Obsidian Wine Company is one of the best clients I’ve had the good fortune to partner with, and no, it’s not because they make wine. (That doesn’t hurt, of course.) But as a brand, and as people, they care about integrity, craft, culture, and the planet. What more could one ask for in a creative alliance?
Since winter 2020, I’ve shaped the creative narrative and strategic planning to help Obsidian show the world all that they are. This includes building a new adventure series (more on that soon), the design of a new tasting space in their cellar, and some fresh storytelling for their small batch innovative and experimental winemaking practice, known as The Rabbit Hole.
This fun little video is just a teaser of what’s to come, but it captures the weird and wonderful ways of all we discover in a tumble down the proverbial rabbit hole.
When Adobe wanted to transform their annual campus Field Trip into a virtual event that supports workplace culture, connection, and wellbeing, I knew we needed to shape a new way for the community to engage each other and an array of rich content. With that in mind, I led a talented mix of designers, writers, producers, creative technologists, and backend engineers to design a story-based user journey that moved from online to offline, across platforms, and into 3D virtual worlds. Our team at Cogs & Marvel imagined, designed, scripted, and shot all original content (socially distanced, of course) and hosted livestreamed learning in built and branded environments across categories of wellness, art, STEM, cooking, Adobe products, and gamified collaborations. And because we wanted to unify the weeklong program as a singular narrative journey, we also built an app to serve as a "remote control" to the entire experience.
This project challenged us all to reimagine how workplaces can stay connected, inspired, and supported through creative storytelling and clever technology applications. As a result, the project set a new standard for cross-platform connection and community. While it’s tempting to treat this moment as a passing inconvenience, and create digital band-aids, I’m taking this time as an opportunity to rethink the ways we communicate and what we need to make us feel emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually supported. One thing I know is, when this pandemic passes, we are not going back to the way things were. Too much has changed. Do companies need sprawling campuses with one desk for every person? Or set work schedules? Do they need to spend obscene amounts of money on lavish parties and work perks? I think there are better ways to support the workplace, the people, and the planet. This project is but one expression of that belief.
Amplitude set out to create the world’s premier product design conference, and in so doing, needed a sub brand to stand out in its own right. My team designed a brand system for the conference—named Amplify—to include environmental and motion graphics that included dimensional behavior.
After building out the visual look and feel to rival any modern rockstar stagecraft, we created an activation to showcase the brand’s predictive analysis software. Starting with an open source version of the original PACMAN game, we teamed up with Amplitude’s engineers to rewrite game play, showing how their tools could predict outcomes and recommend moves. We called it DATA NOM and built an Amplitude themed Arcade to enliven their conference.
Needless to say, data nerds and games go hand in hand, so this activation scored more points than an acne-riddled Atari addict circa 1981.
Working as the Brand Experience Director for Mod, I collaborated with a world-class team of thinkers, artists and makers to build a brand reflecting the scope of the Mod concept. Designed to be a future workplace experience, the Mod prototype series included a network of retail spaces defined by hospitality, built for wellness, and powered by custom technology. Looking at language, the built environment, menus, workday rhythm and future trends in the growing mobile workforce, I designed the user experience across the customer journey, from discovery to engagement through long-term loyalty.
Together with some of the most inspired minds I’ve encountered, I imagined a new way to work on the go. We built spaces, products, tech, menus and experiences around a single idea: Loving the way you work. PSFK spotlighted us as an emerging retail trend. The SF Chronicle said our space “looks like a spread in Monocle.” Bloomberg noted that “When WeWork won’t work, there’s Mod.” And lifestyle maven, SF Girl by Bay understood that “it’s all about hospitality and wellness.”
Mod is an immense source of pride for myself, lead designers Jeremy Stewart and Lisa Mishima, and all of the experience design team.
One of the most rewarding projects I’ve had the privilege to lead was for the Asia Society. A global nonprofit committed to bridging the gap between East and West through diplomacy, a think tank, and cultural programming, the Rockefeller founded organization has an ambitious charter and a grand view for the coming era.
Our team mapped strategy and developed original creative content across digital and experiential to open dialogue with a younger, broader audience.
Our work ranged from social campaigns to artist collabs and spanned every medium from video to public installation concepts to original animation with illustrator Mary Vertulfo and writer Gregory Schram, plus a performance art pop-up with comedian Kristina Wong.
We even teamed up with New Zealand artist Chye-Ling Huang to envision grand scale Chinese Zodiac puppets suspended from drones. But damn, it turned out Disney had already trademarked that technology. Glad to know we were in good creative company.
Sonoma Specific is the first CBD skincare line created for the mass market. Since most products in the category remain at a premium price point, there was white space to bring the benefits of cannabis-derived CBD to a wider audience.
