ideas for good
client + freelance projects by christy chan 1998 - present
Hi. I’m Christy, a San Francisco based freelance creative director and writer. For 28 years, I’ve been a lead creative on agency projects, with a focus on telling authentic stories and doing a bit of good. I’m proud to be a go-to for pitches, manifestos, big picture thinking, and helping organizations come together under a shared cause. I started as a writer at Goodby Silverstein, worked as an ECD at Ogilvy on the Dove Real Beauty Campaign global launch and then went freelance, so that I could have more time to dream my own projects.
Besides my years in the for profit sector, I am a professional maker and visual artist. My public art projects have been installed across the U.S. and I am the founder of multiple non profits ventures that aim to center the voices of everyday communities.I recently won a U.S. Guggenheim award in visual art, so I hope that means that my ideas of using art for radical change are not really so radical, but just in time for the present moment.
I love working in teams, I love storytelling and I love using creativity for its highest good. If you feel the same way, let’s work together.
DOVE REAL BEAUTY
What can a woman’s body look like? Who gets to tell that story? I was co-Creative Director on the Dove Real Beauty global pitch, which launched in 2004. Senior creatives were dispatched by Ogilvy and Mather all over the world to.... Read on
Time Magazine:
“Dove Real Beauty Seems To Be Aging Well"
Harvard Business School Case Study:
“Dove: Building a Brand with Purpose”
Campaign website
apple
I worked on the launch of the first iPhone, working under the helm of Steve Job’s in-house design department at Apple. We had the beautiful and fun challenge of introducing iphones to the world, before anyone had ever seen one. I worked on print and teaser work meant to spread a sense of wonder and intrigue.
nike
I worked as a writer on Nike Women at Goodby Silverstein. In keeping with Nike’s legacy history of doing sports advertising that was less about sports, and more about what it means to be a human - this campaign used everyday women athletes and “real talk” as a jumping off point.
everybody eats lunch
Public Art + Community
I founded Everybody Eats Lunch, a non profit project, in 2017.
In a politically heated time when talking to other Americans could feel difficult, the project brought strangers together for one-on-one meals and conversations, with fine dining meals donated by businesses.
Dubbed the “anti-echo chamber” experience by NPR & PBS . . . (see project website)
Gun control
As a kid, I grew up two miles from the NRA, and witnessed their long-failing promise that guns make America a safer place. This campaign ran in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago as outdoor guerrilla postings on the 20 year anniversary of John Lennon’s passing. Produced at Goodby Silverstein.
cliff / luna bar
I created the new brand position, platform and line “Someday is Now” for the global positioning of Luna Bar.(2019) The campaign was then executed by the in-house design department and their partnering agencies in every medium. As a frequent fresh voice at agencies, I’m always honored to join be trusted to re-brand a client…. and to help instigate the conversations about what they’re ready to say to the world, and be an ally for.
LEVIS
I worked on Levis during the re-pitching of the client at Cutwater/Chiat Day.
As part of the pitch, I created ads for women that shook off fashion stereotypes and updated what it means to be in a female body wearing jeans.
I also wrote scripts around beat poetry - and the notion that spacious poetry better capture the feeling of being young than any advertising promise could - and to not promise anything. This was later was produced as the anchor spot of a campaign that showed the authenticity of youth simply being themselves. I am always grateful for projects like this, for a reason to summon my own feelings of possibility.
VIRGIN AIRLINES
These were created for Eleven, San Francisco for Virgin Airline’s “Breath of Fresh Air” campaign.
all is not lost
Public Art and Community
A public art installation that was installed in New York and California, to offer a moment of collective pause during the pandemic. With support by the New York Arts Foundation, Wassaic Project and more.
MINI
Mini is a fuel-efficient car that’s well designed and fun to test drive out the door of a client’s parking lot. I worked as a freelance writer at Butler Shine and Stern on the Mini campaign.
View
BELL SPORTS
Produced at Goodby Silverstein. Shot in a re-creation of a New York City subway car. #Hats off #production designers
WALL STREET JOURNAL
I enjoyed writing and producing tv spots and billboards for the “Fun With Capitalism” campaign, which Goodby Silverstein had began in the 90’s. The campaign playfully reminded people that intellectualism can be fun and globalism was a language. Fun production note: one of the comedians cast in these commercials later became well known. #Spot the comedian #Fun with casting
zico, coca-cola company
In 2018, Zico was looking to re-brand itself with a more modern voice, while maximizing the star power of their spokesperson Jessica Alba, founder of the honest company and a former actor. I was hired by Wunerman as lead writer on this re-branding project, and developed the “What’s Inside is Everything” campaign, including its tagline and manifesto.
san francisco chronicle
Publishing and Media
The Chronicle is the longest running newspaper in San Francisco. My art directors and I created this spot at Fire Engine No. 1 to remind people of the unique local focus of the Chronicle.
estroven
Food and Wellness
There’s no solution for aging, so you might as well have fun. I took a playful approach to writing and directing this commercial for Estroven. Produced at Evolution Bureau, with their in house producer team.
