Brian Bennett

Since 2016 I’ve been working on the UnitedHealthcare Global Brand as the working Associate Creative Director leading an in house creative team to develop a consistent creative look and feel. This brand has required a strategic mindset along with a sensitivity towards what is achievable from a budget standpoint. Here’s a break down of the projects that my team generated in 2018 EOY: Total number of projects kicked off to the design team (198), total number of rounds (532), total number of projects sent out for HTML, production or copywriting support (53). The 2018 estimated project value per our annual metric calculation was $1,845,668. What that means is that it would have cost the company that amount to send out to outside agencies. To deep dive even further into the metrics there were 532 rounds recorded/ 198 projects = 2.68 average # rounds per project. 2,767 (pages, slides, email, posts) x 2.68 rounds = 7,415.56 pages touched. There were 253 work days in 2018. Summarizing that the average # of pages touched per day = 29.31 (14.6 pages per designer = 1.8 pages per hour). Whew!!!

The point being that my team was a powerhouse and took on a heavy workload from the very beginning. We worked on everything…print, digital, web, video, photo art direction, real estate, email, events, promotional, internal communications, C-suite executive requests. What you see on this page is a snapshot of the work I created during this time and where the brand landed after I took over the body of work. It is consistent with the brand and brings it’s own flavor of “Global” when it makes sense.

This project was brought to my attention and it was an immediate slam-dunk that I wanted to work on it and make it something really special for the recipient. Molly Joseph (UnitedHealthcare Global CEO) requested a recognition “word cloud” piece for her COO thanking him for his 20 years of service to UnitedHealth Group. She had reached out to all that interacted with this man on a daily basis from around the globe (USA, Brazil, Portugal, Chile, Colombia) and requested words/phrases that describe him in their eyes. The response was outstanding and an example of words they submitted were: Empowering, Loyal, Authentic, Hustle, Heart, Coach, Genuine , Thoughtful, Enthusiastic, Motivador, etc. The challenge I faced was how to figure out how to achieve something really special for this man on a shoestring budget.

I researched, concepted and generated ideas with a range of media types and I landed on a fantastic illustrator located in Nova Scotia – Bee Stanton https://beejaedee.com/ . Her typographical energy that she brought to the table was unrivaled and I was extremely honored to have her accept my offer of working with me to craft this gift.

Over the course of a month and half Bee and I worked to figure out how to make this a great final product. As she toiled behind the scenes in creating the artwork, I worked through printing challenges and how to best execute. I selected a local print shop – Arts District Imageworks Inc. https://www.rgbomg.com/, ask for Mark Jones (he was awesome!) He helped me to create, and ensure the best quality final output which was printed on archival canvas. I created two final printed pieces to be given to the recipient: (1) 18x24 banner canvas with wood slats & twine hanger, (2) framed double-matted 10x13 print.

The event was held and the COO was quoted as saying it was the “Nicest most engaging gift that he had ever received in his 20 years with the company”. And that right there is what I live for…making something from nothing and bringing a smile…and maybe an occasional tear of joy to people who deserve recognition like this.

UnitedHealthcare Social journey was a journey comparable to Lord of the Rings. It had it’s twists, turns, challenges and rewards. Here is a little bit of how that journey came to be. I had the good fortune to work on a team with one of my closest buddies that I cut my teeth throughout most of my career with. We were at a place in our time with UnitedHealthcare that we had made rules and we were darn ready to start to break some of them. We consistently were pushing the boundaries of many comfort zones and we enjoyed that dance. We turned our sights onto the social channels of UnitedHealthcare and the potential that awaited within each tactic. We began by researching the inconsistency, poor design, non-engaging posts that were happening within Facebook. We found that UnitedHealthcare didn’t have an Instagram and very little Twitter engagement. So, we both put our heads together and concepted how we would run the UnitedHealthcare Social channels. The rest is history.

