Kaori Sohma

Channel Launch / Branding

Role: Creative Director, Designer, Animator & Editor

The Vox Channel was a linear output platform of a modern media company, Vox Media which lived on Roku, Youtube Live, and Amazon Freevee. It offered a place for the diverse Vox Media family to share content from different networks (Vox, Eater, The Verge, SB Nation, Pivot, NYmag, and more). It provided stories of our world by explaining in an informative and entertaining manner. 

The channel delivered a uniquely curated programming experience to new audiences outside of YouTube and our streaming apps, covering everything from current affairs, science, and climate change to technology, innovation, and sports. 

The mission was to create the channel from scratch - building the foundation of linear viewing experience by architecting and developing the design & animation system and brand attributions to then placing them according to uniquely curated programming. The channel set itself apart yet still felt like it was part of the Vox Media universe by coming up with the brand voice, tone, and visual language.

Credits :

Executive Producer: Joel Hanek

Sr. Operations Supervisor: Ashley Guckert

Sr. Archival Producer: Arsh Harjani

Distribution Manager: Chrissi Michael

SVP Design: Phil Delbourgo

Principle Designer: Chris Carfolite

VP Vox Video & TV: Emily Anderson

Sound design & Brand mnemonic: Upright T-Rex

Marketing Campaign

Role: Sr. Creative Director, Design & Animation

USA’s popular crime drama series “Queen of the South” chronicles the story of one woman’s rise to the top of the Mexican drug cartel.

The design direction of this successful series was based on evolving the floral decorative approach from the previous seasons, which had been the ownable look of the Queen franchise. We simplified and refined the illustrative elements to be a cleaner, more modern feel for this final season. The pink floral elements against black with a combination of gothic and bold san serif typeface bring out a sense of a strong female in power.

Credits:

SVP Creative : Jeff Blackman

VP Promos : Veronica Cepero

Sr. CD : Josh Hertz

Producer : Thomas Sutch

Designer : Liza Bruno

Project Manager : Lauren Wynter

Design and Animation : Mocean

Marketing Campaign

Role: Sr. Creative Director, Design & Animation

The entertainment networks at NBCUniversal (NBC, USA, SYFY, Bravo, E!, Oxygen, and Universal Kids) run an extensive cross-network campaign for Black History Month. At the heart of our History Made. History in the Making. content, we are demonstrating how important moments in Black history are not only in the past but also being made every day in the present and for our future. We picked out a color palette of red, white, blue, and black to demonstrate that Black history is American history. We chose bold type to amplify our messaging and establish the statement-making tone of the campaign.

The campaign launched with a tease spot that kicked off a Black History Month celebration that spans 31 days and was followed by an overview spot featuring on-air talent, including E!’s Nina Parker, “American Ninja Warrior’s” Akbar Gbajabiamila, “Kenan’s” Chris Redd, “The Real Housewives of Atlanta’s” Porsha Williams, “She’s the Boss’s” Nicole Walters, “The Voice’s” John Legend, and WWE’s Xavier Woods. Following the launch spots, the networks air vignettes, interstitials, on-air spots, and bumpers centered on the History Made. History in the Making. that are tailored to their respective audiences.

Across the NBCU linear networks alone, they ran 3500 spots over the month for 500 million impressions.

Credits:

SVP Creative : Jeff Blackman

VP Promos : Veronica Cepero

Sr. CD : Josh Hertz

Producer : Phil Latcholia

Sr. Designer : Jennifer Kahn

Project Manager : Lisa Fleming

Design and Animation : Block & Tackle

Production Agency : Bark Bark

Brand Refresh
Role: Creative Director

The rebrand in 2014 delivered cohesively on a brand that speaks to our millennial female audience. It’s well-designed, bold, fun, and full of lively colors - all of which convey the spirit of our brand. But with a flat look comes the typical complaint: It’s too simple. Everything is so plain. We run into a limitation... We were a bit too minimal. To refresh the well-established rebrand, we needed to expand on a number of graphic elements and give more personality to enhance the network and boost our appeal. Our refresh focused on subtle brand elements, which should not look like we rebranded again. 

