Halloween | 2024
Lowe's Home Improvement | 3 Sets
Concept Development | Set Design | Prop Design | Art Direction | Prop Fabrication | Prop Styling | Sourcing | Project Management
2024 was the first year partnering with Lowe's to creative direct and design that year's Halloween Campaign. This shoot consisted of 3 different sets: the interior of a shipwreck, a cemetery, and a dilapidated house, all of which were built in studio. Additionally there was an on location portion with exterior and interior shots.
I developed comprehensive creative decks for each of these scenes as well and desiging all sets and custom props.
The following year Lowe's returned to collaborate again on their 2025 Halloween Campaign.
The Shipwreck
This ghostly shipwreck scene was intended for a specialty collection of ocean themed animatronics.
The set was rich decaying browns, slimy greens, and layers of eerie details. We created countless yards of seaweed, made from garbage bags. Nestled under the broken mast pole in the sand drifts are broken ceramic rum jugs, coral covered wooden casks, barnacles, sea stars, and bones of the crew long dead.
Getting the atmosphere correct was essential. Not only did it soften the background and enable the product collection to pop, but It simulated the small floating particles seen in the water. This was accomplished primarily through a hazer. Catching the light rays from the ship's deck grates was also an important detail to me to build the atmosphere.
Some of the inspiration for this set came from Guillermo del Toro’s, Crimson Peak (2015) and The Seaside village, Lake
Town, in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013).
(use slider to see the set)
The Cemetary
There were two collections we needed to capture in this cemetery. First was that year's skeleton line up and the other was the Haunted Mansion collection of outdoor products. Naturally a cemetery set was a great backdrop to build in studio for these products.
The mausoleum and tombstones were custom designs that were fabricated by myself and my team. Most of the names on the headstones are of friends, the crew, and the halloween queen herself: Martha Stewart. We researched at a local cemetery to gather inspiration and take charcoal rubbings to use as references when designing. We fabricated all of these using foam, dry-lock, fencing, newel posts, and millwork from product carried at Lowe's.
I didn't have to search far to find inspiration for this set. Tim Burton’s, Sleepy Hollow, Cave Scene (1999) greatly influenced the overall palette and the idea for some of the quirkier animal tombstones came from the original haunted mansion ride at Disneyland.
(use slider to see the set)
The Shipwreck
This the first year I partnered with Lowe's to creative direct and design their 2024 Halloween Campaign. This shoot consisted of 3 different sets: a dilapidated house, a cemetery, and the interior of a shipwreck, all of which were built in studio. The shoot also had a portion that was shot on location.
I developed comprehensive creative decks for each of these scenes as well as the designing and fabricating custom props.
Our Art Department of 15 worked together over the course of around a month to create these spaces.
A year later Lowe's came to collaborate on their 2025 Halloween Campaign.
+More on the 2025 campaign here
The House
This space needed to seem etherial and abandoned to time. Styling with vines growing through the windows and into light fixtures, cobwebs covering corners, and a layer of dead leaves littering the floor. The ceiling, walls, fireplaces and floor were painted to appear like they were covered in water damage and mold.
We needed to capture multiple collections in this space. We had a collection of licensed Wednesday animatronics, additional Haunted Mansion animatronics, a spooky novelty village, and that year's collection of small home decor to capture here. This set was designed with walls that moved around and panels that popped off to serve as additional styling surfaces for small products. Some of the product assortments chosen by the merchandising team contained very large products alongside of very small products which always proves to be a bit of a challenge. As a solve foreground elements were designed to ensure smaller product didn't get lost in the scene.
(use slider to see the set)
Concept
Provided concepts for a shipwreck, cemetery, haunted house, additional smaller sets and on location sets.
Project
Management
Managed art department timelines, work schedule and project benchmarks.
Art Direction
Developed creative decks and directed art department, styling, scenic, photo and video team.
Budget
Maintained budgets for our various sets and the labor of the art department team.
Sourcing
Transported and procured specialty props with salvaged architectural elements.
Art Department
Organized multidisciplinary crew of stylists, fabricators, merch handlers, and scenics.
Design
Designed detail rich sets, props, along with color selection, scenic instruction and lighting direction.
Prop Fabrication
Fabricated custom tombstones, mausoleum and directed off site team of fabricators.
The Process
A project of this scale takes an immense amount of planning. Establishing clear expectations, strong direction and detailed briefs aligns all the various teams on the overall creative and logistic goals.
I collaborated very closely with the producers on studio's production team to ensure the proposed daily shot lists made sense for the various teams workflows and ensuring the movements of the lighting teams overlapped in a way that made sense with the movements of my styling team.
The House
This the first year I partnered with Lowe's to creative direct and design their 2024 Halloween Campaign. This shoot consisted of 3 different sets: a dilapidated house, a cemetery, and the interior of a shipwreck, all of which were built in studio. The shoot also had a portion that was shot on location.
I developed comprehensive creative decks for each of these scenes as well as the designing and fabricating custom props.
Our Art Department of 15 worked together over the course of around a month to create these spaces.
A year later Lowe's came to collaborate on their 2025 Halloween Campaign.
+More on the 2025 campaign here
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