Sold On South Dakota

South Dakota Department of Tourism

Each year on Presidents’ Day, the South Dakota Department of Tourism seizes the opportunity to promote their monumental attractions like Mount Rushmore. After joining the SD team, I developed the look and feel of the Presidents’ Day campaign. I used halftone dot patterns, sticker-like bubbles, and collage to reference the kitschy sales messages that’ve become associated with Presidents’ Day. Across a variety of media including digital display, out-of-home, video, and email, the “sticker” effects strip away to reveal the natural beauty of a trip to South Dakota.

MMGY Global

Creative Director — Joel Henning
Assoc. Creative Director — Hayley Grieder
Sr. Copywriter — Molly Kuehling
Assoc. Art Director — Nina Williams

Galleria Dallas Activation

Sweepstakes event

In addition to the consumer campaign, I designed all deliverables for a weekend activation at the Galleria Dallas. The mall surrounds an ice skating rink, where we installed a (slightly scaled-down) replica of Mount Rushmore. The event included photo ops, digital and floor decal trivia games, and ambassadors giving out SD swag. Visitors were then encouraged to sign up for a sweepstakes to visit the real Mount Rushmore. That weekend saw a record-breaking number of visitors to the Galleria Dallas (over 85,000)—with a result of 11,461 entries to the Sold On South Dakota Sweepstakes.

To date, this campaign and its activation remain one of my favorite projects. I’m so proud of the concept, all the animation, and my ability to deliver consistency across some truly bizarre formats. How many designers can say they’ve wrapped a Zamboni?? I can only hope that my pals George, Thomas, Teddy, and Abe would approve.