1. Make unfamiliar experiences feel safe and intuitive
2. Design for repeat use, not one-time attention
3. Build emotional connection before feature complexity
4. Use technology to support human relationships, not replace them
DESIGN PRINCIPALS
- Creativity as behavior change, not decoration
- Participation over passive viewing
- Humour, Humanity and accessibility as tools for adoption
- Making complex products feel simple and welcoming
IMPACT
- Led creative + brand engagement work for products used by billions of users
- Introduced new consumer technologies to mainstream audiences
- Built multidisciplinary teams across product, marketing, and design
- Won and led multi-million-dollar global brand engagements
“WIT, ADVENTURE, AND CURIOUS OBSESSION`’
“MAKING PRESENCE THE BRAND”
“PREMIUM DRAMA, MADE DISTINCT”
CV
Head of Creative connecting brand, product, and human behavior. Lead creative strategy for consumer and retail brands, shaping campaigns and digital experiences that move people from first-time use to repeat participation.
Partner closely with product, growth, and analytics teams to translate real user needs into clear, motivating creative direction.
Help brands evolve from one-off launches to ongoing, service-led engagement models grounded in trust, belonging, and utility. Introduced AI-assisted workflows to increase speed and quality of iteration while protecting craft.
Won new business by defining brand platforms and engagement strategies (COS, Nike, Aramco, Universal).
“MAKING AI USEFUL TO PEOPLE WHO HAVE REAL WORK TO DO”
The Human Problem
Many AI tools are powerful but hard to adopt. Teams struggle to know where to start, how to trust outputs, and how to fit AI into existing workflows without adding complexity or risk.
The Idea
Treat AI as a guided workbench—not a chatbot.
Make it feel structured, safe, and immediately useful, with clear workflows and proactive suggestions that support decision-making.
The Experience
We designed the Song AI Workbench / Dashboard as an integrated system that supports work across the customer value chain. The UI combined structured navigation with conversational interaction, guiding users through real tasks with recommended next steps and context-aware prompts. The emphasis was on clarity, guardrails, and reducing cognitive load so adoption could scale responsibly.
Behavior Change
Users moved from experimentation to routine usage—shifting AI from a novelty tool to an operational habit. Teams could complete tasks faster, with more confidence, because the system made the “right way to use AI” easy to follow.
Why It Matters
AI adoption is a design problem. When workflows are understandable and trust is designed in—through guidance, transparency, and responsible constraints—AI becomes a practical advantage rather than an abstract capability.
“TURNING FANS INTO RETURNING PARTICIPANTS”
The Human Problem
Entertainment brands have enormous fandom, but engagement is fragmented: parks, games, content, and merchandise often live in separate worlds. Fans love the IP but don’t have a continuous experience.
The Idea
Create a connected fan “passport” that makes participation persistent—so play and progress carry across platforms and real-world moments.
The Experience
We designed a mobile-first loyalty and play ecosystem spanning theme-park moments, mobile and console gameplay, and immersive experiences. The concept centered on identity and continuity—letting fans move between worlds without losing momentum.
Behavior Change
Instead of one-off visits and purchases, the system encouraged ongoing engagement: returning to earn, unlock, and deepen connection with characters and stories.
Why It Matters
Loyalty works best when it feels like play. This concept reframed loyalty as a fan experience—rewarding participation and creating reasons to come back.
“TURNING FANS INTO MEMBERS”
The Human Problem
Big sports moments create intense emotion and identity — but most retail experiences around them stay transactional. Fans want to feel part of the story, not just buy something inspired by it. In a flagship environment, attention is high and time is limited, so experiences need to be instantly understandable and worth sharing.
The Idea
Make the store a participation space — and make membership feel like joining a community, not signing up for a program.
The Experience
At Nike’s Sydney flagship, we created The Dream Arena: an immersive mobile “portal” experience designed to pull fans into the energy of the Women’s World Cup through interactive storytelling, playful discovery, and shareable moments. The experience was built to be friction-light in a busy store setting: quick to launch, clear prompts, and interaction loops that felt rewarding without demanding time or instructions.
Membership pathways were integrated into the experience naturally — as the next step of participation — rather than a separate conversion moment.
Behavior Change
Visitors shifted from browsing to engaging: interacting in-store, capturing and sharing moments, and opting into membership while the emotional peak was still present. The experience made the flagship feel like an event people could join, not just a place to shop.
