Sip, Share, Win! was a promotion event that encouraged consumers to enter a photograph or video recording of themselves singing into specially designed McDonald's cups for a chance to win a VIP experience at the Late Late Show with James Corden. I developed the look and feel of the program having designed the retail packaging, signage and motion assets. These were also used for digital and social media.

One of the coolest things was looking up the #SipShareWin hashtag on Instagram and seeing over 4,000+ entries from all across the US with this cup (not counting the additional 3,000+ entries from Twitter and the mobile app). Even better was that the 3-week long promotion led to the highest Coca-Cola sales at McDonald's in years.

But even better than all of that was seeing it on a Carpool Karaoke segment with Selena Gomez. Career highlight for sure.

Here's a little show and tell:

The average McDonald's food photography shoot consists of a single day shoot to capture 3 - 4 shots. Each shot is based on a sketch I drew, approved by the client, prior to the shoot. Each team consists of me (the art director), my producer, the photographer's producer, 1 to 3 food stylists, a prop master, a food technical advisor, 2 to 3 photographer assistants, and the photographer him or herself.

During the shoot adjustments are made to the position of the food and props. Sometimes things don't look as good in front of a camera as it did as a drawing. Sometimes food needs to be replaced if it sits in front of the lights for too long. Sometimes the photographer has a better idea on how to capture what I'm looking for. In every case, good communication, team and time management is vital in keeping these tightly orchestrated shoots within budget and deadlines.

Once the shoot is finished, I go through the hundreds of captures to pick the best shots while making notes on minor retouching. The photos are turned over to the retouchers, which takes about an additional week of directing and approvals. The shots then become key art for marketing material from print to digital and broadcast.

And yep, the food's 100% real.

When Coca-Cola recently decided to refresh their brand (along with the way their products are photographed) that meant it had to be updated in all of its McDonald's presence as well. Working directly with Coca-Cola and directing the still photography shoot, I developed a library of assets featuring their four flagship products (Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite and Coke Zero) along with food pairings to be used for new Coca-Cola/McDonald's marketing. I wrote and designed a style guide for local market agencies on how to properly use this new library of assets.

I also directed a sizzle video using Coca-Cola's video assets, developed by a separate team at Leo Burnett, featuring their new brand theme "Taste the Feeling" by Avicii and Conrad Sewell.

I had the chance to help refresh the design of McDonald's food delivery truck trailers. One of the biggest challenges was creating a design that could be easily adjusted for trucks ranging from 25' to 50' in length.

The first time I saw a truck with my Big Mac design on it pass by on the street I freaked out, snapped a picture and posted it on Instagram. It's been one of my most "liked" photos ever since.

One of the best (and probably worst) things about directing food shoots is the chance to take home uncooked leftovers. After a day of shooting McRibs and Big Macs I was offered a gallon of McRib sauce, about 50 McRib buns, a tub of pickles, and a box containing one-hundred McRib patties.

Of course I accepted.

I don't have any tattoos myself but it's always funny when I have prints of my layouts laying around the apartment and someone asks if I'm hiding something.

Best movie theater-slash-full-service restaurant hands down. I had the chance to help develop some of their first franchise marketing initiatives back in 2008. Since then the Alamo Drafthouse, which started as a single theater in Austin, TX, has spread to more than 20 cities across the U.S.

The idea here was to throw in every film advertising cliché possible from the Drew Struzan-inspired "movie poster" to the typical, action film guy voice over.

This was one of my first clients as I started my career in advertising. As a Junior Art Director I didn't get to do the fun creative stuff up front. But I'll always be proud of the simple and clean aesthetic I was able to continue with as I inherited the account in full.

On a side note, we offered retouching services in-house and I had to do a bulk of the retouching on the models' bodies. Let's just say that no matter how amazingly god-like these models looked, when you're that close to their skin, we are all the same.

This was a fun, little project I got to do at my old agency in Minneapolis. I had never done stop-motion animation before so having the chance to help with the production of these videos was a great experience. Being the tough, little Midwestern agency we were, I illustrated the storyboards and with the help of the Associate Creative Director, the Copywriter and one other Art Director we animated, shot and edited the whole thing ourselves.

If there was ever a fruit more loved by children (and some adults) I'd like to know what it is.

Also, it was an uphill battle to convince the justifiably protective Happy Meal client to "skin" the iconic smile side of the Happy Meal box like a Cutie. But we prevailed and it was, dare I say, sweet, sweet victory.

With the movie being a remake of the old, classic cartoon it was interesting to see how Dreamworks would update and modernize these characters . The result was some incredibly beautiful and colorful assets that harmonized perfectly with the Happy Meal brand. Of the 15+ Happy Meal programs I'd designed for, this is by far my favorite looking one.

These movies are awesome. Dreamworks Animation is awesome. Dragons are awesome.

For my nephew, James <3