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For the second year in a row we partnered with Nike Swim to develop the art direction, toolkit, and content library for the 2023 Nike HydraStrong Suit and Vapor & Legacy Goggle campaign. This year, we shot at SDSU with a team of collegiate swimmers to capture a natural, and authentic to the sport depiction of the product in action.

The result was a set of motion ads and assets, as well as a creative direction toolkit, and photo library for their 2023 product launch.

Nike Swim

Known for their witty dad humor, colorful patterns and SWASS free products, Pair of Thieves, the makers of your favorite underwear and socks, approached Studio Mega to help launch their new “Hustle” line. We partnered with the brand to formalize the identity system and develop a multi-channel brand launch campaign built around a contest to search for 5 ambassadors to create content showcasing their daily Hustle.

The “Hustle” stories of each winner brought the campaign to life, and gave it a gritty, authentic and dynamic appeal. In addition to creating the strategy behind the campaign, we also art directed the studio and UGC photography, developed a visual toolkit for the campaign, and created a series of social animations and a 60-second video spot.

Pair of Thieves

IZZE is a sparkling beverage brand combining the bold flavor of juice with the exciting fizz of sparkling water. As part of their new expression, the IZZE team came to us looking to create a master suite of brand assets and develop how the updated brand is expressed, particularly in a digital space.

All about positive vibes, we created worlds in which we could capture authentic and joyful expression, the moments of uplift that you feel once you pop open an IZZE.

Vibrant swaths of color in combination with playful pops of bubbly graphics to create an energetic, uplifting experience throughout the brand, while charming and uplifting moments of motion push the idea of defying gravity and create a deeper, more airy space.

The result is a joyful expression that creates an engaging experience—one that hits on clear and concise product communication while embracing the new upbeat and playful brand qualities.

Sludge Studio Photography + Creative Production

Lisa Webster Executive Production Partner

Campfire Creative Post Production Partner

IZZE

Miko is a STEM robot toy with a quirky personality that educates and builds lasting friendships with kids. Like a best buddy, it understands and responds to a kid’s world, instilling feelings of companionship to build confidence and encouraging creative interactions that are individual to every kid.

While the toy was already popular in India, the Miko team and Mega collaborated to create a refreshed visual system and campaign in preparation for their first U.S. product launch.

The brand amplifies the expressive nature of Miko’s behaviors, told through a system of shape graphics that emulate its iconic, rounded form factor while also drawing inspiration from familiar shapes found within a kid’s environment. This system was used as collage and framing elements combined with photography to communicate nutritive growth and childhood play.

When positioning the brand, we made sure that Miko was perceived as a character to both parents and kids alike. We defined its personality by observing other familiar characters within kid's lives, taking inspiration from Wall-E and BB-8 to create a character that is 'smart', 'curious' and sometimes 'goofy'. Miko’s personality was our power to create meaningful connections with our audience.

Now that we had a personality and a brand, we needed to create a campaign strategy that showcased the beneficial experiences that Miko, kids, and parents can share beyond the school walls.

Miko

Neon Zebra is a non-alcoholic cocktail mixer created to remove the complexity of making your favorite classics and let you get back to making the most of your time together. Together with Pepsi, we brought to this new, boutique brand to life in a digital space by creating a distinct visual world to immerse users and layer vibe into function.

Knowing there were would be future flavors down the line, we developed a site architecture to easily expand as their offerings grow. A choose-your-own-adventure structure gives consumers the opportunity to move through each product story, letting them choose how they rediscover their favorites and create a unique journey to match their tastes.

Smooth scrolling parallax married with high impact assets create a digital space full of feeling and helps us say more with less.

More than just functional—simple, charming interactions and moments of delight are built in to keep users exploring and encouraging them to share their Neon Zebra experience with friends.

Neon Zebra

As if the launch of Halo Infinite wasn’t already massive enough, its release coincided with the 20th anniversary of the game franchise, hands-down one of the most popular of all time. To support its launch, we created an experience to match the scale and legendary moment with our friends at Xbox. We descended upon Eugene, Oregon with Master Chief, his Warthog and the Pelican for the 125th rivalry meeting of the Oregon Ducks and Oregon State Beavers football teams.

While Master Chief and his Warthog were present, the Pelican flew right into Autzen stadium. Introduced by beloved Oregon alum, Xbox partner and basketball superstar, Sabrina Ionescu and the infamous Duck mascot, the Pelican swooped in and hovered above the field in a mind-bending feat of mixed reality before landing at the 50-yard line to project the Halo Infinite and Oregon Duck logos before exiting.

Other activities included Master Chief serving as the guest of honor, delivering the game ball to officials prior to kickoff and at Halftime, the Oregon Marching Band playing a rendition of the Halo Infinite theme song while Master Chief strolled the field.

With over 60,000 fans present to witness the AR experience in real time inside the stadium, naturally it wasn’t long before the rest of the world found out tuned in to the unique experience. By the end of the third quarter outlets including Sportscenter, Bleacher Report, Complex, Barstool Sports, Geekwire and others were sharing coverage of the activation across the world.

Xbox × Halo Infinite

Umpqua Bank began in a small timber town in Oregon over 60 years ago. Today, it is the largest bank headquartered in the Northwest, in no small part because of their commitment to putting customers first.

