Alexandra Tyler :: Reel

Inside the Prague Magic Factory.

Who says technology has to be dry? We created these spots for HP e-print and I'm crazy about them. We worked with the fabulous 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 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.

The Tasty World of Dips.

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.

"Made For Each Other" Lerve

One of my favorite projects has to be "Made For Each Other," our campaign 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, did you know that the fluffy Sour Cream & Onion dip won't break the light and crispy texture of ze Lays potato chips? And the sturdy Frito corn chip is "man enough" to stand up to their ever popular bean dip? It's true. 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 music labels to feature up-and-coming artists as part of the sound track. I think people have enjoyed the music almost as much as the spots.

Fun side note: Frito Lay tested the spots with this kooky "Neuro Testing" thang (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 highly. 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. On to the campaign....


LITTLE BRIGHT EYES. In collaboration with PostPanic and Fons Schiedon. Featuring the sweet ditty "Vertigo" by Anya Marina.




FIRESPRITE. In collaboration with Blacklist and Mans Swanberg. Featuring the bad-ass song "East End Blues" by Leon Jean-Marie.

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 368,000 YouTube hits.

CIRCLES. In collaboration with Paranoid US and Romain Segaud. Featuring the super cool tune "Color the World" by Rabbit!

MAGNETS. In collaboration with Nexus UK and Adrian Johnson. Featuring the "Two Hearts Are Better Than One" by the adorable Katie Herzig.


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...

There was also a really fun companion website, which let you explore all the different worlds of each dip.



{Behind the scenes at B-Reel studios, who helped 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

Ice Coffee with Kanye.

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.

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.

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

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.




Awards: Winner AICP awards, Graphic Design

Jay-Z: Start Something

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.