Art direction, video editing, and title design for a West Elm social post focused on bathroom textiles and decor. The brand had recently launched an expanded bath product offering; this content incorporated it into an existing, performant series on tips for small-space living.
Videography by Zack Taylor.
Styling by Marie Sullivan.
Concept, art direction, set design, video editing, and title design for a West Elm social video focused on holiday hosting. The objective of the video was to highlight how one can shift the layout of one’s living room to make it more hospitable to large holiday gatherings. The content was specifically targeted to those who might have a smaller living space or open floor plan.
Videography by Zack Taylor.
Styling by Elvis Manard.
Originally published on the West Elm blog as “How To Get Your Apartment Party-Ready“
How To Get Your Apartment Party-Ready
There are certain things that are no-brainers when it comes to throwing a party. Food, drinks, music—check, check, check. But there are some other details that can make all the difference between a snooze-fest and an all-nighter (in a good way).
Have you ever noticed how guests always corral in the kitchen during parties, only to leave your living room a ghost town? Do you find that people hover for too long near the canapés and cocktails without circulating? The problem could be traffic flow. While your furniture arrangement might work for day-to-day use, a dining table or an inconvenient sectional chaise can cramp things up when things get crowded, forcing people into bottle-necks. Avoid the holiday traffic jam this year and follow these tips for maximizing your cocktail party floor plan.
Concept, art direction, video editing, title design, and writing for West Elm. Timed to go live with the start of the holiday season, this piece of content focused on tabletop product and was tailored towards customers planning holiday celebrations.
Videography by Zack Taylor.
Styling by Marie Sullivan.
Food Styling by Jason Schreiber.
How To Set Your Table For The Holidays
If you’re miserable at chopping vegetables and a roasting turkey is best left in somebody else’s care, chances are you’re the type of person who gets tasked with setting the table at holiday dinners. Although this not-quite-thrilling duty is simple (does it really matter where the salad fork goes?), it does present the culinarily challenged a rare opportunity to show off. Follow the simple tips in this video and you’ll earn extra points with your host and compliments from other dinner guests. “What a lovely table setting! Who did that?” YOU DID.
Concepted, written, and photographed as a parody feature for West Elm’s blog, Front + Main. Timed to go live during Fall Fashion Week, the story played with the idea of a trend piece that showcased how people might wear their duvet around their house.
Soft styling by Nic DeStefano.
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How To Wear A Duvet
Forget sock boots and metallics—the hottest Fall fashion trend that we can’t get enough of is duvets. With a name derived from the French term for down—an allusion to the feathery material that typically fills them—duvets are customarily seen atop lavishly appointed beds and covered in all manner of beautiful fabrics. This season, they’ve come into vogue as a stylish garment—one that can be donned for practically any occasion. Need something to wear for gala season? Duvet. Going out for a quick lunch with the ladies? Duvet. Heading to an important business meeting? Yes way, duvet! While there are myriad ways to style this new wardrobe essential, here are 10 of our favorites.
Concept, art direction, set design, video editing, and title design for West Elm’s paid social. Created to promote the launch of multiple new collections of West Elm dinnerware.
Videography by Zack Taylor.
Styling by Marie Sullivan.
Food Styling by Jason Schreiber.
Concept, art direction, set design, and writing for the launch of a series of long-playing “fireplace” videos styled with West Elm furniture and decor. The videos were created to be played on televisions as cozy background visuals, and were accompanied by an Apple TV app that we built to stream them. This series ultimately ran multiple seasons, kicking off with the traditional holiday “yule logs,” and continuing into spring and summer with some seasonal and stylistic variations on the format, including animation.
Videography by Zack Taylor.
Styling by Marie Sullivan.
Animated bonfire by Alex Eben Meyer.
Stream These Stylish Yule Logs Right To Your TV
A crackling fireplace is an obligatory fixture in any holiday fantasy, but so few of us actually have the fireplace to make such a thing happen in our own homes. Wouldn’t carving the turkey be so much better in the glow of a warm fire? Or your next cocktail party? Or opening presents on Christmas morning? If you’ve got a serious case of Fireplace FOMO, we hear you. And we came up with a solution. Enter Fireplace by west elm, our Apple TV App and YouTube Playlist that features 20+ cracking fireplaces, free to stream into your living room from your TV! It’s not a real yule log, but it’s the next best thing.
Concept, art direction, video editing, title design, and writing for West Elm’s social channels. This shoot was part of an extended series on West Elm’s Instagram and blog called “#AskWestElm,” which shared helpful tips and how-tos for the home. This installment showcased the various layers that go into making a bed, with the added whimsy of some stop-motion animation.
Videography by Zack Taylor.
Soft Styling by Eduardo Vinueza.
INSTAGRAM CAPTION:
Your bed won’t make itself! Here are all of the layers for making a perfect bed:
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1. Flat sheet – Adds a thin layer between you and your duvet. Keeps you from needing to launder your duvet cover as frequently + functions as a lightweight cover on hot summer nights.
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2. Duvet/Comforter – Filled with down or down alternative, this fluffy number will keep you cozy + warm on cold nights, and adds comforting weight.
