Christopher Wray McCann is a phenomenally talented Photographer who I used to shoot the Budweiser Band of Buds program the past two years. Check out this sweet video he put together with the Emmy award winning editor / title designer Josh Bodnar (Showtime's Dexter, etc). There are quite a few out takes from our two shoots so it's kind of cool to feel like I contributed is some small way.

Cyberculture 051011

A couple years ago when I was peddling my wares as a freelance Creative, I started sending out email blasts to everyone I knew in the Marketing/Advertising biz. The content consisted of things that inspired me and usually included an image, a quote, a video and had an mp3 file of a song attached. Ever since I started this blog I have pondered bringing back Cyberculture within this forum so here is my first foray to that end.

V I S U A L :

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W O R D S :


"You know the old adage that the customer’s always right? Well, I kind of think that the opposite is true. The customer is rarely right. And that is why you must seize the control of the circumstance and dominate every last detail: to guarantee that they’re going to have a far better time than they ever would have had if they tried to control it themselves."
CHARLIE TROTTER, A LEADER LEFT BEHIND



A U D I B L E :

V I D I - V I D :

The Book: Print, Outdoor and POS

This project was especially satisfying as it was not only a successful print and outdoor campaign, but it also influenced the look of the product lighting in the TV spots. Additionally the Brand decided to carry the look across each POS program for the entire year.



This was phase II of the previous campaign. After spending a year reuniting consumers with the unique Grolsch swing top bottle, we decided to focus closer attention on all of the interesting characteristics of that bottle with a series of print ads.



The Bud Light Brand wanted to leverage its surfer relationships with an item that would function as POS in the Off-Premise, plus serve as a cool giveaway at surfing events. The answer? This surf-specific tidal calendar- which was produced for North Shore, Hawaii and Orange County, California.



Here is the first of several Bud Light Surfing programs that Momentum produced. The graphic approach used on these autograph cards and permanent POS provided the edge the Brand desired for such a targeted consumer, as well as set the precedent that awarded us several years of surfing projects.



The next two images represent a five month long, 2-page Maxim ad campaign designed to look like an advertorial. Each month featured a real-life bartender, her account, 10 local talent and a few stories that introduced readers to the personality of the club. The campaign was photographed in Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Chicago and featured an eye-catching mix of bartender hero images, along with several lifestyle shots throughout the account.




Anheuser-Busch was poised to launch the national distribution of Margaritaville’s LandShark Lager, but had no idea how to visually convey their brand image. This look was conceived to capture a relaxed, beach thematic- without looking like a Corona ad.



I was exploring a couple of other ideas for a presentation, and I stumbled upon this local print campaign concept. I felt that Tilt, a high-energy malt beverage, could benefit from some attitudinal copy, as well as a bold, graphic look. So I wrote the copy, created a layout, and it was selected for the presentation.



This was another occasion where Anheuser-Busch was looking to develop a brand personality and look for one of their distribution brands—Rolling Rock. While the concept started out as a “This Is Rock Light“ idea, I decided to drop all of the copy and instead, let the dramatically lit bottle and stark white background convey the same attitude.



Here is an image-driven concept that focuses on the “Are you tough enough to drink a real beer?“ attitude. The look features found stock photography and an interesting use of the printed ‘STOUT‘ on the glass as part of the tagline.



For a couple of years, the brewery challenged us with 3-dimensional POS. Each program was an exercise in theming out and branding each side of the box.



The Summer of Silver program started out as a down-and-dirty, one-month POS run to fall in between a couple of larger programs. However, the client liked the look so much that they changed it to their three-month Summer program.



This was Bacardi Silver’s first major POS launch- so we went the extra mile and produced items that featured metallic papers and transparent plastic materials.



Bud Family Mardi Gras was a program that could get away with a non-traditional approach. So we developed a concept that featured a “King of the Krewe” character as our subject, and then asked various Illustrators to interpret that character for the POS. This program, which ran in 2000, featured the illustrated work of Jim Carroll- who provided all the characters, the lamppost and the background.



