what's alex been up to?

Alexandra Tyler :: Reel

2011-06-09T14:19:00.000-07:00

Back from the Prague Magic Factory.

2011-03-20T23:05:00.000-07:00

Awww yeah. Been cooking up some new spots and I'm so crazy about them. We worked with amazing directing duo, Ne-O and filmed in Prague. Pretty much a dream scenario. The level of detail on our sets was astounding—and kind of heartbreaking as it's all over in the blink of an eye. I wish these were longer so you could truly SEE all the love we poured into them. Even so, they turned out to be every bit as quirky and charming as we had hoped for.

HP Backpacker TV Spot // Director's Cut from Alexandra Tyler on Vimeo.

HP Catch of the Day // ePrint commercial from Alexandra Tyler on Vimeo.

"Made For Each Other" Lerve

2011-01-21T10:39:00.000-08:00

Earlier this year I finished up one of my favorite campaigns..."Made For Each Other" for Frito Lay Dips and Chips. Turns out all of their chips have a dip that was specially designed to perfectly compliment their flavor. For example, the fluffy consistency of ze Sour Cream and Onion dip won't break ze light and crispy Lays potato chips. And the sturdy Frito corn chip is "man enough" to stand up to their ever popular bean dip (hewww). To celebrate this idea of "perfect matches" we came up with a series of little stories featuring two characters looking to find the yin to their yang. The best part was getting to work with an amazing collection of animators from all over the world (although setting up calls was a logistical nightmare for our poor producer....too many time zones, too little time). We also worked with a slew of major labels to feature up and coming musicians as part of the sound track. I think people have enjoyed the music almost as much as the spots.

A cool little side note: Frito Lay decided to test the spots with this kooky "Neuro Testing" (where they literally strap people into a chair that measures their emotional responses to the work). We weren't sure what to expect, but the spots did so well they actually thought the machine was broken—no one had ever scored so high. They had to redo the test twice to be sure the scores were accurate. Hah! Now those are the kind of results we like to hear, people.

LOVE AND SOCKETS. In collaboration with Blacklist and David Lobser. Featuring the dreamy "Flacana 16" by Melodium. This is the undeniable fan favorite with over 348,000 YouTube hits. (click photo to watch)

FIRESPRITE. In collaboration with Blacklist and Mans Swanberg. Featuring the bad ass song "East End Blues" by Leon Jean-Marie. (click photo to watch)

LITTLE BRIGHT EYES. In collaboration with PostPanic and Fons Schiedon. Featuring the sweet little ditty "Vertigo" by Anya Marina. (click photo to watch)

CIRCLES. In collaboration with Paranoid US and Romain Segaud. Featuring the super cool song "Color the World" by Rabbit! (click photo to watch)

MAGNETS. In collaboration with Nexus UK and Adrian Johnson. Featuring the "Two Hearts Are Better Than One" by the adorable Katie Herzig. (click photo to watch)

The spots are getting so much love, its been really great. They are no longer on air, and yet "Love & Sockets" is still averaging around 1000 hits a week on YouTube...GO BORIS!

We also created a really adorable website for the campaign which lets you explore all the different worlds of each dip. The site has a bit of a load, but I promise it's worth it.

Behind the scenes at B-Reel studios, who helped us bring the groovy online landscape to life.

Communication Arts Web Site of the Day, FWA Site of the Day, Communication Arts Creative Gallery, FWA Theater Video of the Day

The Tasty World of Dips.

2011-01-20T09:24:00.000-08:00

I recently found myself in London working with the amazingly talented (and super nice) Carl Warner on some fun print ads for Frito-Lay. My partner Jessica and I knew we wanted to do something utilizing all the ingredients in the product (which are surprisingly healthier than you might think....their salsa and tortilla chips are 100% natural. Who knew??). So we crafted these little landscapes made entirely out of food. When it came time to shoot, we weren't sure how to approach it. Get a bad-ass food stylist? Find a proper food photographer? Hmmm. And then we found Carl. His genius Food Scapes (created entirely out of food) were perfect. Everything was shot in frame, laid out horizontally on plexi. And everything you see is edible.