“Short bursts of animation mix and match with quiet, systematic moments. Vibrant colors and geometric shapes are balanced by live-action scenes. It’s the perfect harmony of organized chaos, intended to appeal to Oxygen’s demographic of young, multicultural millennial women.” - PromaxBDA Daily Brief

Credits:
Off-Air Creative Director : Jimmy Wentz
Project Manager : Kate Johnson
VP Brand : Nancy Mazzei

Design Studio : Eloisa

Rebrand
Role: Creative Director

Oxygen has become a crime destination that promises a consistent yet unique and differentiated, quality experience to fans of the genre. To visually capture the essence of the new channel,  Oxygen partnered with Trollbäck+Company to rebrand from logo design to re-skin the entire on-air and off-air look. 

Oxygen provided a clear direction with mood boards and references for inspiration to the agency, as we knew what the network needed: Unclutter the chaos, be editorial, avoid the expected, solve the quality issues with low-resolution images, and production-friendly toolkit.  During the production, I lead the project by making crucial decisions and giving feedback on the details of hundreds of motion assets daily. Internally I made many presentations across the network and guided them through the style guide, ensuring the design and its toolkit worked properly and beautifully. 

The Oxygen is now recognized explicitly as a crime network, with its new striking visual identity. The channel experienced a 51% increase in viewership, making it the fastest-growing cable entertainment network.

Credits:
Off-Air Creative Director : Jimmy Wentz
On-Air Promos Creative Director : Yanik Archer
Project Manager : Franklin Zitter
VP Brand : Nancy Mazzei

Creative Agency : Trollbäck+Company
Brand Music : You Too Can Woo

Rebrand

Role: Design Lead, Sr. Creative Director

USA Network celebrates and champions characters unlike anyone else. Forefronting characters must be the heartbeat of our brand - creatively, culturally, and in everything we do. Our new USA visual identity firmly spotlights our characters in modern, fictional, and expressive ways.

In the new design system, we draw attention to our characters by highlighting moments using framing devices and clean, bold typography to bring statement-making energy to their personalities. 

Credits:

SVP Creative & Production : Jeff Blackman

VP Creative Promos : Veronica Cepero

Sr. Creative Director Promos : Josh Hertz

VP Design : Calvin Chu

Creative Director, Design : Stan Rapoport

Project Manager : Lisa Flamming

Creative Agency : Trollbäck+Company

The Sinner

VP Design : Calvin Chu

Sr. Art Director : Nathalie De La Gorce

Supervising Producer : Gisela Aydin

Creative Agency : Kill 2 Birds

Brand Refresh

Role: Creative Director

With the target audience shifting to younger ages between 3-6, we needed to rethink a better design system that’s more digestible and approachable; we went back to the basics with the shapes that are familiar and simple, then built off of that with playful and energetic animation. These two foundations became the DNA of this brand refresh.

We refined color, typography, shape language, patterns, and animation based on our legacy elements driven by the "Come Play" spirit at the heart of the Universal Kids brand. We present our IPs on the end pages bigger and bolder for better visual engagement with the viewer, which they care about the most. The icon system is expandable and unlimited to create custom illustrations catered to the spots, events, and contents.

Credits:

SVP Creative + Production : Jeff Blackman

VP, Creative Marketing : Veronica Cepero

Producer : Jessica Harring

VP Design : Calvin Chu

Designer : Leona Lee

Project Manager : Lisa Flamming

Design agency: Kill 2 Birds

Come Play Indents:

Bubble gum, Blops & Magic by Aaron Stewart, Bendablerubber

The Battle by Masayoshi Nakamura, Good General

Branding
Role: Design Director / Designer / Animator
Studio: NickMom at Nickelodeon

As a design director, I led the creative and produced necessary design assets to launch the brand new content, NickMom, on Nickelodeon Networks. 
The responsibilities included day-to-day maintenance of the brand look, creating new promos from ideating to coming up with a new design approaches by experimenting and expanding the brand but also keeping the integrity of the baseline core concept of “mother funny” kids/mother culture.

