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HASSANAYN RAUF: CREATIVE DIRECTOR

  • email: hass@9amtilidone.com
  • phone: 415 810 9679
  • agency: AKQA
  • location: New York

I'm a multi-disciplinary Creative with 10+ years industry experience. An astute strategic thinker + collaborator with a rigorous approach to concept development and a passionate advocate for creative excellence with a persistent work ethic. An assured and affable presence amongst colleagues and clients and an accomplished Art Director (+ design background) and resonant storyteller in film & digital. I'm an enthusiastic contributor to an inspiring and convivial studio environment.

  • 2017 _ 2020
  • AKQA SF + NY
  • CREATIVE DIRECTOR

  • OAKLEY
  • AUDI
  • ACTIVISION
  • MONTBLANC
  • IBM
  • OCULUS

Before starting my Stateside adventure, a brief stint on Montblanc in Berlin was followed by some time in Paris, where we pitched and won Oakley. There, my passion for music and communication unified in the most unexpected of ways: A script that became a song that became a film. A script, might I add, that changed not one word from pitch to release. That must be some kind of record in our industry, right? The proof is in the rip-o-matic, as they still don’t say.

My time in San Francisco was fruitful and frustrating in equal parts. According to our ECD, I quickly made the biggest impact on agency culture he’d ever experienced and not un-related to the galvanising effect of my energetic + inclusive leadership style, spirits were high amongst an impassioned and talented creative team. We helped launch Destiny 2 ‘Ghost’ and there were wins for Blizzard, Oculus and Chick-Fil-A, but big ideas for Audi and Activision fell right at the finish line.

We produced some of our best work in pitches for Netflix, Dolby and some of our worst for PayPal. We were introduced to the murky swamp of inter-agency politics in a colossal pitch for Ford, which gave us plenty to talk about over a pint. Overall though, San Francisco wasn’t for me. I craved the vitality and abundance of a BIG city and relocated to New York in September of 2019.

  • 2013 _ 2017
  • AKQA LDN
  • SENIOR CREATIVE

  • NIKE
  • BARCLAYCARD
  • LEVIS
  • M&S
  • CHANEL
  • COUTTS

My interview with AQKA lasted 15 minutes and I was offered a role the next morning (it is unclear as to why). Sure enough, surrounded by some of the best visual craft in the industry, I soon found myself somewhat lacking in the design department. But what I lacked in Adobe Creative Suite, I more than made up for in Keynote.

It wasn’t long before I was indulged with the opportunity I had so coveted – a conceptual brief! Suddenly my Creative Writing degree became useful, as I swapped visuals for words and dove headfirst into the inspiring, complex, sometimes bewildering world of Nike. It was a world I revelled in.

Sport is an innately human activity that requires a profoundly authentic POV, so the challenge was in continuing to produce unique & game-changing creative whilst never deviating from the core message. Just Doing It. After 4 years producing Award winning work for Football, Running and Sportswear from Madrid to Moscow and everywhere in between (I believe I was the first creative to use a GIF on a Nike Twitter channel), it was time to flex my conceptual muscles elsewhere. I partnered with Matt Longstaff on campaigns for Barclaycard & Coutts and we quickly formed a strong creative bond.

  • 2012 _ 2013
  • FREELANCE
  • ART DIRECTOR

  • STELLA
  • MENTOS
  • COCA COLA
  • IKEA
  • THREE & MORE

My portfolio immediately drew interest and freelance bookings were frequent and lucrative, but when a two-month spell at Unit 9 as an Associate Interactive Director under Anrik Bregman, was followed by a slew of digital design roles, I felt like advertising was putting me in a box that didn’t fit.

By all counts I was good at design, but I knew my strength lay in concept creative - I just needed to get my foot in the door somewhere to prove it. It was time to go permanent.

  • 2008 _ 2012
  • MUSTARD UP
  • CREATIVE PARTNER

  • VIRGIN MEDIA
  • BBC
  • THOMSON REUTERS
  • EMI
  • HEDGEHOGS & MORE

Mustard Up was an independent branding, design and content agency based in South East London; the result of a burgeoning collaboration between myself and long-time friend and life coach Tom Price.

Our shared desire to create unique interactive experiences in digital, inspired by the tactility of vintage, analogue paraphernalia was fuelled by fear of the impending alternative - dreary data entry and declining self-morale. We learnt on the job, turning errors into avenues. We ideated, designed, built, directed, produced, managed and accounted. It was an unconventional education, but with it we built a unique portfolio of work.