As they’ve expanded, there’s been a need to increase awareness as a partner for larger West Coast businesses. They asked us to refresh their messaging and brand identity to help showcase these capabilities without losing sight of the human values that got them to where they are today.

After coming to us with an updated brand strategy and tagline, it was evident that they needed a new visual  identity that reflected their values of partnership while  also positioning them to be the bank of choice for  larger businesses.

The system we developed is based on the idea of interconnection, where smaller parts come together to create  something greater. The graphic U-shape not only stood for 'Umpqua' but it was also a unifier, visually connecting people, and cropping imagery as part of the larger branded system.

The graphic system lends itself well to an array of company assets—everything from t-shirt and notebook designs to report covers and social media templates.

After laying the groundwork, we art directed a campaign that focused on telling the stories of real business owners and how Umpqua played a pivotal role in their success. Many of these narratives took place throughout 2020, where they helped administer over $2.1 billion in PPP loans.

We traveled with Umpqua and a team of photographers and videographers to five different cities to document and interview twelve partnering businesses helping tell their unique story through photography and video.

The culmination of our multi city customer campaign shoot was a 30 second broadcast TV commercial that introduced the world to their newly updated brand and message.

Umpqua Bank

KEX began as a social hotel/hostel in a once-dead neighborhood in Reykjavik, born out of a passionate group of people and their desire to bring adventure, community, and a touch of irreverence to the hospitality industry. Looking to expand and evolve their brand for a US market, they came to us after selecting Portland to be their first outpost.

Starting with our foundational strategy and extending through both physical, printed, and digital touchpoints, we infused the new identity with many of the same things that makes KEX Iceland so strong—a sense of community and place, a love of collaboration, and an expectation of the unexpected.

Together with KEX teams from both Reykjavik and Portland, we worked to develop and build a scalable identity system that can evolve with KEX as they grow and expand beyond their Icelandic roots, moving the brand from a local treasure to an international fixture without sacrificing what they stand for.

With the framework of the original brand as a starting point, we worked to bring the same anchor to local history to the newest KEX identity. The evolved mark was created with American type references from several different eras – and then composed into a mark that feels distinct to a place and its history.

Taking cues from the interior design work of Halfdan Pederson and the bones of the building’s historic structure—over a hundred years old and one of the first mixed-use developments in Portland—we introduced a warm and rich textural palette that reflects the materiality and personality of the space.

Everything from our typeface choices to our photography treatment is an homage to the eclectic character of our city—capturing the people, places, and things that make our city and turning them into the textural backdrop of the brand itself.

A large part of the KEX experience is about possibilities — possibilities for creating moments that are fresh and exciting, that go off script and keep curiosity and adventure alive. We instilled this wherever possible throughout our brand collateral finding new and surprising ways to present more traditional hotel and hostel materials, whether through the use of an easy-going tone of voice or non-traditional formats and materials.

When crafting the online presence for KEX Portland, our goal was for it to feel just as rich and tangible as the space itself. The site is designed to be highly functional, and yet unconventional at the same time.

One of the more expressive elements of the site is the landing page, which we designed as an interactive experience that encourages the user to explore and discover at their own pace and direction. The result is something that captures and communicates the unique feeling and texture of the KEX experience.


Check it out for yourself at kexhotels.com

We knew from the beginning that conversions were super important, so we needed to make sure bookings were always just a click away. Our solution was a fun little sticky button thats always there and expands with a playful wink.

No nonsense functionality was a priority from the beginning. Our ever-present navigation drawer ensures people can explore without getting lost.

Mobile was always a priority given that a lot of travelers in the target audience would be booking on the fly. So the design challenge was to make sure the experience on mobile was just as functional – and expressive – as desktop.

It pushes the envelope on design and functionality and is a fresh approach that we think really captures the essence of the space and brand online.

Creative Partners:
Interior Design: Hálfdan (Dani) Pedersen
Photos of interior: Mikael Lundblad
Web development: 14four

KEX Social Hotel

Studio Mega x L'Angolo

L’Angolo Estate is a family winery built by the idea, ‘Follow your passion’. This passion is hyper-focused on producing some of the best wines in the world off their 20 acre Estate vineyard, without compromise of environmental health or transparency of Terroir. In 2018 we teamed up with them to help them evolve their brand and tell their story with an eye to a new generation of wine connoisseur that is as focused on the full experience of L'Angolo, from visiting the vineyard to enjoying their wine, to becoming a member of their wine club.

L'Angolo had an established brand identity when we first engaged them, so our job was to help evolve their visual system to do more for them and tell their story in a way that reflected what makes them unique.

Our approach was to art direct a whole new library of content and expand their identity system across web, marketing, sales and social touch-points.

Being a relatively young player in the Oregon wine scene, L'Angolo had an opportunity to speak to a new generation of wine drinker, one looking to connect deeply with the story of the wine, the makers, and the experiences that can be had when we sit down and share it together.

After spending time together, it became clear that the importance of family runs deep for the entire L'Angolo crew, from its roots to the sense of belonging and hospitality they wish to inspire in everyone that visits them and shares their table. It's a thread that ran through every aspect of our work.

Another reason to love L'Angolo is their belief in being a force for good. We teamed up with them, and NBA player Channing Frye's Frye Family Foundation to do some good. In 2018, we provided the event and packaging design for a dinner to be hosted at L'Angolo to benefit the Children's Cancer Association. We look forward to working with them all to help raise money and awareness for such a worthy cause.