Why It Matters
The most effective brand experiences don’t interrupt culture — they give people a role inside it. When participation is designed first, membership becomes a byproduct of belonging.
“TURNING A LIVE EVENT INTO A PERSONAL STORY”
The Human Problem
Marathons are emotionally charged, but most spectators experience them passively. Brands have a narrow window to connect in a way that feels authentic, not interruptive.
The Idea
Give fans an active role inside the event—combining discovery, play, and limited-edition value in moments that match the energy on the street.
The Experience
We designed an XR-enabled mobile experience built around distinct “rooms” (trophy, retail, selfie) and live-timed interactions, including membership moments and limited drops. The design prioritized speed, clarity, and delight in a crowded, real-world environment.
Behavior Change
Fans moved from watching to engaging—interacting, sharing, and signing up in the moment, not later.
Why It Matters
The best event marketing doesn’t compete with the event. It gives people a way to participate in it.
Global Creative Lead focused on making new behaviors feel natural at massive scale.
Led creative and experience strategy for consumer AI and immersive features across Meta platforms, translating complex capabilities into clear, approachable value for everyday users.
Partnered with product, growth, and communications teams to shape onboarding, storytelling, and launch programs that increased adoption and repeat engagement.
Built and managed distributed creative teams, and helped brands create participatory experiences that strengthened connection rather than passive attention.
“MAKING RETAIL FEEL LIKE PARTICIPATION”
The Human Problem
Retail spaces can feel impressive but passive. Even when the environment is high-energy, visitors often don’t know what to do beyond browsing—especially when “future of retail” experiences require discovery and confidence to engage.
The Idea
Turn the store into a guided, shareable experience—so participation becomes the default, not an Easter egg.
The Experience
For adidas’ Oxford Street flagship launch, we designed three in-store mobile AR installations that connected to the brand’s biggest narratives: product innovation, sustainability, and gaming culture. We paired the experiences with clear wayfinding, signage, and simple how-to content so visitors could discover, activate, and share quickly using Instagram—without needing staff intervention or prior knowledge.
Behavior Change
Visitors shifted from observing to interacting—activating experiences in the moment and sharing them socially. The store became something people could “do,” not just walk through.
Why It Matters
The future of retail isn’t more screens—it’s lowering the friction to participate. When discovery is designed intentionally, physical spaces turn into living brand moments people carry outward through sharing and repeat visits.
“CREATING A CULTURAL MOMENT OUT OF A LOGO”
The Human Problem
At Cannes, attention is fragmented and everyone is competing for the same limited time and social oxygen. Traditional brand activations often become background noise—seen, but not participated in.
The Idea
Design a lightweight, playful experience that people could “join” instantly—turning a passive brand moment into something personal, shareable, and socially contagious.
The Experience
We created a mobile-first AR experience designed for the Cannes environment—fast to access, obvious to use, and built to spread through social sharing. The experience leveraged a simple visual hook tied to Cannes iconography and audience behavior on-site: quick capture, quick share, and high social payoff. (elizabethvalleau.com)
Behavior Change
Instead of being another branded backdrop, the activation became a participation object—something attendees actively used and shared, helping the experience travel beyond the physical footprint.
Why It Matters
The best activations at crowded moments are not louder—they’re easier to join. This project reinforced a principle I use across product and marketing: reduce friction, increase social comfort, and participation will do the distribution
“MAKING FINE ART FEEL PERSONAL”
The Human Problem
Museums can feel intimidating or passive—especially for visitors who don’t feel like “art people.” Traditional signage explains history, but it doesn’t always help people form an emotional connection in the moment.
The Idea
Use interaction to create personal meaning.
Instead of adding digital spectacle, use AR as a simple layer that invites people to look longer, notice detail, and relate the work to themselves.
The Experience
We partnered with Tate Britain to create a “virtual wing” accessible through Tate’s Instagram presence, using Spark AR experiences across a diverse set of artworks. Visitors could frame themselves within the work, explore narrative cues, and engage through lightweight interactions designed for the museum environment—quick to access, easy to understand, and shareable when appropriate.
Behavior Change
Visitors shifted from viewing to participating—spending longer with artworks and forming personal connections through interaction rather than instruction.
Why It Matters
The best cultural technology doesn’t distract from the art—it deepens the relationship to it. This work showed how simple, human-centered interaction can make institutions feel more welcoming and experiences more memorable.
