My friend Lauren and I were having one of those days. None of the usual methods seemed to be working. Not music. Not food. Not office puppies. What we craved was something honest and good, unhappiness-offsetting, fail-proof and grin-inducing. 

So armed with only a tripod, camera and work-free weekend, we created 
The Nicest Place on the Internet.

I guess we struck a chord with the internet...

The Numbers

7+ million unique visitors (Average 10,000 visitors a day still, after 3 years)
9+ million views on YouTube
110k+ Likes on FB
100k+ Tweets
500+ Submissions

*All of this was earned organically

Press

Mashable - "Restore Your Faith in Humanity at the Nicest Place on the Internet"

Mashable - "How to Create Your Own Nicest Place on the Internet"
Washington Post - "The Internet gives you a hug"
Huffington Post - "'Nicest Place On The Internet' Spreads Love Across Web, Goes Viral"
NPR - "Need A Hug? Go To 'The Nicest Place On The Internet'"
The Daily Mail - "The happiest place on the internet?"
Wall Street Journal - "The Nicest Place on the Internet"
Creativity - "Jeff Lam and Lauren Perlow: The Nicest Place on the Internet"
PSFK - "Having A Rough Day? Visit The Nicest Place On The Internet"
Gizmodo - "The Nicest Place on the Internet"
BuzzFeed - "The Nicest Place on the Internet"
Design Taxi - "The Nicest Place on the Internet"
Adverblog - "Nicest Place on the Internet"
SF Egotist - "The nicest place on the internet."
HLN - "Welcome to 'The Nicest Place on the Internet'"
Reddit - "The nicest place on the internet - get a hug :)"
Pee-wee Herman - "The Nicest Place on the Internet? Decide for yourself!"

On April 29, Adam Silver banned Clippers owner Donald Sterling from the NBA for some disgustingly racist comments that were brought to the public’s attention.

To celebrate this historic smackdown of a racist bigot, we made and sold the Adam Sterling Silver shirt. We also decided to donate all profits to the Magic Johnson Foundation, the perfect charity seeing the Donald Sterling didn't want Magic at his games. 

To purchase visit adamsterlingsilver.com

Process
We had to do this quick. The whole process from concept to shirts printed took only a week. Then we were crazy enough to drive down to LA to sell it at one of the last Clipper's games at the Staples Center. We were promptly kicked out with threats of arrest by local police. Which only pushed us to blow this thing up online instead.

And we did.

Press
USA Today FTW Sports
Bleacher Report
Washington Post
Dime Magazine
Sportingnews.com

For EA's biggest U.S. title - Madden15, Heat SF brought me in to work on the digital portion of the campaign. We developed a 21st century, mobile-focused, real-time trash-talking machine - The Madden GIFERATOR.

Visit Madden GIFERATOR to trash-talk your friends.

Press
FastCo
Adweek
Digiday
Buzzfeed
IGN
SB-Nation
Engadget
FunnyOrDie
KnowYourMeme
Digital Trends

Awards
Cannes Creative Data Gold
Cannes Mobile Silver
Cannes Mobile Gold
Cannes Cyber Silver
Cannes Cyber Bronze
FWA SOTD
FWA SOTM
OneShow Interactive Bronze
Webb Awards Honoree
National Addy Gold
ADC Silver Cube
ADC Gold Cube
Shorty Awards Winner
Clio Sports Gold
Clio Sports Bronze
D&AD Bronze
Game Marketing Awards Gold
Game Marketing Awards Silver

Fitbit wanted to get people to exercise more starting in the new year, so we gave them a better reason to burn those calories than a beach-ready-bikini body, feeding America's hungry.

Press:
FastCo
Men's Fitness
E!
Glamour

Corona is a brand born at the beach, with the sand between its toes and the sound of the ocean in its ears. It’s paradise. It’s home.
 
But this home is facing a great danger. An estimated 8 million metric tons of plastic waste enter the oceans each year. The problem is found in every known ecosystem and at every level of the food chain. If current marine pollution trends continue, the oceans will contain more plastic than fish by the year 2050
 
On International Recycling Day 2017, Corona and Parley for the Oceans announced a partnership in the movement to end marine plastic pollution, one of the biggest threats to human health and the survival of the planet’s largest and most important ecosystem – the world’s oceans. The long-term partnership launches with a plan to protect 100 Islands by 2020 starting in six key regions in different parts of the world – Mexico, Maldives, Australia, Chile, Italy and Dominican Republic.
 
The partnership initially launched with a 3-minute film celebrating a love for the ocean and a commitment to protecting it, and accompanying social campaign, featuring ambassadors Chris Hemsworth, Diego Luna, Ramon Navarro, and Nashla Boagaert.

But this is only beginning. Watch this space.

Visit DumbPhoneCase.com to get yours.

Press:
PSFK
TrendHunter
LBB
Comunidademe
3Ders
Creativity

Christmas is the time of the year when wonderful and magical things can happen. A time of excitement and counting down the days in anticipation. In celebration of the festive season, we created a new fable set in Lilaberg, the idyllic fictional town at the heart of Milka’s global ‘Tenderness is inside’ brand platform.
 