Credits:
Sr. Art Director: Sandy Goijburg
VP Creative : Brian Hoffman
Writer : Kristin Williams 

Photography: D.A. Wagner
Branding: Employee Number 1

Event Branding & Projection
Role: Design Director / Animator
Client: Adidas

The assignment was to create 360 degrees seamless, wraparound animation pieces that projected on semi-circle domes for Adidas’ global event, “60 years of Originality,” party in Shanghai, China. The original dance choreography was shot in Tokyo; then, the footage was edited and composited in New York to the exclusive music tracks produced for this event.

Animation : Kee Koo
Audio : Yuuki Ono
Creative Direction : Yuri Nakatani
Agency : RMM

Stunt package & Promotion

Role: Creative Director, Editor, Designer & Animator

Ahead of the critical midterm elections on November 8, 2022, The Vox Channel broke down the country's issues through its election stunt week, America Examined.

We created a confident campaign that draws from symbolic videos and images to make its point. The hero spot is backed up with a driving marching band-inspired score. The campaign also included unique factoids and quote interstitials.

Credits :

Executive Producer: Joel Hanek

Sr. Operations Supervisor: Ashley Guckert

Sr. Archival Producer: Arsh Harjani

Distribution Manager: Chrissi Michael

Promotional / Main Title Design
Role: Creative Director / Director / Designer

Generated concepts and treatment to launch the promotional campaign and main title sequence for the first transgender model agency reality show. 

Credits:
VP Brand: Nancy Mazzei
Designer / Animator : Natalie To, Laura Lee
Editor : Greg Boas
Project Manager : Heather Bacci
Director / DP : Joseph Labisi 
Production Co : FrameWork

Stunt Package & Promotion

Role: Creative Director

The Vox Channel returned to the ‘80s with its Summer Space Vacation for Space Week programming stunt.

We took inspiration from educational science packages of the ‘80s and early ‘90s. We crafted the package’s “offbeat and awkward” graphics to look like they were created in the pre-After Effects era using Avid machines. Besides the promo, we also returned to the roots of the TV experience by creating a batch of interstitials featuring space trivia, events and factoids, and quotes.

Credits:

Executive Producer: Joel Hanek

Sr. Operations Supervisor: Ashley Guckert

Sr. Archival Producer: Arsh Harjani

Distribution Manager: Chrissi Michael

Video Clearance Producer: Natalie E. Ruiz-Perez, Laura Chiarella, Sierra Enea

Visual & Music by Georgia: Brian Close, Justin Tripp

Marketing campaign

Role: Creative Director, Design, Motion & Live Action shoot

Led the creative and design direction for the 360 launch campaign, including OOH print design, on-air promotional spots, and social and digital media buy.

American Ninja Warrior Junior celebrates the next generation of real kid athletes as more than 140 boys, and girls from across the country face off on head-to-head courses in three age brackets. All-Star Ninja mentors coach each age group until three winners are crowned champions. Marking the series return, Universal Kids’ launch campaign included spots introducing the hosts and contestants, breakdowns of the course obstacles, and a fantasy league app to put viewers in the game. “Put your Playface On!” concept packages American Ninja Warrior Jr.’s biggest super-fans in an exciting new campaign that gets up close and personal.

Credits:

Design Director : Travis Spangler

Animator : Kori Valz

Editor : Jessica Harring, Steven Whyte

VP On-Air Promos : Veronica Cepero

Project Manager : Kari Ickert

SVP Brand : Nancy Mazzei

Marketing Campaign

Role: Creative Director, Design & Motion

Promax/ BDA 2021 SILVER : Total Brand Image Package

Rise and shine, campers! This summer, Universal kids is transforming our air with a creative campaign designed to give you the look and feel of an unforgettable summer camp experience…right from your couch. From interstitials to on-air graphic packaging, every bit of this summer conceit combines the fun and adventure of our characters & brand with the best the summer has to offer. Collaborating closely with the creative studio Block & Tackle, we created a unique collage look with a combination of simple line illustrations and real-life props. The imperfect perfect look intended to feel like my kids made the spots.

Once the toolkits were delivered, the in-house team applied the campaign look across the platforms, including ongoing promo spots, social, digital, and merchandise.

This first summer theme campaign brought 40% increase in viewership from the prior 4-week time slot average among K2-11.