As we took on more corporate business to cover the increasing expenses, owning our own studio quickly lost its appeal. There were no more tennis sessions in the morning or museum visits at lunch and soon there was no more Mustard Up.
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BARCLAYCARD: MUSIC SHOWDOWN

  • Agency: AKQA
  • Art: Hass Rauf
  • Copy: Matt longstaff & Harjeet Mander
  • Design: Joao Olivera
  • Build: Will Hancock
  • Production: Bliink

  • 2017 Campaign Creative Tech Awards: Judges Choice (PLATINUM) & Integrated Campaign (GOLD)
  • 2017 Lovie Awards: Social Media Campaign (SILVER)
  • 2017 Uk Sponsorship Awards: Naming and Title Rights (WINNER)

Every year Hyde park is taken over by the British Summer Time festival for 2 weeks of energizing live music. Their official partner, Barclaycard, had also turned 50 and was in the mood to celebrate. Put these two things together and we had the perfect excuse to create a musical party piece; not just for UK’s most loved credit card, but for every music-lover in Britain.
And so The Great British Music Showdown was born. We started by designing a group of 24 digital dancers that represented the UK’s 12 biggest music genres from the past 50 years.
We also created a themed background to represent each genre > each featuring a unique, contextual copy template for user personalisation. For the finishing touch, we composed 12 different versions of the same melody for the characters to dance to.
Then, to find out which genres we hold closest to our hearts, we partnered with Buzzfeed to design a quiz that would reveal the nation’s musical makeup.
The quiz transformed everyone’s results into their own, personal music DNA…which we used to form a unique dancer, made with parts from our original set. These mix-ups celebrated the UK’s varied taste in the form of personal, sharable animations.
On launch day, partygoers at British Summer Time could discover their musical DNA using touchscreens installed at the event and get their dancers immortalised on a piece of essential festival-ware. Online, the mix-ups invaded social networks, encouraged by Buzzfeed. The campaign spread across news sites, bringing in wave after wave of Brits eager to make a one of their own.
Then, we launched a digital version of the Hyde Park festival for all the mix-ups to party at. 1000's of mixed-up dancing genres on a fully navigatable isometric map with filter functionality and an eclectic soundtrack to boot.
The Buzzfeed quiz proved a huge hit, with the average dwell time beating standard Buzzfeed activity 5 times over. More than half a million people completed the quiz, with almost 100,000 sharing their dancer to the virtual festival.
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OAKLEY: IT's OK

  • Agency: AKQA
  • Executive Creative Director: Peter Lund
  • Creative Director: Nikolai Smith, Hass Rauf & Matt Longstaff
  • Art: Joshua Ogden
  • Copy: Harriet McGregor & Barne Heimbucher
  • Producer: Quentin Bernard
  • Director: Martin Lawrence
  • Vocals: Krystle Warren
  • Composition: Gregory Caron & Hannes de Maeyer
  • Production: Wanda

  • 2019 Cannes Lions: Film Craft: Use of Original Music (SILVER) & Cinematography (SHORTLISTED), Entertainment for Sports: Branded Content (SHORTLISTED), Entertainment for Music: Use of Original Composition (SHORTLISTED)
  • 2019 D&AD Awards: Cinematography (YELLOW) Original Composition (GRAPHITE) & Direction (SHORTLISTED)
  • 2018 Ciclope International Festival of Craft: Original Music (GOLD) & Cinematography (SILVER)
  • 2018 Eurobest Awards: Cinematography (GOLD)
  • 2018 Epica Awards: Best Use of Music (BRONZE)
  • 2018 Cristal Festival: Photography (BRONZE)

Whether you are a professional or everyday athlete, Oakley understand that the road to success is long, hard-won and riddled with sacrifice. The committed put everything else to the wayside in the name of their sport – and vindicating this obsession is at the core of Oakley’s DNA.
But Oakley had a problem. Obsession is their word. It describes their commitment to innovation and devotion to their athletes like no other word could. But their tagline 'One Obsession' wasn't resonating with their audience. They wanted to know why...
Obsession is a divisive word. It's the driving force behind all the successful athletes of our time, but to those of us who aren't 'obsessed' it's a source of ridicule, something we actively avoid. 'You don't want to be like them, they're obsessed.' In order to spread Oakley's message, we needed a new approach. We needed to normalise obsession.
We started by releasing a series of short, tongue in cheek vignettes that showed how an athletes obsession can affect their personal lives.
Then, the showpiece of the campaign, an epic 'Ode to Obsession'. A rousing 2-minute film with an original soundtrack that eulogised the sacrifices made by athletes everyday, telling them whatever they do, it's ok in the name of obsession. The song was first written as a form of rhythmical poetry, given to Jazz singer Krystle Warren to interpret melodically and finally Gregory Caron & Hannes de Maeyer added the unforgettable score. A truly unique variation on the manifesto film format.
We supported the films with placements online and in print that reminded everyday athletes it was ok to lose face, show some skin or sneak out early. 'It's Ok' was and excuse to work harder or a reason to chill out, a self-propagating validation for the obsessed everywhere.
The lyrics written for the original soundtrack resonated so highly with audiences, Oakley later released the song on Spotify.
It’s OK had over 55.3 billion Impressions during the Olympic period driving a 21% increase in traffic to oakley.com naming the campaign Google Best In Class of 2018.
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NIKE RUNNING: PARADISE 92

