The French Dip Tour from Hardee’s

The French Dip Tour from Hardee’s
01/20/10

Whenever Hardee’s comes out with a new monstrosity of a Thickburger, they never fail to impress. It’s not so much the burger that wows, it usually consists of a lot of meat with meat as a condiment. What wows me is that with every new burger they release, Hardee’s has an insatiable appetite to  insert some sort of sexual innuendo to promote it.

The French Dip Thickburger was no different, and it didn’t take degree in advertising to know exactly who was going to star in this promotion.

French Maids. Ooo la la!

NGAGE was given the task of organizing a French Dip Tour through all of Hardee’s primary markets. Our account and PR teams chose sporting events, radio stations and concerts where our gorgeous maids could introduce themselves to guys with a french kiss (aka. a free french dip).

I helped design the tour, including a vehicle wrap, coupons, photo locator cards, segway graphics and tour videos.

Take a look at the tour:

AstoundSound Takes Its Brand and Website to Another Level

AstoundSound Takes Its Brand and Website to Another Level
01/10/10

The NGAGE creative team led by David Johnson was given the responsibility of taking some of the most sophisticated sound technology in existence, and making it understandable and irresistible to PC gamers, music aficionados and movie buffs.

David started by creating  a look that felt youthful, high tech and loud. With bold copy from writer Eammon Azizi, I took David’s vision and cranked it up across all media, especially the on the web.

Take a look at where we ended up:

The Hunt for Advertising Glory

The Hunt for Advertising Glory
01/6/10

Giving people in advertising a chance to get together and complain about how terrible other agencies’ work is doesn’t seem like a good idea. However, ad clubs around the country orchestrate this every year at an event called the Addy’s.

St. Louis is no different, and in 2007 NGAGE was given the task of deciding on a theme and blowing out a campaign to help promote the event.

I had put forward a concept involving “The Elusive Addy”, and my new creative director, the cryptozoology enthusiast he is, seized onto it and knew exactly where it needed to go.

All great cryptozoological creatures have a history full of epic expeditions that detail near misses in capturing the beast. The only remnant is some tiny piece of circumstantial (and usually blurry) evidence.

We used this as the basis for the theme, and took it further from there. David gave me a style, and I finessed and blew out into other digital elements, invites and posters.

Take a look… if you dare?

The Hanes Comfortzone – Changing Americas Underwear One Man at a Time

The Hanes Comfortzone – Changing Americas Underwear One Man at a Time
12/30/09

If you were at a Major League Baseball game, and a couple of beauties asked you to, “change your underwear. No really… change your underwear,” would you do it?

Well, in the summer of 2007 hundreds of guys did, and in doing so discovered the relief and comfort of the Hanes Comfortsoft reinvention. No tags, softer waistband and breathable cotton, all while waiting in line for a hot dog.

NGAGE’s CEO Dan Curran and an amazing account team coordinated, staffed, and executed a four month national tour bringing the Hanes Comfortforce and their changing station to everything from the Daytona 500 to the MLB All-star Game.

As my first project with the company, I got my feet wet designing the vehicle that would take the girls across the country acting as a mobile billboard for the tour. I also put pixels to work for the changing station, photo locator cards, coupons, e-decoders and on the web.

Here’s a sweet collage of the work:

Sheltered Perception

Sheltered Perception
12/29/09

I recently got the chance to work on a project for the Humane Society. Given the fact that every time I walk into an animal shelter I have to be talked down from taking home every animal in the place, I was happy to help in anyway I could.

With the majority of pet buying in the United States coming from breeders, mall pet shops and unfortunately mills, animal shelters (specifically the Humane Society) are left overflowing with pets that need loving homes. They are running into a perception problem however, and many misconceptions about shelter pets are accepted as fact, and often repeated as such.

To get past this, we decided to take the problem head on, and address the most common misconceptions individually.

Here is where we landed:

Fun work

Martin Luther King Tribute
06/1/10

I wanted to attempt this style  in February, and being Black History Month I chose the Rev. as my muse.

His face is made up of the words of his epic Lincoln Memorial “I have a dream…” speech.

Take a look. I am having it framed as I type.

Smoking Goat Branding
04/1/10

I like beer.

Beer high in flavor, alcohol and price. I brew at home, but wouldn’t consider myself very good at this point. I’m working on it.

We have friends in Louisiana who I would consider really good. I designed some branding for their forthcoming brewery down there.

The Smoking Goat will hopefully be amazing, especially if I get some good beer out of the deal.

Have a look. Then drink a beer and have a look again. Continue this process until the logo looks awesome.

New Poster
02/4/10

This is a poster I made for my buddy Dustin.

A classic quote from him as we drove by Effingham, IL’s infamous and huge cross.

I thought it would look good in his new apartment.

Sheltered Perceptions
01/6/10

I recently got the chance to work on a project for the Humane Society. Given the fact that every time I walk into an animal shelter I have to be talked down from taking home every animal in the place, I was happy to help in anyway I could.

With the majority of pet buying in the United States coming from breeders, mall pet shops and unfortunately mills, animal shelters (specifically the Humane Society) are left overflowing with pets that need loving homes. They are running into a perception problem however, and many misconceptions about shelter pets are accepted as fact, and often repeated as such.

To get past this, we decided to take the problem head on, and address the most common misconceptions individually.

Here is where we landed:

Lauren and Dan sit’n in a tree…
01/5/10

My good friend Lauren is getting married in July, and though I am extremely jealous of her fiance Dan (don’t tell my wife), I made their save the date cards.

I use VistaPrint to print these types of things. Though the quality suffers, and the rumor is that they are destroying local community printers nationwide, for the price they can’t be beat. Check them out next time you want to customize your own holiday card or invitation.

Here’s how Lauren’s STDs turned out: