Jan Miller founded the firm in 1987 with a designer’s eye and an entrepreneur’s instinct — drawing clients from real estate to education to museums, always following the work that mattered most. From the beginning, that work lived on the page: annual reports, publications, branding, and environmental design that gave organizations a voice and an identity.

Claire Bellecci grew up around the business, developed a natural eye for design, and built a communications career in California before Jan made it official: a letter in the mail, an invitation to come home and lead.

Claire returned to Hampton, stepped into the firm, and got to work. The firm had always had a hand in web development, but Claire saw the full opportunity and pushed it forward — growing the digital side into a core service and expanding into social media strategy. The print foundation never wavered. It simply gained a powerful partner.

After about five years, it was clear the firm had grown into something bigger than its original name could hold. Claire championed the rebrand — and Mellen Street Creative was born.

She has led it ever since, building a practice where print and digital don’t compete — they work together to tell a complete story for every client we serve.

Today we are a small but formidable team — woman-owned, SWaM-certified, and rooted in Hampton for more than 35 years. The tools have changed, from Letraset and drafting tables to AI. What has never changed is our commitment to organizations doing work worth talking about.

Some of our clients have been with us for decades. That’s not an accident.