Character Design • Graphic Design • Environment Design
Here’s a sad little dragon I designed for the Buffalo Wild Wings Medieval Days commercial. The director wanted the dragon to look completely dejected and overworked, so I went through a number of iterations to make him appear more and more sickly and downtrodden. I sculpted this guy in Zbrush and sent the file off to Legacy Effects where he was he was 3D printed and turned into a puppet! Here is where the final design ended up.
Here are a few more early designs:
And here’s the commercial:
Here are a couple of unused, pitch-work Taheen designs I did for the film, The Dark Tower. These rodent-like creatures wear ill fitting human masks to try to blend in. Although it was a quick initial pass, I had fun working on this project!
I had a chance to help design the little plush panda, Ernie in the Tile commercial, Lost Panda | Together We Find. During the design process, we explored a number of variations of this little guy, but we finally dialed it into a cute, innocent, wide-eyed little fellow that wanders the world in search of its owner.
Here’s the final design:
Here are a number of the initial designs. The director felt many of these were too obvious and expected- possibly too Pixar-like. He wanted me to try moving the features around i.e. adjusting the eyes wider and lower on the face.
And here’s the commercial. (You may want to grab a box of tissues) 😉
Here’s a monster I designed for the Progressive commercial, The Closet. It was fun to explore some scarier options, but the client was concerned that it was too frightening, so I made him a bit friendlier in the final design.
Here are some earlier versions:
Here’s the spot:
Here’s an “egg” I created for the funny and bizarre Old Spice commercial, Cinema, starring Von Miller. I was asked to design a dry, cracked egg/ pod shape that Von would punch his way out of. Here is the final design that Legacy Effects referenced when they built the full size egg.
Here are a few more early versions of the egg-pod:
And the commercial:
Surfrider Foundation-Milwaukee‘s 5th annual Surf @Water, held on August 5th 2017, was a huge success. I am happy to be a part of the small, but dedicated team that pulls off these events.
Here are some beautiful shots of this year’s event by Kristopher Mark Photography.
Here are the print and press materials I created for the events:
I had a chance to design the cheesy flea costumes for the Geico- Fleas Playing Badminton commercial. They were intentionally low-tech for comedic effect.
Here’s the final design:
Initially I was asked to explore a more realistic flea costume design, but then they were determined to be too scary. I don’t disagree, and this just isn’t as funny:
Here’s the spot:
I helped design Little Wiser, the owl in the latest Trip Advisor ad campaign. He’s kind-of a mashup of a burrowing owl with horns. The Legacy Effects team did a fine job with the puppet.
Here’s the spot:
This is a fish I designed for the Snapple- Carp Diem commercial that aired a while back. I explored a couple types of fish, but the director and agency decided on a wide-eyed, bewildered looking fish, which was definitely funnier. I digitally sculpted this fish, so Legacy Effects 3D printed my design and turned it into the puppet for the spot.
Here are a few of the designs:
And here’s the commercial:
I designed the bobblehead and the robot for the Hewlett Packard Enterprise commercials: Helping Michael say Yes with Hybrid IT and Helping Brian say Yes with Hybrid IT. I started with a rough scan of the actor for the bobblehead and then changed the expressions and finessed the details. Legacy Effects 3D printed the designs for the bobblehead and the robot.
Here are the designs:
And here are the commercials:
Toyota recently launched a new campaign: Toyota Safety Sense. It features a group of disgruntled crash test dummies who are no longer being utilized as often. I had the opportunity to help design these characters. Legacy Effects 3D printed my designs and puppeteered the dummies for the spots.
Here’s the spot:
Arco recently launched a campaign with Hanna the Dashboard Hula Girl. As per the treatment, she needed to be fun, innocent and have a slight vintage feel. I was tasked out to design Hanna and her various outfits as she travels around the USA. Legacy Effects 3D printed my design, and rigged her to be a functioning hula bobble.
Here are the final designs:
Here are a few of the commercials:
TurboTax launched a hilarious Super Bowl commercial starring Humpty Dumpty after his great fall. I had a chance to design this poor bastard in three stages: after he fell off the wall, when the king’s men tried to put him back together, and in the ICU.
Here are the designs:
Here are the commercials:
Once in a while I get to work on a project that has the potential to make a positive impact in our society. I was asked to design the (big, bad) wolf and pigs for the anti-smoking commercial, Straw City for The Real Cost campaign.
The spot is riffing off of the Three Little Pigs fairy tale, where the wolf, who is a chain smoker, can’t muster the lung power to even blow over a straw building. The direction for the wolf was to make him look sickly and gross, with ill-fitting, tattered clothes and big, worn-out boots- a real sketchy looking son-of-a-gun.
Here are a few of the pigs going about their business:
Since October, the YouTube video has had over 1.9 million views, so I can only hope the message is having some effect.
Here is the commercial:
Here are some characters I designed and sculpted in ZBrush for a recent Geico commercial, Cuckoo Clock: Take a Closer Look. Legacy Effects 3D printed these guys and turned them into puppets for the clock.
This was a fun challenge. My initial pass was a bit too smooth and detailed. The director wanted these to be more crude and vintage looking, so I took down the details and sculpted them to appear as though they were hand-carved out of wood.
Here are renders of the characters:
Here’s a screen shot from the spot:
And here’s the commercial: