Project Type: Brand

UPBrand Brand Package

Recently, I started my tenure as the Vice President / Creative Director of UPBrand, a St. Louis-based agency focused on building brands through storytelling. I’ve already been having fun with great design and concept and one part of that has been establishing the aesthetic and visual brand for the agency itself. A good friend and talented independent designer Ben Franklin had started the proceedings with identity work before I arrived. I have taken the mark that Ben established and created a look and feel for digital assets, packaging, presentation materials, apparel and motion / video.

The work strikes a balance between a very clean, linear, type-driven, Bauhaus-inspired approach and found ephemera and organic, hand-wrought design elements used both metaphorically and to bring a human touch to the designs. It’s always very rewarding to bring a brand that I am close to like this to life.

Duo + Quintess Brand Package

The most beautiful vacation homes in the world’s most coveted locations totally staffed to meet your every need. That is Quintess — a luxury club for discerning vacationers with resources. I recently had the opportunity to offer up site designs for the main Quintess site as well as both identity and digital brand assets for a new vacation club within the Quintess house of brands called “DUO.” The work strikes a balance between sleek elegance and a rich, textural approach. The site designs themselves use a mixture of gorgeous photography of the properties themselves, clean, elegant typography, deep, evocative color scheming and custom damask patterns. The DUO identity is at once bold, contemporary and rich. The split “O” at the terminus of the mark signifies the concept of “II,” speaking to the brand’s direct relationship to the main Quintess offering. I really enjoyed putting these together.

“Friday Night Fights” Title Sequence

This is a title sequence for “Friday Night Fights” — a series of social usability “deathmatch” videos where live lab footage is shown pitting two similar websites against each other to determine which is more usable. The FNF wordmark is also mine. It’s all custom letterforms and ties in with the suite of other 4ORCE wordmarks for various initiatives.

Ad Week STL Poster + Mark

These initial designs for a fledgling concept here in St. Louis are pure fun. Speaking as a creative, I will say that we can be a pretty annoying and self-absorbed bunch. So often, groups and events designed to build  a sense of community can devolve into pettiness. That’s where AD WEEK STL comes from — a desire to stop the complaining and infighting and to move forward, building something vibrant in the St. Louis creative community.

I led the theme concepting on this as well as the brand development itself. A senior writer at 4ORCE landed on the title of an Aerosmith song as the perfect way to convey our central idea — “Shut Up and Dance.” The supporting mark and poster materials leverage the edge of the creative mind while cutting through the lethargy and ennui that plague the scene. Fun.

I will be flowing this out to more materials and digital assets. Shown here: Poster + Detail and Mark.

Purina Petcentric Redesign Concept

This redesign of pet products giant Purina’s Petcentric website is about the balance between clean, usable layout and gestural design touches. The site uses a “boutique-ish” feel to establish visual interest and build on the popularity of the personal touch of neighborhood pet stores — giving a more personal face to the Purina corporation. Overall, a very fun approach to the rework.

Brainfül Wordmark + Mark + Shirt

With a speakers series featuring luminaries like the head of the FBIs cybercrime division for Missouri and Dr. Elaine Mardis of Washington University’s Genome Center, internal training initiatives and great workshops, BRAINFüL is a compelling way that 4ORCE keeps its employees informed and inspired.

This logotype, created to echo the main 4ORCE wordmark, was built with all custom letterforms. The result is progressive and futuristic with a slight retro appeal.

The mark itself is both eye-catching and whimsical and speaks to the other 4ORCE iconography I developed for the brand. The juxtaposition of imagery within the mark brings a smile.

The shirt design is bold and clean, everything a truly memorable t-shirt should be. Pure fun.

Express Scripts “Wise Up” Campaign

This campaign, targeted at large organizations, uses the concept of “social norming” to increase participation in a home delivery prescription plan. The idea was to devise a catchy, punchy way to engage consumers and encourage a “bandwagon” mentality to spread through a company, increasing participation and bringing both the consumer and the organization large savings.

We came up with the concept “Wise Up” as a playful and attitudinal way to bring to life this “social norming” idea — “everyone is doing it and you should too because it would be stupid not to.” Visually, the campaign uses bold, visually arresting graphics to cut through the clutter of the corporate / retail end environment. I brought a custom campaign identity to the mix, digital and print executions rounding out the package.

Mark, site and poster collateral shown here. Campaign goal poster also shows end-user-generated handwritten text to show participation progress.

