Hanes · X-Temp · Storyboards + Animatics
Hanes X-Temp
Turning product benefits into strange little adventures built for the screen.
The Assignment
TURNING IDEAS INTO PICTURES
A storyboard tests the viewing experience before production begins: what the audience sees, when information is revealed, where a joke lands, and how each shot hands the story to the next one. It is also where gaps in story logic, overcomplicated ideas, and missing story beats are exposed and resolved.
The interesting part of working on this Hanes project was visualizing the magical realism in the world of underwear spokes-guru, Hans.
- Client
- Hanes
- Campaign
- X-Temp Total Support Pouch
- Role
- Storyboard Artist / Illustrator / Visual Narrative Designer
- Concepts
- Dunes / The Arctic
- Deliverables
- Storyboard sequences + animatics
- Outcome
- Dunes produced and broadcast; Arctic developed as a companion concept
Dunes
AN ADVENTURE IN UNDERWEAR.
Hans crosses an enormous desert in his underwear with nothing but his map, trusted camel compadre, and the blistering sun to keep him company. When he discovers an impossibly cool oasis, the product demonstration becomes the explanation for why the oasis exists at all.
The technical message is still doing its job, but it grows out of the adventure instead of interrupting it. By the final beat, Hans, a meerkat, and the camel are cool and relaxed. The implication perhaps being that you and your pals will be cooler if you too step into the cooling power of X-Temp.
The Arctic
THE SECRET OF STAYING COOL.
The second spot functions as an expansion rather than a repetition of the adventure in the desert. Hans had already been established as a quasi-European, quasi-mystical, animal-loving underwear guru. Now that he has the secret of X-Temp he is spreading the cool vibes.
He arrives in the Arctic on the back of a motorcycle driven by his meerkat buddy, confides in a penguin, dives beneath the ice, meets a narwhal, and eventually shares the secret of staying cool with a living ice sculpture. The circumstances become increasingly absurd. Hans does not. His complete sincerity is what holds the comedy together.
The absurd almost dream-logic was my favorite part of this project. Exploring a world where Hans existed was the most fun I've had in my underwear.
Character Performance
CREATURES OF COMFORT.
The animals reinforce the environments, but they also have jobs as characters. The camel is pleasantly oblivious. The meerkat is mischievous but helpful. The penguin is stunned by Hans's revelation. The narwhal is delighted by it.
Those reactions are tiny pieces of screen time, but they make the worlds feel inhabited and give the comedy somewhere to land without competing with the product message.
From Boards to Screen
ART IN MOTION.
The animatics test the boards as timed sequences—reveals, reactions, transitions, product beats and jokes playing at commercial speed. Dunes then moved into production as the finished Hanes spot.
The Result
SURVIVING POST-PRODUCTION
Dunes moved from script, to storyboard, to animatic into a finished Hanes commercial with its charm, magical realism, and visuals intact. The value of the boards was that they allowed everyone downstream to see the vision and build toward a common goal.
It is exciting to see the flourishes that were added after my involvement, but it is rewarding to see that the bulk of the design choices I made remained visible in the final video.
Every idea leads somewhere.
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