marino a gallo

when Pepsi wanted to show that drinking might actually be good for you, they thought to launch a new product line using non-traditional ingredients and an offbeat approach that reflected their audiences diverse, relaxed lifestyles … not sugary, not trendy … down to earth individuals and families just interested in being themselves and being healthy … I tried to capture that honesty and reality with simple, clean pieces …

ORB had an interesting game plan …
they were the first company to do deep diving into consumer shopping habits and formulate metrics based on that dive to give insights to businesses that were articulate, accurate and actionable …

I headed up a small team that launched this brand and the results were so good that ORB got purchased and their analytics engine is still being used to this day …

never iunderestimate the power of a small, smart startup …

designing logos is a great job …
desigining a logo for a design firm is scary …
this was one of the best assignments ever as it allowed me to speak to a client that understood the nuance and subtlety of design and appreciated it for its own sake …

I got the chance to work on 2 major automotive brands, not once, but several times and each time it was to help usher in new ideas and directions as to where the brand might go …

The Ford Notebook series :
still a favorite, at Ogilvy we crafted what Ford called "the most well received campaign they ever presented …"

the best part was that I got to design all the little bits and bobs that went into making up the ads … talk about total immersion …

to celebrate the most successful new credit card release in history (over 1M new subscribers in 3 months after launch), American Express and Ogilvy wanted a case study to show off the incredible hard work their partnership had done and to show prospective new clients the power of real collaborative efforts and the fruit they yield …

the brief was simple. one sentence.
"give me a book that James Bond would carry and win some awards."

milled out of aluminum, custom foil printed with vellum pull-out fly sheets, this book was the result of months and months of focused work and it was well received by clients, prospective clients and award committees …

When a new type of energy company came into being, they wanted new types of messaging … I set out to deliver a visual platform that was unconventional for the category but not alienating to their target consumer.

the company was different, the consumer was different, the look was different … simple success was achieved … from the new logo to the photography and verbal approach, a new client was gained …

When  British Petroleum wanted to soften their image and be more approachable, I was one of the lucky ones at Ogilvy & Mather that got o help them out. The idea was to introduce a fun set of characters, called Beeps, that were concerned about cleanliness throughout the entire process.

So we set about to make friends and influence people … and it worked.

First was a vigorous, colorful print campaign to introduce the spirited graphic approach …

Then came the out of home work on a massive scale …

when a design committee like the Andy's asks for a new mark and a new book, you sit up and, after the fear subsides, you give them that logo and book and hopefully, it turns out as well as this one did …

one of the more fun aspects was getting the signatures of all the judges on the voting sticker in real ink and getting them pasted on the mylar covers …

Designing for music is one of the most open creative experiences, if for no other reason than musicians understand the creative process and will allow you the freedom to explore visually what you hear …

This CD jacket and sleeve set was for a very eclectic band fusing the ancient world of the oud and it's very strict musical form with modern day dub and it's limitless addiction to beat over everything else …

this entire project was designed to be a unique and non-repetitive retelling of the Inferno, one of the greatest literary works of any time period … everything is is different … no title, chapter head, folio, etc was just copy and pasted … a real labor of love …

comics have always been a great love of mine and when a start up company asked me be the design lead, i was over the moon …

first, here's a few of the many marks I created for them, trying to keep each one fresh, unique and easily visible amidst the hordes of competitors …

then there's the website, which was challenging as we had to be graphically engaging as the medium required but also commercially competent as it's a main consumer connection …

and underneath it all were the story and characters I helped develop, and the artists I worked with to bring them to life, like Sanford Greene (James Spinner, Master Airman), Seth St Pierre (Earth Girls) and Ben Caldwell (ecokids) … and plenty more on the way …

who wants to get guidelines books, with all the type specs, color and logo do's and don't and photography rules?

unless you make an interactive one that delivered all that it had to but in a very fun way, with inviting chapter pages that weren't just another "do this, don't do that" reading assignment …

who doesn't love designing for musicians?

The Astronauts of Antiquity are a husband and wife pop duo that traverse styles and genres as easily as you and I change shoes … while delivering a powerful spiritual message … in that light, I created a logo using various fonts to not imply any one thing mood but to suggest all moods …

when the client likes you, they start asking for a wide range of materials and some of them can get to be a lot of fun … here are some of the best from many such projects from American Express …
 

the first Blue Card design :
a standard credit card backed by an incredible history

Co-opted partnerships with entertainment giants :
Miramax films
Tower Records

The One Card :
easy shopping for laid back couples and families

A first ever custom Rewards program :
PLAY was designed for customers looking for reward points that matched their diversity

When airline magazines were produced in-house to be unique, I got the chance to offer my services to American Airlines to make sure that people would open the magazines stuffed into the pockets of the chairs in front of them …

I redesigned the logo to bring the reader back to a grander time of air travel … 

every once in a while you get a project that's just plain fun … reworking Barbie's Boutique collection of brands was one of those … an intense deadline never entered the picture because we were just having too much damn fun working this out …

let's face it … cancer is serious business, no if's and's or but's about it. but that doesn't mean we can't try to inform, enlighten and educate the consumer in a way that is easy on the eyes and mind to take in …

for Amgen, the idea was to take new findings and practices and show the specialists why they should be very interested in Amgen's approach versus other approaches, so I thought to make a scalable interactive site that sought to draw them in and let them know, graphically, clearly and simply, all that was available from this oncology leader …

when Jaguar first wanted to change the way they looked, wanting to appeal to younger demographic that seemed to be uninterested in their history or tradition, they gave Ogilvy a crack at moving the messaging forward … I thought the best approach was to make driving the car seem like life … less ordered and predictable and more fun … spur of the moment images were used in unconventional ways to add that fun that driving one of the premier luxury cars should have but was missing in previous messaging …

oddly enough, the car type upended in front of the copy seemed to be what they fought hardest against, but taste won out in the end …

when it was introduced, Caduet was looking to makie a splash to inform doctors that they had a better way to treat the risks of high cholesterol … what better way than to make it more of a poster and less of an ad?

keep the copy simple, the graphics bold and give it a revolutionary feeling as that was what the makers were claiming …

ahhh, comics again! this was a fun project given the category and the client, one of the independent leaders in the field was looking for a web refresh … I thought the best way to tell their story was by focusing on the creators rather than the creations … it's important information that's often overlooked and adds to the narrative …

when I was asked to design the site for artist Nassos Daphnis, I was scared … 33 years with The Leo Castelli Gallery, in most major museums collections, exhibitions all over the world, written about in all the trade journals and career spanning over 60 years …

I was familiar with his work and I thought what better way to get people interested than to animate it? after many failed attempts, I finally made something that his estate, gallery and I were pleased with …

Adobe created the software most of use for our work, we use their apps as a matter of course and, if we get playful with it we can come up with pleasant and surprising results.

with that in mind, I went to my personal favorite, Illustrator, to see what can be done with portraiture …