I’ve been embedded as a Creative Director and Brand Strategist at Hornet for months, working on two completely different, yet equally challenging projects. The first is concepting 5 weeks worth of consumer engagement programming for the Soho pop-up shop of Japanese Manga publishing powerhouse, Kodansha. Kodansha has been around for over 100 years, and is home to the some of the most famous Manga IP on planet earth, including Akira, Sailor Moon, Blue Lock and Attack on Titan, to name a few. I’ve been working on installations and community-centric events –  figuring out ways to engage NY Manga fans during Comicon and beyond.At the same time, I’ve been leading a year-long brand identity project for global consulting powerhouse Deloitte. We are establishing a fresh, new look and feel, a new motion language, and a brand new OOH/social campaign that will come to life later this year. I’ve been in the trenches with the Deloitte brand team and key stakeholders every week, aligning on strategy and fine tuning the new visual identity to meet stakeholder benchmarks. It’s challenging to ignite real change with clients of this scale, but I am eager to see my vision for the brand realized. Onward and upward!

Back at Gretel with Ryan and team, working as a strategist and copywriter on two major streaming platforms, Paramount & Peacock. We did a deep dive on Paramount to identify and articulate the essence of their brand and express it as a creative platform that will inform marketing and programming for years to come. I did six weeks of stakeholder interviews, picking the brains of their top executives. I waded through a mountain of data and brand decks. I crafted creative platforms, manifestos and copy and I'm happy to report that it all came together in the nick of time, to affirm their point of view and position them for sale to Skydance. After Paramount we moved on to rebranding Peacock. Myself and another strategist articulated a new brand personality and voice that informed an entirely new redesign, which should be coming to a tablet near you in the not too distant future. This kind of work is right up my alley and Gretel remains one of the best branding studios on the planet.

I’ve been freelancing at Buck for most of this year, working as both a Creative Director and Copywriter.Most recently, I helmed a holiday campaign for Venmo as both Creative Director and lead Copywriter. We shot four different spots in a single day and created a truckload of both video and static assets to run on social and OOH. These will run through the end of 2023.I also CD’d a series of celebrity-driven commercials for Walmart. About 25 unique spots, altogether. These have been running on social channels since the summer. Our latest celebs include John Legend and The Grinch(!). I also oversaw two additional Walmart seasonal campaigns that were already underway. All told, I directed a 30+ team of designers, animators and editors.As a copywriter, I worked on two distinct VR branded experiences for cultural institutions. For the first I developed narrative scripts for the story that drove the experience, For the second, I wrote UX copy. I'm told these will go live in 2024.

I spent much of the winter months working on a rebrand for the super-dope animation studio Hornet. Duties included brand strategy, brand tone of voice, brand manifestos, and a lot of research and deck building for a brand film. The project was led by Daniel Fries Productions. Daniel had a team already in place handling logo design, graphic identity, motion language and web design. I also did some freelance CDing at Hornet during this period. The rebrand launched in November 2023.

Back at Trollbäck as of late, working with the Brand Strategy team and copywriting for a myriad of projects including a brand campaign for Apple TV+, brand identity for Adobe, a 360 summer campaign for Audible, and brand identity for a new, crypto-based lifestyle brand. Smart people. Cool people. Stellar work.

I spent the majority of 2021 at Gretel, re-branding Showtime and launching SkyShowtime, a new European streamer. Both projects were 360° deliveries, covering comprehensive brand systems for streaming, on-air, digital, social, and OOH.My role on the SkyShowtime launch was primarily brand strategy and copywriting, as well as overseeing the creation and delivery of all final assets of the brand system (design/animation toolkits/guidelines, etc).My role on Showtime rebrand was co-Creative Directing the design and animation of the brand, copywriting, brand voice, brand strategy, and overseeing the creation and delivery of all final assets of the brand system.Jobs of this magnitude involve a lot of face time with executive stakeholders, while leading a diverse team of in-house designers, animators and editors. We conducted interviews with execs to identify the core DNA of the brand, and shared strategic goals for the future. We held extensive meetings with production staff to understand the parameters and constraints of each brand touchpoint. We met with marketing teams to align on everything from broad conceptual platforms to typefaces and complementary colors. The Showtime rebrand won Clio Awards in 2022. You can view the work on Gretel's site https://gretelny.com/showtime

