Recognition through feeling. Utility through design.
A category leader whose products everyone owned and whose brand nobody could name — paired with a website that wasn't doing its job. The fix: focus on the feeling, not the logo, and turn the site into a tool customers could actually use.
The Hawaii shoot — creative direction, casting, and location work I led across the project. Real water, real sun, real joy. The new visual language for the brand.
A brand people couldn't name — and a site that wasn't doing its job.
Intex products were everywhere — air mattresses in guest rooms, above-ground pools in backyards, pool floats at every birthday party. But the brand itself wasn't recognized. Customers knew the product; they couldn't name who made it. Leaning harder on the logo wasn't going to fix that.
The website wasn't pulling its weight either. Customers couldn't easily figure out which air mattress fit their situation or which above-ground pool was right for their yard, and the answers they needed about pool care — chemistry, maintenance, keeping the water from turning green — were hard to find. With the call center outsourced to India and complaints piling up, the site had to start answering the questions customers were calling about.
All of it had to be fixed together: a brand people could feel, a site that could sell, and self-service that took pressure off support.
Focus on the feeling. Then make the site earn its keep.
The brand strategy was clear: stop leading with the logo and start leading with the feeling the products created. Family, sun, water, easy joy. Recognition would follow from emotional connection, not from putting the wordmark bigger.
I led brand-shift mood boards and creative direction from concept through production. The work spanned style guide creation, talent casting, location scouting, and on-location direction in Hawaii — overseeing every visual decision on set, from light to wardrobe to composition. The brief: real kids, real water, real sun. Light handheld, candid energy, and natural color over staged perfection.
Out of that work came a tagline — "Fun is in the air" — that captured the whole product family in a single line. Air mattresses, above-ground pools, pool floats, jacuzzis: each one held together by the same idea. Air was the medium for the kind of moments that bring people together and make them feel good.
The website then had to translate the feeling into utility. I led a redesign that took the new lifestyle voice and applied it to a site built to do work — two product-finder quizzes that turned indecision into a confident choice (one for air mattresses, one for above-ground pool sizing), and a reorganized FAQ & care library that made pool maintenance — chemistry, water care, the basics of not letting your pool turn green — findable in seconds instead of phone calls. The point was to take pressure off the call center and let customers help themselves.
"Fun is in the air."
The Intex tagline — across every product line
What I led.
- Brand-Shift DirectionTranslated the new lifestyle positioning into a complete visual brief and mood-board system — focus on the family and the fun, not the logo, since recognition had to come from feeling.
- Brand TaglineDeveloped "Fun is in the air" with the team — a single line that ran across air mattresses, above-ground pools, pool floats, and jacuzzis, tying the entire product family together around the feeling the products created.
- Casting & TalentCast the talent for the shoot with the client, ensuring authentic energy and representation across the cast.
- Style GuideDeveloped a repeatable style guide — color, light, composition, and tone — that the team could apply across pool and lifestyle product lines going forward.
- On-Location DirectionLed the Hawaii photoshoot end-to-end with the client, setting elevated visual standards for the new brand era.
- Website RedesignLed the site overhaul that applied the new brand vision to every page — and reframed the site as a tool that worked for the business, not just a catalog.
- Two Product-Finder QuizzesDesigned and shipped guided experiences for two of the most-asked questions: "How to Select an Air Bed" and a companion quiz for sizing the right above-ground pool — turning customer indecision into confident selection.
- Pool-Care Self-ServiceReorganized the FAQ and customer-support library so pool-care basics — water chemistry, maintenance, keeping the water from turning green — were findable in seconds. Added Support to the global navigation for easy findability, so customers could reach help from any page in a single click. Together, the work took meaningful pressure off the outsourced call center and reduced inbound complaints.
The new brand voice on Intex.com — same Hawaii energy, applied to the live site. Cool Air Beds, Cool Pools, and Inflatable Sets, each lifted out of utility-product photography into lifestyle.
"How to Select an Air Bed" — one of two product-finder quizzes (a companion sized the right above-ground pool for the customer's yard). Visual answer cards at every step, the same lifestyle photography setting the tone, the catalog turned into a confident recommendation.
A brand felt, a site that worked, a support load that finally eased.
- Elevated Brand Perception and RecognitionImagery and a tagline that built emotional recognition for a brand most people couldn't previously name — Intex finally felt like a brand, not just a product.
- Scalable Visual SystemA repeatable style guide and asset library spanning pool, float, mattress, and lifestyle SKUs.
- Customer Self-ServiceTwo product-finder quizzes and a reorganized pool-care FAQ let customers answer their own questions — sizing, water chemistry, day-to-day maintenance — without picking up the phone.
- Reduced Call-Center LoadSelf-service content directly addressed the most-asked questions reaching the outsourced support team, lowering complaint volume and freeing the call center for higher-value issues.
- Stronger Retail & Digital PresenceHero photography that elevated PDP, marketing, and trade-channel materials across the line — the new brand voice consistent from shelf to site.