Playful potato clouds and bacon trees for Heavenly Baked Potato. I'm pleased to report that I was the official "Bacon Consultant" for the shoot—you get this honor by having a vegetarian Art Director.

Yep, everything you see here is edible. The little tomato balloon is my favorite.

Who knew that red onion clouds could be so perty?

This gooey, cheesy dip freaked us out initially, but OH MY GOD is it ever addictive once heated up.

Meet our shoot mascot, the fabulous Brian.

Ice Coffee with Kanye.

2010-12-06T11:18:00.000-08:00

I'm not gonna lie. I was totallly hyped to find out we were meeting Kanye West at the Chateau Marmont. I had never been there...but of course you always read about it in the US Weeklies. It has this super discreet entrance and a lovely courtyard where you can get lunch and drinkies. I wasn't sure what to expect. Did I mention this was also the day after the Grammys? Oh yeah. So he could have been late, hungover, or even cancelled. I'm pleased to report Kanye was THE BOMB. I mean sure, he was very "Kanye", but he was also on time, really charming and polite. Of course you can't take pics with a celeb when you're "taking a meeting" but I cheesed out and snapped this shot after he left. Yes, he sat right across from me. And yes he told me my neckace was dope. Holla!

We worked with Kanye as part of an HP collaboration to develop a special-edition, customized laptop. Visitors to Kanye's site would be "shot into outer space" to the HP Style Lab, where they could browse exclusive content and check out the new computer.

Every detail of the interior was customized, from the colored keypad and blingy gold shell, to rotating desktop wallpaper, unique icons and audio tones and even Kanye's fave bookmarks.

The laptop also featured a unique desktop widget that offered live feeds to Kanye's MoBlog, a link to YeTV (Kanye's YouTube channel) and other content.

HP: Gwen Stefani is a doll.

2010-12-04T23:59:00.000-08:00

For the launch of HP’s “What Do You Have to Say?” campaign, we got to work with the mega glam Gwen Stefani to create a site that let people get creative through a variety of cool print projects. People flipped for our Harajuku Girl paper dolls with over 1.8 million paper dolls created. And yeah, Gwen was just as stylish and cool as you’d expect her to be. If yer nice, I might even tell you how long she took in hair and makeup...

We also partnered with Agency Collective to create a customizable Sweet Escape Tour Book that let you upload your own concert pictures alongside Gwen's personal tour photos.

Click images to visit site.

Winner Yahoo! Big Idea Chair Award 2007, Ad Tech Awards: Best Use of Rich Media

HP: Can't get enough of Gwen.

2010-12-04T22:46:00.000-08:00

To make the HP/Gwen experience truly immersive, we couldn’t stop at simply a web site. The campaign also included Time Square billboards where people could use their mobile phones to create their own Gwen doll on a huge bill board.

If you didn’t live in NYC you could still play and view your creation via a web cam online. We even produced a 3D hologram that was projected over passers-by in Tokyo’s infamous Shibuya district and a fun Gwen Google Gadget that let you Hollaback to your pals with sassy messages.

The campaign results were kind of mind blowing with 1.8 billion impressions and over 3 million site visitors. The campaign banners were also a hit and our Gwen Stefani roadblock banner on Yahoo! was the best performing in Yahoo's tech segment history. Proof that smart, fun creative wins every time—even on a banner ad.

My amazingly talented partner, Jessica Feeney, has even more Gwen campaign tidbits on her portfolio. You can check it out over here.

