Lowe's 2017
Spring Campaign

Project Insights & Outcomes

A modular hummingbird character system created for Lowe's Spring campaign, designed to scale across TV, print, web, and in-store displays while keeping the campaign visually unified across multiple agencies.

Challenge

In 2016, design agency Little & Co. was developing the creative direction and brand style guide for Lowe's Spring campaign. After Lowe's selected a direction based on one of my hummingbird characters, they needed a flexible character system that could scale across multiple agencies and media formats while maintaining consistent visual impact and brand cohesion. The challenge was honoring what the client responded to without copying the reference directly.

Approach

Little & Co.'s Art Director Tim Schumann and I collaborated on the art direction of the hummingbird and how it would interact with Lowe's brand guidelines. One of my existing characters had made it into their mood boards, which earned me the project. The new character was influenced by the Anna's and Costa's hummingbirds, with a magenta head and neck that gave it more color pop and helped inform the campaign's palette. I developed a modular system of poses and keyframes showing the character's full range of behaviors, from perching and taking off to flying and interacting with objects, giving designers and animators across every agency a consistent reference to work from.

Outcome

The modular hummingbird system deployed across Lowe's entire Spring campaign. My character appeared on signs throughout every Lowe's store, from the entrance to triangular monolith displays to end cap signage, in print fliers, and in TV commercials produced by BBDO. A full themed campaign across every channel, reaching customers wherever Lowe's had a presence that spring.

Role

Co-Art Direction & Illustration.