VIEWING… DISRUPTIVE ARCHIVE
Project Type: Disruptive
STL Symphony Save Powell Hall Campaign
The Boston Symphony tweets: “Ha. Ha. Amazing. :-)”
The Riverfront Times says: “Save Powell Hall: Concert Marketing Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This”
From STLToday: “SLSO begs public: Save Powell Hall!”
An LA arts and music blog crows: “…By far, the best orchestral marketing and advertising effort I’ve seen lately — probably ever — is St. Louis Symphony’s “Save Powell Hall” campaign.”
STLMag.com states: If we don’t take action now, Powell Hall is going to explode.
And… The St. Louis Business Journal, too.
I love creating disruptive marketing solutions. I feel it’s been a hallmark of my career. This very recent campaign for the St. Louis Symphony was a wonderfully fun example of that.
I acted as the concept, design and copywriting lead for the campaign, creating the initial idea, flowing it out to a signature style for the campaign, penning copy throughout and creative directing any other moving parts with the Symphony’s internal team and contract specialists. The campaign featured postering, an engaging website that acted as a hub for the campaign, outdoor applications (both for billboards and metro transit stops) and a “viral-style” video shot by Brant Hadfield with SFX and production by Terry Coolidge.
All of the coverage for the campaign was gratifying to see, but the fact that sales were up was the real “reward,” here. In all, a fun and engaging solution for a gem of the nation’s arts landscape.
Shown Here: Campaign Video, Mark Design, Sample Poster & Wheatpasting, Website, Sample Outdoor Applications and Poster Concept
Hardee’s 50th Anniversary Campaign + Tour
50 years of great Thickburgers, beautiful girls and good times, now that’s something to celebrate. When Hardee’s was looking for a unique way to spread the word about it’s 50th anniversary, 4ORCE got the call. This concept incorporates a heavy brand push into a buzz-generating tour and social media campaign. The central idea: building the ultimate girl country band for a national Hardee’s 50th birthday party — “Electra Starr and the Heartstrings” (and then “Stealing Angels”). The campaign is a home run for Hardee’s midwestern values with a mildly sexy wink and builds on existing brand sentiment while providing bold new texture to Hardee ’s reputation in the marketplace. I lead the development of all aspects of this brand campaign. From development of the campaign’s central theme and brand integration down to design of all touchpoints personally, I had a ton of fun with this one.
I’ve included just a few selected examples of my design work for the campaign for flavor below. Shown here :: Posters, Vehicle Wrap, Apparel and Digital Assets
UPBrand Hawaiian Holiday Poster Series
Just something that was pure fun, these large-format pieces were created for a 60’s-jet-set themed winter event that UPBrand was hosting. The goal here was simply to capture the spirit and style of the era’s travel advertising with a touch of the warmth and flavor of the island experience itself. Aloha ke akua!
UPBrand “Feel the Swagger” Poster Series
Built to showcase the three main areas of expertise at UPBrand Collaborative — Strategy, Service and Design — this poster series injects some swagger and retro funk into the agency brand. I used personal custom-created illustration and type for the main text elements on each poster to give both a contemporary urban flair to the series as well as an artful sense of touch. I was also responsible for all concept and copywriting on these. Fun!
Shown Here: Poster Series
STLCC Campaign Approaches
I do a lot of conceptual work. These two campaign approaches for St. Louis Community College were really intelligent and engaging examples of how a basic brand can really come alive at the campaign level.
The first concept, written by a comrade at the agency, illustrates the intelligent “real talk” reasons to explore STLCC as a higher ed option. The campaign really finds a strong sense of “life” and “pop” graphically. A contemporary layered approach and bold typography give this a style that sets it apart in very meaningful ways in the sea of sameness that is higher ed marketing. I self-performed all design on these.
I concepted, wrote and designed the second concept here. Built to deliver on the central idea of “There’s a Place for You Here,” the campaign shows that STLCC students are three-dimensional individuals with varied interests and passions. The core concept here is that it’s really not about co-opting the crest of some ivy-league to represent your personal brand, it’s about creating your own personal brand (represented by the individualized “passion-crests” here) and about how STLCC is one part of that. Overall, a visually engaging personal message of empowerment and validation.
STL Symphony “Naughty” Campaign Concepts
In my work life, I have the privilege of calling the internationally known St. Louis Symphony a client. I’ve shown some of my work for them here before. Simply put, the classical music scene ain’t what it use to be — exciting things are afoot. These engagement concepts show a bit of that new spirit. Fun, irreverent and just a touch naughty, these designs highlight the darker, more subversive side of an avant-garde Prokofiev classic. These are concepts that were not selected, because we actually have some other ideas that are more fun than this (I can’t wait to see those come to fruition), but I had a ton of fun designing these and they had an undeniable beauty. I wanted to share them here.
Shown Here: Posters and Detail
Precision Foods / Chick-Fil-A Promotional Materials
Dry blending and packaged foods specialists Precision Foods and beloved chicken franchise Chick-Fil-A both have a reputation for unmatched quality. Really, a perfect match. This awareness in-store campaign promotes one of Chick-Fil-A’s best-kept-secrets: hot cocoa. It’s not on the menu, but thousands of customers already know about this delicious drink option on cold days. Here are two concepts for the campaign.
The first concept takes a rich tantalizing approach; juxtaposing bold, contemporary “chocolate” typography with dramatic photography and cheeky attitude. The second is an illustrative, immersive take leveraging texture, humor, color and a classic typographic layout to rich effect. The campaign contained in-store signage, tray liners and drive through window clings.
I also functioned as concept lead and copywriter on these as well.
Shown Here: In-Store Signage
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UPBrand Promotional Poster
Who doesn’t love The Muppets? And, if you don’t…I’m not sure if you can be trusted. They’re at the center of both the concept and the design of this promotional poster for UPBrand. Created as a piece to reach out to prospects we’re courting from a business prospecting standpoint, the poster brings a metaphorical smile to the concept of working together. Fun.
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.
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.
4ORCE Spring Events Calendar Poster
For this poster assignment for a Spring Calendar of Events, I gave myself a unique challenge: How to convey the central mission of digital agency 4ORCE, “interactivity,” through a static display poster? The solution I devised uses distance to create that sense of discovery and interactivity.
From a distance, the poster appears to be a rich pop-style portrait of Kojak star, Telly Savalas with a foppish birthmark. As the viewer moves closer, the image breaks up into a pixelated pattern of colored blocks, concentric circles and a heart at the center of the composition. The overall effect is fascinating.
Selected Posters
I think that great poster design is so often ignored in the marketing mix. It is a tangible link to our past as designers and I relish the opportunity to work on posters whenever I can.
“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.
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.
Budbowl 09′ Campaign Concepts
These concepts were driven by the firm belief that the time had come for a new approach to the iconic Budbowl campaign, one that reflected the current trends in social media and consumer interaction. Each idea does this in a different way. I was the design and ideation lead on these ideas.
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.
