.WORK /Industry

After the acquisition of a small Big Island-based wedding company in Hawaii, METERA was retained to completely rebrand the legacy organization into something new. The ALOHILANI project required that new visual identity be developed based upon sacred geometry; the creation of a cool-toned color palette, the development of a complete business concept, as well as a library of photographic content which would be based upon real customers of the Client.

MUSE Bride wanted to polish their visual identity, develop a new website, and market a new editorial style of wedding photography to their Clientele in the Pacific Rim region. To accomplish this brief, we first set about defining a new editorial look by shooting a series of tests to establish a proof of creative concept which the studio then marketed to the Clientele. From there a new font face, website, and collateral were all created with great success.

I've known JP Canlis for just under 30 years. In 2004 JP asked if I would photograph some of his incredible glass art. We decided to use only available light and do the entire initial shoot outdoors - which was different from the typical in-studio setups he had done before. JP later invited me to Seattle and other incredible venues to shoot more of his work. Since then his art has appeared around the world in private and public collections.

After years of working in Asia, I returned to Hawaii and started a small photography agency - RÊVE Group. I created the identity, brand ethos, and visual voice for the RÊVE Group as a fun personal endeavor. RÊVE became a successful hybrid photography studio that focused on high-end social events and commercial projects for well-known lifestyle brands. The photo team and I at RÊVE created images for our Clientele in venues in Hawaii, North America, Asia, and Europe.

When the owners of a newly acquired home just off the beach in Kailua asked for ideas on what kinds of services they could potentially offer a new business from their property, I jumped at the opportunity. The location was beautiful and had potential. I came up with the idea of marketing boutique wedding elopement services for small intimate groups via a new brand I created named MALEANA Gardens. Maleana means wedding in Hawaii and was the perfect fit for the new enterprise.

I met with the founders of CURATE DECOR & Design at a trade show and immediately felt and close creative connection to both of them and their team. I retained me to shoot an installation they were setting up for use in a promotional video they were producing.

I normally don’t take on projects that only involve web development. For SINGSHINE I made an exception because of my friendship with the founder. I also was interested in learning about the power of experiential marketing and below-the-line marketing programs - a marketing genre that I know very little about.

XIANGHUA is a leading textile company in China. The company retained me to create a new visual identity based upon the legacy visual identity. The objective of the project was to create a new identity to showcase the modernization of the firms manufacturing capabilities. I created a new identity that used the initials of the company while giving it a modern yet playful pinwheel metaphor.

For years my close friend BOBBY G has worked at the highest levels of the international fashion industry. In celebration of his 24th year in the business, I was retained to create a new site and a visual identity for BOBBY to showcase his incredible portfolio.

DINA Lingerie retained METERA to help them with a global roadshow to promote the atelier to private equity investors and for a potential IPO in Paris. I created a new visual identity based upon a woman CEO/Creative Director who served as an inspiration to the team. The end product was an investor vision reel with voice over scripts in French, and Chinese, all packaged in a detailed brand guideline set.

I was approached by the organizing team for the first HONOLULU Fashion Week to shoot a series of editorials entities Fashion as Art campaign. The images were later used for the first HONOLULU Fashion Week’s key art and anchor marketing images.

LOCAL Motion (and sister company - Kahala Sports Ware) were special photography clients of mine. Co-creating images with them has always been a pleasure - primarily because of the creative license they gave me.

HDS retained METERA to help them with a global roadshow to promote the shoe OEM to private equity investors and for a potential IPO in Paris. I created a new visual identity based upon the legacy logomark. The end product was an investor vision reel with voice over scripts in French, and Chinese, all packaged in a detailed brand guideline set.

The owners of BLUEZand and their first product, the Adapt Planner are long time friends of mine. They needed help putting creating photographic and written content for their new company. I was drawn to the authenticity of the company’s mission. For BLUEZand, I create a stock catalog of images, a new easy-to-use website, and omnichannel platform from which to market their products.

VESTASIA Finance retained METERA to help them with the global roadshow to promote the firm for their upcoming NYSE Euronext IPO in Paris. For the IPO my team and I created a new visual identity, a new set of brand guidelines, a new website, and an investor vision reel with all of the associated voice-over scripts (in English, French, and Chinese).

The XINHUA Finance project was another large, long-term, and complex project where I was embedded into the company’s executive team in Hong Kong. For XINHUA Finance I created the entire corporate brand with the goal of launching all facets of the project on the date of the firm’s Nikkei Mother’s Board listing in Tokyo, Japan. The XINHUA Finance listing was the first time a Mainland Chinese company was ever listed on Nikkei Stock Exchange.

I lived in Beijing China for just under 3 years to work with online entertainment platform HAPAMe, and parent company, MINGHE Media. In Beijing, I worked with the IR team to develop both companies’ investment story, key brand attributes, visual identity, and design elements.

I was introduced to the CEO of WYSE Technology through a close friend while living in San Francisco. WYSE was in the process of either being acquired or potentially listing on the NYSE. The company’s legacy branding was in need of a refresh. I was retained to assist their marketing department with this effort with the end product being a slick investor vision reel. In phase one we created a series of conceptual storyboards for the company to animate how a revised visual identity would look and how it would be deployed in a potential investor reel. These storyboards and design directions were approved. Luckily for WYSE (but unlucky for us), the company was acquired by Dell so our work was never able to come into its will form.

I shot proof of concept images for HINANO of Tahiti a while back. For Hinano I decided to create a series of body painting images for the brand using the iconic vahine in the red & white padeo as creative inspiration. These images are still some of my personal favorites.

A few years ago I creates this identity for a US-based non-profit which does amazing work in Inner Mongolia. The logo is comprised of four fingerprints (from both little fingers & both thumbs) to create a butterfly. The non-profit’s name, CHAZARA (which I researched and was later adopted by the non-profit), is a shortened name of a butterfly that is indigenous to that region of Asia. The butterfly logo was created to represent a positive metamorphosis & freedom through education. Each student of the CHAZARA program was able to create their own butterfly with their own fingerprints.