  • Agency: AKQA
  • Creative Director: Toby Burnett
  • Art: Hass Rauf
  • Copy: Alvin Helmandi
  • Photography: RJ Shaughnessy
  • Build: The Village

Moscow is a cold unforgiving city. But for the 92 days that make up summer, a transformation takes place. Small pockets of outstanding beauty spring up across the capital - that most Moskovites are oblivious to. Rather than creating a campaign to get people to just run, we created a campaign to get them to discover these 92 hidden destinations. More than a running app, we became a travel agency.
In partnership with The Village, Moscow’s premiere website for culture, we created the Paradise 92 game – challenging runners to visit as many of the 92 destinations they could - from sun rise on June the 1st to sun set on the last day of August.
Each destination was heroed by an influencer athlete whose run was captured at sunrise/sunset and showcased online with it's geographical profile and informative, but inspiring commentry.
A simple installation was created at each destination - so runners could prove they had visited with a foot selfie shared on Instagram and Nike+.
The 92nd and final destination was the finish line of We Run Moscow 2014, where thousands discovered Moscows more famous locations.
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NIKE FOOTBALL: ICE KINGS

  • Agency: AKQA
  • Creative Director: Toby Burnet
  • Illustration: Pedro Villas Boas
  • Copy: Alvin Helmandi
  • Art: Hass Rauf
  • Neon: Rizon Parein
  • Director: Nicolas Davanel
  • Production: Iconoclast

Professional football teams in Russia take a break over winter, and travel to a warm destination to train for three months because the weather gets so bad. But some hardcore kids play through this extreme weather, in the back streets of Moscow. They are the Ice Kings.
We created a campaign to reward those kids, by holding tournaments to find the ultimate Ice Kings. Those winners were given the keys to unlock their heroes stadium for one night - Spartak Moscow.
We recruited for the tournament with this image in social. The event was over subscribed within 48 hours of one post.
We created tutorials and guides to playing in the snow and shared them on the Nike football app and we held weeks of knock out tournaments throughout Moscow.
The winning teams got sent a digital key to their phone, which opened up Spartak Moscow's stadium when scanned at the door. The kids had the whole place to themselves.
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NIKE FOOTBALL: KOROBKA REBELS

  • Agency: AKQA
  • Creative Director: Toby Burnett
  • Art: Will Battersby & Hass Rauf
  • Copy: Matt Bennett
  • Illustration: Pedro Villas Boas

  • 2015 Design Week Awards: Brand Campaign (WINNER)

Petro dollars have funded the new face of Russian Football. But at a cost. A lack of opportunity and a feeling of distrust has set in amongst the next generation of young players. So we sparked a revolution across the korobka (cage) football pitches, to shine a light on fast and fearless football and inspire belief that anyone can rise to the top if they risked everything.
We kick started this movement by inspiring over a million and a half viewers with the story of Kirill Laptev. The Nike Chance winner who also came from the Korobka, and put everything on line to make it pro.
Russian rapper L'One created the rebel soundtrack of the korobka movement, shared it on itunes to over a million listeners.
We recruited on over 1000 Korobkas. 3000 players signed up across the 10 districts of Moscow.
Finals were held at the Nike Football Korobka where the energy exploded. 1 million visitors passed through the gates. 20 epic days of phenomenal football.
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NIKE RUNNING: 212 VS 216

  • Agency: AKQA
  • Creative Director: Toby Burnett
  • Art: Hass Rauf
  • Copy: Alvin Helmandi
  • Photography: Barbaros Kayan

