Quite possibly my favorite project: Target House Carnival

There are a few reasons this was one of my favorite projects. I got to work with one of my favorite copywriters (who is now an actor), Shawn Boyd. An awesome illustrator and now a friend Jesse LeDoux. It was for a great cause, St Jude Children's Research Hospital. And it was one of the most collaborative projects I've ever worked on.

Shawn and I got the assignment which concept themes for 4 carnivals that Target sponsors at their Target House at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Elements for the events included these posters, t-shirts and signage at the events.

We knew right away that we wanted Jesse LeDoux to work on it...but the problem was we were asked to use a licensed  property that Target was working with. Just before the 11th hour we realized that we weren't going to get the assets we needed from that property...so we pitched our original ideas with Jesse as our illustrator.

The ideas were sold in easily but we ran into problem number 2...Jesse was busy and in Japan.

But we knew his weakness...he always wanted to design an amusement park which is why our first illustration is a water ride.

Once that first carnival was in the bag we started on the other. We had phone calls at weird times because of the time difference. Heard great stories of Jesse's new finds in Japanese vending machines and saw a picture of him holding a bottle of vodka with a cobra in it.

We also had awesome brainstorms, the kind that you never forget and come out with too many good ideas. Even though we were across a ton of land and water they were really colloborative with Jesse, Shawn and me all throwing out the weirdest things we could think to add to the posters to make them fun.

That's why you'll see a fish fishing, a pig in a blanket sleeping under a bed, a bouncer with a paddle ball, and an elephant dressed as himself for a Halloween party.

Truly a great project to work on and we couldn't have pulled it off with any other illustrator. Check out Jesse's site here. If you need and illustrator for an upcoming project I highly recommend him.

my involvement: creative direction, concept and art direction
the team: Writer – Shawn Boyd, Illustrator – Jesse LeDoux

Target Black History Month 2008: Dream in Color

After a successful 2007 Dream in Color campaign Target decided to keep with the theme. However we wanted to evolve the concept a bit. We also wanted to make it about diversity in general so it was extended into Hispanic Heritage month and Asian Pacific Heritage Month.

We brought Black Design in to help with the campaign and we continued to work with Kwaku Alston as the campaign photographer.

The multi-channel campaign included Broadcast, web, print, retail, educational promotions and more.

We got to work with some amazing people including John Legend, Iman, Debbie Allen, Holly Robinson-Peete and more.

This campaign became quite successful and lasted three more years with updated personalities.

Behind the scenes shots live here.

And some behind the scene shots I took.

my involvement: creative direction (at Target)
the team: Agency – Black Design, Photographer – Kwaku Alston

Target Redesign Your School

Target worked with Great Schools By Design (American Architectural Foundation) on a scholarship program aimed at high school juniors and seniors.

The design concept actually came to me six months before we got the project. While at a photo shoot the day after the last day of school I snapped a photo of a student's doodles on his book cover. I knew I wanted to use it in the future.

Then the project came along. We hunted down the best illustrator to match the style and found Serge Seidlitz. He was fantastic to work not just because of his English accent.

This scholarship contest received many more entries than were expected and the American Architectural Foundation was incredibly pleased and impressed with the launch of this program.

Another fun project to be a part of...

Print (left). Web (right).

my involvement: concept and art direction
writer: Adam Reynolds
illustration: the awesome Serge Seidlitz
web: Amy Eian, Amy Negrete and Eight Hour Day

and here's the book cover that sparked the illustration direction.

Spark

A group of four people in the Target creative department felt like we needed to kickstart the creative department a little and create some collaboration. We saw that we were a little fractured and thought if promotions, store design, digital and product design could come together, talk and get inspired we could create better work.

Spark was created. It was a group that met monthly and brought someone from the industry in, usually a designer, to talk about how they get inspired. 

We armed the speakers with our logo of sorts, which was just 'spark' set in Helvetica Bold, and asked them to create their own logo. Here are some of the originals. 

Spark was created and run by: Adam Reynolds, Ted Halbur, Travis Robertson and me.

Target Big Idea Think Tank

Target used to run a quarterly Big Idea challenge to get some fresh ideas on businesses that needed a little help. Later this morphed into the Think Tank which would not only run these challenges but trained the team to become leaders in brainstorming, ideation and brand building. The Think Tank members took the process to their teams to help more people grow.

I was lucky enough to win three Big Idea challenges and be a founding member of the Think Tank.

Two of my winning concepts were visualized. The first was a concept to help launch Choxie, Target's new at the time chocolate. My idea was to create a traveling airstream that would be an oasis to stressed out working women, shoppers, moms and more. The trailer would be decked out in comfort and style and have masseuses, mani-pedi stations and of course Choxie.

The next winning idea was for a new gift card. The concept was to partner with Ohio Art and create an Etch-A-Sketch gift card for the back to school season.

my involvement: concept

Target Breast Cancer Research Foundation Concept

The year was 2007 when my writer, Adam Reynolds, and I had an idea. Let's put an ad on the front of the New York Times. Let's have that ad go through every color page of the paper (and maybe every page), let's place that add smack dab in the middle of each page... Because it's an ad that does good and doing good is, well, good.

This concept was championed by the Director of Marketing at Target. He ok'd the projected media buy that we thought would be huge.

But the Times wouldn't have it. No ads on their homepage. And other newspapers felt the same.

When our head of marketing spoke at a newspaper association meeting a few months after this media buy was rejected he showed our concept and spoke to the change in newspaper readership, need for them to think of new ways to get revenue and called on them to change.

