This project began as a way to give Element boards a unique positioning in the marketplace. To do this we proposed giving the center of every board red ply sheets, this tied into red thread used on Element Apparel and hangtags, providing a literal red thread to tie the two sides of the brand together. The second reason for this campaign was to showcase the next-level production that went into Element boards vs competitors and blank brands. At the time the skate market was in a price war and we wanted to remove the Element brand from this, positioning the boards as a premium product and thus less affected by ongoing price drops.

The creative execution strategy was to showcase each step in the process of building an Element board and pairing each step with a team rider that matched that step in some way. Nyah was the youngest so he was paired with the base ply and glue phase, Mike V was paired with the presses because of his intense personality, Bam with the cutting phase because of his raw and destructive persona, Brent with the sanding and shaping phase because of his smooth style and finally Tosh with the clear coating and finishing phase because of his roots in surf and his flow style on and off the board.

Print and Web Campaign for Foursquare Outerwear. 2011.

Creative Direction, Art Direction and Design

In 2016 we worked with former Nike VP of Brand Mike Wilskey and the in-house team at Fox to develop a “Creative Engine” for the brand to help ensure non-incremental innovation in product and marketing. We worked to develop the concept, launch strategy, activations and more including pitches for the board of directors, athletes and partners. This new division was ultimately named "Moto-X LAB" and was launched by moving the biggest name on the Fox roster onto the Shift brand for 2017. These bold and unexpected moves ensured that Ken Roczen, Fox and this new creative engine dominated the conversation within the moto landscape and well beyond.

Book: Creative Direction, Art Direction, Copywriting and Design: PLY, Installation: Concept, Creative Direction, Art Direction and on-site build direction: PLY, David Durham Construction Coordination: Scott Hatton Ken Roczen Mural: Mark Paul “Madsteez” Deren

When Skullcandy looked to launch a new line women’s specific headphones and accessories, I worked with the CEO and Brand Director to deliver a strategy that would speak to the energy of the brand and also tap into existing cultural directions. At the core of this strategy was to partner with two key women that were pushing culture forward in different ways.

The first was model Chloe Norgaard who had a look and hair that matched perfectly with the moment and with the energy of the brands collection. Chloe was used for launch and the entire campaign, bringing a ton of attention and energy to the new offering and the brand as a whole.

The second component was to partner with a musician, and at the time Grimes was just about to blow up. The strategy outlined a long-term relationship and collaboration with the musician and artist and though the brand ultimately never made this happen we did kick off the campaign with a pre-grammy Grimes show that saw Lorde, Katy Perry and Rihanna in attendance at the small House of Blues venue.

Ultimately these two pieces of the strategy, along with many other elements, gave the brand the heat it needed to sell-through product and gave the internal team a point of view for the women’s business as a whole. This was an extension of the initial strategy work done for the main brand and the new tagline I created for them, Stay Loud.

Working with founder Johnny Schillereff and Marketing Director Ryan Kingman, I compiled an external facing brand book as part of the Element Media Kit. This included gathering, writing copy as well as re-crafting some existing copy. Organizing the brand story and turning it all into a book for media, shops and partners. This included re-crafting the original mission statement and re-designing it into what became known as the “element creed” graphic featured in the opening spread.

This book was later expanded into the first Element Brand Book. I also oversaw creation of that as well as communication of the brand ideals at yearly Global Brand Meetings and Global Sales Meetings.

This project is part of John Alvino’s personal portfolio and case studies.

Campaign for Element Skateboards and Apparel, 2003.

In 2016 Foxhead Inc was developing an internal Creative Engine with outward facing facets, products and messaging. This initiative would be a physical department within the brand as well as an consumer facing initiative. Creative Director John Alvino was a part of the team that developed the concept and worked it through the internal team as well as the board of directors. The new division was ultimately named "Moto-X LAB" and was launched by moving the biggest name on the Fox roster into a new Shift MX gear set to be launched at A1. The gear set was the most forward product in development at the two brands and to have Ken Roczen race in different racewear for the Supercross and Outdoor Motocross season would surely get everyone's attention and dominate the conversation throughout the season.

VIDEO

Director: Ryan Marcus
Creative Director: John Alvino
VO Copywriting: John Alvino

BOOK

Creative Direction & Design: John Alvino
Photography: Garth Milan, Gordon Dooley, Long Nguyen

For the launch  of the Stance Women's Punks and Poets during Australian Fashion Week, we worked with Stance to create a comprehensive onsite visual plan as well as providing design execution for all promotional pieces. This included a 36 page newsprint zine introducing the women's Punks and Poets and their respective collaborative pieces.

Oversized launch book for first Moto-X LAB and it's first product release, SHIFT MX 3LUE LABEL.

Selected spreads from the 2016 Billabong Snow Catalog. Creative Direction, Art Direction, Storyboards, Pre-Production, On-Site Shoot Direction and final catalog designs and print management.

Printed with spot silver throughout, cover is a single color black with spot silver overprint, a very rarely used printing technique.

Photography: Cole Barash

Ply worked with Modernica and Dr. Woo to bring the vision of Dr. Woo to life for the limited edition Dr. Woo x Modernica fiberglass chair. 

Images courtesy Modernica and Dr. Woo

In late 2013, Skullcandy contacted us to create a a campaign for the launch of their newest product, the Air Raid speaker. Positioning of the product was provided by the client and we were tasked with ensuring that this positioning and the key selling points were clear throughout the campaign.

In the end the final creative direction you see was chosen, something that communicated the feeling of the speaker, how loud it is and it's durability. In addition we created the tagline and hashtag "STAY LOUD" for the campaign as well as a modular style guide and graphic system to be used on all collateral. Ply provided final execution on in-store listening station graphics and print ads.