Istanbul is a city of intense rivalry, of 2 halves separated by an iconic strait. We wanted to fuel that rivalry in the build up to We Run Istanbul, inspiring runners to push themselves further by representing their side. Who will you run for? East or West? 212 or 216?
First up, we inspired runners each side of the river with manifestos that spoke to the difference in lifestyles East & West of the Bosphorus. The East is smooth & sunny; the West is fast & furious.
We created a mirror concept for all our campaign comms. Runners in the East were shot in profile running from right to left. Those in the West were shot in profile running from left to right. The graphics were designed to match so that, eventhough the artworks would rarely be seen together, each side of the river became a visual representation of a city divided.
Runners were able to rack up miles for their team by signing up to the nike.com Fuel It platform and were encouraged to wear their teams colours as a sign of alliegance whilst running the other side of the bridge. The Bosphorus Bridge became the focal point of the campaign inspiring the lock up and marking the finish line of the final showdown.
We scoured the city looking for locations that would work as mirrors of East & West to rally our competitors as the conclusive event approached. We ramped up the energy in the copy, but remained true to the conflicting characteristics of each side.
It all ended in the the dying days of Summer as East & West lined up together for We Run Istanbul. After a bitter fight, 216 consolidated their Fuel It lead and were crowned Kings of the Bosphorus.
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NIKE FOOTBALL: NEW TURF ORDER

  • Agency: AKQA
  • Art: Hass Rauf
  • Copy: Joe Fox
  • Design: Samuel Mensah
  • GFX: Andy Briscoe
  • Production: New Kid

The Nike Turf League is a small-sided football tournament run yearly in partnership with the Turkish FA. But this year, we wanted to create a campaign that resonated with all street footballers, not just the 50,000 or so participants.
2015: Pro football in Turkey had reached an all time low. The stadiums were empty, the football was flat, the players weren't coming through. So, we remixed Turkish football, taking the best elements of the pro league and giving them to where football was still being played with passion > the turf.
The deafening noise, the blinding flares, the epic skills, the freshest product. We launched recruitment on the Nike Football App with 3 remix films that heroed local Nike talent by putting them alongside Turkish Captain and talisman Arda Turan.
All together they were viewed over 1 million times on Nike Football's Facebook feed and a record 43k FOTs signed up for the 2015 tournament.
We created epic lenticular remix graphics and posted them all around turf pitches across the country to inspire the would be finalists. The message was simple > Same game, different turf.
Then, we rewarded the most active teams on the Nike Football App by remixing their game with professional ringers and the freshest Nike training product.
There were 4k downloads of NFA with a 65% increase in activity plus 800K visits to nike.com during the campaign.
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NIKE: PLAY RUSSIAN

  • Agency: AKQA
  • Creative Director: Toby Burnett
  • Art: Hass Rauf
  • Copy: Alvin Helmandi
  • Edit: Sam Rushworth

When the world shivers, Russia plays. To launch Nike’s first ever Winter campaign for the Russian market, we inspired everyday Russian athletes to get out there and show us what they're made of.
(That was the TVC produced by Weiden+Kennedy and directed by Mark Zibert)

With #PLAYRUSSIAN we created Nike's first ever 100% user generated film, dropped tactically on the opening day of the Sochi Winter Olympics 2014. This film celebrated the epic below zero activity of Russians during the Winter months.
Our campaign was supported by a huge social recruitment drive, online hub (by Stink Digital) and cross-category events. Users were given a sub zero rating for personal videos shared to the hub and the best clips were used in the UGC film and seen by millions during the live Sochi broadcast.
We created a series of inspirational Winter assets for Nike to share on their social channels, posters for the #PLAYRUSSIAN events plus postcards & stickers for influencer promotional packs.
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COUTTS: LOSE IT FOR GOOD

  • Agency: AKQA
  • Art: Hass Rauf
  • Copy: Matt Longstaff
  • Director: Pip
  • Production: Agile Films

To celebrate Coutts innovative online banking solution we created a 'montage of lost' to remind us all how frustrating the search for our card reader can be.
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STELLA: BLACK DIAMOND

  • Production: UNIT9
  • Interactive Director: Anrick
  • Assistant Interactive Director: Hass Rauf
  • Lead Designer: Jarrod Castaing
  • Agency: Mother

Mother London have long positioned the Stella Artois brand with the cool side of classic French cinema. For the Black Diamond campaign they wanted to bring on-board immersive theatre innovators Punchdrunk, to work with Anrick and their own creatives in order to combine an immersive mix of real-life cinematic theatre and online interactive storytelling.
The story starts when a man spontaneously proposes to his lover, but a street thief snatches the diamond ring. The man curses; ‘Who ever has it, will never be able to keep it’. And so the legend begins. 2 lovers. 1 diamond. A thief. A curse. A classic film noir movie coming straight from late night Paris in the 1960s. And you. You are the spectator, but also the actor. Only you will discover the secrets of The Black Diamond.
The online experience needed to achieve two very distinct objectives for two very different audiences. For those who attended the live event and had a vested interest, the site needed to continue the experience and help fill in the blanks. For those who missed the event, the site had to be an all in one experience. There was also a functional side to the project, a way to distribute the roughly 1000 free tickets for the live event.
UNIT9 director Anrick created the interactive online film to offer the users their own perspective on the Black Diamond story. Orchestrated around the key locations in East London, the Black Diamond follows the diamond as it passes from person to person and is eventually reunited with its rightful owner.
An open ended story set in Paris in the swinging sixties, told through cinematic black and white imagery, a series of interconnected characters and a rich and immersive stereoscopic soundtrack.
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MENTOS: UP2U

