Portfolio
EmmaCoochin
Creative Strategist · Fashion Designer · Marketing Director
About
Living in technicolour
At a Glance
- BasedClermont, QLD
- FocusCreative Strategy & Marketing
- BackgroundFashion Design & Business
- Brands Built8+
- Off-GridEntirely on purpose
I’ve never really stayed in one lane, and I’ve stopped apologising for it.
I grew up in western NSW, learned to hustle in Dubbo, then spent years chasing opportunity through Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and back again. Along the way I ran national fashion events backstage, managed TV and Radio accounts, produced hackathons across Australasia, grew startup business communities, and founded more businesses than I care to count, including a lipstick label I started in my kitchen trying to recreate a discontinued Mac shade.
I’ve always believed that marketing, business and creativity are the same thing. You’re just solving different problems.
At some point, the cities stopped making sense. I swapped the city for Central Queensland, traded the commute for three ex-racehorses and a paddock, and built something that actually fits the life I want to live.
These days, I run Clermont Digital with my partner Steve from our off-grid property outside Clermont, serve as CMO for AERIS, and work alongside The Lekker Agency. I retrain ex-racehorses, grow our own vegetables, and share the property with two rescue cats, nine chooks, a budgie, a pig dog who has never hunted anything in her life, and a Pomeranian who is unambiguously in charge of all of us, including the pig dog, who sleeps next to my desk while the Pomeranian rules from underneath it.
None of that is curated. It’s just my life, and that’s exactly the point. The best brands don’t perform authenticity. They feel it.
The Journey
From runway to boardroom
Fashion & Design
I trained at FBI Fashion College and Whitehouse Institute of Design, built labels from sketch to runway, and spent years learning that great design starts with the person wearing it, not the designer. Fashion taught me to see everything differently. I haven’t stopped.
Marketing Leadership
From community newspapers in Dubbo to PayPal hackathons across Australasia to growing LaunchVic’s online community by 300% in a year, I’ve built campaigns that actually move the needle. Data-informed, creatively led, and made to connect.
Creative Direction
Running Clermont Digital from off-grid Central Queensland, proving every day that great work doesn’t require a capital city postcode. Strategy that looks good and performs, always both, never one without the other.
Community & Events
I organised FuckUp Nights because failure deserves the same stage as success. I’ve mentored at Startup Weekend, judged grant panels at LaunchVic, and spent years championing honest storytelling in the Australian startup and fashion ecosystems. The thread through all of it: real people, real stories, not just highlight reels.
Tech & Fashion Ventures
Brands she built
Ivy Lillis
Fashion LabelBorn from a graduate runway show at FBI Fashion College and a firm belief that fashion should fit real bodies. Ivy Lillis was designed to celebrate every shape, and prove that style has no size.
Rainbow Nymph
AccessoriesAn e-commerce accessories brand for people who believe more colour is always the answer. Featured in Foundr Magazine alongside 11 other women entrepreneurs who built something from nothing.
Hi Doll Cosmetics
BeautyStarted in my kitchen trying to recreate a discontinued Mac shade. Ended up as a cruelty-free, vegan lipstick label. A bold lip really can change your entire day.
Runway For A Day
Designer RentalOne of Australia’s first designer clothes and shoes rental businesses; built before rental fashion was a thing, because access to beautiful clothes shouldn’t depend on your budget.
Experience
Where she’s been
Building the agency from the ground up in Central QLD. Custom websites, brand strategy, and digital automation for businesses that deserve better than a templated solution.
Taking an in-house ERP tool and positioning it as a standalone product for Australian trade businesses. The Xero for operations.
Specialist marketing support for an agency that lives by the philosophy that “lekker”, the pursuit of all things good… it isn’t just a name.
Decentralised compute and AI infrastructure. Brought marketing structure and strategy to an ambitious tech startup operating at the frontier of the open web.
Victoria’s government startup agency. Grew the online community by 300% in a year, sat on grant judging panels, and helped shape how Australia’s startup ecosystem told its story.
Designed and produced hackathon events across Sydney, Melbourne, Singapore, and Tokyo. Fast-paced, multi-stakeholder, deadline-driven and genuinely fun.
Ran the national Santaland campaign; recruiting and managing 1,500–2,000 Santas, Elves, and Mrs Clauses across Australia every year. Yes, really.
Led marketing and partnerships for Australia’s fashion tech graduate program, helping new designers build careers with fully-formed personal brands from day one.