GT Smith

is an art director. He also makes music, illustrates, writes and edits video.

[yodaprod]

[obsessedbyneon]

Engineering and electromechanics school in Mairne La Vallée, France, 1988.

Scan

[gtsmith]

Natural Light Vodka Preroll: CD: Ryan Kroog, AD: GT Smith, CW: Ben Ashauer, Designer: Chelsea Peterson

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Natural Light Vodka Launch Visuals, produced in house at Draftline USA. CD: Ryan Kroog AD: GT Smith Designer: Chelsea Peterson

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Bud Light Platinum Seltzer TVC - CD: Eric Flinn ACD: Keslie Watts AD: GT Smith. Brought to life thanks to David Cicirelli and Travis Rathbone. The Mill and Draftline Production on Post. 

[gtsmith]

Art Directed and illustrated the original design for the Draftline Neon. CD: Eric Flinn, ACD: Ryan Kroog, AD: GT Smith. Animation by Ryan Bechtel.  

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Natural Light Sour Seltzer CGI - Worked with The Artery to deliver this gem in a very tight timeline. The idea was simple, imagine if the still of the pack was brought suddenly to life. Cans are falling in effervescence, and the wave is rolling and cresting at the top. Push out to reveal it was the box all along. CD: Eric Flinn ACD: Ryan Kroog AD: GT Smith. 

[gtsmith]

This was a Tampa, FL only LTO that was released ahead of Super Bowl LV. The ship and waves were an original illustration that spoke to the pirate history of the shores of Tampa and the cans distressing was a nod to Super Bowl LV branding which had elements of distressed driftwood / sand and fire. The bottle was meant to look like it had washed up on shore and hit a few rocks along the way. 

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This project was initially intended as a Florida only project, but after seeing our exploration brand decided to take it national. David Allison designed and I Art Directed / designed with Ryan Kroog as ACD. Shout out the whole Bud Light team on this one, it was radical! 

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This was drafted and designed in one working week. The challenge was to make primary packaging quickly enough so we could reach an STR date that would still be relevant in market. The secondary packaging was designed in the next week with help from Chelsea Peterson. The retro can harkens back to the blues original jerseys, the champions can reflects the first championship they ever won and the Gloria can actually uses the notes from the Laura Branigan song the team played during their playoff run. The St. Louis arch was incorporated as an homage to the city. It was an honor to design this. 

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Bud Light Superbowl 54 champion can design, 2019.

[gtsmith]

Post Malone Special Edition, 2019. Working every single waking hour for 1 month straight with no breaks was worth it. Even JKR’s design team couldn’t beat it. This is an example of believing in the impossible even after a design has been killed by leadership, never give up. Shout out to Shana Barry and Ryan Mortimer for fighting for this design. We did it. 

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"Storm Area 51″ trend on social media lead to a firestorm of memes and content. We were one of the first brands to announce we officially would not be sponsoring the raid. The next day we reversed our position entirely with these alien cans. I designed the can in 2 hours and it quickly got close to 50k retweets. We made a run of the cans just in time for the “raid.” Luckily no one was hurt and it was just a big party. Our partnership with lil mayo was just icing on the cake, and added to the virality and content in the moment. I designed merch, SMT’s and OOH. 

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Lollapalooza Festival Poster for Bud Light Dive Bar Sessions. Chicago, 2019.

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Govball Poster for Bud Light Dive Bar Sessions. Randalls Island Park, 2019. 

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Firefly Festival Poster for Bud Light Dive Bar Sessions. 2019

[gtsmith]

This project came to my desk half figured out and with only two weeks until showtime. Smirnoff was testing our creative department, and had never worked with us before. Louie Zuniga (Sr. Art Director) created the “Forever Party” concept, and I was tasked with translating this idea into a full look and feel for EDC Orlando, a music festival known for its loud, in your face visuals and sounds. I illustrated a logo lockup, hand animated 3 looping videos and designed all print and media assets. We had to stand out.We set out to out do even EDC’s visuals and according to anonymous sources at Insomniac, we did just that and more (but dont tell the mainstage video guys that)

I decided this crazy rush deadline was the right time to learn how to hand animate something for the first time. I liked the result a lot, and used found footage to trace over in my own illustration style. Learning a skill in a do or die business situation really forces a person to make it work, I’m glad I took the risk!