In 2020, Kendrick Reid, SVP of Brand at BET reached out to me with a wonderful challenge and opportunity. The global, African American media powerhouse was looking for a design company to evolve their visual identity, and no matter where the job landed, he wanted me in place as part of the senior creative team, leading the charge. How could I say no?We began with two months of executive stakeholder interviews, domestic and abroad. Followed by weeks and weeks of swipe and sketches and storyboards and logo designs and manifestos and, well, you name it.My role was co-Creative Director, Brand Strategist, & copywriter. We developed a conceptual platform that could drive all brand executions moving forward, and carry BET into the next decade. I worked closely with a large team of art directors, designers, animators and writers - putting all the pieces in place for the debut of the rebrand at the BET Awards, their most prestigious, tent-pole event.We created a dynamic, adaptive design system, rooted in a brand new logo, that could modulate across their global eco-system of sub-brands. It’s been thrilling seeing the modular language construct I developed come to life, flexing for their mother brand, networks, content and talent. You can view the work on Sibling Rivalry's site https://www.siblingrivalry.com/studio/work/project/bet

I spent the early part of 2020 Creative Directing an event package and image campaign for The BET Experience, a live, 3-day event for Viacom’s premiere African American media brand. I was brought in to lead the job primarily because of my extensive knowledge of Afro-futurism, which was the theme of the event. I gave a multi-media presentation to BET senior staff on the history of Afro-futurism, both visually and musically – bringing in some vinyl gems from my personal collection to pass around. This included artists like Herbie Hancock, Parliament and Sun Ra.I was excited to dust off my typography skills, hand-crafting the logo for the event, which we rendered in day-glo 3D glass. I worked closely withe a team of Art Directors, Designers and Animators to bring the entire package to life.As luck would have it, the event was an early victim of the pandemic, being canceled in 2020, and only virtual in 2021. Hopefully it finally sees the light of day in 2022. During this period I also juggled a few other tasks, like pitching a brand image campaign for a major TV network, working on naming exercises for a film studio, and developing taglines for a new streaming platform.

Worked with a team of brand strategists and creatives to develop a tagline, manifesto, and tone of voice for Coursera, a global educational tech platform.

Worked closely with a small team of creatives to develop a visual brand audit for a major television network, assessing their current brand identity and proposing strategic ways to improve brand messaging across all platforms.

I came into the NY office for a few short weeks to develop, pitch and Creative Direct two co-branded spots for Porsche + Star Wars via Disney, the Star Wars parent brand. This was a dream job, combining two passions that defined my youth: Sci-Fi and fast cars I could never afford. It also became a lesson in making the pitch TOO good. What was originally created as merely a proof of concept, pulling footage together from YouTube and blueprint scans from Google, ended up looked so polished that it was accepted, as is. We sent it to Disney CEO Bob Eiger, Star Wars director JJ Abrams, and the Porsche family. They all gave us the same note: “Don’t change a thing. This is done!”. We had been promised a multi-week stay in Stuttgart and Skywalker ranch, combing through the Porsche + Star Wars archives (drool), but it was not meant to be. JJ Abrams sent some last minute, noodley shot changes, but aside from that, all we needed to do was up-res. Lesson learned.

Worked with senior brand creatives at MTV, VH1 & CMT to develop a critical internal presentation to Viacom's board of directors. Juggled the task of writing scripts and directing multiple external editing facilities to generate video assets, while leading a small internal creative team of art directors, designers and animators.

Did a great, 4-month stretch at Trollbäck+Co., working on a variety of jobs and pitches for clients like West Elm, Fox, IMAX, The Smithsonian, TBS and Disney. These guys do incredible work and I can't wait to get back in there in the coming year.