  • Production: UNIT9
  • Interactive Director: Anrick
  • Assistant Interactive Director: Hass Rauf
  • Lead Designer: Jarrod Castaing
  • Production: Holster

UP2U is a two-layered chewing gum pack from Mentos – the first slab gum to ever give two choices of flavours in the same pack. With 4 combo packs & 8 unique flavours to showcase, the Martin Agency approached us to create a browser based experience targeting a largely teenage male audience.
UP2U is a browser-based experience consisting of eight very different, and subtly synchronised films. Viewers can choose to switch between the different films, as if switching between different realities. Zombies or Gameshow?
The unique interface allows users to seamlessly slide between two scenarios and choose which ‘flavour’ film to watch. As they do so, the viewer starts to notice that some events happen the same way in both of the stories they are watching.
The films are synchronised and connected. Run from zombies or take part in a crazy Japanese game-show, become a hip-hop star or an astronaut in the future. Have you ever wanted to be in two places at once? The choice is UP2U. Hip Hop or Astronaut? (Featuring Naughty By Nature)
Superhero or Supermodel? The eight films were written and directed by Anrick and his teams from UNIT9 and live action partner Holster in London. Each film had it’s own actors, set design, and a bespoke score composed for the project.
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NIKE FOOTBALL: ELASTICO SUPERFLY

  • Agency: AKQA
  • Art: Hass Rauf
  • Copy: Adrian Stannard
  • Edit: Sam Rushworth
  • Director: Chris Read
  • Production: Pundersons Gardens

Nike Western Europe wanted to accompany the release of the Elastico Superfly with a series of skill tutorials starring Eden Hazard. We produced them with a twist > shot in an underground car park, Hazard struts his stuff in a cage game, throwing defenders this way and that, expressing himself to a Diplo soundtrack.
We showcassed some of his favourite in play tricks > Elastico, Hocus Pocus, Roulette Nutmeg...
...and cut them together with the usual Nike pace and flair, using rewinds, slo mos & super cuts to great effect.
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SCOFFLAW: THE BONNEVILLE

  • Production: Mustard Up
  • Creative Partner: Hass Rauf
  • Technical Partner: Tom Price
  • Photography: Phil Wright

Branding, photography, concept design and illustration for beautifully quirky East London gastro pub The Bonneville Tavern.
The sign is both classic and original > the emblem was cut & burnt into reclaimed oak.
I created a set of neo-gothic flower illlustrations to accompany the main emblem > for use on menus, drip matts, towels etc...and throughout the website. below are some of the creative explorations...
...and art directed a photoshoot that brought to life, on camera, the inspired vision of The Bonneville's owner and desinger Ruairi Gilles.
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SEVEN EIGHTHS: THE HUNTER-S

  • Production: Mustard Up
  • Creative Partner: Hass Rauf
  • Technical Partner: Tom Price
  • Illustration: Reiss Simmonds

Branding, photography, concept design and illustration for popular East London gastro pub The Hunter-S.
Back when parallax scrolling was all anyone ever did, we used it to combine 3 graphic elements of The Hunter-S brand; Photography, Illustration and authentic graphic design. The illustrations told the story of the establishment, from their commitment to freshly sourced food to their love of stainless copper ceilings and taxidermy.
We actually did the pub sign too with our Ralph Steadman influenced illustrations packing a much bigger punch in print, but I don't have a picture so you'll have to take my word for it and make do with this >
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QUEENS ENGLISH: NEW BALANCE

  • Production: Mustard Up
  • Creative Partner: Hass Rauf
  • Technical Partner: Tom Price
  • Director of Photography: Phil Wright

Yes, I was once proud member of Uk Hip Hop collective Queens English. Amongst designing all the branding, artwork and merchandise I collaborated with some industry friends to make this promo for the release of 'New Balance' > shot up in the hills near Valencia, Spain and debuted at our Spanish themed single launch.
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AUDI: COMING SOON

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IBM CLOUD: COMING SOON

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MONTBLANC: COMING SOON