Working with the best packaging designers in town at Stout, I developed the verbal branding, striking a tone that touches the wider wellness conversation and keeps it light with some playful nods to psychedelic culture. We wanted to have fun with the idea that while CBD may sound trippy to the uninitiated, it’s actually an accessible and appealing new territory for the beauty and self care market.
The formulation? I’m going with 9:1 good vibes to goofball, for an overall sense of wellbeing.
Bank of the West wanted to stage an experiential activation to showcase their commitment to divest from planet-harming industries like tobacco, fracking, and palm oil, to name a few. Their campaign, “What on earth is your bank financing?” gave us an idea. What if we could visualize the idea of your money going into the bank and coming out as harmful pollutants? Most people don’t think about what their money is funding, but an image like this could drive the point home. And if we made it a big, colorful, cartoonish piece of pop art, surely it would be shared on social. And so it was.
Our ciggie machine was a big beast of a thing, sucking dollars in and spewing them out as microplastics found in cigarette filters (the number one killer of seabirds, by the way). We even added a smoking origami seagull, affectionately named Pedro, after our client.
And yes, if you’re wondering, we thought about the sustainability of building an installation like this, so we made it out of 100% recycled materials including the motor from a disco ball.
For San Francisco Design Week Open Studios, my team at Cogs & Marvel decided to create a few interactions that demonstrate how we approach experience design. This one, Senseploration, plays with crossmodalism, the interaction of two or more senses. Inspired by the ‘gastrophysics’ work of Dr. Charles Spence at Oxford, we created a controlled experiment to determine whether color and sound can affect perceived taste.
Working with local chocolatier, Kiki’s Cocoa, we commissioned custom chocolates with four flavor notes and then asked guests to sample them in two different environments, answering a digital survey about which ones tasted more sweet, bitter, grassy and spicy. As predicted, the audience detected different flavor notes in the different spaces with different visual and aural cues.
Multi-sensory play makes experiences more dimensional and interesting, as well as more accessible to those whose primary sense might not include sight, sound, or touch. Having more ways to engage a narrative means more guests can participate.
That Lady Thing is a digital and experiential activation born on International Women’s Day at the agency Eleven. My team of seven women (and one enthusiastic male ally), conceived a fictitious place—at the time called The Lady Factory—that borrowed from the trend of pop-up selfie museums, but instead of candy and confetti, we embedded our backdrops and installations with messages about the wage gap, gender bias, women in leadership, and objectification. Styling itself as “part speakeasy, part speak out”, ours is pop-up with purpose.
After a one-night activation, the outreach from women, press, and brands inspired us to make the thing real so we designed more wallpapers, built better exhibits, recruited sponsors, and aligned with the National Women’s Law Center to raise money for work that serves women in the workplace and the world.
In August 2018, we popped up in San Francisco and hosted 1500 women and attracted press attention—both traditional and influencer—that reached over 116,000,000 viewers. Check out the stories in Artnet, The Guardian, Eventbrite, The SF Chronicle, 7x7, Brit+Co, Rue Magazine, and OMG, even The Beeb.
Windy Chien is an artist and an entrepreneur, whose rich career story includes working at Apple to build the iTunes experience we know today, and owning/operating the legendary Aquarius Records. Now, she’s a widely celebrated working artist whose knot pieces and rope installations grace homes, galleries, museums, and public spaces around the globe.
Naturally, I was honored when she asked me to collaborate on her book project (Abrams 2019) The Year of Knots. Together, we mapped elements of her process and experience to organize, integrate, and articulate the many layered textures of her life and work.
It’s a gorgeous book, generous with wisdom, insights, and practical advice for how to leave your corporate life behind and pursue your preferred practice. Obviously, you should order a copy or three.
Local wellness outfit Urban Remedy sought to stand apart from other popular juice cleanses, which felt, in turns, too clinical, too hippie or too homespun. With a desire to emphasize fresh, organic ingredients and fantastic taste, I created a brand voice and a naming architecture to match the inviting, flavorful product line. I guess you could say I wrote the book on Urban Remedy—because I did that, too.
While competitors occupied the realms of science or new-age spirituality, we planted this brand firmly in two other spots: the soil and the kitchen. The Urban Remedy brand was so successful, it caught the attention of LA powerhouse venture firm Science, Inc. and received its first million in funding. And another juicy tidbit: Cindy Crawford declared it her favorite raw food line and signed on as a brand ambassador. So, you know, supermodel approved.
