MICHAEL KORS

During the Fashion Disaster that was 2020 

In early 2020, I was given the opportunity to step into the freelance motion designer role at Michael Kors, a dream for someone with a deep love for fashion and storytelling.
I was still getting my bearings in the fast-paced world of Fashion Week trends and social content, when New York City shut down and the rest of the world soon followed.

As our team shifted to working from home, we had to rethink what “social” meant during a time when business as usual didn’t feel appropriate. Rather than leaning into traditional marketing and sales tactics, we focused on creating content that felt human and uplifting, highlighting what Michael was up to at home and keeping our audience connected to the brand in a more personal way. That shift was met with real success, and it became a genuinely fun challenge to bring those moments to life through animation.

During this time, a senior manager on the Global Social Media team approached
me with an unexpected request: could I create an Instagram face filter for the
Watch Hunger Stop campaign? I hadn’t before, but I taught myself Spark AR and designed a custom filter that became one of the most meaningful pieces I’ve ever created for a client. For every person who used and shared the filter, Michael Kors donated 50 meals to the World Food Program. To my amazement, the filter was used by over 600,000 people, resulting in roughly 30,000,000 meals distributed through the campaign, that’s about the population of Texas!

As the year progressed, we gradually returned to showcasing the Kors line, and I began supporting additional teams across the brand with motion and video work, from edits for YouTube spots to developing pitch concepts for launches like the Hamilton Nouveau bag. For a time, I became the go-to motion designer (and occasional video editor) across multiple projects, and the experience remains one of the most impactful chapters of my career.