StudioSIX5 has been designing what they call “living spaces” for two decades. Known in Austin for their work in senior living, the challenge they had for us was to help establish the firm as a creative partner known for their passion, skill, creativity, and service. After many conversations covering exactly how we could do this through video, and what the essential message would be, we honed our deliverable down to one powerful Cinematic Brand Ad centered around one word, “living.”

 

This couldn’t be a typical ad with interviews and explanation of process, this needed to be an expression of something deeper for S65. We knew we wanted to see the impact of design decisions on the end users. But we needed a hook. Something to draw the audience in and express that deeper brand identity. The hook became a question heard through voiceover: “What makes a room feel alive?” Answering this question was like a domino effect leading to one answer then another. However, with that question answered one was still left. “How do we know they will feel it?” How does a designer know that the end user, years from that design decision, will feel the same sense of life? 

 

At first, we genuinely didn’t know. We wrote ourselves into something of a corner. But then it came. A simple idea. Somehow a surprise and somehow obvious. 

 

“We felt it first.” The designer was there in her mind’s eye, seeing it come together. She literally felt the space first. So she knows it’ll work for whoever comes next.

 

Enjoy the director's cut of “Living,” a cinematic brand ad for StudioSix5 in  Austin, Texas.