Hua Liu

In order to reposition Cavender's as a lifestyle brand, we knew celebrating real people, places, stories, and traditions was the only way we were going to do it. My team and I travelled across the southern United States and had hundreds of conversations with real folks. We curated the content and released it organically.

The campaign won a Gold and Silver ADDY in 2018 for Photography and Integrated Campaign.

Roles: Creative Direction, Production, Photography, Cinematography

In 2012, a group of developers approached Tilted Chair with an intent to open a dine-in movie theater. In six months, we branded, launched, and promoted an upscale moviegoing experience capable of challenging Alamo Drafthouse.

I led the design of a modern and scalable brand architecture, as well as a website complete with a custom e-commerce check out experience that was truly spectrum-defining.

Over 6+ years, I’ve helped craft nearly every piece of the brand experience including collateral design, organic and paid social content, pre-show videos , food photography, and more.

The website won a Silver ADDY for Interactive Design in 2012.

Roles: Creative Direction, Branding, UI/UX, Collateral Design, Photography, Cinematography

Sometimes all people need is a push to strive for something better—to turn their potential into reality. How do we challenge and inspire students to achieve more than they’d ever dreamed possible?

After listening to stories from Vista’s driven students and inspiring faculty, we landed on the big idea: We See Greatness. This simple, validating, and inspiring idea formed the backbone of a campaign that launched on billboards and TVs across five different markets.

My team wrote, cast, filmed, and edited 2 brand tv spots, as well as photographed real students in El Paso and College Station over 3 months.

Roles: Creative Direction, Production, Cinematography

With new ownership and a strategy for expansion beyond Austin, local restaurant chain Austin Java needed refresh the 23-year-old brand. I sought to explore and preserve the personality that Austinites have come to cherish about the brand, while making it modern, consistent, and scalable.

This rebrand was featured in UnderConsideration’s Brand New.

Roles: Branding, Collateral Design, UI/UX, Photography

Every August, Torchy's Tacos drops 4 special spicy tacos that aren't on the menu. We dared folks to come and try them.

From out-of-the-box press kits to in-store experiences, we created an integrated campaign that was true to Torchy’s brand personality.

Roles: Creative Direction, Production, Cinematography

Given the insight that most people who buy hosting, consist of a class of want-repeneurs, we created just that: an Uncle Carl character who is constantly inventing things and trying to sell them on the World Wide Web.

Roles: Creative Direction, Production

Sparefoot wanted to be top-of-mind among millennials looking for storage. We wrote and produced these spots to grab their attention online.

Roles: Creative Direction, Production, Cinematography

We figured the best way to teach the world that amputees don't let their disabilities get in the way of being who they are and doing what they love, is to show them.

Roles: Creative Direction, Production, Cinematography

To get new homeowners and young couples thinking about filters, we produced a series of social ads that let them choose a"filtered"or"unfiltered"ending. 

These iconic delivery vehicle wraps are anything but generic.

Gen Z is a generation of inclusive, tech-savvy, global-thinkers. They were raised on the Internet and can smell big brands and bullshit. They don’t want to be sold to—instead, they crave experiences. Which is exactly what Red Bull asked us to deliver for SXSW 2018. The prompt? Create an event that had meaning, that eschewed the usual adrenaline-fueled flugtag for something smarter, and that left a lasting impression.

We paired 12 students with 6 successful entrepreneur mentors from diverse backgrounds to develop their business plans. Over the course of 3 days, the students had a full schedule of development courses, panels, and guest speakers, and spent time one-on-one with mentors to perfect their pitch. At the end of the third day, they pitched their newly workshopped business plans to a room full of entrepreneurs, VCs, and industry insiders.

My team worked with Red Bull to select the finalists, mentors/panelists, and venue. We also created everything from the programming to collateral, as well as coordinated partnerships and vendors. Highlights include: Custom designed and printed invitation gift packs sent to student winners and keynote speakers. Interactive “Wings” Pin Mural featuring thousands of pins from women and minority artists from Witchsy. Partnership with Industry Print Shop to screen-print custom tees on site. Custom “Specdrum” tables where guests could play music on RedBull cans. Gender-neutral bathrooms sponsored by Lola Tampon. Female DJ Kay Cali. Alcohol sponsored by female owned Durham Distillery.

We wanted to bring a women and minority focus to this event, demographics who historically only share about 4 percent of all venture-capital funds. Even though we couldn’t specifically speak to it, audiences still got the message.

Amazon reached out to us for a 4 week outdoor campaign to augment their digital marketing. We were given a list of products and categories which we made hyper local. We even added some theater ads.

After Southside started selling their briskets in Costco, they needed to show folks how to properly heat and serve it. We made a good old fashioned instructional video.