The Client: Stryker
The Challenge: Create a fun product launch that did not violate medical industry regulations.
The Result: A direct competitor was so impressed they wanted to know how we did it and if we could help them.

Our client, Stryker, wanted to create a fun and immersive experience to launch a new product, but was extremely challenged by the regulations imposed on the medical industry. I worked closely with the Stryker team to identify ways to capitalize on “edutainment.” By keeping the event centered around product education through entertaining and engaging activities. Features included a life-sized, custom-built Operation Game (below left) that included a fully robotic arm, ten live integrated product demo stations, original product displays, a digital Predictability Game and a VR tour of their facility in Ireland. 

The space overtook an entire street block, about one square acre. We first carpeted the street and erected truss structures throughout, then proceeded to take over and redesign six unique restaurants. We replaced over 300 pieces of furniture, applied over 150 graphics and created custom pillows and decor to ensure a cohesive look throughout the space.

And, we did it all in 22 hours. 

Strategy, Concepting, Creative Direction, Art Direction + Project Management

The Client: CBS
The Challenge: Create two unique events in the same space for the same guests in a 36-hour time frame.
The Result: Guests couldn’t believe they were in the same space and gushed about the one-of-a-kind experience.

CBS charged GMR with all of the creative aspects for their Super Bowl 50 hospitality program. This included using the same space for the Friday and Saturday night guest receptions and concerts.

In 18 hours, I led the team in transforming Pier 48, a bird-filled warehouse space. A rustic Sonoma-inspired wine tasting on Friday miraculously became a glamorous Hollywood Regency-inspired space for Saturday. Guests were delighted to see such a complete transformation and were capturing photos of the space throughout the weekend. 

Concepting, Interior Design, Creative Direction, Art Direction + Project Management

Bronze Winner of Event Marketer’s 2016 Experience Design & Technology Awards Best B2B Environment.

The Client: CIRCA
The Challenge: Increase brand awareness and basic understanding of the jewelry buying industry with a new ad campaign.
The Result: An immediate increase in overall inquiries and higher value product acquisitions.

In an effort to increase understanding and awareness with our target demographic, I proposed a fresh, more strategic approach to the CIRCA branding and communications efforts. This campaign shifted to making the benefits our services front and center of our marketing efforts. By showing people what they could do with their under-utilized resources, we were able to more effectively communicate the service we provided and bring in a whole new audience. 

The concept was then evolved to target specific demographics and where the equity was being used. This expanded our audience without alienating our primary target or degrading our brand positioning. 

This change in strategy immediately led to a 50% increase in inquiries and an 18% increase in the value of goods acquired.

Strategy, Concepting, Creative Direction, Styling, Copywriting, Design + Project Management

The Client: U.S. Bank
The Challenge: Create a high-end luxury experience in their existing office that tied into their sponsorship initiatives.
The Result: The client loved it so much, the pop-up design turned into the permanent design.

U.S. Bank invited 75 of their high-value, VIP customers to come enjoy Super Bowl LII in their hometown of Minneapolis, MN. This VIP lounge was a space for guests to enjoy the weekend festivities, network and relax.

Due to a large conference room table that could not be removed, we got creative and built a full-service bar directly on top of it, creating both a visual anchor and gathering point in the space. While this was intended to be a pop-up, the client was so happy with the quality of our work, they decided to keep all of the additions to the space permanently.

Creative Direction, Interior Design, Art Direction + Production

The Client: CBS
The Challenge: Integrate a branded experience into an existing space with a very specific style.
The Result: A space that looked as if it was designed that way from the start. 

At Super Bowl 50, CBS hosted around 1,000 guests in San Francisco. We concepted and designed a hospitality space to fit within the existing design of Fairmont Hotel. This luxury integration included custom-built furniture, lounges, decor, wallpaper and graphic overlays that appeared as if they had always been there. This space provided a high-end experience as CBS and their guests relaxed and connected in between the weekend festivities.

Concepting, Interior Design, Creative Direction, Art Direction + Project Management

The Client: Visa
The Challenge: Design an enjoyable, luxury hospitality space engaged guests and told the story of Visa’s partnerships and innovation through interactive experiences.
The Result: The space was a huge success allowing Visa to donate a significant amount to charity while showcasing their mind-blowing technology and was even featured on Entertainment Tonight.

For Super Bowl 50, Visa charged GMR with creating a full-service, luxury hospitality space on the 9th floor patio of the One Market building, which overlooked the festivities of Super Bowl City. We worked directly with Event Star to design and build the structure, while I lead the design of both the experience and the space. 

