Carvel Ice Cream
The Original Soft Serve®
90+ years strong.
Tom Carvel was a visionary who made a name for himself with numerous patents, marketing firsts like the invention of BOGO, a character universe and was an early pioneer of the franchise business model. I have had the privilege of being Art Director for Carvel Ice Cream - A household name for many Americans - for over 4 years now. It has been my privilege to work on this fun, playful brand with such a rich history. The work featured here is a big team effort and would not be on my site without the help of Culinary, Marketing, and Social, and Creative Teams, Producers, Editors, Animators, Photographers, Food Stylists, Creative Directors, and Project Managers. I can’t name them all, but if you’re reading this and want your name featured, drop me a line.
NYC ACTIVATION
After 90 years of soft serve, this brand has seen it all. Or at least that’s what we thought until it was time to kick off summer in a way no one has seen before - and what better place to do it than NEW YORK CITY! Passersby were treated to free ice cream from “The World’s Coolest Billboard.” This project required regular hands-on brainstorming with PR partner Lemonlight, and our internal PR, Social, Operations, and Culinary teams over a span of 75 days to bring this dream to life. Team Merch, Fan Freebies, and Promo Items were designed and all hands were on deck at the event to make sure summer was launched smoothly. Video content was captured and edited in real-time and spliced & diced afterwards for various media outlets.
Character Creation
At Carvel, a cake is judged by its character. The brand has many quirky, hilarious characters to choose from. But a new character had not been created since the 80s. I was tasked with developing new names, ingredients, and backstories for a character. Along with a writer, we created 68 characters. We curated this list down to three and created a contest on social media for fans to vote for the next iconic character cake. In walks, Crunchie Munchie Monster; a misunderstood mutant. Crunchy Munchie Monster is now a staple of Halloween at Carvel alongside the classic Jack-O-Lantern cake.
A Whale of a Calendar
Fudgie the Whale® is a household name for Carvel fans. And we couldn’t think of a better way to shine the spotlight on Fudgie than a 12 month calendar! This project was a huge undertaking requiring 12 concepts (one for each month), fun storytelling blurbs each month, calendar layout design, with spot illustrations and fun brand tidbits sprinkled throughout the year. We worked with a professional mascot actor and photographer slash photoshop wizard to bring this project to life. Each scene was brought as close to final in the studio as possible, then edited heavily in photoshop to bring it to life. Final copies were sold on location at the shoppes.
Creative Direction and Propping: Lauren Culbertson
Photography and PSD Wizardry: Kevin Blackwell
Mascot Madness: Asiel Gonzalez
Art Direction: David Bardis
Brands Have Fresh Merch. What About Uniforms?
Carvel desperately needed new uniforms. Uniforms were various different materials, colors, and used outdated logos and artwork. A new system was needed. There was also a disconnect between what franchise owners saw as a good uniform VS their mostly teenage staff, which were known to leave their uniforms at work rather than wear them home due to embarrassment. The solution: create uniforms so good, everyone will want one.
The details on some of these designs caused. My background in screen printing as a hobby helped navigate quality control and eventually lead to our printing partner upgrading their screenprinting equipment by150k - a win for all brands within the GOTO Foods system. The first batch of Carvel uniforms sold out in the system immediately and orders were placed for 50k more units of stock.
POP: Point of Purchase
Each campaign features a primary video for the digital menu board & various advertising outlets. The Video, Menu, and In-Shoppe print materials are always designed to be ‘matching luggage’ as seen here with the Window Cling, Menuboard, and Video/DMB for Brookie LTO.
Window Clings
As a brand with a small budget, Window Clings play a large role in customer foot traffic. Each quarter, products are highlighted, including Limited Time Offers, Seasonal Cakes, and Evergreen Items. Over the years, I’ve created many window clings with various styles and themes. Here are a few of my favorites:
Cake Box Redesign
Carvel’s iconic cakes are not only a party staple. They also end up in the hands of celebrities often (as seen on Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Kelly Ripa, and The Boys.) The brand had not updated their cake boxes in 10 years, despite the cultural spotlight, so it was well overdue. The new box is clean, retro, and iconic. The design had to be created with multiple sizes in mind and stacks up great in a freezer near you!
App Launch
Carvel is very late to the App game - but change can be hard for a 90 year old brand. I took on the challenge of figuring out how to communicate the new app to customers. The approach was to create a distinct look for all App promo/communications. Here are a few of those as well as a wonderful splash screen/logo animation the customers see when they open the app. Tap It. Top It. Love It.
Animation: Adam Rust
Product Photography
One aspect of this brand that I’ve truly enjoyed has been learning how to adequately capture the product. Hats off to the food stylists first and foremost, and the photographers obviously - but understanding the necessary angle, lighting, props, flavor cues, colors, and arrangement to capture the best of the product while on-trend is the key to art direction on set.
E-Blasts
As a small franchise brand that does not have a loyalty program (yet), emails are incredibly important for driving sales. I’ve designed hundreds of these emails as needed for various occasions. I was given the opportunity to update emails with a new look and feel I designed to refresh the branding and create space for more impactful product imagery.
Various Videos
Over the years, I’ve created many videos for Carvel. Each video has a range of processes to bring it to life. I have had my hands in concepting, storyboarding, propping and set design, shot lists and product lists, art direction on set and in post including VO and Music to bring the final product to life. Carvel videos feature a range of production styles from full video sets with production companies, photo/video studios, and lower lift animation using clipped imagery, color, and typography motion.