CASE STUDY 002ART DIRECTION · STORYBOARDS · MOTION · PRINT2026
Mark the Ballot
DidArt DirectionStoryboards + AnimaticsKinetic Type + Social EditsMotion for Toolkit WithCreative DirectorStrategists + CopywritersDesign DirectorMotion Designer/EditorDan Whitehouse, IllustrationDeepsky, AnimationAtHappyLuckyForWashington Office of the Secretary of State
Turning complex civic information into approachable visual stories.
This campaign makes trust in Washington’s election system visible, local, and easy to understand across the state. The world of Mark was built from Happylucky’s first campaign, so as the team’s art director my job was to stretch it: new stories, new poses, and new places we could combine with assets from the first round.
From Script to Screen
Strategists and copywriters wrote the scripts. I storyboarded them and worked out how we could stretch and reuse assets from the initial Mark campaign. From rough sketches to polished boards, I briefed our illustrator, Dan Whitehouse (@5uperfreak), with color, texture, background and object references pulled from classic cartoons, sometimes for the situation, sometimes for the art style. I gave rounds of feedback on his frames while passing finals with motion direction along to our animators at Deepsky.
The Videos
- The Problem
- Election rules can come wrapped in strict, jargon-heavy government language, and mail-in voting can be a divisive topic. The two biggest new spots had to explain it without losing people.
- The Solution
- Take the information somewhere more fantastical. Putting Mark in playful worlds brings levity to an educational character and softens what’s being delivered.
- The Execution
- The disco spot started from the word “secure”: what if Mark were secure in a club’s VIP section, escorted by security? The ride borrows from theme-park story rides and the Courage the Cowardly Dog episode “Human Habitrail,” moving through abstract vignettes that don’t have to spell every idea out.
When finals came back from the animators, the team’s post-production lead built the cut-downs, and we both hopped into the files whenever the Secretary of State’s team asked for a tweak or the rules around mail-in voting shifted mid-campaign.
Social
For our bite-size social cut-downs I did the kinetic type, made frame-by-frame adjustments to the animation and directed new GIFs, so every post felt like a quick check-in from a friend rather than a civics lesson.
Posters, Print + Toolkit
For the November election, Mark is showing up where people already wait around: laundromats, convenience stores, pharmacies and restrooms. The design director and I sketched ideas and our illustrator @5uperfreak drew the finals. Blue Line Media placed the posters. Read their write-up ↗
Then I broke characters, props and backgrounds out of the motion and storyboard illustrations so they could live again in a static toolkit for government workers: an illustration library of poses, costumes and local landmarks, and GIF reaction and sticker packs. Mark speaks like a trusted friend: genuine, plainspoken and a little dry, in English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Traditional Chinese.
A Moving Target
This was a midterm year, and the federal government kept trying to change voting laws while we worked. We often had to pivot our direction or content partway through.
Your Ballot, Your PlanSAME TEAM · NEXT CAMPAIGN
Made back to back with Mark by almost the same team, but its own campaign, with no Mark in it.
A voter PSA for the Washington Office of the Secretary of State that walks people through it step by step: fill it out, sign it, track it, drop it off. It ran on posters, in newspaper ads, as a social carousel and as short vertical video. The client wanted something approchable but more serious than Mark for a quick update to voters.
Art Direction · Posters · Newspaper ads · Social carousel · VideoCredits
Illustration
Dan Whitehouse@5uperfreak
Deepsky
Lotty Vigue
Matthew Seely
Adam DiTerlizzi
Wes Meeks
HappyLucky
Guy CappiccieCreative Director
SparkmanArt Director
Ricky YoungDesign Director
Sydney MadgeStrategy Director
Aaron KeeneACD, Content
Marla NixonSr. Project Manager
Lili HoagProject Management
Drew RosasSound + Video + Motion
Carla CiezaDesigner
Ashley SohnDesigner
Erica BjerningProduction Design Director
Alicia PlateSr. Production Designer
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