The floor plan featured a state of the art registration station where guests could check in and make purchases using their fingerprint, a trampoline photo experience, a custom-built pour over coffee bar, a 30’L x 15”H living wall, a giving wall and a full-service Under Armour pop-up store. 

Concepting, Interior Design, Creative Direction + Project Management

The space was featured on Entertainment Tonight

The Client: U.S. Bank
The Challenge: Make banking fun to connect with people during Super Bowl.
The Result: Above expected attendance and shares on social media and a very happy client. 

For Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis, MN, U.S. Bank created the Possibilities Lounge on Super Bowl LIVE. Open to the public, this interactive fan experience capitalized on the audience’s passion for football and showcased U.S. Bank's innovation in banking and payment. Guests were assigned a wearable payment sticker to use throughout the space where they could earn and spend virtual currency. Experiences included a dancing avatar that mimicked your movements, a photo booth GIF, prize lockers, a cocoa bar and digital vending machines with exclusive gifts.

Strategy, Concepting, Ideation, Creative Direction, Art Direction, Production + Project Management.

The Client: U.S. Bank
The Challenge: Aligning a bank with the winter Olympics by creating new campaign assets and launching them within a week.
The Result: A successful evolution of the Power of Possible campaign that highlighted U.S. Bank’s commitment to making your dreams come true.

U.S. Bank seized a last-minute ad opportunity for coverage during the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, however, they wanted to evolve their "Power of Possible" campaign with new, relevant creative assets.

Using what we learned through sponsorship, we created ads that connected with people through the lens of winter sports associated with the Olympics. We highlighted the "play" pillar of U.S. Bank's branding to associate the bank with this passion point in a natural manner. This connection made the brand more accessible to viewers who may not have considered U.S. Bank historically.

We produced two videos and multiple banner ads, both animated and static to support this buy... and my team did this all in five days. 
 

Strategy, Concepting, Creative Direction, Copywriting + Project Management

The Client: GE
The Challenge: Create a cohesive look for GE to apply throughout their hospitality program during the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
The Result: While the client felt like this pushed too far out of their boundaries, they decided to simplify it, but keep key pieces.

While working with GE for their 2016 Rio Olympic hospitality program, they requested some out-of-the-box options for their Look of the Games (LOTG) design system. I drew inspiration from three pillars: the Olympic Games, the vibrant city of Rio de Janeiro and the GE branding. I worked with an incredible illustrator and designer to create this unique and inspired campaign and style guide.

While GE ultimately chose to stay close to their everyday branding, this creative has always been a favorite of mine. 

Conepting + Creative Direction

The Client: The NFL
The Challenge: Completely takeover a restaurant and rebrand it with the NFL look and feel inside of an extremely tight budget.
The Result: The modular approach to the space allowed for flexibility when hosting private events and celebrity clientele utilizing existing structures and intelligently placed graphics that maximized the budget.

Under a particularly challenged budget, I was able to transform Micheal Mina’s SOMA restaurant into a hub for the NFL team and their partners. The space was reimagined using custom-designed graphics, covering every existing surface to highlight the NFL’s Super Bowl 50 campaign. Using a coffee table that could not be removed, we had a 3’ tall gold “50” constructed as a sculptural feature and photo op (lover right). 

The highlight of the space was the custom-constructed football display cases which utilized an existing i-bolt system (above middle). I replaced their antique lanterns with plexi boxes that were then suspended into place using airline cable and welded steel. The displays were used to feature footballs that were decorated by famous fashion designers and auctioned off for charity.

The modular approach to the space allowed for flexibility when hosting private events and celebrity clientele.

Concepting, Creative Direction, Art Direction, Production + Project Management

The Client: The NFL
The Challenge: Create one cohesive luxury space to entertain VIP guests who attend year after year and aren’t easily impressed.
The Result: By utilizing specific parts of the style guide in coordinating areas, all three floors of the building tied together seamlessly while a custom game of putt-putt moved guests through the space in a novel way.

My task was to transform the House of Blues in Houston into a full branded, high-end NFL hospitality space. The activity featured was a custom-designed and built, football-themed miniature golf course that ran over two floors of the space. 

Custom-built walls were erected throughout the space to cover the copious amounts of busy artwork and to tie the space together through clean, simplified textures.