A year later the New York Times allowed it's first ad on the front page. Did this idea help them see the light? I don't know but I like to think it did.

my involvement: creative direction, concept and design
the writer and con-concepter: Adam Reynolds

In the end we needed to create a more traditional one page ad which is below.

Target Cafe Art

One of my last projects at Target was to concept and execute artwork for the Target Cafes in new stores. My idea was to get team members to create sections of a large mural using the Bullseye design. This is concept stage as it was finished after I left however all but a few of these squares made it to the final design.

It was a cool project to get designers and artists to express their own style and collaborate with one another.

my involvement: creative direction and design
design: many Target employess

Black History Month 2007: Maya Angelou

This had to have been one of the greatest experiences I've had in marketing. I inherited a 2006 Black History Month program called Dream in Color. Originally it featured some kids from Target's Start Something program. For the second year the task was simply to make the program bigger.

Working with my copywriter, Steve Chirhart, we came up with the idea to feature storytellers. We also wanted to extend Dream in Color into a holistic diversity program encompassing Black History Month, Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and Hispanic Heritage Month.

For Black History Month our idea was to showcase slam poets. Then we found we had a connection to Maya Angelou.

Since she's one of the greatest storytellers we jumped on the chance to work with her and tweaked the concept a bit.

The campaign included photography for print and promotions as well as video for broadcast. We also had Dr. Angelou write out a poem that we reprinted as a gift for VIP friends of Target.

The photo shoot was amazing. It took place in her house. Our photographer was Kwaku Alston. His name came to mind because he was a college friend of a friend of mine in Chicago. I always kept his name in mind in case I had a project that was right for him.

The night before the shoot we took a look at location shots of Dr. Angelou's house. One of those shots was of her piano...on that piano was a photo that Kwaku took of Dr. Angelou a few years back for an Oprah Legends photo shoot.

When we arrived at Dr. Angelou's house her niece invited us in. We set up while Dr. Angelou got ready. When she came out I was surprised, she is a tall woman. For some reason I was expecting someone shorter.

In the first 5 minutes of chatting with her I was blown away...everything she says is poetry. During the actual shoot she was a riot...she even told me she like my hair (a guess you'd call it a messy faux-hawk.)

After the shoot we ate with her and got to chat more. She recounted stories of her life. I had read some years ago but I had forgotten. To hear them from her was amazing.

The black and white image above is one of my most cherished photos. To capture her in a great moment being photographed by an amazing photographer was so cool for me.

The printed piece is a spread from a booklet that was in Esquire magazine and in a educational piece mailed to schools. Little & Company helped with the layout for that piece.

my involvement: creative direction, photo direction, art direction and design (at Target)
the team: Agency – Little and Co., Photographer – Kwaku Alston

Black History Month 2008: Behind the scenes

The previous post included work from the 2008 diversity campaign worked on while at Target.

Here are some of the photos I took while on set for the still shots.

Debbie Allen

Debbie Allen

Holly Robinson-Peete and family, Kwaku Alston and crew

John Legend

John Legend, Kwaku Alston and crew

Classic Winter X Games: if 2007 is classic

In 2007 when I was working at Target I had the fortune to go to the Winter X-games to grab some behind the scenes shots of the Target Chalet. A few of the action sports athletes that Target sponsors stayed at the chalet while others just came to crash, hang out or rock out at night.

I started my career as a photographer but I got that start in the late 80's when I attended Woodward Camp. I was there for biking and loved it, but on the first day of the second week I re-injured my separated shoulder...no more riding that second week...so I took the photo class they offered.

While at these X Games I got to meet Gary Ream the head of Woodward. I let him know that without his camp I wouldn't have gotten into my career even though it moved from photography to creative direction. It was a great moment as we reminisced about the camp then and he told me how it had grown.

Another great part was that I got to hang out with Mat Hoffman. He's one of the biggest riders in BMX freestyle and I was a fan of him in the mid 80's when I was riding. It was awesome hanging out with him. Later that year I got to go to his house for a quick shoot.

Mat Hoffman

Shaun White

Polaroids from the weekend

Not sure who this is but I love the color and reflection in the her goggles

I also got to head to the Summer X Games that year for some formal portraits of Shaun White...but you're going to have to wait until this summer to check them out.

Target 2008 Martin Luther King Day giveaway

This site is meant to be a combination of my work and work that inspires me. I thought I'd start adding some of my work and this piece seems to fit today.

the project:
2008 MLK Day giveaway

the brief:
Create a unique piece of art, to use as a takeaway at Target sponsored MLK Day events, that connects target to Dr. King’s legacy of community service.

the idea:
Work with Amos Paul Kennedy to weave an MLK quote, the ‘I Am a Man’ message from the Memphis Sanitation worker strike and Target’s CR messaging to create an impactful visual.

the result:
The process of working with Amos was fantastic and the posters he created were amazing. We used a favorite to create this poster. Our regional teams felt the piece was great and our guests loved it too.

the story:
Here is a little film about Amos Kennedy that lives on youtube you’ll see that he’s a pretty interesting man. We made the mistake of calling him an artist and designer but he quickly corrected us by saying he’s just the guy who lays down type. Even though he says he’s no artist and the prints we commissioned came in a box that formerly held frying chickens (no necks or gizzards) we thought they were all beautiful.


my involvement: creative direction (at Target)
the team: Agency – Little and Co., Letterpress artist – Amos Paul Kennedy Jr.