Claude is the Official Thinking Partner of the Williams F1 Racing team. As part of their new Pattern Of Thought campaign, I helped lead a phenomenal group of companies in Residence (i.e. Acronym and wild) to design, deliver, and manage a weeklong fan experience in London. Visitors could test their skills on an iconic F1 track, and received immediate feedback from Claude about their performance – revealing which of the Williams drivers their driving style resembled most, their own unique Driver Persona, and notes on how to improve.

[Full case study/credits tk]

As a product and as a company, Notion does...a lot. For its 2024 flagship brand awareness campaign, BUCK’s challenge was to help explain the benefits of a tool that aims to be as useful and flexible as paper — while maintaining Notion’s minimalist rigor.

Notion’s iconic illustrations traditionally featured people at work. We saw an opportunity to zoom in, shifting from literal portrayals of tasks to the internal experimentation that drives work today.

Through close collaboration with Notion’s leadership, we delivered:

A new campaign tagline: “Think it. Make it.”

An updated visual system: Introducing vibrant primary colors, intimate profile-style illustrations, and conceptual storytelling vs. depictions of interfaces.

& an animated brand anthem film.

Launched across major OOH placements in SF, NY, London, Paris, Seoul, Tokyo, and Berlin, the campaign received over 460 million impressions worldwide and provided Notion with visual and verbal toolkits they’ve built upon in the years since.

BUCK Credits (Project page here)

Chief Design Officer: Ben Langsfeld
Executive Producer: Kim Stephens
Creative Director: Eric Chang
Producer: Rusty Van Riper
Art Director: Jacob Myrick, Abbie Winters
Head of Strategy: Marla Moore
Lead Strategist: Surabhi Rathi
Strategy: Asia Hunt, Cole Hammack
2D Animation Lead: Vero Gomez
Copywriting: Dave Evans, Brooke Kessler
Design: Codie Chang, Joel Plosz, Grace Park, Jose Flores, Julie Alter, Margaux Saulou, Pierre-Nicolas Riou, Sam Lee, Vicky Chong
2D Animation: Dan Cantelm, Diego Abad, Jamiel Law, Nick Brown, Paola Chen Li, Yinan Liang, Tony Holz, Javier Ibanez
Editor: Peter Brandi
Assistant Editor: Oliver Lin

Microsoft Mesh transforms routine video calls into immersive, shared 3D worlds. During Mesh's early development, Microsoft brought BUCK on board with a fascinating brief: create an environment that inspired more playful social interaction than the usual virtual conference room.

We looked to playground and public park design for inspiration. These are contained sites of unstructured play where participants are encouraged to invent their own games and organizational logic. We're confident we've produced the first virtual environment where you can invent your own sports with throwable fruit and teacups as hoops or goals to dunk them in. If it sounds like we’re describing a dream, that’s because it was — a dream client, dream team, and dream project. We can’t wait for the next one, and to see where Mesh goes in the future.

BUCK Credits (Project Page Here):

Group Creative Director: Michelle Higa Fox, Thomas Schmid

Creative Director: Eric Chang

Executive Producer: Russell Greene, Ryan McGrath

Producer: Marla Anyomi, Nkem Ujuagu

Designer: Chloé Desaulles, Matthew Kam

2D Animator (AE): Johan Eriksson

2D Animator (Cel): Tinghe Yang

3D Supervisor: Bill Dorais

Modeler: Filipe Machado, Frank Lee, Meng Chwen, Joy Tien

3D Animator: Ida Zhu, Katherine Guggenberger

Creative Technology Director: Cameron Browning

Lead Creative Technologist: Charlie Whitney

Creative Technologist: Craig Kohlmeyer, Jeff Wang

Voice interactions represent a new frontier in VR immersion. Imagine a future in which you can talk to NPCs, navigate complex systems, and have virtual worlds respond to your commands in a way that feels natural.

Meta Reality Labs asked BUCK: how can we teach devs to use the Quest platform’s Voice SDK, and get excited about these new features? Our answer: a cozy, open source demo we call Whisperer – available now on Github.

BUCK Credits (Project page here):

Executive Creative Director: Kevin Walker

Group Creative Director: Evan Boehm

Executive Producer: Ryan McGrath

Creative Director: Eric Chang

Producer: Rebecca Park, Pablo Martinez

Production Coordinator: Seth White

Art Director: Zack Williams

Director of Creative Technology: Cameron Browning

CG Lead: Justin Wilcott, Michele Herrera

Lead Creative Technologist: Charlie Whitney

Storyboard: Rodney Lambright

Design: Johana Kroft, Romain Braccini

VFX Supervisor: Paal Rui

Modeling: Anita Kang, Fernando Ruiz, Hernan Ares, Michele Herrera

Look Development: Thomas Robertson

Rigging: Jing Huang

3D Animation: Anael Saint-Jean-Vidal, Eric Wang, Hillary McCarthy, Ida Zhu

Creative Technologist: Anthony Enns, Ryan Nelson

Editor: Cameron Kelly, Dave Conte, TJ Rozsa

Sen is an abstract strategy game I first started working on in 2013. To celebrate its 10-year anniversary (and what I thought at the time were the complete rules, which have since undergone some updates), we made this explainer. The URL and the latest and greatest rules will be reactivated soon!*

Producer: Lisa Muñoz
Animation: Max Strizich, Jordan Bruner
Voice of Hartley: Christopher Gebauer
Music: Ambrose Yu
Design/Direction: Eric Chang

*(Should you have the materials on hand to play, the main addition is that 5’s can move through your and your opponent’s pieces!)

