Marcus Brown — Design Director & Creative
I'm a Design Director and Creative, passionate about combining creativity, graphic design and interactivity across digital and physical environments. I love designing throughout a range of art direction styles and mediums, from digital experiences through to physical events, interactive installations, online editorial, print, e-commerce, web based games, apps and 3D content creation. In particular, I focus on using typography, colour to build engaging visual languages.

  Based: Amsterdam, Netherlands   From: Auckland, New Zealand
Recognition
Webby Awards x 6 
FWA Awards x 41
Awwwards x 18 
Cannes Lions x 3
D&AD Pencils x 2
RedDot Award x 1
One Show x 6
Best Awards x 17

LinkedIn / Twitter / Behance

Select Brands
adidas, Google, EA Sports, PlayStation, Maserati, Dove, Hennessy, Converse, Ford, Huawei, HP, Cowboy, Milka.

Key Skillset
Creative, Art Direction, Digital & Graphic Design, UX, Events, Installations, Print, 3D Direction, Animation, Merch.

Snippets of past & present below.





2024 Personal Work

CROSSING THE CANARIAS BOOK, Freelance
Published in 2024, Crossing the Canarias is a 200+ page visual travel guide spanning the 7 Canary Islands.
Role: Design Direction



JUNO, Personal. (In Progress)An interactive and typographic journey charting the history of the NASA JUNO spacecraft as it travelled to Jupiter and captured incredible photographic content. Role: Concept, Art Direction & Design.





2022 to 2024 — Cowboy




LIFESTYLE PHOTOGRAPHY, Cowboy. Various lifestyle photoshoots over the last two years to support multiple campaigns and product launches. 
The above shoot was shot in Lisbon for our Spring 23 campaign. Role: Art Direction.



3D PRODUCT SHOTS, Cowboy. Working with external partners to create high-end 3D product renders to support new launches and brand moments. Role: Art Direction. 


BOOK A TEST RIDE, Cowboy. Re-design of a new user experience flow to book on-location Cowboy test rides within Europe. Role: Design



WEB PLATFORM, Cowboy
Ongoing design work for the Cowboy.com website platform with projects including product launches, feature updates and e-commerce. Role: Design & Design Direction



SOCIAL CAMPAIGNS, Cowboy. Design direction for various ongoing social media campaigns and posts created internally and externally. The above campaign ‘Back to Routine’ included a photo shoot in Berlin and typographic layouts. Above Role: Photography Art Direction & Design


INTERACTIVE, CowboyVarious interactive design concepts to explore product features, bike colours and Cowboy models. 
Role: Design



3D VISUALISATIONS, Cowboy3D rendered visualisations to showcase Cowboy AdaptivePower™ where the motor adapts in real-time to forces around the rider. Role: Art Direction. 3D Studio: First Things


BERLIN STORE OPENING, Cowboy.
Inspired by the grid-like interior of the store, the event design direction included branding, posters, wayfinding, stickers and tote bags. Role: Art Direction & Design.







2D UI ANIMATIONS, Cowboy.A full suite of 2D animations was created to showcase the many software features of the Cowboy app as your ride. Role: Storyboarding & Animation Direction


MERCH, CowboyVarious Cowboy merch items created such as tote bags for the Berlin event.
Role:
Design & Design Direction



3D ANIMATIONS, Cowboy. Animation direction for 3D animation pieces such as the above reveal for the launch of ‘Cowboy Connect’ in 2023. Role: Animation Direction. Animation: Matt Whitewood




ALPHAEDGE 4D EVENT, adidas.Designed to look like an adidas TV newsroom, the Alphaedge 4D launch events took place in Tokyo and Shanghai, bringing together guests for the Alphaedge 4D shoe launch. The events featured a custom framing system and supported an array of animated screen content, print material, a Kinect enabled LED screen, a scanner interactive installation, as well as a seating area for talks on the night.

Role: Creative, Floorplan, Spatial Design, Interactive Design, Digital Design Lead
Creative Partner: Simon Jullien
Client: adidas Brand Design
Production: Resn





ALPHAEDGE 4D SCANNER, adidas 
We created an interactive scanner installation which allowed guests to ‘see inside’ the new shoe sole in a unique and engaging way. The scanner was placed at the two events as well as the adidas flagship store in NYC. Fabrication: Fiction Factory




A shoe plinth was designed for the events and NYC flagship store. Role: Design






CANALS, Personal Project
CANALS was a personal passional project celebrating the iconic canals of Amsterdam and their rich history through an editorial style website experience.
Role: Concept, Writing, Narrative, Art Direction and Design.
Development: Aristide Benoist

Live link: https://canals-amsterdam.com 
Talk: Awwwards Conference Talk




The hero of the experience was the magazine-like horizontal scroll on desktop with an adapted vertical version created for mobile.