With this body of work my cohort and I acted as conceptual designers, stylists, photographers, creative directors, art directors, production designers, project managers. We had our first photoshoot of original content in a fluorescent lit conference room on the 5th floor of our building. I was shopping for props at any thrift store I could find (we were given $500 to spend per month on social to begin with…which I hear has risen to $10,000 per month as of right now). To say we were scrappy would be a complete understatement. This body of work became a living, breathing entity that the entire team rallied behind. One week we would have others on the team helping to carve oranges for a May the 4th post and on the next week we’d have another helping place post-its up on an oversized wall. At the very end of my time with the team we were running a monthly update of social content for Facebook and Twitter and would dedicate 1-2 days in a photo studio to bring our concepts to life.

It was one of the most fun experiences I’ve had the honor to bring to life with a most rockin’ team at UnitedHealthcare.

Playing cards feel like one of those rare opportunities that a graphic designer gets the chance to sink a part of themselves into for the brand they work on. I gladly grabbed it with both hands and set off on creating some amazing characters and content to populate 52 moments of delight.
All I can say is that the face-card character backstory that revealed itself as I was creating is a very rocky road of deceit, darkness and savagery to deep to delve into on here. Ask me about it sometime…it’s a doozy.

This one-of-a-kind 52 card deck of playing cards is available within the UnitedHealthcare company store for employees to purchase Nation-wide.

Target Pharmacy Rewards was a fun category to work on as a designer. My team and I were creating the rules and style as we moved from month to month…this was a monthly campaign that continued to evolve until CVS was brought into Target well after I had moved on from working on this line of business. We had a seasonally motivated promotional mailers with coupon booklets that needed conceptual creation, emails that would launch to the consumer based on where they found themselves on their Rx Rewards journey. This campaign included print, digital, video, promotional and email. My role was lead conceptual designer, layout, storyboard creator and photo art director.

The photography you are seeing within this page are all images that would be integrated into the print, email, digital, website executions. All emails were created conceptually by me along with photo art direction on all executions. The photography was then provided to the digital team for use on Target.com.

AD: Brian Bennett
CW: Joey Nielsen
Photographer : Paul Nelson
Stylist: Lynn Ostrowski

In 2015 Target launched a partnership with Kaiser Permanente in 31 Target Clinic locations across Southern California. The creative team and I were given the opportunity to create the marketing collateral, space redesign and evolution of how the Target Clinic would look branded as a “partnership” with another notable healthcare brand. I had the pleasure to concept, art direct, photo art direct, illustrator art direct and generate direction for what the space would look like with the new elements executed within the new spaces. I was on a larger team with this project that had multiple shoots happening both local and in San Francisco with multiple art directors assigned to different executions. The typographic elements were hand-designed by typographic letterer Simon Walker https://www.simonwalkertype.com/ . This was one beast of a project and it was a collaborative team effort that was one fun roller coaster to be a part of!

Real Estate design was something I had been wanting to tackle since getting hired at UnitedHealthcare. I got my chance when I was asked to provide a UnitedHealthcare Global logo to a partner who was requesting it for a real estate update. I saw that as an opportunity to elevate the Global floor and immerse the employees in the Global brand the minute they step off the elevators and onto the Global floor. I concepted and created this original “Global Map Wall”which was made up of cylindrical half disks which created a textured map of the world that welcomes employees to walk down the aisle leading to the CEO’s executive office. At the end of each hallway there was dimensional messaging and dimensional messaging on key walls spread throughout the floor. The agency that I worked with was the Real Estate firm http://www.artpartners.com/ to create the final experience.

There were always opportunities to push yourself as a creative and gain some fun experiences working with some fun illustrators, photographers and idea generators. Target Giftcard was one of those categories that allowed those lucky enough to work on it, that outlet to stretch your creative brain power. My role was concepting, pitching the ideas to marketing to sell the ideas through, researching illustrators/photographers that were suited for the execution, photo or illustrator art director. Basically, when it came to Target Giftcard…it was your vision and yours to handle once selected. It of course had those that needed to approve…but, once you had your solid concept it was smooth sailing after that. Beyond fun!!

During my time with Target’s in House creative agency, I was lucky enough to work on a team that was forward thinking and constantly asking “What else could we bring to the table?” Well, one untapped media type that wasn’t frequently utilized was the TV wall that sits in the Electronic department.