In 2021, The Strangeworks were invited to guide and support student animation director Rosemary Colón-Martinez as she and her fellow filmmakers at DCTV Youth Media assembled their first feature documentary film. A series of autobiographical portraits of life during the global pandemic in one of the hardest-hit cities in the world, Covid Diaries NYC is available to stream on HBO Max.

The Strangeworks Credits:
Animation/Design: Eric Chang, Jordan Bruner, Carolyn Figel
Producer: Lisa Muñoz

Together with an incredible team at Imaginary Forces, I directed the graphics and animation for the news show Axios on HBO. We made sure to honor the existing graphic language and house style of Axios.com, but also recognized the new opportunity the show represented. In the spirit of the news organization, every segment was produced in the space of 5-10 days!

IF Credits:
Executive Creative Director: Peter Frankfurt
Creative Director: Eric Chang
Art Director: Max Strizich
Executive Producer: Jon Hassell
Head of Production: Aleen Kim
Producer: Lisa Muñoz
Design / Animation: Carolyn Figel, Nathan Goodell, Willie Russell, Henry Chang
Associate Producer: Meredith Engstrom

"Axios on HBO" returned for its second season on June 2019. Alongside a team of reckless maniacs at Imaginary Forces who agreed to be glued to the news cycle for six weeks with me, we continued our work of writing, designing, and producing the animated segments and lead-ins throughout the show.

IF Credits:

Executive Creative Director: Peter Frankfurt
Creative Director: Eric Chang
Art Director: Max Strizich
Executive Producer: Jon Hassell
Producer: Lisa Muñoz
Design / Animation: Carolyn Figel, Jordan Bruner, Max Strizich, Henry Chang, Rick Kuan

The Goalkeepers Accelerators initiative was launched in 2017. In 2018, BMGF approached Imaginary Forces to help create a video to succinctly explain its goals and purpose, with only VO narration and no other media available. Using the visual language of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals graphics, we created a vibrant visual metaphor for the international coordination required to tackle global challenges like improving global healthcare access.

Credits:
Written & Directed by: Eric Chang
Executive Producer: Jon Hassell
Produced by: Aleen Kim, Meredith Engstrom
Art Direction: Maxwell Strizich
Animation: Austin Marola, Michael Cafarelli, Nathan Goodell, Rick Kuan, Henry Chang
Editor: Luca Campanale
Sound Mixing: Jeremy Siegel @ Heard City
Narration: Rupa Krishnan

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation asked Imaginary Forces to help with the kickoff video for 2018's K-12 initiative. We integrated live action, 3D, and 2D animation to remind the (mostly adult) audience of the diverse, bright, lively textures and materials that make up a good education. The result is a piece that conveys the scope of the challenge while retaining a tactile, accessible feel.

IF Credits:
Creative Director: Eric Chang
Executive Producer: Jon Hassell
Produced by: Aleen Kim, Meredith Engstrom
Art Direction: Maxwell Strizich
Animation: Maxwell Strizich, Michael Cafarelli, Henry Chang, Austin Marola
Editors: Greg Titian, Rachel Ambelang

In close collaboration with The New York Times, Westley Sarokin and I co-directed a 360 video experience that transported viewers through time to some of the most unforgettable moments in Olympic history. (For a more immersive experience, watch in the NYT VR app for Android and iOS.

The Mill Credits:
Creative Directors: Eric Chang, Westley Sarokin
Executive Producer: Boo Wong
Producer: Veronica Ware, Eric Alba
Production Coordinator: Heather Martini, James Scott
Lead 3D Artist: Wyatt Savarese, Joji Tsuruga
Lead 2D Artist: Lee Towndrow
3D Artists: Weichieh Yu, Timothy Kim, Christine Kim, Jung In Wang, Joseph Pistono, Cole Clark
2D Artists: Ben Kwok, K Khanna, YuChun Chao
Matte Painting: Cedric Menard

In 2016, Syfy approached The Mill+ to create a teaser film for their upcoming show, "Krypton," to screen at the NBCUniversal Upfronts. The series centers on the adventures of Superman's grandfather, a generation before the planet's destruction. I wrote and co-directed a script from the perspective of an elder Kryptonian in mourning – who recalls the cataclysm in reverse in one, uninterrupted take.

Directed w/Ben Smith
Narrated by Lance Henriksen
Previs and camera by Josh Frankel
Ship design by Kurt Kaufman
[Full credits tk]