People are more flexible than ever about where and when they travel. To help them take advantage of these new possibilities, we introduced the biggest change to our platform in a decade —Airbnb Categories. 56 new categories intended to help people find the places they never would have thought to search for.
Creative is running globally in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta, London, Paris, Marseille, Berlin, Hamburg, Milan, Rome, Madrid, Barcelona, Sydney and Melbourne.
Role: Creative Lead
Team: This herculean effort was led by VP Creatives Scott Trattner and Eric Grunbaum; GCDs Bekah Sirrine and Claire Whigham; and a creative team including Evan Nagan, Elizabeth Bassett, Driscoll Reid, Chris Hutchinson, Elly Holdeman, Nick Gelbard, Paul Wysocan, Marv Lahens, Anna Salazar, and many others.
Special shoutout to Elizabeth Basset who authored the lion’s share of copy lines.
The social component of the Categories Campaign from the previous page. Widescreen versions shown here were also created in 9x16 and 1x1.
Role: Creative Lead
Team: This herculean effort was led by VP Creatives Scott Trattner and Eric Grunbaum; GCDs Bekah Sirrine and Claire Whigham; and a creative team including Evan Nagan, Elizabeth Bassett, Driscoll Reid, Chris Hutchinson, Elly Holdeman, Nick Gelbard, Paul Wysocan, Marv Lahens, Anna Salazar, and many others.
The TV Spots that are included here for context were made by Nick Gelbard and Elly Holdeman.
The Airbnb Gift Card is small card with a big impact — it opens a door to the entire world of Airbnb destinations and experiences. With that in mind, we made our gift card the portal to different magical miniature worlds.
Everything was shot practically with stop-motion animation. It was an incredibly labor-intensive process that allowed us to craft each frame with absolute intention.
Want to see how it all came together? Watch the BTS video at the bottom of the page.
Role: Creative Lead
Creative Team: Jason Ferguson, Krista Wicklund, Gustavo Sousza, Evan Nagan, Anna Salazar,
Editors: Simon Aigne, Zipeng Zhu
GCD: Bekah Sirrine
VP, Creatives: Scott Trattner, Eric Grunbaum
Production partner: Nexus Studios
Launch video for the release of Airbnb Icons.
Icons is a new category of extraordinary experiences hosted by the greatest names in music, film, television, art, sports, and more. Icons let you step into worlds you’ve only ever dreamed of.
Role: Creative Director, Art
Team:
Bekah Sirrine - GCD
Kevin Butler - GCD
Benjamin Hinamanu - Creative Lead, Copy
Hoj Johmeri - Creative Director, Art
Allison Murphy - Creative Lead, Copy
Lorraine Yurshansky - Executive Producer
Jen Chen - Executive Producer
Namik Hawkins - Creative Production Lead
Dayna Fields - Creative Producer
Austyn Daines - Lead editor
Derrick Monks - Lead editor
Summer is a time when stars belong on the big screen. To launch Nike’s new collaboration with De’Aaron Fox, Devin Booker and Jayson Tatum, we gave each rising basketball star and his limited edition shoe their very own summer blockbuster.
Team: Juliana Gutowski (Sr. AD), Daniel Hurwitz (Video Creative), Kristina Litvin (ACD), Dan Rozier (CD)
Role: CD — I primarily oversaw post production for both video and print, but was not on set for this one, as I had several other conflicting projects that needed my oversight at the time. I also contributed to initial ideation.
Role: Creative Director
Team: John McLaughlin (Sr. AD), Anna Dorta-Duque (Designer)
Concept: Beats’ 10 Year Anniversary Campaign. Rather than looking back at the last decade, this global lookbook focuses on the future by spotlighting the up-and-coming “defiant ones” who are shaping the creative culture of the next 10 years.
This is an ongoing project for United Airlines for Women’s History Month.
Did you know that 51% of artists in the world are women but only 13% of art on public display is created by women?
This campaign attempts to bring more visibility to women’s art by allowing multiple women to paint United’s plane. Renowned artist Shantell Martin acts as a mentor for the program and validates United’s voice in this conversation.
We launched with social content and interactive OOH displays in NYC & LA.
