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Love In America 2025
Our Love Story to Humanity
№1
Tell us about love. Yes, you.
Love in America 2025 is part of our ongoing practice where we give space to our community and the stories that connect us to one another. This is our purpose and reason for being, to inspire global belonging by creating a living Love Story to Humanity. We’d love for you to join us.
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Nike —
Moving Mountains
Capturing humanity across a global love for sport
Nike —
Moving Mountains
The quiet perseverance of a daily run. The courage to reimagine your future after an injury. The triumph of reaching greatness with no stage, metal, or record in sight.
These are the stories of people who, while not elite athletes, define what it means to love sport. We collaborated with Nike to define a new, original, and own-able storytelling platform called Nike Journal, highlighting the humanity in sport, speaking to the athlete in us all.
The Ask
Nike sought to define a narrative style that elevated their storytelling capabilities, one that wasn’t just a snapshot, but told a full story: honest, human, up lifting.
From start to finish line
We collaborated closely with the Nike team to create a narrative platform from start to finish, starting with brand identity and strategic creative development, to story finding, production, post-production, and delivery.
While our concept included a docuseries, we crafted a nimble system that would support and extend Nike’s storytelling capabilities across scale and markets, including photography, motion design, title and graphic treatments, and written essays. This flexible system also allowed us to translate editorial content into compelling previews for social media, capturing attention and driving traffic to Nike Journal.
The Idea
Connect to the athlete in all of us by embracing the full scope of human experience through the lens — and love — of personal sport.
Play on scale
From a close-up, personal expression to an expansive mountain range, we wanted to capture the full expression of everyday sport, using a 4:3 aspect ratio to Polaroid selfies. This juxtaposition, alongside text and graphic treatments, created an immersive experience that feels unscripted, authentic, and personal.
This focus also helps the audience relate to our subjects; instead of featuring celebrity athletes, we wanted to find the best stories that create a sense of belonging, aspiration, and belief in the human spirit. One that speaks directly to Nike’s mission and ethos.
Big Love
“You have been immense partners from the beginning... and have really helped us shape what we want the athlete pillar to be: excellence in storytelling, giving athletes a voice, and helping consumers see themselves in sport."
Finding humanist stories - wherever they are
Showcasing two disparate environments, histories, and experiences gave us the freedom to explore the scale of sport. But this also required us to be thoughtful and nimble in our approach.
We leveraged our global creator network to find the right directors and photographers to capture these stories, as well as location scouts, translators, and more. From intense production days, to developing editorial content, to moving from partners to friends, our capacity to be hyper responsive, respectful, and collaborative culminated in storytelling at its most beautiful working parts: an exploration of humankind in all its fragile and astonishing dimensions.
“You have been immense partners from the beginning... and have really helped us shape what we want the athlete pillar to be: excellence in storytelling, giving athletes a voice, and helping consumers see themselves in sport."
Finding humanist stories - wherever they are
Showcasing two disparate environments, histories, and experiences gave us the freedom to explore the scale of sport. But this also required us to be thoughtful and nimble in our approach.
We leveraged our global creator network to find the right directors and photographers to capture these stories, as well as location scouts, translators, and more. From intense production days, to developing editorial content, to moving from partners to friends, our capacity to be hyper responsive, respectful, and collaborative culminated in storytelling at its most beautiful working parts: an exploration of humankind in all its fragile and astonishing dimensions.
We crafted every element of these videos, including a toolkit to guide future applications, unlocking Nike’s storytelling capabilities for Nike Journal and beyond. Creating a playbook for the project as a whole ensured that these stories can take flight for years to come, inspiring advocates and athletes alike.
A scalable platform for stories to come
We started by understanding the larger cultural context that facilitates deeper connection and conversation.
We ended with a unique storytelling style and system that can scale over time and space. From long form essays to photography to video, our layered approach gives Nike the depth and breadth to pay tribute to those with stories worth telling — humble, remarkable, real.
By the Numbers
Done
2x Months of Planning
21x Production Days
72x Stories
5 Hour Pre-pro Call
1000x Still & Motion Assets
Delivered
Nike's biggest ever Style Guide by Summer 2018, and the most epic, joyful production filled with sunburns, sweaty hugs, and "mid-day beef." IYKYK.
Our Roles
Narrative Storytelling
- Story Finding
- Creative Development
- Scripting
- Storyboarding
Brand Development & Design
Creative Production
- Production Planning
- Pre-Production & Logistics
- Budget Scenario Modeling
- Art Buying & Usage Negotiations
- Crew Sourcing & Management
- External Vendor Relations
- Location Scouting & Permitting
- Run of Show Execution
- Shoot Production
- Post Workflow Planning
- Video Editing
- Stills Retouching
- Motion Design
- Music Licensing & Composition
- VO & Sound Design & Mix
- Color Grading
Collaborators
Dylan Simel
Nickolaus Sugai
Charlie Villiers
Davis Priestley
Jeremy Fenske
Rodrigo Moyses
Mackenzie Sheppard
Shern Sharma
Megan Ubovich
Danielle Sullivan
Rumi Tominaga
Jordan Kelley
Ivan Kovak
Will Goodan
Eli Durst
Alvaro Del Val
Matt Osborne
Andrew Keoghan
Shiheng Xu
Maria Carretero
Creative Directors
∙ Dylan Simel
∙ Nickolaus Sugai
Campaign Strategist
∙ Charlie Villiers
Executive Creative Producers
∙ Davis Priestley
∙ Jeremy Fenske
Executive Client Director
∙ Rodrigo Moyses
Director - Episode 1: Yukai Shimizu
∙ Mackenzie Sheppard
Director - Episode 2: Carlos Brown
∙ Shern Sharma
Senior Creative Producer
∙ Megan Ubovich
Associate Creative Producer
∙ Danielle Sullivan
Producer - Japan
∙ Rumi Tominaga
Directors of Photography
∙ Jordan Kelley
∙ Ivan Kovak
Photographers
∙ Will Goodan
∙ Eli Durst
Editor
∙ Alvaro Del Val
∙ Matt Osborne
Original Music
∙ Andrew Keoghan
∙ audioforce
Sound Design & Mixing
∙ Shiheng Xu
Color
∙ Maria Carretero
Let’s work
together
Our Love Story is a quarterly newsletter, exploring people, love, and story.