Concepting + Creative Direction

The Client: Sonoma County Vintners Association
The Challenge: Due to strict rules from the San Francisco Host Committee, Sonoma County needed to create a structure that didn’t look like a tent, but cost about the same while housing fifty vineyards throughout the week.
The Result: We designed the space using fully sustainable materials to save on costs while highlighting the eco-friendly and rustic nature of the Sonoma wineries.

The design was first inspired by the beautiful views and warm atmosphere of the wineries, then I created simple, interchangeable logo placements to create consistency while still allowing each winery to showcase their own branding. I worked closely with production to create a Clear Span tent that was completely transformed outside and in, so it appeared to be a permanent structure. I included finishing touches, such as hard wood floors and custom-built light fixtures to complete the look. The entire structure was built from reclaimed materials and was awarded the Most Sustainable Activation in Super Bowl live. Both the client and the Host Committee were thrilled with the solution we provided.

Concepting, Creative Direction, Art Direction + Production

The Client: U.S. Bank
The Challenge: Creating excitement for a brand that was intentionally serious and tying them into the passion around sponsorship.
The Result: A creative campaign that tied all of the efforts together seamlessly and infused energy and passion into the branding of a bank.

New to sponsorship, U.S. Bank needed a fresh approach to branding where they could emotionally connect with the audience through a shared passion, football. I lead a creative team to establish a campaign and style guide that could be applied consistently to all of their sponsorship opportunities. Super Bowl LII kicked off the use of this campaign was applied all over the city in newspaper and out-of-home ads as well as online in a digital and social campaign.

Creative Direction, Art Direction, Copywriting + Project Management

I worked with our production partner, Mark Testa, to design our consumer engagement space, where we featured recently purchased jewelry to communicate the level of jewelry CIRCA purchased and raise brand awareness. By using sponges, paint and sand, I hand crafted “rocks” to use as jewelry forms, which were inspired by the ReBirth campaign. The natural aspect of the forms spoke to the reincarnation of the piece of jewelry as it gets recycled back into the jewelry industry after being sold to CIRCA.

Creative Direction, Art Direction, Production, Project Management + Visual Merchandising

Displays featured in Women’s Wear Daily editorial. 
Won the Event Design Magazine's 2012 Event Design Award. Best Trade Show Environment under 50’ x 50’.

The Client: NetApp
The Challenge: Connect a data storage company to the NFL in a way that is fun and entertaining to engage new and current clients on a regular basis.
The Result: The series created an opportunity for them to send out regular emails to clients and prospects and get them to engage in a landing page and football themed website. They were able to track all new inquiries and all site engagement.

NetApp was an official partner of the NFL as their data storage provider. To help them advertise the partnership to their clients, we created a content series featuring Denver Broncos Offensive Lineman, Louis Vasques. These were included in a microsite and used in weekly sales outreach.

Copywriting, Art Direction, Editing

The Client: CIRCA
The Challenge: Many luxury shoppers believe there is a stigma to selling jewelry and feel it’s too taboo to engage an agency.
The Result: By focusing the messaging around sustainability, we were able to engage the target audience through their desire to impact those around them versus focusing on their own well being.

I worked with the CEO to develop the concept of using jewelry in an unexpected way to help break through the traditional thought associated with jewelry campaigns. I then enlisted the help of our creative agency to produce the photo shoot and refine the design. We worked with super-models Elaine Irwin and Veronica Webb and photographer Donna Trope.

Art Direction, Copywriting, Image Retouching + Design

I used a question as simple as “Why keep it?” to engage the audience. This allowed CIRCA access to clients who were previously unfamiliar with either the concept of selling jewelry or the service that CIRCA provided. By using upscale, signed pieces of jewelry, the campaign was able to maintain a distinct differentiation from pawn shops or cash-for-gold. Because the concept was so simple, it translated easily to multiple languages and ran world wide.

Strategy, Concepting, Creative Direction, Art Direction, Copywriting + Design

By advertising in newspapers, we had access to a less affluent consumer that we still hoped to capture. However, our full color brand campaigns did not translate well to that medium. To overcome this, I developed a newspaper specific campaign.

The more accessible message to a broader audience was focusing on overcoming the stigma around one’s selling jewelry, this concept allows people to think of jewelry as a liquid asset versus a collectible, using the common “Diamond is Forever” line to CIRCA’s advantage. This was used world-wide in multiple languages. 

Strategy, Concepting, Creative Direction, Art Direction, Copywriting + Design

We created a website for NetApp to drive customers to the content around the NFL partnership. 

Creative Direction, User Expereince

Sector engaged Kris Humphries in an endorsement deal to help elevate the brand and increase awareness. 

Art Direction, Design