Whenever I see these projects - i.e. Coca-Cola’s recent series - I’m left conflicted. While the pieces themselves are so incredible I’m often left wondering why we can’t see more of this without the need to be selling something. And though I appreciate that the brand simply wants to be associated with something beautiful, I wonder what happened to the times when the wealthy would underwrite these artistic endeavors for the shear love of the art.

As his story goes:

“When Alice fell through the rabbit hole, she tore a rift between our two universes. Through this open rift, “nonsense” began leaking out of Wonderland. With a decreasing amount of nonsense, Wonderland became a more logical place, and since vanishing cats and singing flowers cannot exist in a logical universe, Wonderland began to die.

Professor Jonathan Lake, of Miskatonic University, traveled to Wonderland in attempt to catalog and archive the remaining flora and fauna so that Wonderland would not disappear into the forgotten depths of history. This is his collection of specimens, artifacts, and ephemera salvaged from the Wonderlands.”

Admittedly this is one of my favourite of the classic tales, but the attention to detail on this is absolutely incredible. Excellent work!

However, my adventures online began far earlier than that. And as any one who’s met me can tell you - and as you will well find out - is that I can tell a story. That is exactly what I plan to do with this blog.

As the store front of my professional career I will outline for you some of the things that I have been fortunate enough to experience throughout my professional career. I’ve been a roadie, a body piercer, a bouncer, a body guard, co-founder of a multi-million dollar clothing label, book publisher, web designer, art director and now creative director. Subscribe to the Blog RSS because you won’t be able to ignore me.

Thanks for taking the time to look around this site. Putting it together has been a great and enlightening experience. We spend so much time with our heads either down on the screen or up in the clouds that we rarely take a chance to stop and look at what it is we’ve done. I will be back filling my portfolio over the coming week so please subscribe to my Portfolio RSS.

Creative direction, art direction, IA/UX consultation for 2008 MuchMusic Video Awards micro-site and online marketing campaign. Consultation on broadcast design and viral campaign.

Worked closely with the CTV Creative Agency throughout the development of the broadcast concept in an attempt to have a cohesive campaign throughout the life of the project across all mediums. The final concept involved a multi-month online viral and social media campaign that were aligned with concurrent on air promotion featuring broadcast interruptions with viral videos - some user generated via ShowMeYours. The campaign was a critical success and resulted in record breaking ratings on-air and metrics online. Tied to all of this was a multi-million dollar online/on-air integrated promotion featuring six top tier brands and multiple micro sites.

» Launch 2008 MMVAs (archival state)

Creative direction, art direction, IA/UX consultation for redevelopment of CTV Broadband Network carrying multiple top tier broadcast television brands.

Following CTVs purchase of CHUM, we were tasked with overhauling the existing CTV Broadband Network consisting of video players representing TSN, CTV News, BNN: Business News Network, Discovery Channel Canada, The Comedy Network, eTalk, Space, Fashion Television and Star! This redevelopment of the CTV Broadband Video Network (IA, UX, and Design) resulting in exponential growth exceeding 30 million video streams per month and unprecedented live event coverage.

In addition to having an award winning design team reporting to me, the Digital Creative Group is fortunate enough to include a full HD Video Production team producing original content for the featuring number one shows such as Canadian Idol, So You think You Can Dance Canada, Degrassi:TNG and many more.

» Watch CTV

» Watch TSN

» Watch BNN: Business News Network

» Watch Discovery Channel Canada

» Watch The Comedy Network

» Watch eTalk

» Watch Space

» Watch Fashion Television

» Watch Star!

Creation of brand and identity, art direction of logo and site design for MuchMusic branded broadband video player.

With our internal design resources tapped, I was tasked with providing art direction to an external resource. On a very tight timeline, we were able to provide both MuchMusic and the Canadian broadcast landscape it’s first online video experience bringing thousands of music videos from Billboard behemoths to local indie upstarts.

» Launch MuchAXS

Creation of brand and identity, art direction of logo, site design, all accompanying creative documentation, assisted in information architecture and user experience for MuchMusic branded user generated content portal.

Since it’s launch, the site has seen absolutely phenomenal success generating millions of page views a month with exclusive music video premieres, online exclusive programming, revenue via co-branded sales initiatives, unprecedented coverage of live events such as VirginFest and the MuchMusic Video Awards by the fans themselves.

» Launch ShowMeYours

Creative direction, art direction, IA/UX consultation, design, XHTML/CSS

Beginning in September 2002 with a newly redesigned and developed site, I continued with daily web design tasks working from the floor of the infamous MuchMusic “Environment” in support of broadcast initiatives. In addition to this, as sole design resource for the Music & Youth group of properties - including muchmoremusic.com, muchvibe.ca, muchloud.com, muchmoreretro.com, PunchMuch.com and Razer.ca (now MTV2.ca - no association) - I was responsible for design, IA/UX, XHTML/CSS for all properties and events including the MuchMusic Video Awards, MTV Movie Awards, MTV VMAs and more. In 2006 I was promoted to Art Director of CHUM Interactive and in 2007 to Creative Director of the newly formed CTV Digital Media Group and MuchMusic continues to fall under my prevue.

Recognition
2007 PROMAX North America, Bronze
2007 PROMAX North America, Bronze
2007 BDA North America, Bronze
2006 PROMAX North America, Silver

» Launch MuchMusic

Creative direction, art direction, IA/UX consultation for 2007 MuchMusic Video Awards micro-site and online marketing campaign. Consultation on broadcast design.

With Alaska Senator Ted Stevens making the infamous statement “the internet is a series of tubes” and the incredible momentum of social media sites such as YouTube, the production designers of the critically acclaimed award show wanted to incorporate several online memes into the overall theme. Working closely with this team creative executions were shared across mediums in an attempt to blur the lines between the internet and television. The end result was a seamless campaign that left both internal and external clients pleased with the success of the property and fans at home unprecedented ways to be a part of the action from coast to coast to coast wrapped in a rich user experience. As in years past, tied to all of this was a multi-million dollar online/on-air integrated promotion featuring multiple top tier brands and several micro sites.

» Launch 2007 MMVAs (archival state)