West Elm streamlines creative ops to manage 26,000+ assets

West Elm is one of the largest home furnishings e-commerce retailers—and its visual identity is no small feat. Korin Thorig, VP of Creative Operations at West Elm, leads the team behind the brand’s distinctive visual identity—managing marketing and product photography across six teams and more than 26,000 assets annually. After discovering Airtable through a mentor, she  immediately recognized its potential to replace spreadsheets and streamline planning across the entire creative workflow.

Originally adopted to coordinate photo shoots, Airtable quickly scaled into a core system of record. “It’s finally coming together—Airtable is giving time back to the team,” Korin shared. Airtable now supports every part of the creative process, from sample tracking to campaign execution, with tailored views and dashboards for teams across creative, marketing, operations, and leadership.

When West Elm needed to reduce product returns, Korin built a dashboard in Airtable within days—turning data from distribution centers into visual insights that improved imagery and reduced mismatched expectations. “We identified colorways that were trending as returns and took immediate action,” she said. “We can now predict savings based on what we’ve been able to action on.”

Now scaled to nine brands and more than 1,000 users across Williams-Sonoma Inc., Airtable has become a foundational platform. With a recent enterprise upgrade and the addition of a dedicated Airtable tech partner, West Elm is building a true ecosystem—automating workflows, increasing transparency, and empowering teams to move faster.

Korin’s advice? “Test and learn. Start small, identify champions, and scale from there. Airtable is the innovation pillar of my role.”