The second installment of “The King” character was interpreted by Mitch Greenblatt. His characters are sculpted out of clay and feature REAL denture teeth in them. As a bonus, Mitch also sculpted the crowd of people in the dangler. The large banner on the left was produced as a vacu-form banner, which really delivered the 3-D feel of the art.



The third year called for yet another new look for “The King.“ This one, which was created by Kristian Olson, brought about an innovative feel to what could have become a tired concept. The brilliant graphic approach really stood out amongst the clutter of the typical Mardi Gras account décor.



Mardi Gras 2003 was the dreaded year that the program went away. It’s unfortunate because it could have been fantastic- featuring the sculpted characters of Chris Sickles at Red Nose Studios. I also totally dig the interesting approach to the POS Banners.



In an attempt to bring the Mardi Gras “character” formula to another program, I had Chris Sickles and Celia Calle send me pencil illustrations of a male devil character and a female witch character. Their unique perspectives made for some very dynamic Bud Family Halloween looks.



This POS concept shows the versatility of how the featured look carries across several music genres. It also shows unique ways to build displays, whether it’s on a faux stage with spotlights and bubble machines or around a music sampling station.



Outside of the Anheuser-Busch realm, I was often asked to help out with ideation, layout and design on pitches for other teams and clients. These two promotional concepts were layouts I did for a Shell station POS presentation.



The challenge with this Shell Rotella®T program was to communicate several messages across several POS formats.



Way back in the day when Louis London lost the Miller account, we worked hard to win significant new clients. An important part of that process was learning about new brands and experimenting with new styles of imagery and design. I had a lot of fun designing these pieces using cartoon characters and whimsical type.


One Cool Thing


http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html



Lip Dub - Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger from amandalynferri on Vimeo.




http://code.google.com/creative/radiohead/viewer.html

Identities and Logos

I am starting to gain some momentum in the freelance capacity so I thought it would be fun to develop an identity for my services as a Creative. My proud heritage as a product of the great state of Iowa, my goofy sense of humor and my ability to poke fun at myself led me to this solution.






Another personal project of mine is the identity and graphic materials for The Gathering United Methodist Church. I describe it as my special form of ministry to the church, as it allows me to influence the marketing of their brand and personality. I designed the logo, collateral materials, advertising and various marketing materials.




Groove was moving to a new office and felt it was time to update their identity system. The logo and color scheme were established but the collateral was either badly in need of updating or did not exist at all. The background images represent various imagery and materials from the new space.




The A-B Rolling Rock brand team wanted to get away from their overly corporate Anheuser-Busch business cards and represent themselves with something a little more fun. The front features their stamped logo and the back features the print from the back of the Rolling Rock bottle label.




WGSC is a personal, pro-bono project that was a favor for a friend, as well as a lot of fun for me. I got to design tees, jerseys, warm-ups, etc. and gladly accept payment in the form of wearables. This is a sample of the logo creation process. The logos on the left are the first round of presented marks and the two on the right are the ultimate and final marks. It’s hard to spend more than 15 minutes in Webster without spotting a kid wearing a WGSC shirt.




Packaging Samples

I began my career as a Packaging Designer for a locally owned St. Louis toy company and have since had a few opportunities here and there to dabble with some packaging. Here are a few examples of some things I've done.


Anheuser-Busch is constantly researching innovative approaches to expanding product lines, exploring new categories and capitalizing on trends. The next couple of images represent two separate exercises in such.






St. Louis Braid Co. challenged me to design a new look for their packaging as they started to meet with larger retailers. The assignment was to create a dynamic look for totes brand shoe laces that would stand out in an otherwise bland category.




Meridian Electric Co. challenged me to design a new core look that could expand across several catagories including Night Lights, Outlets, Switches, etc.





The Mars Attacks packaging was especially rewarding as it features the photography I shot in house of some early prototypes. I mixed my shots of the aliens face with the background battle scenes from a classic Mars Attacks poster. I also photographed most back panel images for all Trendmasters product lines.




Here’s another example of a package that featured my photography for the side panel and back panel.