Credits:

SVP Brand : Nancy Mazzei

VP, Creative Marketing : Veronica Cepero

Senior Producer : Jessica Harring

VP Production : Thomas Bayer

Director of Production : Heather Bacci

Production Coordinator : Monica Horn

Directed by BLOCK & TACKLE

Creative Directors: Adam Gault and Ted Kotsaftis

Producer: Megan Anderson

Art Director/Lead Design: Yun Chen

Design: Mike Russo, Alex Winakor

Animation: Adam Gault, Ted Kotsaftis, Damien Bastelica, Gung-Kai Koo, Mike Russo, Alex Winakor

Music score and sound design by : Upright T-Rex Music

Composers : Ross Wariner & Cody Uhler

Marketing Campaign

Role: Creative Director, Brand Design & Animation

A small escape from the real world takes place in the playful and imaginative world of a snow globe. A place our characters can come to life and celebrate the magic of the holiday spirit. This campaign places fun above everything from snowball fights to decorating cookies and hanging ornaments to ugly sweater parades. The snow globe is a timeless and nostalgic object that brings comfort and familiarity. So for the music, the music box feel brings out celebratory, fun, and nostalgia-inducing… something that leaves a warmth in your soul.

Credits:

SVP Brand : Nancy Mazzei

VP, Creative Marketing : Veronica Cepero

Producer : Jared Cohen

Project Manager : Monica Horn

Direction and Animation by Superstudio

Marketing Campaign

Role : Brand Design Director

It’s the biggest marathon of the year with Harry Potter Movies on Universal Kids! The campaign was designed and animated with assets provided by the movie franchise, and lots of stars were sprinkled throughout to bring out the magical moments and excitement.

Credits:

VP Promos : Veronica Cepero

Supervising Producer : Herbert Orellana

Designer / Animator : Leona Lee

SVP Brand : Nancy Mazzei

Marketing campaign
Role: Creative Director, Design & Motion

Led the creative and design direction for the 360 launch campaign, including OOH print design, on-air promotional spots, and social and digital media buy.

The series, Murder for Hire gives an exclusive look into the dark world of contract killings, showcasing some of the most fascinating murder-for-hire cases ever caught on tape. The treatment of the entire campaign consists of overlays of the glitches and pixelation to enhance the rawness of the actual footage from the hidden cameras, also giving the edge ness to capture the urgency and secrecy of the conversations taking place for murder.

Credits:

Creative Studio : Kill 2 Birds

Off Air Design Director : Jaime Slomski
On-Air Design Director : Travis Spangler
Promo Superviser : Andrew Killoy
Editor : Matthew Landin , Justin Peaches
On-Air Promos Creative Director : Yanik Archer
Project Manager : Michelle Palmer
SVP Brand : Nancy Mazzei

Photographer : Edwin Jimenez

DP : Paul Daley

Production Company : Pudding Boy

Open Music : Upright T-Rex

Marketing & Main Title Design
Role: Creative Director

For season 2, instead of traditionally and exclusively promoting spots on air, we focused on blowing up social content on Instagram, FB, Twitter & Snapchat. Ideation was based on Ice-T’s natural talent to bring his bad-boy nature mixed with true crime stories and facts to create more social engagement and conversation. As a result, we had a dramatic increase in likes, views, and shared posts on all Oxygen social platforms, which ultimately drove to linear tune-in. 

Credits / Live action:

Director/Designer : Nathalie De La Gorce 

Cinematography : Joseph Labisi

VP Brand : Nancy Mazzei

Project Manager : Heather Bacci

Production Co : Pudding Boy

Music : You Too Can Woo

Credits / Social :
Designer : Tiffany Pilgrim, Adam Manfredi 
Animator : Nathalie De La Gorce
Supervising Producer : Andrew Killoy
Editor : Matthew Landin

Marketing campaign

Role: Creative Director

Kim Kardashian West works to shine a light on stories of people she believes have paid their debt to society while also bringing awareness to America’s growing problem with mass incarceration.

Credits:

Art Director : Nathalie De La Gorce

Editor : Jason kichline

On-Air Promos Supervisor : Andrew Killoy

Off-Air Design : Jamie Slomski

Project Manager : Heather Bacci

SVP Brand : Nancy Mazzei

Marketing Campaign

Role: Creative Director, Design & Motion

Promax/ BDA 2021 GOLD : Children Program Promo & Total Brand Image Package

Kids are excited to get back to school now more than ever! For months, they have been quarantined, sheltered, and virtually shut down. But a new day awaits! A comeback of epic proportions! Universal Kid presents: School, Return of the Kids!

