This year, I was lucky to ACD two campaigns for Nike’s brand partnership with JD Sports: Nike Need It Now. As we set out to concept our seasonal campaigns, the dancer-inspired “Wherever, However,” we wanted to capture some fresh takes inspired by our casted talent. During creative development, we found ourselves struggling to explain our vision and turned to Midjourney for the assist.
So, let’s talk about why A.I. isn’t ruining creativity, it’s inspiring it.
When we decided to recreate a vintage hair salon for Kayla’s shoot, we really wanted to include throwback Black hair posters that captured the essence of the Black hair experience but knew jumping over hurdles like copyrights would’ve taken entirely too long. Instead, we used A.I. to create original works of art, similar to the Black hair posters of the past and they came out FIRE. They were placed in the background of Kayla’s second look and fit seamlessly into the set design.
We also used A.I. to explore concepts we struggled to find out in the wild. When we shot the Mako Girls, we wanted to create this floral-industrial mash up – what is that even? We could only find bits and pieces, pulling and slicing images from across the web into a collage of sorts. While those images helped, we ended up using MidJourney to build out our own inspo that served (and SERRRVVVED) as the basis for our truck shot.
Both campaigns were a success, with Kayla’s shoot showing up in JD Sports’ Times Square Flagship store and the Mako Girls front and center in the Downtown Chicago Flagship.
It just goes to show…don’t be scared to use A.I. Use it to inspire your next big project. You are the creative and you’re still in control.
ACD: Brooke Estell
AD: Jesús Acosta
CD: Liz Khan
Client: Nike x JD Sports
Agency: Conscious Minds Studios
