Julia Simmons

The National Pork Board is charged with increasing pork consumption across America. They target many audiences, but for this project, I recommended we inspire the new at-home foodie cooks created by the pandemic. My goal for the video series was to cultivate an atmosphere that romanticized the experience of cooking at home, imbuing it with a sense of sophistication and tranquility.

Through careful attention to lighting, sound, typography, and the graceful movements of the St. Louis chefs I selected, the resulting series is a true sensory experience. (These were not typical overhead cooking videos with generic hands racing through the process!)

I created the treatment for the video overall, directed creation of custom props for the shoot including cutting boards with burned-in words, cloth napkins printed with a pattern of symbols related to each recipe, and special labels for ingredients. A picturesque and beautiful aesthetic was achieved throughout the videos.

I directed the crew to record sounds of the prep and cooking throughout the day, capturing chopping, bubbling sauces and sizzling meat. Type animations reacted to the prep and cooking processes on screen like slicing bacon, drizzling honey and tumbling shredded cheese.

The social series was a huge success with the client and has a regular rotation on their IG channel. The videos have a permanent home on NPB’s YouTube channel.

Telly award winner

Iowa has plenty to offer, but it had yet to fully leverage branding strategies to attract both residents and travelers. The Governor and her team wanted to show the rest of the U.S., Iowa is a place where people can pursue their dreams and live a modern, affordable and community-connected life.

I led the multi-disciplinary re-branding team for the new business win, and for this long-term project. My team consisted of research, strategy and creative execution.

Through primary and secondary research and an in-person workshop, we were able to tap into the spirit and soul of who the state is and where they want to go. I collaborated with the brand strategist on the brand house creation, and I led the creative execution process.

I have a logo and branding system in the final options. The logo will be selected in the next few months. The logo and branding system I designed taps into both the pride residents have for the state and the surprising things Iowa has to offer to travelers and potential residents. Arts, tech-based industry and natural beauty are only a few of the things people don’t know about this state so closely linked with corn, and “heaven.”

The 50+ government agencies need to communicate a variety of tones due to their areas of expertise. The Parks agency needs a more lighthearted tone than Law Enforcement and Transportation. I charged the design team with visually expressing the brand strategy with their logo options, as well as designing materials to show both a playful execution and a more conservative one. Our work showed the client how the brand can represent both ends of that spectrum.

The client team is excited about the final logos for consideration and will begin testing through online focus groups soon.

From encouraging travel and tourism to promoting living and working in Iowa, I helped the Iowa Economic Development Authority educate people on the state’s unexpected, surprising and attractive features.

The approach over the last two years has incorporated a ‘secret worth sharing’ strategy, with the voice of the state coming through in headlines and copy.

The creative uses parenthesis from the IEDA logo in headlines and overlayed on photography as a consistent graphic element.

I planned and directed photo and video shoots on-site at many of Iowa’s lesser known areas and impressive features.

Social campaigns, print and digital ads, billboards and other OOH advertising, B2B social series and custom photo and video shoots were just some of the creative elements I wrote, designed and directed.

Sliver Anvil award winner

The Missouri Botanical Garden is one of the top three Botanical Gardens on the planet. They were ready to tell an updated story but needed to revisit and expand upon their brand strategy.

I led the new business team that was awarded the rebranding of Missouri Botanical Garden. And for the long-term branding project, I led the team through research and strategy phases. We used primary and secondary research, surveys, conducted workshops on-site, and implemented a multi-faceted landscape analysis. From that data, I crafted the Garden’s brand strategy, collaborating with the brand strategist on the project.

For the audit, three areas were reviewed:

Differentiation: How unique a brand’s communications and marketing are relative to its competitive peer group

Alignment: How well a brand’s core promise aligns with its visual expression

Consistency: How effective a brand is at saying and doing the same things across all touch points

The client was enthusiastic regarding the meaningful, on-target strategy. The guiding principles I established helped the Garden successfully promote themselves through a transformative renovation.

The slides displayed here offer a glimpse into the extensive research, landscape analysis, and strategic development. However, as the complete brand house contains proprietary intellectual property, I am unable to publicly disclose it in its entirety.

The National Pork Board is often in the position to educate people about measures pig farmers take to safeguard the environment, compassionately care for their pigs and provide jobs for their communities.

Over three years, I was Creative Director on campaigns to bust pig farming myths. Year one was about busting myths through using a ‘Rural Dictionary’ concept. Eric Stonestreet, from Modern Family, was the spokesperson chosen for the series to educate the public about pig farming. Eric and his family were pig farmers in Missouri and his beloved character on Modern Family had that same background. He has the credibility to deliver the message.

In the short, entertaining videos shot on a pig farm, Eric redefined idioms like “Pigsty” to be a top compliment on cleanliness based on the measures farmers take to keep pig barns sanitary. “Pig out” was redefined as eating nutritious food in mindful portions, like pig farmers feed their animals.

