UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Directing visuals & illustrations
In my 12 years as a senior creative, I have directed many illustrators in the creation of visual pieces to bring various campaigns, initiatives and ideas to life. Directing artists for illustrative work is a blast; it’s a special kind of joy when you hand off an idea, along with a rough sketch or mockup, and you see it transformed into a work of art with a distinctive perspective and style. The brains of illustrators are awe-inspiring, and while I dabble in some basic illustrative work myself (shown elsewhere in my full portfolio), I believe this work belongs largely in the hands of artists who do this every day. Please note that since this is a compilation of illustrations, you may see some of the below work shown elsewhere in my portfolio.
LG Seeds dealer recruitment drive
LG Seeds® asked for a show-stopping visual approach to accompany a new campaign they were launching to recruit new seed dealers. I developed visual concepts centered around portraits of LG Seeds dealers that highlighted their important day-to-day work but also elevated the "in the dirt" swagger that appealed to this audience. We executed a photo shoot to gather dealer portraits and key scenes. I then worked with a freelance digital illustrator helped bring the concept to life visually, and he created two key visuals that served as the foundation for various campaign pieces and media. This campaign has won multiple awards, including a platinum level Hermes Creative Award, the highest honor Hermes bestows.
Perkins Engines parts campaign
Perkins Engines® was prepping for its exhibit at ConExpo, the largest construction tradeshow in the world, where it also planned to promote an upgraded consumer platform to buy aftermarket parts. To drive engagement with the platform, Perkins offered a parts giveaway that they promoted before and at the show. Perkins asked me and my team to develop a nontraditional approach to promoting the parts platform and giveaway.
I concepted an approach featuring digital illustrations made of engine parts — the very same parts you could purchase on the upgraded platform. This approach required a photo shoot, where hundreds of individual parts were photographed under consistent lighting. I then partnered with a freelance digital illustrator, who meticulously and deftly arranged the parts into the desired illustrations that paired with the messages.
I concepted an approach featuring digital illustrations made of engine parts — the very same parts you could purchase on the upgraded platform. This approach required a photo shoot, where hundreds of individual parts were photographed under consistent lighting. I then partnered with a freelance digital illustrator, who meticulously and deftly arranged the parts into the desired illustrations that paired with the messages.
LG Seeds ag brand campaign
LG Seeds® wanted to bring the four pillars of its business to life as part of a brand campaign — teamwork, innovation, confidence and success. With this in mind, I concepted four eye-catching visual approaches that represented the confidence of the brand and invited viewers to explore the scenes and delight in unexpected juxtapositions. The visuals were accompanied by headlines intended to invite viewers to ponder what these words meant to them by "filling in the
This photorealistic visual approach required a photo shoot due to the very specific scenarios we wanted to depict. I worked closely with a digital illustrator to ensure we captured the necessary photos, which he then combined with custom-built digital environments (along with stock imagery) to tell each story.
This photorealistic visual approach required a photo shoot due to the very specific scenarios we wanted to depict. I worked closely with a digital illustrator to ensure we captured the necessary photos, which he then combined with custom-built digital environments (along with stock imagery) to tell each story.
Caterpillar space for students
Caterpillar® came to me and my team with an ask to create a large illustration for an educational exhibit that teaches high school students about financial housing topics. The space itself is sponsored by a Caterpillar affiliate — Cat Financial — and is part of a larger learning space called Finance Park, a town-like environment developed by Junior Achievement. The interactive environment offers students an engaging and nontraditional way to learn about real-life financial experiences. Students walk through a street-like space, lined by individual rooms styled to look like storefronts and buildings. Students can enter different rooms at their own pace and engage in interactive financial activities aligned with the specific room. For this piece, I directed an illustrator who created a joyful and engaging cityscape that felt young and fresh but still fit within Cat’s strict brand guidelines.
Caterpillar equipment management campaign
Caterpillar was looking for our team to develop a campaign and visuals that would cause machine operators to do a double take. The campaign was centered on the benefits of Caterpillar’s equipment management services, technologies that take the pain out of owning and operating machines — and result in better bottom lines. We focused on connecting with operators with humor and an understanding of the frustration they face when they run into unexpected costs and issues that impact their profits. To our delight, the client was also willing to be a bit risqué to turn heads. We leaned all the way in with a visual play on swear words and how they would display on various instrument panels. It was a team effort, with several of us contributing to creating the digital illustrations. We also directing illustrators on some of the more complex graphics. This campaign launched with quite the splash, causing a major buzz among operators, many of whom engaged with the brand for the first time. It also garnered a number of awards from Ad Age and the American Advertising Awards (formerly called ADDYs).
Partnership between two farming-related organizations
Country Financial®, a national insurance and financial services company, exhibits regularly at a national farm show, with a large physical space, nontraditional visual experiences and oversized, slick wall graphics. Their ask for this piece (a large banner) was to find a way to visually show their close partnership with the Illinois Farm Bureau. To my chagrin, their brand colors couldn’t be brought together easily without screaming “Christmas,” as one brand color is green and the other is red. I concepted an approach that brought together the colors in a way that felt unforced but also intriguing. I used a split image approach to depict two halves of a tractor in a field — one side a green tractor and one side a red tractor. I directed a digital illustrator to create the split image, which was created using a pre-existing 3D model of a tractor that could then be colorized. I also paid close attention to ensuring that both sides of the image depicted additional differences to emphasize the overall split image effect. The clients were extremely happy with the final visual, and the banner has been lovingly used at numerous events since the farm show.
A great industrial merger
When two industrial services companies merged (Brand and Safway), they asked us to create their new logo, in addition to a print ad announcing the merger in an important industry publication. (You can see the logo I created for the new brand on my “Logos” page.) For the print ad, BrandSafway wanted a visual approach that showed the breath and depth of services across industries, in addition to a look and feel that felt uplifting and positive. I knew I wanted to avoid at all costs the expected approach, which would have been to fill the ad space with numerous thumbnail images. Instead, I concepted an approach for an illustration that that would be contained within the word “GREAT,” (as part of a complete phrase). “Great” is an important word to the company in its messaging and also happens to have enough letters to represent each key industry that BrandSafway serves. I also saw this as a clever solution to depict many services in one ad and still do so in a clean, cohesive and eye-catching way. I directed an illustrator who worked with 3D models due to the illustration being so technical. One of my main focuses was to ensure that the illustration felt cohesive overall but also represented distinct, visually-interesting industries within it.