White Hat Advisors Brand Package

Marketing consultancy White Hat Advisors was looking for an identity that pulled in President / Founder Stuart Jenkins’ Montana ranch roots while building on the idea that “good guys wear white hats.” My solution was bold, iconic and memorable. The mark itself has a timeless quality that brings home the “good guys wear white hats” idea with a white hat that echoes the shape of a halo. The business papers are also designed so each employee’s initials could be a part of the design. In the words of the client, Mr. Jenkins, “I don’t know how you conveyed everything we wanted to, but you nailed it.”

4ORCE Brand Package + UX Lab Brand Package

NGAGE has become 4ORCE. It’s a compelling rebrand that embodies a reimagining and broadening of the agency scope and capabilities.

I created the new 4ORCE mark as a subtle nod to the existing NGAGE brand I developed. It is bold and progressive and uses custom-created letterforms to convey a sense of “digital.” The brutish nature of the type also brings a decisive strength to the brand as well.

One major portion of the agency’s expanded service offerings is the opening of our new User Experience Lab. I created custom brand elements for that as well, building on the main 4ORCE letterforms. The result has the same sense of presence as the main mark with a touch of “science fiction” sprinkled over the top.

I also created custom iconography as a part of the overall brand to show the unique blend of services present at 4ORCE. Though capturing complex concepts like “Insights and Intelligence” might appear difficult, I approached this with clarity and a touch of whimsey at the forefront of my thought. The icons are stylish and do capture both the essence of the departments themselves with a smile.

NGAGE Company Guidebook

As Creative Director and Vice President, I take great pride in having been a fundamental part of the growth and development of NGAGE, a progressive digital agency in St. Louis with a very progressive culture.

This piece, targeted at all NGAGE employees, gelled both my personal thoughts on culture as well as agency owner Dan Curran’s attitudes, feelings and approach to running an agency. This content, coupled with policies and perks, made the book a wonderful statement about the ethos and soul of the agency. I acted as both the copywriter and the designer on the piece. Bringing together straightforward, boldly stated copy, whimsical photography and a heaping helping of attitude, I leveraged forward the NGAGE brand in a new way that reached audiences both internal and external as the content found a home on the NGAGE site.

Shown here with cover spread and selected inside spreads.

MOZO Shoes Brand Package + Site

With brands like UGGS and Simple on their roster, the Deckers Corporation had a PROVEN track record for bringing great “brands on the verge” into their brand family. MOZO was no exception.

Designed with the belief that chefs are lateral athletes — moving fast on their feet for grueling 14 hour shifts, MOZO delivers unequaled comfort. Like a Kershaw Shun knife or an Imperial gas range, a MOZO shoe is an essential tool for the professional chef.

I led a full rebrand of MOZO. It started with a rework of the mark and wordmark, progressed to packaging, business papers, collateral and a complete relaunch of the MOZO site. In this case, all of the work was my personal positioning and design work.

Principia College Athletic Hall of Fame Interior Design Concepts

Designed to convey a sense of history while serving as an inspirational “call to arms” for current Principia College athletes, this installation was a bold and textured tribute to the “gold and blue” of Principia. lauded poet painter of the Midwest Frederick Oakes Sylvester gave the colors of gold and blue to the college to stand for “purity” and “courage.” It is in the spirit of these qualities that I created these designs.

Full-bleed custom wallpaper featuring Principia athletes from the past treated in the school’s colors serves as the anchor for the installation. Stainless steel doors were added throughout the space with custom door pulls styled to reflect a new athletic mark I designed for the college. three-dimensional panels, display cases and glass walls completed the design.

“It’s A Totally Different Experience” Brand + Campaign Materials + Video

Faced with a target enrollment pool that were either attending the “feeder” Principia private boarding high school or being pushed by their alumni parents to attend, Principia College had an image problem. The college needed a way to differentiate itself from its’ high school “sister” while conveying to an international student audience that this was definitely not their parents’ Principia College.

To combat this, I led the “itsatotallydifferentexperience.com” campaign. The fully branded campaign featured a compelling site with real stories from real students wrapped in a progressive design that differentiated itself from the more stately main Principia College brand. I also created video motion graphics pieces set to music recorded by college students themselves to help convey the “PC” experience. Live events at unique locations also carried the brand and the campaign directly to select groups of prospecive students with video pieces and live Q / A sessions with current Principia College students. other promotion materials such as posters and a “Summer Survival Kit” helped prospects take the brand home.

Hardee’s “French Me” Campaign Package

How do you connect with guys 18-27? Well, there are a few ways. Namely, hot girls, huge burgers and live events. with the Hardee’s “French Me” campaign, we gave guys all three.

