I wrote YOU+ because too much of the conversation around AI was about fear.
Fear of becoming obsolete. Fear of being replaced.
I thought we were asking the wrong question.
What if AI could help us become more, not less?
YOU+ is a practical guide to working with AI as a partner. Try it. Question it. Push back. See what the two of you can make.
My hope is simple: that people finish it less afraid, give AI a go, and discover how it can help them become more.
More curious. More capable. More themselves.
YOU+.
Role: Author, Creative Director, Designer
Some of the best ideas a creative leader champions aren’t their own.
The Accessibility Mat began at GTB Brazil before I arrived. It took four years to bring to life. My role was to protect the idea, clear its path and help the team get it into the world.
More than 46 million Brazilians live with a disability. For many wheelchair users, something as ordinary as a curb can stop a journey.
So the team turned the Ford EcoSport’s cargo mat into a portable wheelchair ramp.
A Bluetooth chip also helped Ford identify where permanent ramps were needed, giving local officials information they could act on.
A car mat became a way over a curb. Then a way to help remove it altogether.
Company: GTB/WPP
Role: Global Chief Creative Officer / Idea Champion
The premise sounded slightly irresponsible.
Take the world’s best Gran Turismo players, put them behind the wheel of a real race car and see who could make the leap from pixels to pavement.
That became GT Academy, a partnership between Nissan, PlayStation and Gran Turismo. We turned the competition into a reality television series, following gamers from their bedrooms to professional training and, for the winner, the 24 Hours of Dubai.
Season Two attracted more than 400,000 entries. But the real proof came later. GT Academy winners became professional drivers, won races and earned places on teams around the world.
In 2023, the story of winner Jann Mardenborough became Gran Turismo, a Hollywood film directed by Neill Blomkamp.
From a video game to a racetrack to the big screen.
Company: TBWA\Chiat\Day
Role: Executive Creative Director
The brief asked for two 30-second spots to run throughout the college football season.
Sixteen seasons later, Heisman House is still running.
I thought we could do more with the money than make two spots fans would be tired of by week three.
So I asked, what if we created something fans could be part of? Something Nissan could own and grow, so the investment kept paying off?
That became Heisman House. We put generations of Heisman Trophy winners under one roof, filled the garage with Nissans, and made every college football fan a member.
Soon, it was part of college football culture. ESPN even gave it a prime-time special at no media cost to Nissan.
The brief asked for two spots. We built a franchise.
Company: TBWA\Chiat\Day
Role: Executive Creative Director
This series started because much of the AI conversation around me focused on what was wrong with it. I wanted to show there were original ways to work with it.
I began combining my photography with AI-generated street art. I photograph real locations, create artwork for each setting, then composite and retouch it into the photograph. Each piece draws on the place’s history or something happening around us.
The streets are real. The murals, graffiti and signage were never there.
The project has grown into a photobook series, now in development. I’m starting with Los Angeles, with plans to explore Buenos Aires, Berlin, Tokyo and other cities known for their street art.
I’m also collaborating with The AI Art Magazine. Each of its first three issues closes with a full page devoted to an Art-ificial Cities piece and the story behind it.
Working on this series led me to write YOU+. I wanted to help other people stop worrying and start using AI.
Role: AI Artist, Photographer, and Art Director
When the pandemic hit in March 2020, masks were suddenly impossible to find.
I teamed up with an autonomous systems expert in Germany and the founder of a 3D-printing startup in Tennessee.
A team of three. One monumental task.
Could we create a reusable mask anyone with a 3D printer could make? Using any filament? Anywhere in the world?
We did it in six days and released the files for free.
A Mask For All came in different sizes, could be sanitized and had a filter pod that worked with materials people could find at home. We also created a clear version for people who rely on lip-reading.
In the first two weeks:
11,000+ website visits
Thousands of downloads
Coverage in more than 140 articles
Masks made on five continents
Zero media spend
We never met in person. We saw something that needed doing and did it.
FORD TRUCKS: GEARS
Truckers keep our lives moving, often without seeing the difference they make.
Gears was GTB Brazil’s way of saying thank you.
ECD Vico Benevides and CD Rodrigo Strozenberg brought the idea to life with Zombie Studio, creating an animated film that gave Ford Trucks a warmer, more human voice.
