How did you discover your passion for creativity and get your start in the industry? It has always been in me to create and make. The ability to create worlds, express ideas and push the boundaries of what’s possible is everything I love and live for in the creative industry. When you feel the need to constantly create, there is no better place to be than in an industry that demands more and more and expects each piece of work to be better than last.

What led you to establish the creative studio Versus? How does the studio run against the grain of other agency models? Versus was intentionally built in opposition to legacy agency and production structures. From day one, we positioned ourselves as versus the traditional model, rejecting silos and the distance between the idea and the people actually making it.

We’re a studio where strategy, creative and production sit together from the start, with technology acting as an amplifier to tell bigger stories and create greater impact. We don’t stay in one lane. We move fluidly between brand, entertainment and original IPs, helping brands show up like entertainment and entertainment companies think more like brands. We stay nimble by design. Our niche is taste, perspective and seeing things differently.

What have been some of your favorite projects you’ve worked on at Versus, and how did they change your perception of what you can do with design and advertising? Cliché answer, but every project we take on is another opportunity to change our perception of what’s possible. I think the way we choose to make Versus’s own internal projects speaks to that most clearly.

With We Are Versus, we intentionally turned the lens inward and treated our studio like a client—but without the usual rules or expectations. Instead of a traditional anthem reel, we built a 400-page book and a companion film shaped by the voices of our clients, collaborators and community, using analog tools like an answering machine to capture something raw and human.

That project reinforced for me that design and advertising don’t have to be about selling or self-promotion. They can be about building culture, documenting a moment and creating something that lives beyond a campaign. It pushed us to see our role not just as makers of work, but as stewards of a creative community, and it changed how I think about what a studio can stand for when it’s willing to be vulnerable, experimental and unapologetically itself.

As the head of a creative studio, what are your strategies to cultivate originality and avoid following trends? I believe originality comes from people, not processes. A studio is the sum of its people, their experiences and perspectives, and what they choose to pay attention to.

At Versus, we focus on building a team of individuals who each live in their own lane culturally and creatively but come together to think bigger as a collective. That mix creates natural tension, fresh points of view and ideas that aren’t chasing trends but expanding what’s expected or even possible. When you prioritize taste, perspective and cultural curiosity, originality becomes a byproduct rather than a goal.

Please give us an example of one project at Versus that required cross-disciplinary collaboration. What did you learn from this project about managing such collaboration, and what advice do you have for other directors looking to do the same? For the latest Zootopia campaign with Volkswagen and Disney, we took two iconic brands and a growing, culture-driving film franchise and blended them into a single campaign. This spoke to multiple audiences at the same time and drove KPIs across all three brands.

It was designed to entertain and drive engagement for the film, while also showing Volkswagen and its cars in a way only a car commercial can, all inside a world inspired by a major movie release. It’s a hard balance to strike, but we believed it was possible and so did the brands. Together, we pulled it off, and we did it on a global scale across multiple countries, language markets and cars.

How do you feel the rise of generative AI is helping or hurting the industry, and how do you think creative agencies can respond productively to this technology? AI is helping and hurting the industry at the same time. Any thoughtful creative needs to come to terms that they will always wrestle with a hypocritical view on AI—and they should.

The speed from idea to execution is exciting, but when you move that fast, you risk skipping the creative process where the real magic lives. What AI is really doing is forcing a reset on where value comes from. If anything can be made, access and execution stop being the differentiators. Taste becomes the niche. Perspective becomes the product. The most productive response for creative agencies is not to chase the tools but to double down on how they see the world, how they connect dots and how ideas are filtered through a distinct point of view. The best studios won’t just use AI to make more; they’ll use it to say something more meaningful.

Additionally, Versus produces films, animations and video games through its next-generation IP studio Originals. What inspired this direction for your studio, and what would you say is the next generation of IP development that Originals seeks to harness? Telling bigger, more interesting stories has always been at the core of Versus. Films, animation and video games through Originals are a natural extension of that instinct.

We wanted to foster a place for ideas that don’t have to live in just traditional advertising or marketing channels—where they can exist deeper in culture and have a longer life. Originals expands the studio’s perspective and reach while letting us build IPs that moves fluidly across entertainment, technology and brand. The next generation of IP for us is about creating worlds—not just content—and helping both our own ideas and our clients’ ideas show up in culture in more meaningful, lasting ways.

Do you have any advice for creatives just starting out in the field today? Find your voice and meet people where they are, not just in traditional creative spaces. The future of creativity isn’t only about having good ideas or crafting great work; it’s about the ability to connect dots across channels, industries, media and cultures—and to do it in a way that feels unexpected. ca