To promote the launch of the new featured “French Dip Thickburger” (the lovechild of a Thickburger and a french dip sandwich), we put 4 hot maids on the road on Segways at the hottest events of the summer, on local media and heavily in the digital social media space. Guys loved it. Period.

I led the full brand / design effort here. My site design drove the look and feel for the whole campaign. I also took this to social media skins and created the video  style and motion graphics portions. I creative directed the photoshoots for the campaign, collateral, promotional items including a vehicle wrap and signage, a full social media video initiative and the mark for the campaign.

Astound Sound Brand Package

They just don’t make audiophiles like they used to. Those gigantic room-filling systems are a thing of the past. Two channel headphones, computer speakers and stereo televisions rule the rooms and apartments of the young men of today.

That’s where the technologists at Astound Sound come in.

Using “psycho-acoustics,” Astound Sound has found a way to “broaden the stage,” making your two-channel speaker systems powerhouses of full sound. The technology also allows sound to match time and distance. For gamers that means hearing the click of a trigger behind them just in time.

I led a full rebrand of Astound Sound, including a new identity system, a new site, collateral materals, ADS and environmental design. I set the style for the entire brand. Here, I am showing the pieces I directly designed here. I creative directed the rest.

Hanes “Dave’s Detours” Campaign Package

Hanes needed to reach males 18-34. But the brand assets they had weren’t going to work. Outtakes from Michael Jordan ads? I don’t think so. To the target they were looking at for this campaign, Kobe Bryant was an old player. They needed something brand new.

We sent an average guy (Dave — a real estate agent from Illinois) on the road to challenge celebrities to feats of smarts, strength and skill to show that anyone can be comfy in their Hanes Comforsofts in any situation.

The results were overwhelming. Dave arm wrestled rapper 50-Cent for watches, Challenged Paris Hilton to a pose-off, jumped rope with Cuba Gooding Jr. and got in Tom Brady’s face to name a few. The campaign lived on Dave’s site, in social media and on affinity sites like ESPN and Comedy Central.

I was a design and creative direction lead for the full campaign. I have shown two selected elements here.

David McCullough at Principia College Event Package

David McCullough: best-selling author of historical hits including “1776”. “John Adams” and “Truman.” Recipient of numerous honors and awards including 2 Pulitzer Prizes, The National Book Foundation Distinguished Contribution to American Letters Award, the National Humanities Medal, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. ONE heck of a nice guy.

I led a branding effort for this celebrated author’s events at Principia College. The campaign bridged the gap between the subject matter of our nation’s early history and a contemporary college audience through bold, unexpected imagery and a wink. I took the campaign to NPR advertising, a full banner inititative throughout campus, a postering campaign on and off campus and into the digital space as well.

Principia College Speakers Series Brand Package

With a roster of luminaries like Margaret Thatcher, Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama, Jane Goodall, George H.W. Bush, Corretta Scott King and Erin Brockovich among others, the Principia College speakers series is a truly unique opportunity. Consequently, it needed a brand that reflected that uniqueness as well as communicated the nature of the confluence of ideas that the series represents.

The resulting brand uses a spectrum of colors and concentric rings to communicate that confluence and black and white photography and clean, simple typography to underscore an unadorned sense of equality. The campaign lived online, in posters, banners and in NPR ads.

I was the Designer and Creative Director for the campaign.

Daily Me Brand Package and App Design

Daily Me was another consumer subscription commerce exploration focused on women. This was not a popular concept as a CONCEPT, but the identity, app designs and overall look and feel were quite universally loved, so I am sharing it here.

I also wanted to share it because it features a powerful tool in my arsenal on the branding and digital sides alike :: the STYLE TILE. I love these. They exist somewhere in between the loose gestures of a mood board and the specificity of final designs. I have shown them on the Whole Foods Wine Club work as well. I use them whenever I can.

Shown Here :: Identity, Style Tile, App Designs

dailyme_full

Wampyr Band Identity System and Digital Design

Rock and roll should feel dangerous and what could feel more that way than a blend of horror and metal? Bands like The Misfits, Alice Cooper, Bauhaus, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and others have lived at that intersection, marking their careers with a unique, spooky quality. That’s what this ID system is designed to do. It leverages a custom blackletter approach to the mark and wordmark into an entire system that feels somehow both modern and at home in a mouldering castle with coffins in the crypt. I created all of this personally and had a great time doing so.

Shown Here :: Mark, Wordmark, Colors, Apparel, Responsive Web Designs