Unum: Advertising Annual & cover
Kenwood TV & print
A detail freak obsessed with typography, illustration and design- that's how I spent my early days as an art director at Hal Riney, Wieden, Goodby and Citron (now AKQA). Another obsession was being different (weird) and doing things people weren't doing at the time such as riffing on pop culture. The campaigns below are just a sample of some of that unique work.
We created a brand campaign that carved a perfect POV that had the right subversiveness and attitude for a new audience of the '90s. The campaign became ubiquitous in many national publications with a sense of humor that played the pop culture that surrounded it. The television spots were shot by Joe Pytka. One particular actor stood out beyond the others in casting- a young Kathy Griffin. She mentions the spot in her autobiography as a launching point in her career. '70s Dance Show was named one of Adweek's Best Spots of the '90s. CW: Bryan Behar
Copper Mountain Ski Resort had a unique selling point- it was a place where the real skiers and locals went to ski. We crafted several seasons of print campaigns that help tell that story to a national audience. Print ads in all the key ski magazines as well as some lifestyle pubs featured an extra-cost copper metallic ink and simple black-and-white photography to help them standout. It paid off for Copper. The campaign work had such an impact they became a takeover candidate by IntraWest, infusing much-needed upgrades and new buildings. CWs: Bryan Behar, Barton Corley, Steve Morris, Aaron Stern
Avia athletic shoes liked doing great work. However although they were in Portland like Nike they didn't have the same budgets. I wanted to create an impactful campaign knowing that the ads would only be single page and no budget for a shoot. This was quite a challenge in these days of big ACG print campaigns from Nike. I'd always been a fan of Jack Unruh's work and felt he could bring a unique sensibility to the ads. The campaign was featured in Communication Arts and won a medal from the American Society of Illustrators.
I was a young art director at Goodby and occasionally there were creative shoot outs for various projects. One of those was Unum Financial. I was obsessed with old typography and unique editorial design and I brought those passions together in the design of this national print campaign. It was a dream to craft a really unique campaign that leveraged very classic typography in my own unique way. The campaign was in Communication Arts and was featured as part of the cover. CWs: Dave O'Hare, Scott Aal, Steve Simpson
Specialized did a range of advertising from product stuff to ads in bike racing news magazines. I worked on both. Below are just a few examples. We took a radically different approach to presenting their new helmet with a then unknown Lance Armstrong. To celebrate the Specialized team, we took a simple. elegant approach to stand out from the noise of garish bike ads in places like Velo News. The campaign later appeared in Graphis magazine. CW: Scott Aal
With dot-com ads during the late '90s, budgets were big and ideas were over the top. This campaign for more.com directed by John Waters and was the pinnacle of this genre. More.com offered "more of everything" when it came to drugstore items. The ads featured the "More" family and featured sitcom scenarios with the More family that were just a little bit off. The spots never aired due to the client's bankruptcy during the dot-com crash. They were eventually finished and feature in Backstage Shoot's Best Spots That Never Ran. ACD: Shira Friedman Bogart CW: Patrick Condo AD: John Davis
Ore-Ida hired Citron Haligman Bedecarré for a new approach to talking about their potato products. Rather than showing plates of food with kids and forks we took a different approach. We created a group of other vegetables and produce who are jealous of how popular potatoes are thanks to Ore-Ida. The campaign was featured in Leurzer's Archive magazine. CW: Kelly Sopp
Powerbar had never run an advertising campaign before. Energy bars in general were not as pervasive at the time as they are now. As food the bars themselves aren't the most appealing but the lasting energy they give before and during a workout was. Other considerations included little or no budgets and a media plan of single page ads. To counter the more serious design and stock photos, a webfont of my own handwriting was created, Bob Lefthand. CW: Bryan Behar