I was tasked with designing the campaign's lockups and layout system. This involved an in-depth font exploration, an iterative process, and a strong focus on the project’s objectives.

Client: Nike
Studio: INDUSTRY Global
Creative Direction: Sofia Villarreal, Oved Valadez
Photography: FPO

The campaign was for Nike’s 2023 Día de Muertos special sneaker launch. The shoes were new iterations of iconic styles: Air Jordan 1, Zoom Air CMFT 2, and the Nike Dunk Low. They were first released in Mexico on October 18 and then globally on October 21.

This campaign offered a refreshing approach to its messaging, emphasizing the authentic culture surrounding Día de Muertos rather than the typical commodified portrayals seen in media. A story evolved for each sneaker, and together they represented the process of grief. Individually, each shoe symbolized a different phase of grief: Death, Nostalgia, Love, and Joy. The hummingbird was the key vehicle to move between each phase of the campaign. In Mexico, the hummingbird is seen as a messenger between worlds, sent from the departed to the living.

The hummingbird also inspired the campaign’s visual identity. The letterform within the primary lockup features various widths from the variable typeface, Area, creating a sense of mid-movement. This was inspired by studying hummingbirds in flight and the blurred expansion their wings create as they hover. For photographic treatment, we used chromatic aberration, vibrant colors, lens distortion, and unique angles to recreate this perspective from the hummingbird’s point of view.