I spent the bulk of 3 years+ in an out of maverick creative agency Gretel, working primarily as a Creative Director, Brand Strategist, Copywriter and happy hour mixologist. Accounts included Netflix, The New York Times, 21st Century Fox, Paramount, Axos Digital Bank, The Field House, Vine, Knoll, + FX. Three jobs from this period stood out for me:The New York Times commissioned the first marketing campaign for their ground-breaking podcast “The Daily” to help reach untapped listeners. We developed a verbal and visual language, which threads the immediacy of the medium with the mission of the Times. Our final work ran as a national campaign anchored by a single line: “This moment deserves to be understood.” You can view the work on Gretel's site https://gretelny.com/the-dailyWhile Gretel rebranded the 21st Century Fox corporate identity, I was brought on board to help to design and brand the interiors of the top 3 floors of their midtown headquarters. I drew on a lifetime of movie and TV nerd knowledge that spanned their entire portfolio. I was given exclusive access to the archives on the Fox back lot in Hollywood, and even the Simpsons archive in Burbank. I curated a permanent gallery installation of film and TV relics. Dream job. https://gretelny.com/21st-century-foxNat Geo worked closely with Gretel for over a year, re-branding every touchpoint, including print, digital & TV. I was tasked with Brand Strategy for the travel arm of the company, Nat Geo Expeditions. We spent months refining and articulating their points of difference, to shore up brand strength and retain the equity and prestige of the mother brand. We restructured their brand architecture, consolidated many of their tours and sub-brands, refining nomenclature and categories as we went. I was sent on two of their premiere tours: The Galapagos Islands and Cuba, back to back. It was an incredible experience, and Nat Geo even asked to use some of my photos, which was humbling, to say the least.

Developed headlines and copy for the furniture design firm Knoll - for the website and brochure celebrating the 10 year anniversary of their Generation chair. The work is ongoing.

I worked closely with The SVP / Executive Creative Director of Brand Strategy and his team of creative leads, designers, and copywriters to develop the launch campaign for their 2019 tentpole mini-series about the making of Soul Train, “American Soul”.

I’ve been working with Nick Jr. for several months now, helping them develop a mission statement, brand vision statement, and elevator pitch line for Noggin, their flagship entertainment app for incredible kids.

I’ve been working on and off with my friends at And/Or in Dumbo a lot this year. Developing copy, campaigns and pitches for great clients like Samantha Bee, Conan O’Brien, The New York Times, Everytown for Gun Safety, TBS, and TVLand.

Worked closely with these guys developing the launch campaign for a new Audible book about the Golden State Killer. I developed the campaign line & copy for the digital side, and a lot of OOH marketing ideas for the launch itself.

I made the jump from vendor to client this year, reuniting with the gang at NBCUniversal’s Content Innovation Agency (CIA) to help them strategize and execute their massively complex unified upfront event. The NBCU upfront is the mother of all upfronts - combining the content and star power of 2 broadcast networks (NBC, Telemundo) with 17 cable networks (USA, SYFY, E!, BRAVO, Oxygen, Esquire, MSNBC, CNBC, NBC Sports, & others) into one massive 2-hour presentation at Radio City Music Hall. With all of those networks comes all of their presidents, vice presidents, and chief creative officers - all of whom have a VERY strong opinion of how their content should be presented. Luckily, I had been the Creative Director of this very same job for the last 3 years at Leroy + Clarkson, so I know a little about wrangling this particular beast. I wore many hats over the course of the 8 month engagement. Creative consultant. Copywriter. Music supervisor. Editorial supervisor. I acted as boots-on-the-ground liaison between the CIA and the creative agency we chose to execute the job, Eyeball/Mod Op. Once we got past the design & strategy phase, I spent a lot of time on-site with the production team, ensuring that all video assets for the 20,000 pixel immersive projection show package were delivered on time and up to snuff. The show was another smashing success. Did I mention we had 100 samba dancers filling the Radio City aisles for a big Rio Olympics extravaganza? In a word: bananas.

I really enjoyed stepping away from the computer for a little while and getting back to my roots: hand drawn illustration & typography. I worked with two different teams at TBWA\Chiat\Day on two different accounts. The first involved coming up with a myriad of different typographic designs for vintage motorcycle jackets. A lot of cool script and graphic illustrations that you might find on a well-worn patch adorning the leather jacket of Marlon Brando in “The Wild Bunch”. The second required some very custom calligraphy interacting with still photography for an OOH campaign. Really great bunch of people over there, btw. Hola Sergio!

