Neil Kraft, the creative director who orchestrated strong and memorable advertising campaigns at Calvin Klein, Barneys New York and other top brands, died Sept. 6 at his home in East Hampton, N.Y., following a bout with cancer. Kraft was 68 and would have turned 69 on Sept. 16.

“Neil was incredibly funny with this New York-ish odd, truly unique, powerfully pointed and relentless personality who always made being with him, or working with him, worth it,” said his son Marley. “Part of what made him so special was that you never knew what he was going to say — and we all loved him for it. There was never a dull moment. He was extremely confident, yet very uncomfortable with self promotion at times. We miss him dearly already, and his impact on my life is immeasurable.”

“This is so sudden, heartbreaking and sad,” said Kelly Klein, a close friend of Kraft’s. “He was very creative. He ran the in-house agency for Calvin and he was a real talent. He was modern and contemporary in his design and wonderful to work with in the time he spent at the company.”

“I spent four very formative years in the early ’90s working with Neil as our leader in the advertising department of Barneys,” said Doug Lloyd of Lloyd & Co. “It was a thrilling and manic time to work in retail marketing. As a recent art school graduate and transplant to New York City, Neil gave me a chance in an industry totally new to me. He was very generous and daring like that. He championed many creative talents, sometimes by nudging, cajoling or nagging but ultimately always pushing people to do incredibly indelible work.”

A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design with a degree in photography, Kraft in 1982 joined Barneys New York, where for nine years, his in-house agency created campaigns that helped transform the store into an internationally known fashion destination with an edge. He worked alongside such talents as Glenn O’Brien, Simon Doonan and Steven Meisel, often utilizing found footage and humor to reignite the retail brand.

“Neil Kraft was a huge talent, with a highly sophisticated eye. He had a quiet elegance and was easily able to navigate the crazy ups and downs at Barneys,” said Timothy Greenfield Sanders, the documentary filmmaker and photographer who worked with Kraft on a Barneys portrait campaign in the late 1980s.

“We’re selling a mood and a lifestyle,” Kraft said at the time in a New York Times article. “We don’t expect people to look at the ads and come running down to buy a suit. We hope they’ll look at the ads and remember Barneys is a great place.” It was Kraft’s belief that the use of celebrities, which included Spike Lee and Ed Ruscha in Barneys outfits for the brand, was a novel break from using models.

Another of Kraft’s innovative campaigns for Barneys involved photographs that were completely devoid of fashion, and in one case featured Garry Winogrand’s evocative shot of a tough-looking crowd at a diner, with a line, “A conspiracy of taste.” Another photograph in the campaign by Roy DeCarava showed a moody Harlem dance floor with two dancers, and the line, “A style all our own.” Still another showed a nudist colony with the line, “You will all need clothes.” As ArtForum once wrote, the photos “elevated the everyday” of life.

Kraft further modernized the Barneys image by being instrumental in renaming the store from Barney’s, to Barneys New York (without the apostrophe).

After Barneys, Kraft became the worldwide image director of Esprit De Corps and redirected its image with the “What would you do to change the world?” campaign. According to Kraft’s LinkedIn profile, the campaign generated 30,000 letters a month.

In 1992, he was appointed senior vice president of advertising and creative services at Calvin Klein, where he worked on several memorable fashion campaigns pioneered by Calvin Klein himself, some involving Kate Moss and Mark Wahlberg, then known as Marky Mark. He also led the creative around CK’s fragrance line, with advertisements featuring Moss, Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell.

“For a long time, he did advertising, package design, trademarks and graphics,” recalled Calvin Klein. “He was a real talent. I worked with him when he was in charge of our in-house agency doing the marketing and going on shoots for campaigns. He was a wonderful guy, smart, and we were very much on the same page.”

In October 2000, Neil opened KraftWorks, where he maintained a team of creative minds and strategists and spent decades building iconic brands, designing packaging and continuing to push the boundaries of what people thought was possible. His team created successful campaigns and communication platforms for such brands as the Aldo Group, Ann Taylor, Bali Intimates, Bitten by Sarah Jessica Parker, Calvin Klein cosmetics, Cointreau, InStyle Magazine, La Prairie, J.Crew, Maidenform, Physicians Formula, Playtex Intimate Apparel, SmartWater, SwimSuitsForAll, Taylor Swift’s Wonderstuck and Wonderbra.

Among his many career highlights, Kraft also designed the famous Voss water bottle, which was introduced in 2001 as part of the launch of the Voss water brand.

In addition to his son Marley, Kraft is survived by his wife Scott O’Neil, his other son Morrison, and his daughter, Dylan. Service are being kept private.