Lastly, we produced two videos for the launch. The first is a 30 second intro to the speaker and the second is a more in-depth tech video done in a humorous way featuring Sean Malto and Zak Hale.

The launch, social campaign, graphic system and in-store selling stations were all successful helping the Air Raid far exceed sales projections.

In addition, the tagline "STAY LOUD" has now been adopted as the Skullcandy tagline for the brand as a whole.

All Photography by Brigitte Sire

For our second year of the Snowboard Mag we worked even closer with Tim Peare and Nate Deschenes in our Costa Mesa studio for each issue. We evolved the look and feel further in Volume 11 and pushed things a bit more or as much as we could while still remaining within the bounds of the magazines identity.

We began working with Hex in mid 2011 and have been collaborating with them since then. For their Spring 2012 Season we shot a video and print look book with a limited budget in one day around Echo Park and Downtown LA. The resulting pieces gave the brand a distinct look and feel which has evolved over the years but remains true to this initial vibe at it's core. One of our favorite projects and definitely one of our favorite clients.

Selection of tee graphics designed for HUF Distribution

In 2014 we worked with Amuse Society in the months leading up to their launch. We  assisted with their brand book, style guide and the design of their first catalog. The catalog featured a soft touch coating on the cover, gold foil and a matte clear foil; all to match the overall look and feel of the line and the brand. Below the cover and some sample spreads are pictured.

2013 Foursquare Dealer Book, shot on location and throughout the previous season. For this dealer book we worked closely with Tim Peare to use many of his photos from the season documenting the moments surrounding snowboarding. To compliment this we shot at a cabin in the San Bernardino mountains for several days with the team which included a lot of late nights with Peter Line recounting old stories to the team. Printed on uncoated linen paper cover with clear foil over cover photo and internal uncoated pages throughout. All photos by Tim Peare.

Selection of tee graphics designed for Altamont Apparel

The Fall 2012 Hex Look Book was again shot in Downtown LA but for this season we went a bit deeper into the city. At the clients request, the overall look and feel needed to include a broad range of elements of city life, from a higher end working professional feel to a more artist driven user feel. To achieve that we used models and locations that spanned the full scope of the city, from The Last Bookstore, to a small recording studio as well as the Disney Concert Hall. As with other Hex shoots, there is a run and gun feel to what we do and we hope that adds to the authentic feel. As with all our projects with worked with some long time collaborators on this as well with Mike Bishop on the video side and Eric Coleman for still photography.

A selection of tees Ply has designed over the past few years.

SupraTUF launch campaign. Creative direction, copy, art direction and design by Ply founder John Alvino while working in-house at Supra Footwear. Photography by Benjamin Shipp and John Alvino.

In late 2013 Ply was asked to take over art direction and design for The Snowboard Mag. Several new people had been added to the crew at the mag but most importantly photo editor Tim Peare who we had worked closely with at Forum, Foursquare and Special Blend. We jumped at the chance to work with him and Snowboard Mag veteran as well as all around legend Nate Deschenes. During the first volume we worked on evolving the look of the mag and contributed some content including an artist profile on our good friend Cody Comrie.

In 2007 while working in-house as Art Director and Brand Manager at Element USA, Ply Founder John Alvino conceived, launched and  curated the Element Eden Advocate Program. Tasked with creating a marketing campaign for the struggling Element Eden (women's) division, John decided to take a unique approach in an increasingly homogenous market. John elaborates, "At the time, I did a good amount of retail, magazine and street research and what I saw was a lot of models that all looked the same, shot in similar apparel, in similar situations. I remember thinking it was so bad that you could switch different brands logos on an ad or retail image and you wouldn't notice the difference, it all looked the same." He goes on to say, "It seemed to me that there was a huge opportunity to present a broader version of what it meant to be a young woman by presenting inspirational women from all walks of life, poets, artist, athletes, musicians and more. I really felt that the broader and more inspirational we could make it, the more consumers it would appeal to." 

With that simple goal in mind John then set out to define and launch the program, including coining the term "advocate" for the girls the brand was to feature in the campaign. From there he selected the first advocate Brooke Reidt and set out to work with her on how the program would work, including compensation, term, expectations, and then on to the actual creative and art direction for the campaign shoots. 

"At that time, Element was such a small crew that we basically just ran with things. So the Eden Advocate Program was no different. Once it was approved, it was just a matter of selecting the first girl, hiring the photographers, doing the interview with the Advocate and ultimately laying out the ads and other collateral and it was off and running." He says. From there the program exploded as did sales of the women's collection which was driven by the Eden designer, Wendy Choi. 

"The Eden Advocate Program and campaign is a project I'll always be really proud of because we really shook things up and turned the entire women's market in a more positive direction. We had girls emailing, sending letters and contacting us through myspace with so much excitement, it was just a really great thing to see and be a part of. Not only that but the term advocate and the entire concept  was immediately adopted by almost every brand in our industry and continues to be used heavily by many successful brands."

He closes by saying, "This campaign was also a great opportunity to implement my personal photo aesthetic and work with photographers I had been friends with for years as well as a few I met during the campaign but continue to work with today including Brigitte Sire, Boogie, Eric Coleman and Brian Gaberman. Overall it was just inspiring to work with all the different artist, musicians, poets and photographers especially at a time when it was really uncharted territory."

Selection of tee graphics designed for Emerica

We worked with Anne Molin Knox on photos for her brand Uliv, a range of finely crafted linen beach towels. For this project, we concepted the shoot, location, props and other aspects and also ran final execution. Photography by Ply co-founder John Alvino.

Selection of tee graphics from a capsule collection, designed for Wilder & Sons