As with other celebrated tales of glory in which heroes rise to greatness, this year’s comeback deserves to be treated as a heroic legend that will be remembered. The: 60-second brand spot underscores the magnitude of this triumphant return to school with a motivating call to action. A speech to fire up kids to embrace their impending good fortune. Animating this spot in comic book style conveys the superhero qualities and the journey of this inspirational rallying cry.

Credits:

SVP Brand : Nancy Mazzei

VP, Creative Marketing : Veronica Cepero

Senior Producer : Jessica Harring

VP Production : Thomas Bayer

Director of Production : Heather Bacci

Production Coordinator : Monica Horn

Direction and Animation by BLOCK & TACKLE

Marketing Campaign

Role: Brand Design, Creative Director

Led the creative and design direction for the event “12 Days of Serial Killers,” called ‘The Biggest Event in True Crime History.’

The direction was based on injecting the idea of repetition and obsessiveness, applied with distortion and photocopy texture. The type is big and brutal, using special font and a new color scheme to have this package stand out from the rest of the on-air branding look.

This massive stunt was solely produced by the in-house promo and design teams and delivered over 100 design assets + spots during the first months of the pandemic.

Featured in ‘Top 10 Most Watched Hot Spot’ on Promax Daily Brief.

Credits:

On-Air Design Director : Travis Spangler

Designer / Animator : Marina Antonowicz

Promo Superviser : Cara DAndrea

Editor : Alec Belmore

On-Air Promos Creative Director : Yanik Archer

Project Manager : Michelle Palmer, Brad Lombardo

SVP Brand : Nancy Mazzei

Main Title Design & Show Package
Role: Co-Director / Lead designer
Studio: VH1

BDA 2002 Gold Winner (Art Direction & Design: Network Franchise – General Entertainment)

Branding direction for one of VH1's biggest franchise MTR. Designed over 20 posters with original photographs shot in the studio, then printed and practically made walls of movie posters on the downtown street in NYC. Shot on 35mm film.

Credits:
Co Director: Amanda Havey
Director of Photography: Scott Galinsky
Still Photographer: Michael Wong
Design: VH1 On-Air Creative 
Post Producer: Dave Perry
Line producers: Rebecca Ritchie & Rebecca Sher
Editor: Louis Marciano
Flame artist : Inti Martinez
Sound: Scott Pittinsky & Xandy Berry / Compound
Executive Producer: Wendell Wooten
VP Branding: Phil Delbourgo
SVP Creative: Nigel Cox-Hagan

Event Promotion
Role: Design Director
Studio: Tribeca Film Festival

I was commissioned to create a spot promoting Tribeca Film Festival's original App, sponsored by Bombay Saphire. 

Credits:
Animation : Sid Seed
Audio : Georgia

Agency : Overthinking
Creative Direction : Karen Ingram

Promo Teaser

Role: Creative Direction, Design & Effects

We devised a unique way of showcasing the media footage from the 90’s by piling up the actual TVs and then later compositing on onto the screen in post.

Credits:

Art Director : Nathalie De La Gorce

Producer : Cara DAndrea

Special Effect : General Idea

Director of Photography : Joseph Labisi

Image Spot
Role: Lead Art Director / Designer
Studio: The Lifelong Friendship Society

BDA 2012 Silver Winner (Art Direction & Design: Special Events Promo – General Entertainment)

Launch spot for Teennick’s annual event, Halo Awards. It explains the awards in exciting animation with a crafty, handmade feel with unexpected turns in its transitions.

Credits:
Design & Animation: Masayoshi Namamura, Ken Edge, Erica Gorochow

Teennick
Creative Director: Matt Perreault
Art Director: Sandy Goijburg
Editorial Director/Writer: Dixie Laite
Senior Producer: Lisandro Perez‐rey

Main Title Design

Role: Creative Director

What can you do with :05 seconds for the main title? Oxygen teamed up with the design studio Kill 2 Birds to come up with a simple, symbolic sequence using the iconic rose from the show, visualizing how John’s relationships with women have always been nothing but toxic lies.

