Hayden Leslie
Having worked in the ad industry for the past 7 years, I've got my hands on quite a variety of projects. The majority of my career has been motion-design focused, yet my skillset is very diverse, covering graphic design, illustration, photography, and videography.
nights at pc
tracks in the
"Work" playlist
Pantone colors
used
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Some of my latest
motion design projects.
These projects range from short form micro animations for social media, to long form explainer videos for web.
All of the following was concepted, designed, and animated by myself.
Art Direction.
Heartbeat is a Hot Sauce company based in Thunder Bay, ON. Their sauce has been featured on multiple seasons of the show "Hot Ones." As well, their collaboration sauce "Poirier's Louisiana Style" has now been selected as the official hot sauce of UFC.
As the Art Director for this client while working with func.media, I was in charge of the overall look of the brand's online presence. With the changing social landscape, the client wanted to maintain a balance of branded creative, as well as organic and user-generated content. The client's aim was to maintain an edgy metal-style look, while reassuring the brand's gourmet quality and humbleness to their small town roots.
Chance Wilson - GD
Salvador Berrios - MD
No Boats On Sunday is a Canadian apple cider alcoholic beverage brand. It originated in Halifax, NS, once the largest and busiest port in Canada. They adopted a "No Boats On Sunday" rule, meaning no boats and no work on Sundays and therefore symbolizes a day to kick back and relax.
The goal for No Boats On Sunday was to continue to grow their online following and community, and promote brand awareness across Canada.
While working with func.media, we implemented a diverse social plan including product collaborations, giveaways, and an ambassador program for fans to take part in Along side these marketing efforts, we paired this strategy with plenty of branded graphic and motion content, as well as lifestyle and UGC photos to cover all our bases and fully encompass the Canadian adventure lifestyle in the brand.
This Logistics and Fulfilment company was recently acquired by Shopify for $2.1B and sadly, no longer required my services. It was great to work on this project through func.media to help grow the brand recognition to the point of a major acquisition.
My role for Deliverr was that of directing the content to be shared on the companies' Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn profiles, as well as features in blog articles on their website or email campaigns. Since Deliverr is a B2B company, we shifted the content strategy to target entrepreneurs or merchants that could directly benefit from the platform, rather than consumers. Creating information-based content optimized for LinkedIn was the main focus while concepting for this client.
This Vodka Water Product is new on the market and targeted towards a college based party audience. Created by Andrew Peller LTD, as an alternative to their wide range of alcoholic beverages. With neon branding and bright colors this product is an easy scroll-stopper.
While directing the Social Content for Weekender and working for func.media, I was conscious of the younger audience that would be consuming the content. We opted for a strategy based highly on viral trends, current memes, and college lifestyle. Maintaining the bright lights and party vibe throughout all of the content to keep brand awareness while promoting the meme and UGC content strategy.
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My Skills.
I’ve used After Effects for even longer than my career in advertising. I started editing video game montages with the software as a kid, so it was a natural fit when I started to dive into the world of Motion Design. I worked as a Motion Designer for func.media for 5 years, and continue to work on motion design projects during the past 2 years in my position as an Art Director. I have an extensive background that covers App UI Videos, Brand Overview videos, TV Commercials, Social Media Micro Ads, Twitch Stream Overlays, Awards Videos and much more.
I have less experience with 3D, or hand-drawn animation, but can tackle basic tasks with ease, and adequately incorporate these elements into 2D motion projects.
I've been an Art Director for func.media for the last 2 years after I was promoted from my role as a Motion Designer. I have multiple clients in which I am responsible for concepting graphic or motion design ideas for social media posts or paid ads. I work with a team of creatives on a daily basis and must clearly communicate my direction to them, as well as potential creative changes on ongoing projects. I am in direct contact with the clients themselves, alongside an account manager, to discuss and propose ideas and how we can best optimize the content to achieve their goals. I've also worked on a number of campaigns for clients, as well as provided direction for product and lifestyle photography shoots.
I have less experience when it comes to giving direction towards web-design or email marketing projects, and am eager to expand my knowledge into these areas as well.
Through func.media I have had the chance to create or contribute to the overall branding of various clients, most namely Heartbeat Hot Sauce. Working with the client to determine the brand's values and target market, and how to most effectively to express this creatively through their branding. I have also worked on other brand guidelines documents for func.media's clients as well as for some freelance clients of my own.
As branding projects are less frequent than content concepting and campaigns, I have somewhat less experience in Branding than Art Direction.
Through my career working in Motion Design and Art Direction, having graphic design skills is a must. Although most of my work became animated after the design process, I am still very well versed in static graphic design work. In my day to day, I am often creating rough designs as concepts for my creative team to work on. If there are tight deadlines, I also tend to jump in and work on designs myself to speed up the process depending on what the client's needs are.
I have less experience in illustration than graphic design when it comes to paid client work, but I am an avid illustrator in my free time, and have some freelance clients that I have offered these services for.
I worked as a freelance videographer and photographer for a long time before and along-side my advertising career. Filming promotional videos and events for clients that were then often used for advertising or marketing purposes. Thus my photography and videography skills served as a way for me to transition into the advertising industry. My video editing background served as a strong foundation for my motion design work, and my photo editing skills served as a foundation for design.
I rarely complete any paid work in this field anymore but still find my knowledge of these mediums very applicable to current projects and when providing direction to other creatives.