The experience pairs bold, striking typography with beautiful historical imagery sourced from the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum libraries.




LOOP PROJECTION GRAPHICS, adidas
. The Futurecraft.Loop launch event in New York City brought together 200 guests from around the world. Here they were introduced to the new footwear surrounded by a large scale 360° projection band setup.

Role: Spatial Design Concept, Creative, Art Direction & Design
Creative Partner: Simon Jullien
Client: adidas Brand Design
Production: Resn



The event space was designed as a set of circles to represent the cyclindrical nature of the recycled footwear process.






Repitition focused graphics, video pieces and typographic graphics supported the speeches and on-stage product reveal.






SPEEDFACTORY TOURING EVENT, adidas.
Speedfactory was a global launch for adidas creating robotically made, tailored footwear. We created a touring global activation housed in two transportable shipping containers. Inside were an array of mini interactive installations, screen content and product displays.

Role: Creative, Floorplan, Spatial Design Concept (Outside and Inside), Digital Design Lead
Creative Partners: Kris Hermansson & Simon Jullien
Client: adidas Brand Design
Fabrication: Fiction Factory
Production: Resn










Guests could scan in to all of the interactive stations inside the space, allowing them to save unique dynamic, shareable content to their devices.


Selected Interactive Projects


S3 & X3 LAUNCH, VanMoof
The VanMoof S3 and X3 online live launch at the start of 2020 re-defined what a digital launch could be. It combined interactive bikes, video, live chat and a live streamed Q&A. Role: Design

ADIDAS GLOBAL PROJECTS, adidas. Creative, UX, Art Direction and Design for global adidas projects over the 2014 - 2018 period. Role: Design



E-TEC CUSTOMIZER, Evinrude.Product site for the Evinrude E-TEC G2, showcasing the all new outboard engine's features combined with a full customisation tool for mobile, tablet and desktop.



MASERATI DIGITAL LAUNCHES, Maserati. An online digital events platform that launched five luxury vehicles. We combined interactive films, 3D car explorations, live comments, reactions, live streaming, discussions and post event experiences. Production: Resn






RESN.CO.NZ, ResnRelaunch of the Resn site - a balance of personality and clean presentation of work. A number of surprises as well as the pioneering use of the 'click and hold mechanic' - the site became a well loved piece of interactive design.
Site: www.resn.co.nz Role: Design Production: Resn



DIAMONDS, Converse.Interactive music video for Converse promoting the waterproof Chuck II's with the water concept being applied to all elements of the experience. Role: Design Production: Resn

HUMBLE MOTORS, Humble.This launch website showcased the upcoming electric car, brand and solar power technology. Production: Resn





GAMER MASTERPIECE, PlayStation.Experience allowing users to add themselves to their own painted masterpiece, complete with their favorite characters, backgrounds and items. All PlayStation characters were painted by hand. Production: Resn Agency: BBH New York



DIGIT DUEL GAME, ResnA wild west duelling game created for the Leap Motion Controller, using your hands to face off against opponents via motion detection. Production: Resn

UPPIE GAME, adidas.A playful ‘keepie uppie’ style online football game for adidas. Role: Design Production: Resn


ART OF THE FLOWER, Personal.A personal design centered around the work of Rachel Ruysch.

HENNESSY WILD RABBIT, Hennessy.An interactive cinematic experience for Hennessy. The user was lead through a journey featuring Martin Scorcese, Erykah Badu and Manny Pacquiao. Role: Design Production: Resn Agency: Droga5



Marcus Brown
I love working within a creative team and being surrounded by production minded people who care deeply about the idea, details and craft. My best times are being amongst creatives, designers, developers, animators and project managers. All of the above work was done with amazing teams and wouldn’t be possible without them.


Contact
LinkedIn
Twitter
Behance (Work up until 2020)

Cowboy Bikes (Present)
Design Director for Digital & Marketing at one of the world’s leading connected electric bike brands.
Freelance (2018-2021)
Design Director and Creative working across creative, 
design, art direction and UX for global agencies and brands.

Resn (2012-2018)
Design and art direction lead at Resn between 
2012-2021 in both New Zealand and Amsterdam.

Catch (2008-2011)
Digital designer at New Zealand based studio Catch.



 Made with love in New Zealand    Made with love in New Zealand    Made with love in New Zealand    Made with love in New Zealand    Made with love in New Zealand    Made with love in New Zealand    Made with love in New Zealand