MAI LA THAI
Selected Work
Damsel
Cabaret Supper Club Launch
Role: Creative Director / Brand Consultant
Engagement: Direct-to-client
Media: Brand positioning / Digital / Social / Email
I developed the positioning and launch direction for Damsel, a premium cabaret supper club, creating a clearer way to define the concept and a more cohesive visual identity across launch materials.
My role included visual curation, social concepts, email marketing and reservation-page direction. I established a black-and-white visual system, directed the refinement of key photography and introduced the public-facing descriptor “Cabaret Supper Club” to clarify the venue’s offering.
Selected elements of the direction were adopted across the brand’s launch materials.
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Guinness
Bottle Launch Campaign
Role: Concept / Art Direction / Design
Agency: BBDO New York
Media: Consumer Print / Out-of-Home
For the U.S. launch of Guinness Draught in Bottles, I developed an illustrated campaign inspired by the brand’s historic poster art. The approach gave the new format a distinctive, handcrafted presence while remaining unmistakably Guinness. The launch exceeded Diageo’s initial targets, surpassing 100,000 equivalent cases and accounting for more than 10% of North American Guinness volume within its first nine months.
I created the concepts and layouts, produced pencil drawings and commissioned an illustrator to translate them into final hand-painted artwork. When my research found that no digital Guinness typeface existed, I commissioned a typographer to create a custom font based on the brand’s historic lettering. The typeface was used across billboard and full-page magazine layouts.
For a later print execution, Gerry Graf wrote the long-form headline, and I conceived the idea of typesetting it into the shape of the iconic Guinness pint glass.
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Guinness
The Onion Newspaper Campaign
Role: Concept / Art Direction / Design / Illustration
Agency: BBDO New York
Media: Newspaper / Print
For a media-specific Guinness campaign in The Onion, I developed a six-part series that used the physical newspaper and its individual ad placements as part of the creative idea. Rather than treating each space as a conventional standalone ad, the executions were conceived as a connected set designed around six distinct media buys within a single issue.
The campaign turned the limitations of newspaper advertising into an interactive visual device, encouraging readers to engage with the page itself. The six executions ran together in one issue and the work received a One Show Silver Pencil.
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Red Stripe
“Hooray Beer!” Retail Campaign
Role: Art Director
Agency: BBDO New York
Media: Retail / In-Store / Point-of-Sale
As Red Stripe sought to broaden its U.S. audience beyond its niche-import following, BBDO introduced the irreverent “Hooray Beer!” platform. I developed a retail execution that extended the campaign’s Jamaican Ambassador character and dry, self-aware humor into the in-store environment.
The concept paired the Ambassador with a beachgoer whose suntan formed a matching red stripe across his torso. Photographed on location by Jeff Mermelstein, the effect was created practically using a custom stencil rather than relying on obvious digital manipulation.
The finished image was produced as retail and point-of-sale signage and was later selected by the photographer’s commercial agency for use as a promotional mailer.
Burlington
Union Square Flagship Launch & National Retail Expansion
Role: Creative Director / Art Director
Agency: Cramer-Krasselt
Media: Out-of-Home / Broadcast / Digital / Retail
I led day-to-day concept development and creative execution for Burlington during a major period of national growth, as the company surpassed $4 billion in annual sales and opened its 500th store. My work spanned the launch of its 92,000-square-foot Union Square flagship, seasonal campaigns, broadcast, digital and localized retail communications.
For the Union Square opening, our team developed an extensive New York City subway takeover comprising more than 80 media units across heavily trafficked commuter environments. The campaign adapted the familiar “I ❤️ NY” language into product-driven, hyperlocal retail messages.
Across the broader account, I developed and presented concepts directly to the client, led art direction and contributed select copywriting. The production cycle included more than 20 commercials, digital extensions, regional adaptations, Spanish-language spots and campaign materials supporting Burlington’s expanding national footprint.
As part of my ongoing concept development across the account, I conceived and pitched Mother’s Day and Father’s Day spots that broke from the established commercial format.
Watch selected work in the Broadcast Reel →
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Equal
Product Launch Campaign
Role: Concept / Art Direction
Agency: Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners
Media: National Print / Television
For the launch of a sugar blend formulated for baking, I created a simple visual demonstration: construct the product package from the cake itself.
The idea communicated the product benefit immediately, avoiding a conventional package-and-dessert execution.
Starting from my thumbnail sketch, I directed the comp development and then collaborated with a professional cake designer and food-production team to build the package entirely from edible materials, including fondant and hand-applied brand details.
The concept was produced for national print and television, requiring close art direction across overlapping shoots, food preparation and production schedules.
Watch the :30 commercial →
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eLuxury
Launch Campaign
Role: Art Direction / Copywriting / Design
Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
Client: LVMH
Media: Full-Page Newspaper Advertising
For the launch of LVMH’s eLuxury, one of the earliest major online luxury retailers, I created a typography-led newspaper campaign that turned the limitations of newsprint into part of the creative strategy rather than attempting to reproduce conventional luxury photography.
The campaign used bold typography, high-contrast color and a restrained editorial style to introduce online luxury shopping at the beginning of the e-commerce era.
The “IN/OUT” copy platform used tongue-in-cheek humor to classify basic human necessities such as water, oxygen and shelter as “out,” while declaring eLuxury “in.” The resulting system gave the new brand a confident, irreverent and forward-looking voice that stood apart from conventional luxury advertising.
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Discover Card
Restaurant Merchant Acquisition Campaign
Role: Concept / Art Direction
Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
Media: Trade Print / Consumer Print / Out-of-Home
As part of Discover’s broader effort to expand merchant acceptance, I was assigned to the restaurant category, developing creative aimed at restaurants, cafés and dining establishments. During this period, Discover was adding more than 600,000 new merchant locations annually as it expanded its acceptance network.
The campaign used the card’s distinctive shape as a visual device within food and dining imagery. Executions were photographed practically on a custom restaurant set, with specialized model-making and food styling incorporating Discover Card geometry into cappuccino foam, table settings and cookware.
The work appeared across trade and consumer print and out-of-home placements, including New York City bus shelters during Restaurant Week.
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The International ANDY Awards
Call for Entry Campaign
Role: Art Director / Designer / Typesetter
Engagement: Pro Bono
Media: Trade / Posters / Promotional Mailer
For the International ANDY Awards Call for Entry, I developed a campaign for an advertising audience already fluent in award-show conventions. The idea turned the deliberately generic, staged language of stock photography into the creative device itself.
At the time, stock imagery had a reputation among creatives for feeling predictable and creatively limiting. The campaign played directly against that perception, inserting ANDY trophies into familiar stock-photo scenarios to create an intentionally awkward, self-aware visual language.
My role extended from concept and design through production, including negotiating image usage with Getty Images, directing retouching to integrate the trophies, and designing and typesetting a six-panel promotional mailer. The piece unfolded into an approximately 24 × 27-inch poster containing festival information, deadlines, judging details and entry categories.