role: Creative Director, Designer
design: Vanessa Lo, Katie O'Keefe, Peter Hahn
copy: Jim Thompson (CD), Alena Cason, JonMichael DaVirro
director: Brandon LaGanke

British Airways has one of the most comprehensive cultural offerings for their flights to India – from crew in sari's to vegetarian meal options and bollywood entertainment on board. What they were lacking was an emotional connection to young Indian ex-pats living in North America. They felt British Airways did not understand them, their needs and felt they were cold and not culturally relevant. We looked to the cornerstone of most Indian families - the matriarch, their Mum. Indian mums became hero of the campaign to connect to young Indian Americans in the most heartfelt way possible - they miss their Mums. Everything in the campaign was inspired by India, the look and feel and tone: but most importantly, by Mum herself. To launch the campaign, a touching video piece was created that focussed on a real story of one Indian Mum and her son residing in New York City.

The amazing results: an instantly viral video, garnering over 1M+ views, prevalent in social media in North America, India and beyond. Posted about by amazing people like the CMO of Coca-Cola, the CEO of Linked-In, posted on the Huffington Post, an increase in bookings and a completion rate of 70%, despite it's 5 minute length. And of course, a lot of nostalgic tears shed.

role: ACD Art, Designer
design: Simona Lo
copy: Christopher Dalton, Scott Thomasch
production: Craft

Dishwashers are a modern marvel. But still wet dishes after a cycle? The WORST.
Most don’t know rinse aid is the answer. There’s no signals to refill, so they blame the machine, detergent, or themselves - leading to 33% less consumption amongst current Jet-Dry users.

We needed to remind them to refill or rebuy. How? By playfully showing them there's a better way.
We created thumb stopping infomercial parodies where wet dishes are the everyday enemy and Jet-Dry is the incredible solution. We crafted iterationsaround this fun campaign concept for over a year, including introducing infomercial inspired graphics to tie all the assets together.

The work performed incredibly well for the brand. We were able to grow the creative work from relying on stock assets to developing custom digital-first spots around hilariously insightful, cute and relatable ‘wet dish’ issues.

role: ACD Art, Designer
design: Simona Lo
copy: Christopher Dalton
production: Craft

Finish Ultimate was a new dishwasher detergent that works with the dishwasher’s cycles to break down even the toughest, burnt on stains. To launch it, we created an instantly getable social campaign using a fun misdirect using the burnt on stains themselves.

When you look really, really, really closely at these cooked on residues, they almost resemble some of the harshest environments on earth…and beyond. Look close enough at them and one can’t tell if they’re looking at a dessert or…. a desert.

Despite being done with stock only, it was one of the best performing digital assets for Finish and this campaign was extended for the entire year.

role: Group Creative Director
art direction: Alex Haglund
copy: Samantha Bordignon
director: Jovan Todorovic
producer: Rob Tripas
production: Oriental Films, Whitehouse Editing, Human, The Mill

Last year, JennAir announced it’s arrival into the luxury appliance space with a roar and a defiant anthem. This year we dive deeper into our brand story across two films. Mannequin challenges preconceived notions of luxury and what it entails. It opens your eyes to what luxury could and should be.

role: Group Creative Director
art direction: Alex Haglund
copy: Samantha Bordignon
director: Jovan Todorovic
producer: Rob Tripas
production: Oriental Films, Whitehouse Editing, Human, The Mill

Last year, JennAir announced it’s arrival into the luxury appliance space with a roar and a defiant anthem. This year we dive deeper into our brand story across two films. Duet introduces JennAir’s two distinct design expressions - the only luxury appliance brand to offer a choice of two beautiful collections.

role: Creative Director
art direction and design: Peter Hahn, Dima Kronfol
copy: Jim Thompson (CD), Jeff Scardino, Luna Hurtado
director: Jonathan Pearson
executive producers: Akiko Nakashima, Adam Dolman
fabrication and production: Unit 9

We wanted to show how Aetna can take a different approach to healthcare in America – starting with smoking cessation. Most messaging ranges from threatening, and dark to scolding. But what if we positively messaged people to consider quitting. 

We created Machine 11. It invited lucky passer-bys to trade in one cigarette for an 11 minute experience. Every cigarette can take 11 minutes off your life so giving up one could give you back 11 minutes – and we wanted to make them memorable. The experiences were fun and touching, from playing with a pile of puppies to having an improv session inspired by your life. The machine went prime time, journeying to the west coast where we had a segment on Jimmy Kimmel Live, featuring his sidekick Guillermo escorting fortunate folks to a hilarious bubble wrap 11 minute experience. We also had a famous Viner there to partake in the fun and were picked up on Huffington Post and Unworthy. Our videos, content, factoids about quitting, and social engagement were all housed on Tumblr page that became the hub of the 11 Initiative.