Role: Creative Director
Team: John McLaughlin (Sr. AD), Juliana Gutowski (Sr. AD), Patrick Wells (CW), Steph DeJongh (Designer)
Awards: 2x Cannes Lions 2017
2x One Show Pencils, 2018
Role: Sr. Art Director/Creative Lead
Concept: In partnership with Microsoft Cloud and renowned golf course architect Gil Hanse, we developed Course IQ. Equipped with 3D drone captures and rich, powerful data visualizations, it's a fully immersive product, created for fans and players alike to explore the design and data behind some of the most famous courses in the country.
Concept: Introducing is a narrated video portrait series about identity.
Set against the backdrop of a personal photoshoot, these emerging stars have a chance to introduce themselves by telling the stories about what makes them who they are off the court.
Role: Creative Director
Team: John McLaughlin (Sr. AD), Patrick Wells (CW), Steph DeJongh (Designer)
Partners: On Lunch Break
Concept: In this player interview series, artist Robin Eisenberg pens the stories of rising G League stars by turning their tales into posters, which are sold at games.
Role: Creative Director
Team: John McLaughlin (Sr AD), Patrick Wells (CW), Steph DeJongh (Designer)
“We took millions of people and two iconic brands back in time. A trip to the past, inspired by the future.
Discover Your Air Network is a 90’s themed cable network featuring modern-day talent. Five original shows, a live home-shopping experience, and a cable box you’ll never forget.” —247LS
The work won a Silver Cannes Lion for Packaging Art Direction & Design.
See what Ad Age, Adweek and The Source says about the campaign.
Role: Creative Director — I helped oversee the pitch and creative development for this concept, then moved back to my regular accounts once production started. The production for this amazing campaign was executed and fully flushed out by the following people:
CCO: Leo Macias
ECD: Danny Nunez
CD: Daniel Rozier
Sr AD: John McLaughlin & Juliana Gutowski
CW: Patrick Wells & Brandon Greenbaum
Designer: Steph DeJongh
Wishlists is a newly launched feature to Airbnb which curates stays by theme. The objective is to increase time spent on site for browsing and inspiration, rather than just booking.
The Wishlists launch was a part of Airbnb’s Olympics partnership in 2021. Each Wishlist was curated in partnership with Olympic and Paralympic athletes and featured stays for getting active.
Role: Creative Lead
Hank is the world’s first pocket square with a pocket. A functional twist on a classic accessory,
Hank is a product my close friends launched in 2014. They brought me on board to help create a brand aesthetic and voice, and to help build the website and create promotional pieces.
Role: Creative Director
Team: John McLaughlin (Sr. AD)
Concept: This event is a multi sensory experience brought to life through food, environment and atmosphere. Food artist Leila Gohar creates art from foraged foods from the Pacific Northwest.
The creative approach uses diptychs and photo stacks to show the relationship between the food and where it came from—and to translate as many senses as possible to the screen.
Role: Creative Director
Team: George Widodo (AD)
Project: Social content for a series of sneaker releases for Kevin Durant’s new shoe line the KDX. To express the technical innovation and creative inspiration behind the design of each shoe, the lead Nike sneaker designer, who worked with Durant, talks about his process.
In an unexpected partnership, the U.S. Army and Fox Pictures teamed up to create an immersive website experience. The goal was twofold: promote the film Independence Day: Resurgence and introduce fans to unexpected Army jobs that related to the site’s video game mission challenges.
Fans were first asked to join the Earth Space Defense (ESD), the fictional military force in the movie. Upon “enlisting,” they had to complete 4 missions to determine their strengths, unlock exclusive movie content and learn about relevant jobs in the real Army. Fans could also create teams to compete against other teams and unlock even more bonus content.
Role: Sr. Art Director, worked on concept development and mission development.
Team: Roberto Santellana (CD), Matt Nuzzi (ACD), Alex Gross (Sr. Designer)
Role: Creative Director & On-set film director
Team: John McLaughlin (Sr. AD), Patrick Wells (CW), Steph DeJongh (Designer)
Concept: 2018 saw the creation of a historic NBA 2K professional video game league. The first of its kind, 72,000 people tried out and only 100 made the cut. Our vision was to elevate these young men to superstar level and allow them to announce that it’s now “our time.”
