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Strategic Consultancy

Creative operations
are brand strategy.

Five Seventeen Projects builds the infrastructure behind exceptional creative work — fractional advisory for organizations that refuse to treat operations as an afterthought.

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About

Operations are an expression of
brand values, not just a support function.

Five Seventeen Projects is the strategic consultancy practice of Trisha Szeli, a creative operations strategist with 20+ years across global agencies, heritage luxury houses, and iconic fashion brands.

I work with CMOs, CCOs, CFOs, industry peers and VC platform teams who value how creative work gets made as much as the work itself. Whether you're building from zero or untangling something broken, I design the systems that let great creative happen, reliably, at scale, on brand. I'm also often brought in by advisory and consulting teams as a specialist in this space.

This isn't project management dressed up as strategy. It's the structural thinking that sits between vision and execution.

Trisha Szeli, Founder of Five Seventeen Projects

Trisha Szeli

Founder & Principal

I've spent my career inside the engines of marketing – shaping how brands produce, scale, and deliver creative work. My years at Calvin Klein and Tiffany & Co. gave me something rare: deep experience inside two globally iconic brands with very different expressions but remarkably aligned values around how creative work should be made. That tension – between different brand languages and shared operational truths – is where my perspective was built.

What I learned across those years, and across every team I built and system I designed, is that the way a brand produces its work tells you something essential about who they are. Operations aren't invisible. They shape the creative output, the culture, the pace, the quality – everything the audience eventually feels, even if they can't name it.

That's why Five Seventeen Projects exists. Not because brands need more project managers, but because the space between creative ambition and operational reality is where most of them lose the thread. I built this practice to sit in that space.

I'm based in New York.

Services

Fractional advisory for creative infrastructure.

Engagements are scoped to what you actually need — not a bloated retainer, not a one-size framework.

01

Creative Operations Build

Standing up creative ops from scratch. Workflows, tooling, team structures, and vendor ecosystems — designed for how your organization actually works.

02

Operational Diagnostics

Something's broken but nobody can name it. I audit your production pipeline, identify friction points, and deliver a clear remediation plan.

03

Fractional Leadership

Embedded advisory for teams in transition. I act as your interim Head of Creative Operations — setting direction, hiring, and building culture.

04

Portfolio Company Support

For VC platform teams: creative operations playbooks, founder coaching on production scaling, and hands-on support across the portfolio.

"The way you produce creative work tells the market who you are just as loudly as the work itself. A broken internal process isn't a logistics problem — it's a brand problem."

Background

20+ years building creative infrastructure at the highest level.

Previously

Senior Marketing Operations & Creative Production Leadership

Tiffany & Co. · LVMH · Calvin Klein · PVH Corp

Led end-to-end creative production across global productions, activations, experiential, campaigns & content. Built and scaled creative and operations teams, vendor ecosystems, and cross-functional workflows for houses where brand standards are non-negotiable.

Domain

The Full Creative Operating System.

Luxury · Fashion · Beauty · Global Retail & Omnichannel Brands · DTC

People. Product. Partnerships. Procurement. Performance.

Domain Expertise

Creative Production & Content Creation

  • Global photographic and video production (campaign, editorial, branded content)
  • End-to-end post-production (editing, retouching, color, finishing)
  • High-volume content creation ecosystems (always-on + campaign-based models)

Creative Operations & Workflow Design

  • Campaign workflow architecture and process optimization
  • Intake, prioritization, and capacity planning systems
  • Creative project management frameworks and tooling integration

E-Commerce & Content Supply Chain

  • E-commerce product photography and on-figure studio operations
  • Content production for digital commerce, marketplaces, and PDP optimization
  • Scalable content supply chain design (global → regional → local adaptation)

Studio & In-House Agency Leadership

  • In-house studio buildouts and operational scaling
  • Studio performance optimization (throughput, quality, cost efficiency)
  • Organizational design and cross-functional team structuring

Asset Management & Content Systems

  • Digital Asset Management (DAM) strategy, taxonomy, and governance
  • Asset lifecycle management (creation → distribution → reuse → archival)
  • Metadata, tagging frameworks, and content discoverability systems

Creative Technology & Systems Integration

  • Creative technology ecosystem design (DAM, PM tools, production platforms)
  • Workflow digitization and automation
  • Integration across creative, media, and enterprise systems

Connected Creative Intelligence & Performance

  • Creative performance analytics and data-informed decision frameworks
  • Asset-level ROI and content effectiveness measurement
  • Development of connected intelligence systems (e.g., MEG frameworks)

Talent, Partnerships & External Ecosystems

  • Agency and vendor strategy, procurement, and rate modeling
  • Production partner ecosystems (photographers, directors, post houses)
  • Influencer, celebrity, and talent collaboration models

Brand Experience & Experiential Production

  • Experiential activations, events, and sponsorship production
  • Integrated brand storytelling across physical and digital touchpoints
  • Retail, OOH, and immersive brand environments

Financial Operations & Governance

  • Production budgeting, forecasting, and cost optimization
  • Rights management, usage tiering, and contract strategy
  • Operational governance, compliance, and risk management

Packaging & Product Systems

  • Primary and secondary packaging, retail packaging, trim, labels, and brand identity systems
  • Material sourcing, supplier strategy, and sample development
  • Comping, prototyping, and technical specifications

Sustainability & Responsible Production

  • Sustainable material sourcing and packaging innovation
  • Production practices aligned to environmental goals and cost efficiency
  • Scalable implementation across product and content ecosystems
20+ Years in Creative Operations
Global Campaign & Production Scope
NYC Based, Working Everywhere

Contact

Let's talk about what you're building.

Whether you're scaling a creative team, fixing a broken pipeline, or just need someone who's seen the pattern before — let's start there.

Email directly hello@fiveseventeen.io