“COMMUNITY DRIVES CONSISTENCY”
The Human Problem
Fitness motivation is fragile. Without a team, coach, or shared environment, most people abandon routines quickly. During lockdowns this became even more pronounced — exercise lost its social reinforcement.
The Idea
Recreate the feeling of belonging to a team even when you are physically alone.
Instead of tracking workouts, the platform focused on encouragement, accountability, and shared participation. Motivation would come from people, not metrics.
The Experience
We designed a connected training environment where users received guidance from athletes, coaches, and creators, and could follow structured programs together. Workouts were scheduled, communal, and participatory rather than solitary.
The system emphasized:
showing up
shared progress
encouragement
repeat participation
Behavior Change
Users weren’t just consuming fitness content.
They were returning regularly because they felt expected.
The platform reinforced consistency rather than intensity — making participation itself the success metric.
Why It Matters
The project reframed fitness platforms from instruction to motivation. It showed that people don’t maintain habits because of information — they maintain them because of belonging.
This same principle now underpins many successful consumer apps: people come back when they feel part of something.
“DESIGNING VISIBILITY AS AN EXPERIENCE”
The Human Problem
Fashion media often signals who is “seen” and who is overlooked. Even when representation is part of the message, the experience of engaging with it can still feel one-directional—viewing rather than participating.
The Idea
Make representation experiential.
Use interactive storytelling to turn a statement into a felt moment—something audiences can engage with rather than simply read about.
The Experience
Vogue’s “Non Issue” was created by and starred women over 50, and became Vogue’s first AR-powered issue. I supported the AR experience strategy and execution, helping translate editorial intent into an accessible, on-brand interactive layer designed to extend the story beyond the printed page.
Behavior Change
Readers moved from consuming an issue to engaging with it—exploring content through interaction and sharing moments that reinforced the editorial message through participation.
Why It Matters
Representation has more impact when it becomes lived, not just stated. This project demonstrated how interactive design can help media feel inclusive in practice—not only in principle.
“MAKING A NEW BEHAVIOR FEEL SAFE”
The Human Problem
For mainstream users and creators, digital ownership is confusing. Even motivated early adopters can hesitate if the workflow feels technical, risky, or socially unclear (“What is this?” “Will I look foolish?” “Is it safe?”).
The Idea
Reduce friction and uncertainty so sharing feels as natural as posting.
Treat onboarding, clarity, and attribution as core design requirements—not extras.
The Experience
We designed and tested the early Instagram beta for digital collectibles—connecting wallets, selecting items to share, presenting collectibles in-feed with clear context, and automatically attributing creator/collector where appropriate. The work focused on making a complex concept understandable in seconds, and designing UI patterns that fit Instagram’s familiar posting behaviors.
Behavior Change
The feature lowered the barrier for creators and collectors to express identity through ownership. Even in early testing, the core learning was clear: adoption depends on trust signals, simple language, and social clarity—not technical capability.
Why It Matters
The specific feature may evolve, but the design challenge is durable: introducing unfamiliar behaviors to mainstream audiences. This project strengthened my approach to trust-building UX—clear onboarding, thoughtful defaults, and transparent attribution—so new behaviors can scale responsibly.
“TURNING FESTIVAL MYTHOLOGY INTO A SHARED STORY”
The Human Problem
Festivals are built on collective anticipation, but digital extensions often feel like one-off novelties. Fans engage intensely for a moment, then the experience disappears until next year.
The Idea
Use a story fans can participate in—so technology becomes a bridge to community and tradition, not a side quest.
The Experience
We helped translate Coachella’s long-term “Coachellaverse” narrative into a series of Spark AR experiences that introduced fans to the world through a connected storyline. The arc followed iconic art-installation “characters” lost across the globe and returning through space and time to Coachella—reflecting the festival’s return after the pandemic hiatus. We partnered with Coachella to establish the visual language and core assets that creators could build from, enabling a cohesive multi-effect narrative rather than disconnected activations.
Behavior Change
Fans didn’t just view content—they joined a shared narrative, using and sharing effects as a form of participation and identity signaling around the festival’s return.
Why It Matters
When the story is coherent, the tech stops being “a feature” and becomes a ritual. This created a foundation for multi-year engagement where participation can continue beyond the weekend itself.
“MEETING GEN Z WHERE ATTENTION ACTUALLY IS”
The Human Problem
During Ramadan, brands flood traditional media. But for Gen Z, those placements often miss because attention has shifted to social platforms and gaming—especially at night after iftar.
