Voilà

Voilà was struggling as the only native Haitian mobile company against major competitors from the UK. The populace had become widely ignored due to serious poverty and political upheaval in this small Caribbean country. Available services were meager at best. Worse, foreign companies had the lion’s share of the market, leveraging their size but leaving little profit in the country itself.

The Haitian people deserved better, especially as there is no communications infrastructure to speak of. They needed ways to speak to each other and to call for help, literally. Voilà made sure that the vast majority of profits were reinvested in-country, hiring hundreds of people to run the business, but they struggled to get the word out.

After voraciously digging into the country’s culture and history, I found that most Haitians felt the world had stopped paying attention to their plight. They didn’t matter. I created a visualization of the cultural symbols and language, and how they flowed through and connected us to each other. A representation that what they said did matter, and that national pride was alive and well.

Define the best way to speak to the community, taking into account the lack of foundational education and reading levels. More illustrative as a result.

End result was a simple, Haitian-centric design, based on conversations with native-born customers and historical research, illustrating that what they had to say really did matter.

The re-branding covered every aspect of the business, from print, signage, and in-store design, to radio and television advertising. I travelled to a small coastal town for a week to direct the initial photoshoot, then back to Port-au-Prince with Wyclef to hard launch the new brand.

Additionally, the production company that created the television spot had to create an entirely new plug-in to pull off my vision. They ended up making more money from licensing that little piece of tech than the campaign.

This was the most important piece of work I have done in my career. Not because we sold mobile phones, but because we were able to stir a downtrodden community to actively engage with each other in a positive way. To rekindle some pride was a blessing to me personally. The joy of a successful campaign is temporary, but the joy of stirring hearts lives forever.

This was a very intense 6-month project wherein we spent most of our time digging into what the brand was and, more importantly, what it could be. We ran the gamut of Cee-Lo Green’s funky soul, to the pounding bass of Eminem and Jay-Z, to EDM and the rock and roll of Tin Machine. And since we were also assisting with Wyclef’s music, it was in the rotation as well.

Role. Art Director (official credit) and primary designer. Drove creative direction across brand strategy, concept and execution.

Team. Three designers, Writing CD, both Principals, several Project Managers, Superfad animation studio.

Output. Audio spots, TV spot, printed materials, in-store graphics, billboards.