Simple Man Beard Oil
My Roles: Producer | Copywriter | Storyboard Artist | Animator | Sound Designer
The Man Salon, a regional babershop in South Dakota, wanted to create a series of funny commercials to promote their new line of beard care products.
When a client knows what they want, the process always goes super smooth. The Man Salon was searching for a new set of broadcast ads wanted something with humor like The Duluth Trading Company commercials. To make it even better, The Man Salon already had the idea for “Desert Oasis.” After what can only be described as “The best time I’ve ever had researching inspiration”, I had a few ideas of how to tell their story.
Additionally, I had needed to source options for potential art styles. I’m a big fan of the Austrailain comedy folk rock band, “The Beards.” Their music video “Got me a beard” had an art style that I felt would be perfect for our ad campaign.
After some quick (and painfully rough) storyboard sketches, the foundation of our commercial was born.
The Man Salon loved the concept.
With our script and storyboard coming together, I needed to create some style frames. At the time, I was a terrible illustrator, and I needed help. I reached out to the talented Kristi Wire of The Wire Design Company. As we we disccused the project, I asked if she would create three different styles of artwork. The goal was for The Man Salon to be involved in choosing the art direction, to ensure they loved the end product. The style frames Kristi produced were stunning, and I’m a huge fan of hers. Unfortunately, the options were super good, which made picking the final style extremely hard!
Finishing the project
With the style locked in, I gave Kristi a list of all the assets that needed to be illustrated. After a few weeks, she delivered the Adobe Illustrator files. Everything was fantastic.
The Man Salon decided to have one of the co-founders record the VO on their cell phone. With a VO & artwork ready, I started animating.
The project was completely animated inside of Adobe After Effects using Rubberhose from Battle Axe. This project was one of the earliest times I worked as a freelance producer/animator. Working with a team of people creates results that exceed a single individual's skillset. It’s easy to say that I’m estatic with the way this project turned out.