The Idea
Don’t compete in the clutter. Participate in what the audience already cares about.
The Experience
Working with FB Gaming Partnerships and Solutions Engineering, we built a friendly three-day PUBG Mobile tournament with creators across the region. The event ran live each night at 10PM local time, immediately after iftar—designed around real cultural rhythms rather than generic media schedules.
Behavior Change
Instead of forcing attention through ads, Clear earned attention through presence—showing up inside a community moment people were already choosing.
Why It Matters
Modern brand relevance isn’t only about reach. It’s about context and respect: aligning with how people actually spend time, and adding value to the moments that matter to them.
“CO-CREATING CULTURE, NOT JUST DISPLAYING IT”
The Human Problem
Emerging tech art can feel gated—either too technical for local communities or too “art world” for technologists. The result is often parallel scenes that don’t truly collaborate, and experiences that audiences consume passively rather than join.
The Idea
Create a real collaboration between local artists and AR creators—so the work is not an overlay on culture, but a contribution to it.
The Experience
At SXSW, we brought together Austin’s HOPE Gallery mural artists and the Spark AR community in a structured, shared process:
Ideate Together — pairs were match-made to develop concepts that worked both as murals and as interactive AR
Build Together — artists painted while AR creators designed and coded side-by-side, iterating in real time over three days
Enjoy Together — murals were activated through clear QR signage so festival audiences could instantly experience the work through their phones
The final installation remained in Austin as a lasting, augmented gift to the local community.
Behavior Change
The project shifted participation from “viewing” to “making.” Creators learned from each other across disciplines, and the public engaged with the murals as interactive works rather than static backdrops.
Why It Matters
When technology supports human collaboration, it earns cultural relevance. This project showed how to design creative programs that build community, lower barriers to participation, and leave a lasting outcome beyond the event itself.
USING ART TO COMBAT HATE AND DISCRIMINATION IN THE WORLD
Create Against Hate is an initiative sponsored by OpenCreate to establish a movement within the creative industry that aims to eradicate and make a stance against hate, discrimination, and extremism on our platforms.
“DESIGNING FOR EMOTIONAL SAFETY”
The Human Problem
Young people, particularly girls, often disengage from activities and opportunities because of self-consciousness and fear of judgment. Advice and awareness campaigns rarely change behavior when confidence is the real barrier.
The Idea
Instead of telling people to feel confident, design environments where confidence could grow through participation.
The work focused on creating safe, supportive interactions rather than delivering a message.
The Experience
We developed mentorship-driven programs and digital tools that connected participants with supportive communities, guidance, and shared experiences. The design emphasized small, achievable steps, positive reinforcement, and peer encouragement rather than performance or comparison.
Content, workshops, and interactive components were structured to make participation feel safe and voluntary — lowering the emotional risk of showing up.
Behavior Change
Participants didn’t just consume content about self-esteem.
They took part — sharing, contributing, and returning. Engagement increased because the experience reduced fear of judgment and created a sense of belonging.
Why It Matters
Confidence is a prerequisite for participation. When people feel emotionally safe, they try new things, come back, and invite others. The project demonstrated that thoughtful experience design can change behavior not by persuasion, but by reducing hesitation.
As the first ‘brand’ creative lead at Trollback, I was responsible for winning over a team of world-class designers and programmers to the practice of brand and experience. Led huge, award-winning re-branding and identity projects (Broadcast, Mobile and Interactive) for the United Nations (The Global Goals), BBC Worldwide (BBC Earth, BBC First and BBC Brit), The Weather Channel and Al Jazeera.
Presence is everything for BBC Earth. We defined the transformative nature of the programming with the new tag line "Be Here". To further that, it was a given that the design for BBC Earth would revolve around their amazing imagery.
To enhance the feeling of a journey, we created circular transitional devices using layers of the immersive footage to transport us to different places. As for colors, we picked up nuances from natural phenomena and light. Add world class dramatic music by Michael Montes and you're done!
“DESIGNING TRUST UNDER PRESSURE”
The Human Problem
Weather is emotional and high-stakes. People check forecasts when they’re planning, worried, or in a rush—and during severe weather, clarity and credibility matter more than aesthetics. Many weather experiences feel cluttered or sensational, which can reduce trust at the moment people need it most.
The Idea
Make the brand feel like a calm, dependable guide.
Design a system that communicates urgency without panic—prioritizing clarity, hierarchy, and confidence across every touchpoint.
