Trained data analyst and moderator. An expert in designing and fielding creative research methodologies. Research can be best friends with creativity when it’s loved and understood. Better inputs lead to better outputs.
Hardworking volunteer for the Isabella Geriatric Center and City Meals in NYC.
About Jimm Lasser, Executive Creative Director / Orchard Creative
Straight out of the town where John Hughes filmed all movies, Jimm was trained at the University of Michigan, Vanderbilt University School of Law, and with Wieden+Kennedy “12” before becoming an art director.
He stayed at W+K for twelve years: as an art director at the Portland office working on Old Spice, Nike, Heineken, Levi’s and most notably, Chrysler. He is credited with putting George Washington into a Dodge Challenger, Eminem into a Chrysler 200, and Clint Eastwood into politics. He was a creative director in W+K’s New York office for seven years, leading business on Southern Comfort, Sprite, Vitamin Water, and Jordan Brand—winning a Cannes Grand Prix for the Derek Jeter “RE2PECT” campaign.
Jimm directed and produced an Emmy Award-winning documentary for the New York Times, “Long Live Benjamin.” He lives in Flatbush, Brooklyn with Hanna, their two children.
About Heather Larimer, Creative Director / Orchard Creative
Heather Larimer is a writer, creative director, and musician. She has spent fifteen years creating work for some of the world’s most recognized brands, including Apple, Target, Twitter, ESPN, Uniqlo, Danone and more, including creating the global tagline for Delta Airlines, “Keep Climbing”.
She has a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Washington, has published fiction and non-fiction in media including Tin House, The Sun, Open City, The Stranger, Jane Magazine and The Seattle Weekly.
Heather began her ad career in Wieden + Kennedy’s 12 program, then went on to work for agencies including W+K, Apple-focused Media Arts Lab and the purpose-driven “MAL for GOOD”. Most recently, Heather spent three years as the CMO/ECD of 1906, a startup cannabis edibles company, helping build the brand from a local chocolates-focused brand to a national juggernaut pioneering “functional cannabis” and achieving 10x growth, and media coverage in Business Insider, Cosmopolitan, Goop, Forbes and Rolling Stone.
Heather has also been a musician and songwriter for most of her life, starting at age five with a psychedelic diss track about getting sent to her room. So far, she has created or appeared on fifteen albums and compilations, and her first-ever 7” was debuted by BBC Radio One’s legendary John Peel. She is currently working on the 2nd album of her newest band, Corvair, which tastemaker KEXP called “a promising set of hook-filled indie pop,” American Songwriter called “dynamic and bombastic,” and has twice been featured on NPR New Music Fridays.