Fergie The Digital Dutchess

2010-01-18T11:58:00.000-08:00

Sure. You know about her humps. But did you know that supahstar Fergie has been deep sea fishing since she was 7 years old? Or how about the fact that she was the voice of Sally on the Charlie Brown cartoons back in the 80s? I didn't either—until I worked with her on our latest HP Hands TV spot. We had big shoes to fill, since hot shots like Jay-Z, Vera Wang and Michel Gondry had already done their own versions of the commercial. We partnered with Grammy award-winning director Mathew Cullen from Motion Theory (yup, I said Grammy.) who threw all kinds of stuff at her—crazy camera moves, intricate choreography and even a little improvised singing. La Fergs handled it all like a pro. Did I mention Matt wanted this all done in one shot? Oh yeah. The end result was Fergalicious indeed.

Click image to watch spot.

Awards: Winner AICP awards, Graphic Design

Jay-Z: Start Something

2009-02-03T18:30:00.000-08:00

It's always fun to work with celebs and one of the smoothest I've ever met up with was Jay-Z. (Some how I've become the hip hop diva, having worked on projects with Snoop, Kanye, Jay-Z and Fergie. I know, I know, it's like a freakin' obnoxious obstacle course over here trying to step over all the names I'm droppin'. Sorry peeps.) He was a very classy smart guy (I remember being impressed that he ran the DVD player in our first presentation with him, instead of snapping his fingers and having one of his entourage deal with it). Very tall. Very chill. Very cool. And kinda more handsome than you expect. Hey, Beyonce's no fool.

Jay's brand Rocawear was introducing a new men's fragrance called "99". For some inexplicable reason, they chose to write their logo as "9IX". Nearly impossible to read, right? To play up the cryptic nature of the brand logo, we began our campaign with a series of urban crop circles that mysteriously popped up all over town.

We wanted the campaign to feel more like a movement, with the tag line "Start Something" being a call to arms for our young dudes. The idea was to build as much buzz and momentum as possible before the scent even launched. We wanted to move guerilla style and pop up everywhere our target was: basketball courts, outside clubs while they were waiting in line, at sneaker stores, in the subway station.

Guerrilla projections featuring Jay-Z and tear away posters spotlighting cool graffiti-style graphic artwork to encourage people to rip 'em down and take them home.

Our first meeting with Jay was in New York, but our second was in Miami. Aw yeah, sexy town! Miami is a really pretty and vibrant place. Of course our meeting happened to be during spring break and whoooo mama, I have never seen so many "ladies" in teensy skirts and men in bedazzled jeans. I think this photo sums things up quite nicely.

Getting Stoked on HP with Jake Burton

2009-02-02T18:08:00.000-08:00

I've never been snowboarding in my life, so it was a touch ironic that I was going to be interviewing and filming Jake Burton—god father of the sport— for an HP campaign.

We headed up to Vermont to meet with the entire Burton team and found them to be the coolest bunch of people around (hey, is YOUR office closed on "snow days"? I didn't think so). They use monster-sized HP printers for all their board artwork and had such an interesting business story we knew we had to profile them. We created a great little site that had fun Burton "behind the scenes" videos, an office tour, customizable promo cards and of course a great interview with Jake himself explaining how he turned a passion for "surfing on snow" into a billion dollar industry. I admit I was a lil smitten with Jake and found myself inadvertently saying rad all the time. What can I say? He was hella cool. My partner on this project was the talented Jose Luis Martinez and he posted the videos if you'd like to check them out HERE.

Wrigley: Cool Breath Power

2008-02-02T21:49:00.000-08:00

Gum is fun. Being in high school usually isn’t. To celebrate the agony of teen crushes, we created the quirky Cool Breath Power universe—built out of indie illustrations and featuring three different worlds crammed full of weird characters, games and hidden easter eggs. There were so many little treasures on this site that the average user spent nearly 8 minutes exploring—and in web years that's an eternity. Karl Ackerman's brilliantly simple illustrations helped this site become a 2007 Communication Arts Interactive Annual winner.

Click image to visit site.