Directed by acclaimed French Director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, ‘The Time Machine’ tells the story of a little boy who can’t wait for Christmas to come, and of his family who work together to make an early Christmas miracle come true. Because we believe there’s no need to wait for Christmas Day to share some special time with loved ones.

Booking.com wanted people to travel more for the new year. Instead of asking people to make another new years resolution that they'll probably forget by the time it strikes 00:02 on new years day, we asked them to translate that resolution into something tangible, a reservation. Introducing the Resolution Translator.

Booking.com wanted to celebrate the amazing summer that everyone had. So we decided to take people's travel photos to the next level, by turning them into GIFs.

We hired 4 of the best GIF artist out there and asked the internet to show us what they got. We then took the best ones and turned them into amazing GIFs that made all their friends jealous.

Check out the whole batch here.

Voicemail Diaries is an art project where strangers collaboratively contribute to each entry of the audio diary by simply leaving a voicemail.

Press

PSFK -  "Public Diary Calls for Voicemails from Strangers"
Laughingsquid - "A Collaborative Art Project That Invites the Public to Call in Answers to Questions About Life"
Trend Hunter - "Collaborative Voicemail Conversations"

My first foray into generative art.

Using a pulse sensor, Arduino, Processing and code, I was able to generate art out of my pulse. 

It's an on-going project as I'm working on constantly improving and advancing this project along with my skills in interactive art through Processing. 

I hate meetings, especially long and pointless ones. The only way I survive them is by doodling. 

I realized this was a common coping mechanism among many people, so my friend Josh and I created the #MeetingArt Museum by pulling in #MeetingArt on instagram to celebrate all the creativity that transpires in the long boring meetings.

Thank you pointless meetings for allowing us time to make art.

backofawebpage.com is a independent project my partner Josephine Yatar & I concepted in our late night delirium. 

We made it for those who've ever wondered what's on the other side.

Press

Huffington Post - "7 Sites You Should Be Wasting Time On Right Now"
Creativity - "The wizards behind your favorite pages."
BuzzFeed - "Back Of A Webpage"
Gizmodo - "What the Back of a Website Looks Like"
The Laughing Squid - "What The Reverse of a Website Might Look Like"
Design Taxi "This is What the Back of a Webpage Looks Like"
Swiss Miss - "Back of a Web Page"
White Zine - "Back of a webpage"
Thaeger (German) - "Back of a Webpage"
Damn Digital (Chinese) - "趣味创意，一个网页背后的故事" 

This is the sort of thing that happens when my friend, Josephine Yatar, and I work too late at night. 

We took over an ad space with horrible vector drawings of what look to be mannequins, and gave them clothes.

Jordan asked AKQA to devise a campaign to launch the new Jordan, a pure performance shoe. Instead of talking to sneakerheads, we decided to target the millions of highschool players who actually care about performance and are destined to be next in carrying on the Jordan legacy. 

We had to get them ready for LAUNCH.

HOW IT WORKS

To prove that they are worthy of the shoe they will be pitted head to head against each other by aggregating publicly available stats like their points per game, rebounds per game and blocks per game. 

The top 50,000 will be chosen to receive the new Jordan.

The top player in the U.S. and China will go head to head to be crowned the champion and receive the new Jordan specially customized in their honor. 

Fast Company came to AKQA and asked us to make a fake print ad for them to feature in an article that "rebrands baby girls" in China. We told them that it's just like putting a band-aid on a wound that needs stitches. It wouldn't make a dent on the huge problem that needs to be solved.

So instead, we proudly over delivered. We created a campaign that will activate girls not just in China, but all around the world to celebrate and encourage the women of China.

"Digital ad agency AKQA crafted a stunning ad campaign for Fast Company's Dec./Jan. issue. Their "Case for Girls" concept featured a Chinese woman wearing a shade of crimson lipstick and a pairing of Chinese characters that translate into: "You Are."

Their creative concept was so comprehensive, the agency now envisions a real-life potential for their idea, with a campaign that would include a pledge to wear red lipstick during International Women's Day, March 12, 2012." - Fast Company

Fast Company (link to article)
featured on Oprah

But we felt that an article in a industry pub wasn't going to cut it, so we decide to make it real, and we called out the symbol that we rallied around - the red lips. We called it #RockTheLips.

Press

Mashable
WashingtonPost

Anolon, maker of premium cookware wanted to move their brand into the food obsessed culture of today. So we decided to leverage something that every foodie already ogles over - beautifully tasteful food-porn. 

We created it using the socially charged image sharing platform Tumblr to display the porn in all its glory. 

Introducing WhiskTakers, a responsive custom Tumblr that houses all the beautifully playful images, gifs and recipes any foodie can dream of. This gave Anolon not a blog but a powerful digital business tool and platform to become a voice and a tastemaker in the growing field of high-end cooking.

Visit WhiskTakers and use Chrome for best result and test the responsiveness by enlarging or shirking the browser size. 

Over 60% of theaters around the nation sell Orville Redenbacher's popcorn.

So we decided to do a spot specifically made for the theater. We were tasked to make the viewer run quick to the stand to grab a bag of Orville.