We thought what better way to promote our products within the Target Pharmacy category than to breathe life into those product with engaging, whimsical and elegant concepts. From that mentality and my ideation these videos came to life. Whenever a new product was brought to our team, I would storyboard and make sure there was a TV spot included in the rest of the presentation decks. It was the extra special idea that many in the Marketing Department looked forward to seeing what we came up with this time. It was a fun time!

ACD: David Slack
AD: Brian Bennett
Motion AD: Ryan Hanson
3D Animation: Glen Faught
CW: Jesse Gadola

Here’s to cold crushers & happily better afters. Target has you covered from Hello Kitty Band-Aids to that trusted teddy bear. The daily dose campaign championed Target as being there for whatever you need to make your life better. A daily dose of just the thing.

I was one of the main Art Directors generating/concepting the ideas for the monthly execution of seasonal concepts that would need creating. This campaign ran from early 2015 - mid 2016. I would concept for print, promotional mailers, social, video (Target TV wall content), out-of-home billboards and in-store signage. After concepting and being the lead photo art director on this campaign I would see the project to completion and select photographers & stylists and bring our concepts to life.

From health and wellness apps to giant band-aid fixed billboards, I felt like I did it all in the Target Healthcare brand. I worked on Target Pharmacy, Target Pharmacy Rewards and Target Clinic from 2011 - 2015 and really found fun projects to get the chance to work on. What you are seeing here on this page is a smattering of those fun executions. It was a wonderful time of exploration and idea generation. I hope you enjoy the executions and see the fun come through on some of what I put together.

Target Movies & Entertainment category was right up my alley! The big kid in me really was in opportunity overload at the thought of working on movie launch promotions. My first launch I was able to work on was Disney’s Big Hero 6. My task was to partner with a senior copy writer and figure out how to best promote the movie. We generated concepts for social and digital with a sprinkle of print executions. With my copywriter Lukas Miller, we developed the first Target "Family Movie Night" Pinterest board featuring 6 engaging ideas for BH6 recipes that the family could make on their family movie night and “dark” social media posts that featured BH6 products available at Target to purchase all living within pinterest. In addition to Pinterest we created content for Instagram, digital banners, printable DIY games for the family… it was a fantastic opportunity to play with some rich characters and artwork to help launch the movie with a big splash when it hit Target’s shelves.

I was tapped after the successful Big Hero 6 movie launch to work on ideas on how to promote the next big movie that was set to hit shelves: Hunger Games - Mockingjay. For this movie launch I partnered with my Sr. CopyWriter again to figure out how make the most impact on the social channels we had success within during our previous movie launch. We focused our sights on Instagram and the digital landscape for Target and created Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and digital banners creative concepts. We also generated a website landing page that would feature the products and story of Katniss Everdeen and the Mockingjay. Additional concepts that hit the cutting room floor was downloadable Mockingjay whistle ringtones, engaging “Vine” influencers to make 6 second movie tributes to The Hunger Games…think cats and dogs playing out pivotal moments in the Hunger Games….sounds viral to me! It was another fun one to work on for sure.

Noodle…that was one interesting project to work on. It came to our internal creative team like a bat outta hell, needing branding and a creative strategy on how it was going to launch. All we were given was a few App screens to work from. The challenge I was given was to give creative direction on how we could elevate the digital experience and bring it closer in line with our UnitedHealthcare brand.

What you see is my vision on how the website would play out along with App integration. I engaged one of our designers on the team to create custom iconography that best represented healthy eating and choices. Those icons would all be animated and revolving around the Noodle logo. I selected a photography style of light, bold, simple and had selected a food photographer that was best suited for this type of work. As quick as the request came in…the partnership dissolved between UnitedHealthcare and Noodle. So, unfortunately these concepts remained in concept. It was a great reminder to me to stay nimble and nothing is final till it’s final. Still, it was a great little project that I look back at with a smile!

This section I thought was important as I share with you my world that I have created thus far in my career. This is a section that I will highlight those one-off design moments that I am proud to have been a part of, layouts that I enjoyed working on or initiatives that I led or took to heart. It is meant to provide that extra little glimpse into what I do holistically that helps paint a clearer picture of who I am as a designer, leader and all around decent dude. Enjoy!