#Fire and post production by Beast Editorial
SOO KEE JEWELRY
While freelancing at Lowe and Partners, I conceived “Romance the Everyday” as the launch for a diamond company. The campaign was a call action to be romantic, anywhere, anytime.
At the time, kissing and PDA was banned on Singaporean television, one of the countries were the spot ran. But what happened next was unexpected.
The Singapore government, already concerned that the country was facing lower birth rates, didn’t take the commercial off the air. Instead, they co-opted the campaign as a national promotion for romance and procreation. The commercial ran for eight years.
As a person of Chinese descent, I haven’t technically given birth to Chinese children, but this campaign makes me feel like I’ve done my part. The diamond company did fine too.
deprogramming chamber
Non Profit + Community
I wrote and directed this film for a youth arts program, Root Division in San Francisco. The intention was to show young artists that they should can and should expected cultural support for an arts-driven life.
ikea
BTS of production: When I developed this billboard with the designers at Lowe Advertising, SARS was spreading in Southeast Asia and the client - IKEA - thoughtfully debated whether it was strange to show people without masks during an international pandemic. In the end, we showed the actors without masks, believing that images signaling hope for “normalcy” was sometimes what people needed. Also, people don’t really live inside shelving units, so.
ARROW
Music and Culture
View more radio station projects
Arrow is a popular radio station in Salt Lake City, Utah. In 2019, an art director friend and I created “Are You and Arrowhead?” — a campaign that could then invite the public to make their own photos, submit them to Arrow and have them turned into billboards.
axe
Music and Culture
“It’’s better to have a song stuck in your head than an axe.” One of several playful spots I was the writer on, for an indie music station. Produced at at Lowe & Partners.
GOT MILK?
Produced at Goodby Silverstein.
beach blanket
Music and Culture
Beach Blanket Babylon is a long-running musical theater in San Francisco. Along with my art director, I was hired as writer to give them a brand voice and creative direction that would reflect the playful, current events-inspired offerings of the theater.
fm 100.3
What makes people listen to the radio, when they can stream? Christy and a friend were hired to crack this nut, in a time when streaming services had already become the norm and radio stations wanted to retain relevancy. In doing research with the client, what we found was this: People want choices, but they also want a sense of community and local-ness. The internet doesn’t make that go away. Radio stations remains a unique, positive listening experience because it creates a real-time, in-the-moment experience with one’s neighbors and geographic community.
(For every client, large and small, big picture research is what often leads to) Radio stations can go co-exist with streaming. They benefit from being streamed, while creating “hereness.”
ONE DESIGN MAGAZINE
I worked on the launch of One Design, a boutique magazine created by the founders of Wired Magazine. The project required lots of enjoyable eyeball time, looking at industrial design furniture and architecture. Next to social good projects, design-centered clients are my favorite to work with.
kashi
Kashi, a health foods brand, wanted to feature its natural ingredients as part of their campaign. The feel good campaign helped the client attract the attention of Kellog’s, who later bought Kashi and now sells it globally.
REVISION
Design and Speculative Future
Why does design matter? I was the lead writer on the brand launch of Revision, a design-based think tank that trains government organizations to use design processes to create breakthrough solutions in urban planning complex urban planning problems in cities. Working with their in-house team, we created a manifesto, printed matter and on-line presence that introduced their work to cities across the country. For me, this project was proof that entrepeneurship, government and big picture solutions can coexist.
Inside OUT Richmond
I founded the non profit art project Inside Out in 2018. The project transformed autobiographical phrases submitted by Richmond residents into large scale projection art on the walls of Richmond City Hall, in partnership with the city of Richmond.
Why project on a large brick wall? In a time when the word “wall” was being used to divide us, this project sought to use a government wall to unite us, and illuminate the voices of all Americans in one of the most racially diverse cities in the U.S.
→ News Coverage
Public Art
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Public Art 〰️
DEAR AMERICA
→ Public Art + Community
Though anti-Asian bias is not new in America, acts of violence against Asian Americans re-peaked and were normalized under the leadership of President Trump.
In response to the violence and the media industry’s failure to report on it, I founded Dear America - a grassroots, guerrilla public art project that projects the art works of Asian American artists on to high rise buildings throughout the Bay Area, in a show of solidarity for the local community.
Over 100 volunteers across the Bay Area worked on the project, which projected for four months, nearly weekly.
Locations for each projection night were a secret, but the public could get clues by following social media and correctly answering questions on Asian American history.
I declined invitations from corporations to turn the work into marketing campaigns for products. However, it’s always a good sign for a guerilla campaign when people take notice.