I had a great time with the crew at Promax’s Agency of the Year for 2015, Loyal Kaspar. I helmed a few different broadcast projects over my 4 month stint in-house. My roles were Creative Director, copywriter, occasional logo designer, and heavy-handed bartender. I led production teams of 15+ people, working with multiple talented directors, editors, animators, & designers. Engagements I worked on included overseeing the Freeform Network rebrand, launch campaigns for two different scripted series on the EPIX network, and some anthemic script writing for the NY Rangers.

Leroy & Clarkson is a boutique creative agency, brand shop, design studio, and production company. A tight-knit amalgam of designers, directors, editors, writers, and producers with the ability to execute anything they dream up, big or small. We transcended our motion graphics roots and evolved into a 360 soup-to-nuts creative consortium that indulged in brand strategy and positioning, brand identity systems (naming / logo / tagline / language systems), network identity and design systems, 360 TV / print / OOH / integrated digital advertising campaigns, branded content entertainment, and experiential content and design. So, yes, we kinda did it all.Duties included creative directing, script writing, pitching, and managing clients. I spent hours upon hours brainstorming with thinkers of all stripes. Occasionally I would design logos, make pitch frames, and hand draw storyboards. Once in a blue moon I’d direct live action. I was the music supervisor and remixer for countless projects. Most importantly I motivated talented people to do great work. I was also the resident obscure meme expert, fancy lad cocktail mixologist, and bad ass DJ.We won an Emmy Award in 2008 for a History Channel TV commercial I created with Kyle Baron Cohen while freelancing for L+C. That was pretty sweet.Clients include NBCUniversal, FX, AMC, Al Jazeera America, HBO, CNN, Fuse, Nasdaq, FOX, Digitas, FXX, 120 Sports, SYFY, DirecTV, The Thompson Hotels, Scripps Networks, and ABC.

Freelance Creative Director Working with large teams of designers and animators on a wide variety of TV commercials, Award Shows, and the occasional experiential design project. Stardust clients included IBM, VH1, E-Trade, and AT&T.

Duties included conceptual development and design of any and all projects including TV commercials, live action shoots, network identities, music videos, industrial videos, logo design, directing commercials, sound design, and the occasional print material. I quite often art directed every single job in production. Duties also included hiring and mentoring of staff, daily administrative duties, maintaining a design library, writing press releases, and writing and developing original content. Clients included Best Buy, Charles Schwab, McDonald’s, Comedy Central, and Adult Swim.

I was the less-musically talented half of a music production team. Expansion Team founder Alex Moulton and I created original music and remixes for Clairol and Covergirl. This work aired in multiple TV commercials for several years and I even still get a royalty check once in a blue moon (!).

Produced pilot episode and full 6-episode season of KUNG FAUX for Tommy Boy Films. Kung Faux was a half hour TV show in which we re-dubbed old 1970s Kung Fu movies with NYC rappers (Mr. Len, Jean Grae, Prince Paul, Guru, etc). Once they sold the pilot, I art directed the production of the entire first season. I designed the look for the entire show, edited each 2 hour film down to a 20 minute episode, animated all graphics and special effects for the pilot, completed sound design, and scored all 6 episodes. The show aired on cable networks worldwide and is available on DVD.

I was a Creative Director in their newly formed ad agency. Duties included branding, concept, design and animation of TV commercials, promotional materials (both internal and for corporate clients). Cutting film trailers. Writing copy for film trailers. Sound design. Logo design. Movie poster design. Writing taglines for films. Oversaw implementation of creative concepts across all media (TV, web, film). Rode the dot com wave until it crashed, big-time.

Over the course of four years, founder Limore Shur, Daniel Fries and myself transformed a fledgling industrial video production company into a world renowned design boutique that helped shape the emerging motion graphics industry in New York City at the time. It was a thrilling time, because the limits of design and motion for television had yet to be defined. My duties included conceptual development, design, and animation for TV commercials, network identities, and the occasional music video. Clients included Comedy Central, Mos Def, USA Network, A+E Networks, IFC, and The Weather Channel.