The Skyward Brand
I agree that a brand is what others say about you when you’re not in the room. I believe that every team member of the company has a role to play in building and strengthening the brand. Every interaction, every impression, and every answer to a frustration shapes the brand image in real time.
Trusted Advisor
The Skyward brand mission statement was to be a trusted advisor to the pioneers building the drone industry. Skyward sought to be a conduit to the FAA through software APIs, advocating policy changes, and unlocking network opportunities in the sky.
Thanks to the excellent work across all teams of Skyward, our customers repeatedly told us that our brand mission was successful and we were their trusted advisor.
My Role
Joining Skyward in the early days, I was a core part of establishing and growing the brand through visual design, product design, and creative direction internally and externally. These are some of the highlights and outcomes of that journey.
CES Keynote
Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg highlighted Skyward as one of the most compelling use cases of 5G. Skyward president, Mariah Scott, delivered a captivating segment that some tech writers called the best part of the hour.
Sizzle reel of Skyward’s feature during the Verizon Keynote at CES
Art direction - Future Skies animations
My goal was to paint an inspiring vision of the connected skies with 5G. The choice of blue was very deliberate. Not just because it was Skyward’s blue, but because skies filled with red are not received well for Western audiences. In addition, it is a very similar hue to one of Verizon’s competitors. Claiming the 5G skies for Verizon in this hue was intentional and noticed.
Product Design – Bespoke launch app
It was pretty cool to have the CEO of Verizon press your button on stage at CES in Las Vegas and launch a drone that was in Los Angeles. Turns out that the device thumb zone is also good for the camera angle.
Art direction – animated brandmark
The Skyward brandmark deserved some motion and production value for its CES debut. This animation was then highly leveraged for presentations and video content.
Additional contributions
– Video content - cinematography + editing
– Presentation script review and feedback
– Sizzle reel edit
Super Bowl LIV & Pro Bowl Commercials
McCann New York created two spots involving Skyward to air during these events. I contributed as an onsite drone pilot, subject matter expert, and provided custom animations of Skyward software.
The Amazing Things 5G Won’t Do
View from my drone
Flying next to a $250k+ camera rig was intense! All flights went smoothly thanks to rehearsals and safety measures established on set by Skyward.
The Super Bowl ad
The scene is visible at 00:11 in.
Product Animations
The agency required product animations to be delivered in 4K, so I recreated the UI in After Effects to deliver smooth and uncompressed software animations.
The Pro Bowl Ad
Unfortunately, due to legal issues filed by competitors, this video is no longer available online.
The 30 second spot featured a Skyward team member sharing a compelling story of aerial connectivity. It also showed the software in action.
Going Beyond Visual Line of Sight
This event marked a major milestone as Skyward used in-house software to fly for miles autonomously over LTE. Verizon showcased the video as an example of network innovation.
Working with internal and external partners, I helped create the story. I was the lone cinematographer for location, aerial, and interviews.
Vision Slides
For the company annual kickoffs, I would work with leadership to create visuals that represented the big goals of the year. These would also get used to pitch the updated vision up the chain and secure funding.
Urban Skyways
The first Skyward project was conceptualized to announce our intentions and make a name in the drone space. I created the launch video on a very tight budget.
The video was responsible for bringing in Verizon Ventures, which played a major role in the later acquisition by Verizon. The project also opened doors to partnerships such as NASA and 3DR.
Photography
As the staff photographer, I kept an organized library of headshots, product shots, and field work. I would coordinate with press and other entities to ensure high quality and up-to-date imagery was used.
CEO & Co-founder, Jonathan Evans, stands on a helipad
Skyward Flight Ops team performing legal night operations
Skyward Team Dronie
Phantom in the solar eclipse
President Mariah Scott
All startups need the matching headshot gallery
CEO & Co-founder Jonathan Evans
Take Flight
The Take Flight package was a major piece of Skyward’s strategy and brand development. This set of operational documents and consulting helped companies created a professional drone program rapidly.
It carried a high price tag and needed production value to accompany the price tag. The sales team reported a massive increase in sales after the branding went into place.
Explainer Video
In a nascent market and industry, the question always comes up – “What exactly do you do?” I created this explainer video to answer that question.
Every department of the business expressed how often they used this video as a way to quickly convey the high-level mission of the company and what we offered.