Agency: GTB/WPP
Role: Global Chief Creative Officer
Looking out the window is part of any road trip. But not for everyone.
Feel The View gave visually impaired passengers a new way to experience the passing landscape. A device mounted on the car window turned what was outside into a tactile image they could explore through touch.
Company: GTB/WPP
Role: Global Chief Creative Officer
For one day, Ford appeared to see the future.
A week before the 24 Hours of Le Mans, we created a private account on Twitter, now X, and posted every possible race scenario.
As the race unfolded, we deleted every prediction that didn’t come true. Then we made the account public. What remained was a perfect account of the race, posted a week before it happened.
With Ford’s predictive technology, nothing is unpredictable.
Agency: GTB/WPP
Role: Global Chief Creative Officer
To test the Ford Ranger Black Edition, we took it to Longyearbyen, Svalbard, one of the northernmost towns on Earth.
For more than 100 days each year, the sun never rises.
So we gave the Ranger to the people who live and work there. If anyone knows what it takes to get through the dark, they do.
Agency: GTB/WPP
Role: Global Chief Creative Officer
Mustang owners have always made their cars their own. But the Pony badge was untouchable.
Until now.
We created the Pony Personalizer, an online tool that let owners redesign the badge and put it on their Mustang, as well as hoodies, hats, T-shirts and more.
Then we turned the best designs into hyper-targeted advertising, giving their creators something even better than a like: a national audience.
Company: GTB/WPP
Role: Global Chief Creative Officer
While most brands focused on Super Bowl spots, we focused on the people who make sports possible: the fans.
That led to two separate multi-year initiatives: the Ford Hall of Fans with the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and the NASCAR Hall of Fans with the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Both gave some of the most devoted fans in sports a place in the halls they helped build.
Company: GTB/WPP
Role: Global Chief Creative Officer
When the Nissan LEAF launched, electric cars were still new to most drivers. We made the benefit easy to understand: zero.
Zero dependence on foreign oil. Zero pollutants. Zero depletion of the ozone.
Suddenly, zero wasn’t nothing. It was everything.
Adweek named the film Ad of the Day, calling it “a simple idea, perfectly executed.”
Couldn't agree more.
Company: TBWA\Chiat\Day
Role: Executive Creative Director
For truck drivers, a moment of sleep at the wheel can be fatal.
SafeCap monitored the driver’s head movements. When it detected signs of drowsiness, it sounded an alert telling them it was time to pull over.
It was made available through Ford dealerships in Brazil and later featured in the Wired to Wear exhibition at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.
Company: GTB/WPP
Role: GlobalGlobal ChiefCreative OfficerOfficer
The EcoSport was coming to America for the first time, entering a market already crowded with compact SUVs.
So we asked people one question: What’s something you’ve always wanted to try for the first time?
Thousands answered. Before the EcoSport even reached the streets, we helped make some of those firsts happen.
It gave people a reason to care about it before they had even seen one.
Company: GTB/WPP
Role: Global Chief Creative Officer
The Olympic Games remind us how much more we can do as a team. That felt like the right way to introduce the new eight-passenger Ford Expedition.
We told real stories from across America about people coming together. For a wedding night. To compete. To make music. Or to ride with purpose
Every story was different, but the point was the same: we are better together.
Company: GTB/WPP
Role: Global Chief Creative Officer
How do you win over the most hostile environment known to brands?
Here’s one way.
Company: TBWA\CHIAT\DAY
Role: Executive Creative Director
The Versa Note was designed to connect people to more of what they love.
For Facebook, we made that idea personal, showing how the things we like and love connect us to friends and people we may never have met.
Company: TBWA\Chiat\Day
Role: Executive Creative Director
The Versa Note was designed to connect people to more of what they love. And Amazon was where people went to find the things they loved.
So why not sell a car there?
We partnered with Amazon and made the Versa Note the first car ever sold through the platform.
And since everything from Amazon comes in a box, we had to build the largest Amazon box ever.
Then we put it on a truck and sent it on the delivery trip of a lifetime.
We made sure a photo of it found its way onto Reddit. Soon, everyone was asking the same question: What’s in the box?
Within three days, the story had made news in more than 50 countries.
It became Nissan’s biggest viral hit. Even Seinfeld got involved.
Company: TBWA\Chiat\Day
Role: Executive Creative Director
At the time, most people still assumed cars had to run on gas.