The "extras" were extremely popular (games included "Barf Pong", "Cool Breath Invaders" and the dreaded "Prom Prom Inferno." By far the most popular were these random little dudes we called the “Booyah guys.” Because they were so popular we threw up a secret little site (and by "threw up" I mean created.....don't be confused by the Barf Pong). If you clicked on the little Booyahs they leaped into the water (shouting "Booyah!" of course). It proved to be as addictive as popping bubble wrap.

Awards: Communication Arts Interactive Annual winner, The FWA Awards, Adobe Site of the Day, HOW Magazine's Interactive Annual and The Gunn Report.

Orbit: Friends of Bright

2008-02-02T20:45:00.000-08:00

Most people knew who the Orbit Gum girl was, but they didn’t know that Orbit also makes a gum that whitens teeth. We created a tongue-in-cheek site dedicated to the Friends of Bright, a cultish group devoted to finding the path of enlightenment via whiter teeth. Users could explore the compound, join a sing-a-long, and even see their own smile become brighter. "Fabulous!"

Click image to visit site.

London International Awards, FITC Best Video Site, Horizon Interactive Awards: Gold,
ADDY Awards: Silver, FWA Site of the Day,

Orbit: Snoop Dogg

2008-02-02T16:46:00.000-08:00

Orbit Gum helped Snoop Dogg clean up his dirty mouth—and now he wanted to talk to you about yours. Vistors to our “Heaven and Hell” themed site could enter in their phone number to receive a personal call from Snoop—or send one to a friend. There was also a secret "Behind the Scenes" area on the site which could only be accessed once you got a password from Snoop's call. Sneaky.

Snoop was hilarious and delivered his lines like a pro. You can listen to both versions of the call here and here. The clients were a little nervous that the copy wasn't going to be "authentic" and said that they wanted us to ask Snoop to improvise on set. I had an awesome moment of vindication when Snoop said that the dialogue was cool "as is" and he didn't want to change a thing. He also said my necklace was dope, so I'm two for two with rappers liking my bling.

The London International Awards, FWA Site of the Day, and Adobe Site of the Day.

HP: Vera Wang

2008-02-01T22:45:00.000-08:00

Vera Wang was the first woman featured in HP’s iconic “Hands” campaign. To showcase her work online, we met with Vera and developed a unique interactive interview that gave viewers a rare behind-the-scenes look at the 2007 winter collection. Vera narrated the entire site and generously gave us exclusive access to her entire design studio, including original sketches and fabric swatches.

MIXX Interactive Awards: Best in Show.

HP: Petra Nemcova

2008-02-01T22:33:00.000-08:00

Supermodel and Tsunami survivor Petra Nemcova proved to be much more than a pretty face. To showcase Petra’s many philanthropic efforts, we created an experience that allowed visitors to interact with Petra’s world. The ever gracious Petra let me interview her and agreed to narrate the entire site experience. Yes she has legs for days and while I felt like the biggest frumpmeister in her presence, she was so sweet and genuine.

Leap Frog: FLY

2008-02-01T19:56:00.000-08:00

What if you could draw a keyboard on a piece of paper and then actually play it? Sounds impossible. In fact, you’d have to see it to believe it. Which is exactly the approach we took with LeapFrog's FLY pen. In order to showcase FLY’s groundbreaking new technology, we created an engaging video-based website that actually let the viewer interact with the product much like they would in real life.

Best Flash Site at South by Southwest Interactive Festival, Flash in the Can Best Video Site, Gold Flash Site Horizon Interactive awards, ONE Show Business to Consumer winner, Silver Addy Interactive Media, Short list Cannes Cyber Lions, Winner FWA Site of the Day

Adidas: Soccer

2008-02-01T00:56:00.000-08:00

It's your turn to play director/editor with the Goal movie trailer remixer. We created this easy-to-use movie maker as a way to promote the adidas produced feature film. Add a soundtrack, sound fx and of course clips from the film.