The Experience
We developed a refreshed brand identity and motion system for The Weather Channel across broadcast and digital, focusing on readability, information hierarchy, and a visual language that could flex from everyday forecasts to extreme conditions. The system balanced modern design with functional constraints: it needed to be legible at a distance, adaptable across formats, and consistent across an always-on stream of content. (elizabethvalleau.com)
Behavior Change
The updated system made it easier for viewers to quickly understand what matters, trust what they’re seeing, and act. The brand felt more coherent across contexts, strengthening recognition and confidence over time.
Why It Matters
Trust is designed. When information is complex or urgent, the role of design is to reduce cognitive load and support decisions. This work demonstrates how a strong system can make a service feel reliable in the moments that count.
Worked with peerless design shop to craft and win this mammoth pitch, and then continued to shepherd the project to it's completion with big strategic thinking, messaging and scripting... and the first new tagline in 31 years. Truly a momentous achievement for both the Weather Channel and Trollback, as the utilitarian network was transformed into a vibrant, inspiring and modernized hub.
Founded the first Digital Experience practice inside of the world’s oldest agency, building the business by 50% in the first year and the team from 2 to 26.
Built award-winning connected experiences for P&G, Gillette, NFL, National Parks, Coca-Cola, Volvo.
While this was a ham-fisted effort on Uber's part to tell a pro-woman version of their story, the women that we spoke to were genuine entrepreneurs and pioneers. The work premiered in front of Hilary and Michelle on World Women's Day at the U.N. Worked with the late great Wyatt Neumann to capture.
Canon turned to social influencer Anna Akana, who has over 1.5 million subscribers to her YouTubechannel, for their “Rebel With a Cause” piece around anti-bullying.
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of National Bullying Prevention Month, Akana came together with The Groundlings comedy troupe for a workshop for adolescents who have been victims of bullying. Through the three days, and through the video, they showed the teens how to use humor to take their situation and make it their own material.
"Our strategy for the Rebel With A Cause program was truly to break from the norm of similar campaigns in the past for camera brands. Shooting a campaign of this size entirely on a Canon EOS Rebel T6i DSLR is typically unheard of, and we wanted to showcase the power of the camera alongside the power of our Rebels,” said Rob Altman, Senior Manager, camera marketing, Canon USA.
Worked with a stellar Grey New York team to strategize the experiential and social launch for one of Pantene's most culturally relevant new product lines- Pantene Gold Series.
The National Parks Foundation is an American treasure. But millennials and minorities feel that The National Parks belong to another generation of Americans. To celebrate 100 years of parks we invited a new generation to Find Their Park, and launched "Park Exchange" - a series of futuristic National Park experiences in three of the nation's biggest cities.
Built and led a new connected product design practice. Partnered with engineering teams to design and launch Nike+ - the first and most iconic health tracking application in the era of smart phones. This huge success was followed by the design and launch of the first fitness wearable, Nike FuelBand, and associated softwares. Defined interaction models and onboarding experiences for a first-generation hardware/software ecosystem, changing the way we experience digital forever.
To usher in the next generation of Windows—the most powerful Microsoft operating system yet—we put on the biggest event Times Square has seen to demonstrate everything Windows 8 can do. For three days, we took over Times Square, syncing 39 massive digital signs throughout the area. Reps invited people to try it out for themselves at street-side stations, also synced to the digital signs—games, apps, pics, videos, seamlessly shared with all of Times Square. And every night, spectacular digital murals were created. It all added up to a launch as fun and engaging as Windows 8 itself.
MasterCard Check In to the Ballgame invited people to check in to various Yankee Stadium seats placed throughout New York City. Through Facebook Places, Check in to the Ballgame turned into a game to find the seats. Clues to each location were dropped via social media. Using Facebook, fans checked in to each location for a chance to win tickets to a Yankees game. Winners got the VIP treatment at Yankee Stadium and MasterCard got millions of impressions for their Priceless New York platform. Check In to the Ballgame launched Priceless New York using just the streets of New York, with help from the best seats in the house.
Quarterbacked the social-media driven Mastercard "Priceless Cities" experiences which became blueprints for connected activations. This was some of the first work produced by the experiential offering we started at RGA.
For the NEXT–Show 2024, I sat down with Timmy Ghiurau, Innovation Leader at Volvo Cars. Timmy shares his journey, insights on the future of mobility, and how Bauhaus principles shape his approach to AI and human-centered innovation.
My Keynote and Panel from CES 2024