Credits:

Art Director : Jamie Slomski

Design & Animation : Kill 2 Birds

Music : 5 Alarm Music

Promotion

Role: Live action direction & Creative Direction

Credits:

Animation : Luciano Tapia

Producer : Thomas Bayer

Production Company : Insomnia

Title Sequence
Role: Creative Director / Co-Director / Designer
Studio: The Lifelong Friendship Society

Total package design for VH1's signature annual franchise event, Divas. The production and filming process was featured in Shoot Online.

Credits:
Co-Director : Jason Jones
Production Company : TLFS

Directors of Photography: Florian Stadler
Executive Producer: Dan Sormani
Line Producer: Stacy Bergstein
Post Producer: Bridgette Spalding 
Production Manager: Emily Gleicher
Editor: Brad Turner
Telecine: Company 3 NY
Colorist: Tom Poole
Composer/Mixer/Sound designer: Will Bates
Post/Effects: TLFS
Animators: Kaori Sohma, Jason Jones, Mark Phillips, Valdimir Nazarov, Ron Winter, Jay Kim, Sal Randazzo, Borja Pena

VH1:
VP Creative Director : Amanda Havey
Production Producer : Shannon Horan Murphy
Illustration : Maximilian Wiedemann

Main Title Design

Role: Creative Director

For this main title, we built a set of a crime scene where Paul Hole analyzes the scene as he would in actual cases. We then sequenced shots backward to hint at what may have happened to the scene while we witness Paul observing and solving the case in his mind.

Credits:

Art Director & Editor : Nathalie De La Gorce

Production Company & Direction : Aggressive

Music : Upright T-Rex Music

Main Title Design

Role: Creative Director

BDA 2018 Silver Winner (Main Title Design)

The Disappearance of … is a programming franchise on Oxygen in which each show opens and investigates an old missing person case. Each story unravels a rabbit hole of unexplored leads, eyewitness discrepancies, missing evidence, and questionable actions, with rare access to their family and friends.

Each main title is a sequence of locations around where the person went missing, composited with faces of the missing person to give a sense of searching and “I see still see the face everywhere” after they are long gone—the instrumentation and tone of the music track changes based on the region of the location.

Credits:

Art Director : Nathalie De La Gorce

Animator / Designer : Laura Lee

Music : Co-Pilot

Marketing campaign

Role: Creative Director, Design & Motion

Led the design direction for the promotional spots for air, as well as the main title sequence.

Credits:

Photography Direction : Adam Manfredi

Off-Air CD : Jamie Slomski

Photographer : James Hickey

Promo CD : Yanik Archer

Editor : Definition 6

GFX AD for Main Title: Nathalie De La Gorce

Project Manager : Michelle Palmer

SVP Brand : Nancy Mazzei

Creative Studio : Kill 2 Birds

Main Title Music Score : Upright T-Rex

Documentary Short

Role: Creative Director, Designer & Editor

The Oxygen marketing team partnered with the photographer Kate Parker for the new original series Pretty Strong, a reality show about women who played football. We let Kate drive the day to capture the natural state of the girls having fun on the football field while the video team captured them in a raw, docu-style direction.

Credits:

Promo Supervisor : Gisela Aydin

Videographer : Michael Wong

Seasonal Promotion
Role: Co-Director / Animator
Studio: Anthropologie

Online seasonal spot instructing different ways to wear a scarf. It was shot in stop motion, which we shot frame by frame and then sequenced later in post.

Credits:
Director: Tatiana Arocha

Anthropologie crew:

Art Director: Jamie Allison

Producer: Lina Watanabe

Photogrpher : Ryan Scott

Fashion stylist: Pia Panaligan

Hair & Makeup: Christina Reyna

Launch campaign
Role: Design Director

BDA Gold Winner 2012 (Art Direction & Design : Interstitial / Short Form Campaign)

Credits:
Animator : Ben Hill
3D : Don Pearsell
Teennick AD : Sandy Goijberg

Main Title Design

Role: Director & Creative Director

Credits:

Animation : Laura Lee

Song & Audio : WAX LTD