Project: Nike, Kobe Bryant Singapore Indoor Stadium Opening
Role: Creative Director
Category: Commercial Brand Work / Event Visual Opening
Brand: San Yin Mei, Nike Communications Director, Nike Singapore
Production Credits: Jeffrey Koh (Animation / After-Effects), Dj Dual-Tone (Electronic Music Composition)
One of the defining moments of my career was when I managed to ‘pull a rabbit out of my hat’ - quite literally, having no prior event video directing experience (other than my concept artboards for MTV). The mission: manage multiple stakeholders across the client-side, the event company and select a ‘suicide squad’ of vendors daring enough to (hopefully) crack out something decent for Nike super-athlete Kobe Bryant’s entrance at the Singapore indoor stadium in 2009 in two weeks (from the date of receiving the brief). Thankfully I had built up enough good karma and a healthy creative network for my production collaborators to say yes at the last minute. Practically bamboozled them with the line “wanna work on a project for Kobe Bryant”? Casually dropped the two-week approval deadline in towards the end (mercifully before they knowingly signed and the P.Os were issued).
I created key visuals and put together a narrative deck, utilizing Kobe Bryant’s signature L.A Lakers NBA Team color scheme and the iconic Kobe Shield. After obtaining both client + other key stakeholder buy-in, I collaborated with the technical production team who brilliantly cut together, with specially composed electronic music - an impactful opening. This opening was projected on a back-lit screen, from which Kobe Bryant would walk out from, towards the end of the intro, which was timed with a fireworks display. Being a sneaker aficionado and lifelong fan of the swoosh - looking back now, although there are many things that I wish I could have improved for this project (if I had more time) it was (and still is) an absolute honor to have created work for the late and great Black Mamba himself NBA legend Kobe Bryant. Thanks to San at Nike for approving this project and putting your faith in me. More than a decade later, this is still one of my favorite projects.