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3. Coverlet/Blanket – Kept at the foot of your bed, a coverlet is great as a middle-weight cover for adding a tiny bit of extra warmth when you need it.
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4. Pillows! Pillows come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and fills. Explore your options on westelm.com to see what’s best for you!
Concept and Art Direction for a series of zines about the topic of “home.” Featured as printable downloads for West Elm’s Holiday 2016 Campaign.
Illustrations provided by Tallulah Fontaine, Marcus Oakley, Maria Ines Gul, and Julia Rothman.
Concept, art direction, research, and writing for a weekly feature on Design*Sponge that showcased iconic design objects throughout history. The feature ran for more than 40 installments and highlighted objects like furniture, textiles, toys, and everyday objects. Each installment was accompanied by illustrations by Libby VanderPloeg.
Design Icon No. 11: Honeywell Round Thermostat
Designer: Henry Dreyfuss (1904-1972)
Date: 1953
Country of Origin: United States
Manufacturer: Honeywell
Background: Although Henry Dreyfuss is often compared to his contemporary Raymond Loewy, the famed industrial designer who helped to popularize the 1930s “streamlined” look, Dreyfuss’ work stands apart because of his emphasis not on style but on function. Obsessed with ergonomics and the need for design to suit the human body, Dreyfuss compiled exhaustive data on body measurements and forms in an effort to create the most optimal designs. This information was later compiled into two books— Designing for People (1955) and The Measure of Man (1960). Several of Dreyfuss’ designs have gone on to achieve legendary status (his Bell telephone, for instance), but one of his most ubiquitous designs is without a doubt the Honeywell “Round” thermostat. Designed so that it could hang “squarely” on a wall no matter how or where it was installed, the thermostat never appeared slanted due to its circular shape. The round dial provided a simple and intuitive interface, free from cluttered buttons and unnecessary information. As design lore has it, Dreyfuss had a penchant for drawing perfect circles, something he did continuously. When approached by Honeywell to produce a new, modernized thermostat, Dreyfuss is said to have drawn a circle and said “Here. Go ahead and make something of it.”
Design Icon No. 19: Bookshelf
Designer: Charlotte Perriand (French, 1903-1999), with Atelier Prouvé
Date: 1953
Country of Origin: France
Manufacturer: Atelier Prouvé (today Perriand shelves are manufactured by Cassina)
Materials and Construction: Oak shelves, aluminum vertical dividers, sliding trays to cover certain areas.
Background: As was the case with Ray Eames, female contributors to design teams were oftentimes overshadowed by their male counterparts during the twentieth century, only to be truly acknowledged in recent years. This was certainly the case for Charlotte Perriand, the designer behind some of the last century’s most iconic pieces of furniture. The above piece, oftentimes referred to as “The Mexican Bookshelf” because it was designed for the Maison du Mexique at Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris, was commonly attributed to the french designer Jean Prouvé. In reality, the piece was designed by Charlotte Perriand and produced by Prouvé’s Atelier Prouvé. Because Jean Prouvé’s name attracted higher bids at auction, Perriand’s name was all but erased from these designs—it wasn’t until recently that the actuality of Perriand’s authorship was finally accepted and widely acknowledged. This shelf, one of several similar shelves and multi-purpose furniture pieces by Perriand, is composed of oak shelves, subdivided by aluminum vertical elements. Sliding trays ran along the front faces of the shelves, allowing users to hide and reveal certain areas. Because of the shelf’s variously-sized compartments, one was able to store a number of different objects on it. Today, many of Perriand’s shelf designs are in production again, this time by the Italian furniture company, Cassina.
Design Icon No. 31: Wonder Bread
Date: 1921
Country of Origin: United States
Manufacturer: Taggart Baking Company
Background: You know the phrase “the best thing since sliced bread?” Well, as it so happens, the exact date of this world-changing invention is in relatively recent history. Introduced by Wonder Bread in 1929, the concept of pre-sliced bread encapsulated many of the ideals of the time. The late 20s and early 30s saw the introduction of Modernism to America, largely through the over-the-top ornamentalism of the Art Deco and Moderne movements—it wasn’t so much about functionality, but the novel and the superficially futuristic. Scientific and industrial advances had captured the nation’s imagination, something that created a thirst for products that embodied these ideas—even if that product was bread, pre-sliced. Since then, Wonder Bread has become part of the the American canon, the embodiment of the American impulse for wild innovation and an icon of our Atomic Age. In 1939, Wonder Bread took part in New York City’s World’s Fair, an event that showcased similarly futuristic productions, from advances in agricultural technology to the latest and greatest in automobiles. Although it may not seem this way today—indeed, we have long-since abandoned the fluffy white goodness of Wonder Bread for healthier options—Wonder Bread (and its mythology) fit in perfectly.
Graphic design for a poster-sized wedding invitation. The couple wanted something that would be fun, impactful, and potentially frame-able for guests who wanted a memento of the event. The invite was designed to be printed on simple white paper, allowing it to be produced affordably en-masse.