So we asked a simple question: What if everything did?
We showed a world where everything ran on gasoline. It was noisy, dirty and a world none of us would want to live in.
It was also funny. Because sometimes the best way to question what we accept as normal is to show just how absurd it really is.
Gas Powered Everything debuted during the NBA Finals and made a simple case: the electric car’s time had come.
Company: TBWA\Chiat\Day
Role: Executive Creative Director
The Nissan Rogue with available Safety Shield Technologies helps keep you safe on the road.
Now, the only thing left to fear is your imagination.
Company: TBWA\CHIAT\DAY
Role: Executive Creative Director
A competitor showcased their car’s 0-60 mph time of 6 seconds—exactly the length of a Vine.
What they didn’t know was that we had a car that goes from 0-60 in just 2.7 seconds. They found out by noon.
Company: TBWA\CHIAT\DAY
Role: Creative Director
INFINITI Q50 GLOBAL LAUNCH
Infiniti wanted its new flagship sedan photographed in iconic global locations. There was one catch: none of those locations could belong to any particular country.
So we asked: what feels iconic wherever you drive?
Company: CP+B
Role: Creative Director / Art Director
Apparently, not far.
B2B that stands out from the fray.
Company: Team One
Role: Art Director
The country was going through a hard time when Toyota launched the new Prius. We wanted the work to feel hopeful.
That became Harmony, a campaign about finding a better balance between people, nature and technology.
We brought it to life with Sweetshop and director Mr. Hide. The film reached #1 on Creativity and made Nielsen’s list of the ten most-liked new ads. The digital experience, created with EVB and Laika, earned FWA Site of the Day.
A big thank you to ECD Mike McKay, CD Andrew Christou, ACD/Art Director Sean Farrell, and the Saatchi LA and Toyota teams who made it happen.
Company: Saatchi & Saatchi
Role: Associate Creative Director / Art Director
The Nissan Rogue may have been an SUV, but it could do a lot more than behave like one.
For the launch, we wanted an experience as bold as the car itself. So, we got together with Uber and gave an unsuspecting passenger the ride of his life.
After all, an Uber ride is one thing. An Uber ride in a Rogue is entirely something else.
The film led viewers to a Facebook competition for the full reveal.
Company: TBWA\Chiat\Day
Role: Creative Director
Company: Team One
Role: Art Director
Company: Fallon
Role: Art Director
BBDO New York asked for our help with one last DirecTV assignment before the account moved to another agency.
The brief was to squeeze three months free and a pile of other offers into 30 seconds. Nobody wanted it.
At the same time, thousands of cable customers were being switched to Time Warner without being asked. The company was getting bigger. Its customer service wasn’t getting any better.
That felt like the real story.
The campaign won an Emmy. It also led DirecTV to move $3.5 million in production back to us from the new agency.
They weren’t too happy.
Company: BBDO
Role: Creative Director
What do you do when you get handed a B2B assignment? You give it some tough love, of course.
Company: TBWA\CHIAT\DAY
Role: Creative Director
Company: BBDO
Role: Creative Director / Art Director
Company: TBWA\CHIAT\DAY
Role: Executive Creative Director
Company: Fabrica
Role: Creative Director / Art Director
Company: TBWA\CHIAT\DAY
Role: Executive Creative Director
As part of the larger Juke launch, Nissan asked us for an email blast.
We came back with a full-blown social program.
That became Juke Studio: three artists, three driving modes, four films, six weeks of prizes and a place where people could design their own Juke for a chance to win it wrapped in their work.
17,000 designs later, someone won a one-of-a-kind Juke. And TBWA won a new piece of business.
Company: TBWA\Chiat\Day
Role: Creative Director
Company: Fabrica
Role: Creative Director
Company: Fallon
Role: Art Director
Company: BBDO
Role: Creative Director
The Pathfinder was made for family adventures.
We just had a slightly bigger family in mind.
Company: TBWA\Chiat\Day
Role: Executive Creative Director
Company: TBWA\Chiat\Day
Role: Executive Creative Director
Company: TBWA\CHIAT\DAY
Role: Creative Director
Company: BBDO
Role: Art Director
A long, long time ago, a few friends and I had a little fun behind the camera.
Company: BBDO / Self
Role: Director