The resulting responses to the videos was overwhelming - expressing gratitude and appreciation of the positive message. People also shared personal stories with some moved to tears. A great reception for Aetna as a brand, trying to re-think healthcare, in an otherwise inhospitable category. And with 2.6+ Million views and hugely positive social sentiment, it is Aetna's most successful social campaign ever.

role: Group Creative Director, Designer
art direction and design: Alex Haglund
copy: Samantha Bordignon
build partner: IGE
event partner: Hudson Gray

We reinvigorated the national retail experience for this reborn luxury brand knowing the best way to sell these artisan appliances was to get eyes and hands on them. We needed a smart way to take the it on the road while also kicking off a new year at the January KBIS conference in Las Vegas. So we set up not in the halls of KBIS, but outside, cementing our rebel status. We invited those inside the stuffy convention center to “escape convention” and meet us outside for an unforgettable experience.

A surround and drive media buy strategy lured and guided people to us. What greeted these kindred spirits were custom shipping containers, beautifully crafted to showcase appliances and even came with custom jewelry counters with design elements of the appliances acting as the “jewels” or components of art. By day, the cluster of boxes hosted leadership talks and tours. As the sun set, we switched gears to cocktails and entertainment.

These boxes could be later transported and set up for future remote events – all while never necessarily requiring an official footprint, allowing us to retain that outsider challenger status.

role: Group Creative Director
art direction: Katie O'Keefe, John Carlucci
copy: Jim Thompson (CD), Jeff Scardino
director: Brandon LaGanke
producers: Maureen Phillips, Jason Way
production: Pink Buffalo

For another initiative, Aetna wanted to tackle something that most people feel daily, but put at the end of their health priorities – sleep deprivation. It is one of America's most important health topics that few were talking about cohesively and we wanted to bring attention to it.

We focused on one of the most emotional things we lose when we don't get quality sleep – our dreams. We found three real people who had not dreamed in years and had recently been cured and began dreaming again. First dreams tend to be very vivid and each we selected had beautiful visuals and helped the dreamer realise the gap that had been filled again by dreaming. We recreated their first dreams as a reminder that dreaming is just one amazing symptom of a good night's sleep.

role: Group Creative Director, Designer
art direction and design: Alex Haglund, Francis Styons
copy: Samantha Bordignon, Steve Horn
public realtions: MSL
event partner: Hudson Gray

JennAir was now in it’s second year of its rebirth and it was time to start moving metal. Following up to the defiant anthem film, we created two new brand films focussing on superior materials and craftsmanship and choice in two distinct design expressions.
We wanted to launch the films at an event during Modernism Week – a two week gathering in Palm Springs key for designers and architects.

We had product in many homes that year, including the famous Dinah Shore Estate (owned by Leo DeCaprio) that was not open to the public or tours. So naturally we held our intimate, very exclusive event there.

There was product throughout the home and we placed many pieces out on the grounds, creating a branded, appliance sculpture garden. Inside the home were little “Alice In Wonderland” like notes teasing the unique features of the home - like a rubber sink. Outside, we gathered everyone under the stars to embrace the night, and watch our films with wireless headphones in a silent screening - a creative way around residential decibel restrictions. This was followed by a multi stage set by Nicole Bus, starting acoustic on the estate’s grand piano. This and all our events throughout the week generated $5M of sales alone.

role: Group Creative Director
art direction and design: Alex Haglund, Jimmy Alleman, Ashley Postiff, Francis Styons
copy: Samantha Bordignon, Steve Horn
public realtions: MSL
event partner: Hudson Gray

JennAir is a subversive brand that always does the unexpected. The booth experience was a monolithic winding maze guiding attendees through a series of gallery-like experiences featuring products.

The after party event was equally unique. It’s theme was “Eat Your Enemies” - in this case the enemies of JennAir’s core value of progress. The enemies of progress included stagnation, fear, false influence, artificiality. A menu of beautiful passed hors d'oeuvres inspired by these “enemies” were conceived by renowned chef Jordan Kahn of Vespertine. It was followed by a set by Deerhunter entertaining and enthralling over 220 attendees who were immersed in a beautifully staged experience surrounded by special and limited edition products.

role: Senior Art Director/Designer

This was a concept for Chanel's online makeup/skincare boutique, showcasing strong thinking on how to elevate it's e-commerce to a couture online shopping experience through both striking visuals and intelligent "shopping cart." We also wanted to create a cohesive brand experience. Many cues were taken from Chanel's rich brand history. It was in the facets of their famous Chanel No5 Parfum as well as the stairwell at Rue de Cambon and the cinematic aesthetic of their ad work. But we also wanted to exude a luxe user experience as well so we developed smart shopping carts that recreated the personalised in-store experiences.

role: Creative Lead/Designer

This was a brand concept piece for Nike 6.0 Women. The focus was a short video piece highlighting both a current understanding of the brand and a potential new visual story. The 6.0 Women's brand exemplifies women's perspectives in commonly "male" sports (snowboarding, surfing, bmx)- having strength without surrendering femininity.

he video look follows a path of a larger composition, showing a "day in the life" focussing in at multiple elevations denoting surf and snow. The elevation maps natural curves contrasted with the harder geometry of the triangles show that balance of hard and soft. Also shown are a few initial mood study pieces and as a fun side note, the background pattern was scanned form tissue paper in nike shoe packaging.

Continuing in my self Cinema 4D training, I was making a small tree, which when hyper nurbs were applied created a antler-esque appearance. Here are several materials and lighting applied to this "antler tree."

Used the Leica, taking some photos of the light play off a prism and bringing them into photoshop to layer and overlay them.