JOHN MERRITT

MALIBU RUM

J. Walter Thompson asked us to create a series of props to be used in an ad campaign for which they eventually won accolades.  The wood plank made to appear as though it was floating in the Caribbean Sea for years was the motif across all the ads in the campaign and demanded the majority of our attention.  I became intimately familiar with milk paint powders as well as the shop sand blaster on this project.  My colleagues Bill Mulkins and Kent Rogowski had much to do with the artistic aspects of this project.  Bill designed the fonts, created the font templates and advised us on the production.  Kent painstakingly modified the edges of a pristine pine board per the art director's specs.

Shop: The Group Y (formerly The Mark Yurkiw Group)
Advertising agency:  J. Walter Thompson
Art Direction, Font Design and Templating:  Bill Mulkins
Board Sculpting:  Kent Rentgowski
Board Painting and Lettering:  John Merritt