Esteban "Steve" Petersen

ECD

In my role as Executive Creative Director I have had the fortune of working on major brands and award-winning campaigns over the past 20 years. In 2003, I co-founded Big Machine, a design and branding studio that produced award-winning, cross-platform marketing content for over 16 years. While there I built a content division and won an Emmy for a show I created and produced for NatGeo. Recently, I have worked for various agencies ideating, pitching, leading teams and delivering branded content, building and running teams, leading integrated campaigns, design, visual effects, a/v, DOOH and print assets for top-tier IP. Here are samples of some of my favorites:

DIGITAL OUT OF HOME THEATRICAL MARKETING

ABOVE: A giant, 4 story, animated outdoor screen for Creed 3. I conceived this 3D optical illusion to work on a standard 2D screen. This is running on the Moxy Building in heart of Downtown Los Angeles.

BELOW: Animated screen content for Creed 3 (designed for the Pendy Building in West Hollywood) and The Magician’s Elephant (designed for Times Square).

HBO MAX | BATMAN CAMPAIGN

Definition 6 reached out to me to help them pitch on an exciting project with HBO MAX - a major integrated marketing campaign for Batman The Audio Adventures Season 2! The deliverables would include print key art, unique thumbnails for all 10 episodes, various social assets and a 30 second promo trailer. We presented a fantastic deck and won the job. After kickoff, we entered into an intense look development phase generating hundreds of pieces of artwork while collaborating with the team at HBO and DC to land on the final look. And then, one more deliverable came our way… produce all of the visuals for each 25 minute episode! My experience producing long-form, Emmy award winning content came into play and we ended up producing over 200 minutes of custom animation for the series!

Below is the trailer for season 2 and a gallery of some of the art we produced:

CLICK HERE to watch Season 2 Episode 1.

HBO SPORTS REBRAND

Throughout my career, I have worked on many rebrands and brand refresh campaigns. For this latest one, Definition 6 brought me on board to help them pitch on the HBO SPORTS rebrand. This is an important, legacy show for the streamer so all eyes were on the creative. The new graphics look had to compliment the new set. And it had to be something the show editors (cutting on AVID) could easily customize episode-to-episode. So we created a dynamic visual framework for the show open that teased all of the upcoming segments and delivered an AVID toolkit for the editors to use. The package also included a host of other deliverables including lower 3rds, transitions, mortises and full screen backplates.

XR PRODUCTION

I have designed and shot several projects using Extended Reality (XR) Production. XR is the virtual production technology made famous by Disney’s THE MANDALORIAN. We create interactive, animated digital sets that are projected on a massive LED wall that moves in perspective with the camera. While this increases the amount of pre-production necessary, this approach eliminates the need for more complicated post work and produces stylish results. I shot the below XR spot with Metaphrine for the World Cup in Qatar:

THEATRICAL TRAILERS

Big Picture, a theatrical trailer agency, brought me in as their Executive Creative Director to upgrade the quality of their work and build their trailer graphics team into a full-service, standalone design studio. I was the co-head of the department at an agency averaging about 20-30 active projects daily. In my time there the work certainly improved and I got to collaborate on some fun projects.

Check out those titles in motion HERE!

TITLE SEQUENCES

I have designed and executed many title sequences for popular films and TV shows. From fully animated sequences like JUMANJI 2 (below) to talent-based concepts integrating XR technology and visual effects like RAVEN’S HOME and SUBURGATORY (below):

BRANDED CONTENT

I have combined brands like GEICO, Ford, Microsoft, Hot Wheels, Dairy Queen, Indian Motorcycles, Sprint, Supercuts, GMC and XBOX with studios like Discovery, AMC, A&E, HBO, History, Nat Geo and Disney in some fantastic branded content pieces. Here are a few of my favorites:

View more brand integrations HERE.

LONG FORM CONTENT

Working with agencies like WME, APA and GERSH I have built development pipelines to create series and long form content for networks including Discovery, National Geographic, AMC and TruTV. I have also been able to help networks like AMC design special original-content-based, week long stunts around their MOB WEEK and Halloween’s FEAR FEST programming initiatives. But my proudest moment was winning an Emmy Award for FUTURE CATS, a show I created and directed for the National Geographic Channel.

INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS

Helping to BUILD AND LEAD TEAMS is one part of my job I have really come to enjoy. Both domestically and abroad. I have had the fortune of being able to work in markets around the world - folding in the specific cultural sensitivities present in different markets. Consequently, I have been exposed to fantastic talent in various countries that I have been able to add to projects on an as-needed basis. I’ve got a good Rolodex. Here are some of those international collaborations:

These are some of my most recent highlights. But I have helmed many other types of entertainment marketing projects including network launches, film/tv show launches, content for special stunt weeks, brand integrations, holiday spots, print, live-action, VR, 360, augmented reality, experiential design and ARG content. I’m happy to discuss specifics and show additional samples if requested.

The other pages on this website show selections of my directing work organized by category (in the header at the top of this page).

I am also an accomplished EDITOR and have cut almost all of the spots (long and short form) on this site.