The program included teaser posts, videos, radio ads, interviews with trade publications and the media. It was a successful campaign that sparked conversation in social channels between consumers and NPB. The internal NPB team was able to answer questions about pig farming practices and on several occasions was able to turn around a negative opinion online.

The following year continued the theme of mythbusting, with a new celebrity spokesperson, Luke Bryan. Luke’s connection with rural life and the farming community makes him a credible source for the subject matter. The team worked with ImprovEverywhere to create a spoof focus group experience in NY. The focus group participants were told they were giving opinions on a new hotel concept where doctors are on staff, cleaning crews come in twice a day and nutritional plans are individually developed for each guest. At the end of the video, a 360 degree view of the inside of a pig barn was projected. Participants were surprised to learn about all the extra measures taken to ensure pigs have a comfortable and healthy environment to live.

To promote the focus group video, Luke Bryan starred in teaser videos alluding to a hotel that goes above and beyond, stating “Every hotel starts with a grand opening. This one starts with an eye-opening.” And “At this hotel, you may have reservations when you arrive, but clarity when you leave.”

I worked on both campaigns, for the overall concept, shoot direction, custom prop design and art direction of the edit. I also contributed to the larger team handling social strategy and sustainability communications.

In addition to the videos, I directed a still shoot featuring Luke in four scenarios on the resort campus. I chose to shoot him in an environment matching his no nonsense, rural background and down-to-earth personality. For a promotional video and stills for his Farm Tour, I chose the back of a grip truck for his photos/video location. Other stills I directed were taken in machine sheds, and other structures housing farming equipment.

The photos were used throughout the series as well as used for NPB promotions, in trade publications and media placements.

Telly award winner

It was the height of the pandemic and Iowans weren’t taking advantage of available Covid-19 vaccines. It was time for the state to put out a call to the public. I was given a passionate spokesperson in General Ben Corell, who contracted the virus early on in the pandemic. A strong delivery of a tight script highlighting his personal story was a striking statement.

During the shoot, I incorporated dynamic lighting that gracefully moves around the General, representing the emotional journey he undertook while recovering from Covid.

I directed the video edit and worked closely with the audio tech to use enhanced sound effects (some captured on site at the shoot) to help deliver the hard message with impact.

There was a simple call to action: get the vaccine.

Wells Fargo saw their annual report as an opportunity to help convey their commitment to employee and customer success.

Through interviews with employees and customers, I led the team to tap into the energy, the joy and the humanity from each person we featured.

For several years, I provided creative leadership, theme development, design direction, headlines and callouts throughout the book and creative direction of photoshoots. In addition, I conducted press checks and mentored junior team members in that area.

Having led Wells Fargo's annual report team for several years, I earned their trust and went on to spearhead the creation of other critical corporate reports, including their ESG and business ethics report.

The Missouri Foundation for Health is dedicated to improving the health of the uninsured and underserved in Missouri. One of its initiatives, Cover Missouri, provides a network of assistors to help Missourians navigate marketplace insurance options.

Choosing the right plan can be overwhelming and confusing. Letting our audience know they have a lifeline helped ease tension.

When I dove into the project, I realized the current assistors represented a very diverse spectrum of race, gender and age, all living in Missouri. A focus on individual portraits and their signatures helped showcase the diversity as well as put friendly faces front and center for the campaign. (Real assistor photos and signatures were captured.)

Paid social, digital ads, native posts, billboards, radio, bus signs and newspaper ads made a strong statement.

The campaign yielded significant increased calls into assistors for guidance. And the organization was so happy with the campaign, they continued it the following year, with new assistor photos.

In my latest agency role, I was the Creative Lead for all AT&T creative work and held that position for 10 years. I built the team to a 19-person powerhouse, spanning design, development, writing, project managers and producers. I successfully increased the creative quality of everything we produced for AT&T, improved our relationship with the branding contacts at AT&T and built bridges with them. I upheld brand integrity with our work and often proposed new elements and styles to AT&T brand based on the strategic projects I produced.

For eight years I led the creation of the AT&T Annual Report. My role included project lead, theme development, conceptual direction, creative direction of design, shoot production, art direction of photography throughout the U.S. and internationally, and direction of online presence including social promotion. The team’s size ranged from five to 21 individuals, scaling as needed to tell the AT&T story.

Every year, the annual report was created over an eight-month period of time, ending with four to six weeks of travel for shoots. It was a coveted project and role within the agency, and always, always an adventure!

Graphis annual report award winner

AT&T’s Business Messaging product is a group notification and messaging app that uses the AT&T network. Government, healthcare, financial and educational institutions are the main audiences who need a secure but flexible solution, able to communicate with up to 20,000 employees simultaneously.

I led the team in conducting interviews with sales teams and clients, established business and project goals and developed creative strategy. I directed the team in creating a “brand within a brand” specifically for AT&T Business Messaging. The program consists of animated overview and instructional videos, product briefs and brochures, user guides, app icon and digital marketing and advertising.

Through the success of this work, I secured a new business win to develop a similar program for AT&T’s Message Archiving, a sister product.