On International Women’s Day 2019, my team at Cogs & Marvel staged the second edition of That Lady Thing at the iconic Phoenix Hotel in San Francisco. When we learned the hotel is owned and managed by a mostly female team, we knew it was the perfect place for the next iteration of our gender equality themed pop-up activation. This edition added new exhibits and layers of live performative content, as well. We partnered with DesignSake Studio to present a game show about The Pink Tax. We featured contortionist Dwoira Galilea trapped in a patriarchal bubble. We commissioned hand-lettered calligraphy from artist Hope Meng for a projection installation called “Getting Medieval on the Patriarchy” and hand drawn artwork for our lifesize tarot cards from Raisa Yavneh. We also teamed with the ass-kicking organizers for social justice at Malikah to stage self-defense demos. And just for good measure, we created scratch & sniff wallpaper called “Smells Like Toxic Masculinity.” And yes, it actually stinks. Just like misogyny.
You can follow the project on Instagram @thatladything_official to learn about upcoming pop-ups and partnerships.
I worked with genius director Ian Colon to co-write and produce this little noir number for the band, An Intimate Evening With Michael Shaw. Inspired by The Maltese Falcon and Lolita, we crafted a story and shot it in three iconic locations around San Francisco and Marin over two days. And despite setbacks—like pesky hotel fire alarms and hideous flu bugs—we prevailed in making something truly beautiful.
Every day, I hear another person talking about the cresting wave of the cannabis industry. It is truly The Green Rush, attracting investors, farmers, entrepreneurs, microdosing tech bros, and good old fashioned stoners, like moths to a flameless vape.
Its been fascinating to watch the pot trade evolve from head shops and High Times to a modern, curated luxury industry. And from what I can see, nobody’s doing cannabis branding better than Kiva, an artisanal line of CBD confections. Of course that’s because they partnered with the fantastically talented design team at Stout, who brought me on to shape the brand narrative, craft the company story, and write the product packaging.
The takeaway: I found this project to be mellow and relaxing, good for socializing, with just the right amount of giggles, zero paranoia, and only occasional munchies.
Working with a hyper talented team of comrades and crew, I produced, cast and styled this video for the band, An Intimate Evening with Michael Shaw. Directed by Ashley Rodholm and shot by Tyler McPherron, it tells the story of a boy whose escapist journey leads inward. The piece was shot at Nick's Cove in Marshall, CA and stars Max Rumer, a little dude I discovered at my nephew's birthday party. While all the other maniacs were playing shoot-em-up video games—pew! pew!—he was at the piano playing Beethoven.
I made this Google spot with the brilliant creative minds at Autofuss in San Francisco. Art Director Yalda Zakeri and I concepted, storyboarded, and styled this piece, which required a robotic camera to operate in a single shot over the multi-plane surface of our set. And yes, that record player is spinning vinyl while mounted on a vertical wall surface.
Some notes from Director, Quba Michalski:
Utilizing Bot&Dolly's IRIS motion control system, we were able to not only guide the camera through the set over and over with sub-millimetric precision, but also to modify the move and iterate in the matter of just minutes.
Early on, we decided that we want to use really cool camera motion, but didn't want it to overcome the story. It is, instead, a reward for paying close attention -- the first impossible move happens much sooner than the easy-to spot flip from top to the side.
The entire spot has been shot practically in 3K, in two takes joined by a basic cross-fade. The only CG elements are the screen content, 3D text and color treatment.
...and the removal of cracks on the pie that happened after too much time underneath hot lights.
...and turning one of the tablets to correct orientation, because we placed it upside-down on the set.
But that's it. Promise.
OLLY is a brand new line of vitamins from the smarties who brought you Method. Sold exclusively at Target, OLLY products reimagine the act of taking your vitamins as a delightful, flavorful part of your day. I worked with the OLLY team to develop an enthusiastic, positive brand voice that reflects their fresh take on a tired industry. What a yummy project this was.
La Pitchoune is a family owned winery that blends old-world style with new-world innovation. To stand out in an industry fraught with clichés–both visual and verbal–it was essential that the La Pitchoune brand reflect a modern take on an age-old art. The sophistication and simplicity of the voice and design mirror the qualities of the wine itself.
People always seem surprised to learn that, in addition to my work in advertising and branding, I'm a professional ghostwriter with five books under my belt. Most people have never met a ghostwriter so they imagine it to be A Very Glamorous Thing To Do. I can assure you, it's not. The first question I'm usually asked is, "Do you write for celebrities?" and the answer is generally no, though I did pen a book foreword for a supermodel. And working with a supermodel goes just the way you might expect. While my ghosting contracts mostly stipulate that I must uphold confidentiality, I can share that I specialize in food-based topics and work closely with agent Sally Ekus. Ghostwriting has taken me places I never imagined, from a spot on the top 5 nutrition books on Amazon to the actual Amazon.
And to that other FAQ: Yes, I've thought about writing my own book.