Role: Creative Director
Team: John McLaughlin (Sr. AD), Patrick Wells (CW), Steph DeJongh (Designer)
Background: The G League is the NBA’s testing ground. It experiments with new rules, sports science, equipment, jerseys, and game play before they hit the big league.
Concept: We positioned this league as a feeder for the future. Not just the future of the NBA, but for the game itself.
It will change the way people look at basketball. It will change the way people talk about basketball. And change only happens when you break some rules and expectations.
Role: Co-founder
Brooklyn Craft is a barware company my two friends and I launched in 2016. I acted as creative director to develop a brand aesthetic and tone and shot all photo assets in studio. Each set was custom designed and curated by myself and my partners as well.
Carnegie Deli has been a New York City institution since 1937. I worked to bring their brick and mortar presence to retail, digital and social for the first time ever.
This included a massive visual identity overhaul, 40 SKUs of packaging, and a marketing build-out to help their nostalgic brand find renewed life.
Role: Creative Director
Sr. Designer: Jordan Nerison
If you like what you see here, please check out Jordan’s website for more of her work. She’s truly an all-star.
Idea: Nectar presents the world’s greatest (and only) motivational sleeper. He calls his followers Bed Heads and gets you FIRED UP about going to sleep. It’s time to Awaken Great Sleep.
Role: As CD of Resident, Awaken Great Sleep reflects one of our brands first-ever 360 campaign — 42 pieces of content, 4 social activations, 1 seeding kit, 2 social franchises, 1 sweepstakes, 6 partner brands.
Partners: Adam Kline (CD, Mustache), Mustache Agency Creative Team
Role: Creative Director
Team: Justin Hood (Sr. AD), Julian Muller (Sr. AD, Video)
Concept: Social content in support of Hennessy’s “Never Stop, Never Settle” mantra, we partnered with Canelo Alvarez, a hero Mexican boxer who has embodied this ethos since he was a young teen. We shot with him in NYC and in his hometown of Guadalajara capturing content to tell his story.
New brand design and visual identity for the NBA G League.
Role: Creative Director
Team: John McLaughlin (Sr. AD), Patrick Wells (CW), Steph DeJongh (Designer)
As CD of the Bud Light account at Laundry Service, I need to formally apologize for the viral success of the phrase “Dilly Dilly” in 2017.
Our friends at W+K did an incredible job making some TV spots that really stuck. But we blew out an entire social campaign that made these two words the stickiest phrase of the year. And for that, I am truly sorry. I am well aware of how inescapable it became.
The original glue that made it stick was a single tweet at the beginning of the NFL season, in which we made a bet with Philadelphia Eagle’s Tackle Lane Johnson: Win the Super Bowl and Bud Light will pick up the bar tab for all of Philadelphia.
What followed was a viral sensation nobody could have predicted.
Role: Creative Director
Agency: Laundry Service
Partner: Wieden+Kennedy NY
Awards: Silver Cannes Lion, Silver Clio
Microsoft launched Windows 10 by giving it away for free to everyone. That’s where the idea to use little kids came from. Because you never know who the next one to change the world might be — so let’s make sure everyone has all the tools they need to do what they love, whatever that might be. Introducing a more human way to do.
Sustainably sourced, free from toxic chemicals, and certified organic, Awara is a mattress brand that considers its environmental impact just as much as its comfortability. Awara’s mission is truly distinct within the category, our challenge was to give it a brand and visual identity to match.
This visual identity rethinks the entire look and feel of the brand. We reshot the product in a lifestyle treatment, incorporating subtle visual metaphors that connect back to the brand ethos. New product imagery, combined with a refreshed visual identity, created a look and feel that could stand-out in the crowded mattress market and highlight Awara’s mission and key differentiator.
Role: Creative Director
Team: Jordan Nerison (Sr. Designer)
This was the first TV commercial I ever concepted and shot. It felt like a big deal at the time — it was in my first year in the industry. I was able to be the lead creative as a Jr on this and work directly with my CCO and mentor, Rich Levy.
I’ve certainly done better work by now, but this sticks around for nostalgic purposes.
Role: Jr. Art Director
