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About Kurt Lighthouse

With a sharp mind for concept and a keen eye for design, Kurt has an extensive background in building brands and creating compelling, award-winning, integrated advertising and design across media platforms.

Kurt started his career in the mail room – part time – at Cohn & Wells in San Francisco. Later that year he joined Gardner, Geary, Coll where he eventually found his way to the creative department.

Kurt went on to join a startup agency Swirl, and soon joined Collaborate as an Associate Creative Director. He then co-founded Citizen, an ad agency dedicated to serving clients with socially positive agendas, where he served as V.P. and Creative Director before before starting his own shop – Lighthouse Creative.

In 2018, after working with NOON Home, Kurt joined the tech startup as Creative Director to help build the brand. NOON was succesfully aquired in 2020 by Savant Power (formerly Racepoiint Energy) where he now serves as Creative Director.

Kurt’s work has received dozens of awards and honors including the One Show, the Addys, Archive, California Arts, the Effies and the Webbys. His work has included online, broadcast, print and design.

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What people say?

He's a unique creative in that he handles major online campaigns, global TV spots and print with the same passion and ease.

Hans Ullmark – Strategist and founder, Collaborate

What people say?

He is one of the finest art directors in San Francisco and in the business – smart, tasteful and pleasure to work with.

Robin Raj – ECD, Citizen Group

What people say?

Kurt is somewhat unique in that he has expertise and talent in both the traditional advertising and digital worlds.

Ken Mandelbaum – Creative Director, Greenland Creative

Portfolio

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Capabilities

Concepting

Need big ideas? Whether you need a fully integrated campaign or a single banner, the big picture is what sets a brand apart and informs all levels of communication.

traditional

Television, print, outdoor and all the types of media that pre-existed the internet stiil play an important roll in the communications mix for many branding situations.

Digital

Digital design requires an expertise in UI and UX. But, just as importand is an understading of code and it's capabilities. HTML, CSS, and Javascript.

design

Graphic design. Web Design. App design. Brand design. Package Design. Clean and consistant design is essential to building any brand in all uses of design.

video

Wether you need a corporate video, sales tools or pre-roll, help is here. From conception to editing or supervision on production projects, large or small. .

prototyping

Modern websites and apps benefit from wireframing and prototyping. Not only is this a great way to sell a concept to a client, it's a test design and help developers.


Contact

Let's Chat
Call me or send me a note
Phone
(415) 823-7072
Email
kurtlighthouse@gmail.com
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Project Details

Client: Matthews Assia

Title: The Focus to See More

Media: Print

Interactive

Pre-roll

Microsite

Matthews Asia maintains an approach to investing in Asia that is unique to most investment management firms. They remain actively managed in order to avoid backward looking indices and focus on potential success in the future. A San Francisco location gives their research a unique perspective on the ever evolving markets of Asia.
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Project Details

Client: Franklin Templeton Investments

Title: Gain from Our Perspective

Media: Television

Print

Interactive

Collateral

Social

With ten million customers, 110 funds, and a name born from a merger, Franklin Templeton meant different things to its many audiences. The challenge was to develop a positioning which could unify the company while growing share. Franklin Templeton’s geography, experience, and fund diversity – was its unique strength. That diversity enables FTI to offer unique perspectives on the markets.

“Gain from our Perspective” was adopted company-wide. The timing couldn’t have been better. Despite one of the worst market downturns since 1929, awareness went up and FTI moved from #7 to #2 in overall ranking. Most significantly, Franklin Templeton gained the trust of close to 400,000 new investors and added $41.8 billion in new assets.
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Project Details

Client: Amnesty International

Title: Imagine

Media: Television

Print

Interactive

Posters

Merchandise

Events

As the world’s largest human rights organization, Amnesty International needed a way to promote human rights in the aftermath of 9/11. The answer came down, in part, to a song. Yoko Ono generously granted global rights to use John Lennon’s classic anthem “Imagine”. Artists from Jack Johnson to Willie Nelson have lent their own interpretations to help create a series of animated PSAs.

During its run, more than 65 countries participated in the Imagine campaign – from Russia to the Middle East to Latin America. In addition to increases in awareness, membership, and donated media, an Edelman Survey of NGOs found that during the period of "Imagine," AI’s approval ratings in the U.S. market rose markedly, while that of other relevant NGOs declined.
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Project Details

Client: Sierra Club

Title: The defenders

Media: Posters

A poster series created for the Sierra Club as fund-raising merchadise to hightlight the plight of those who have been persecuted, imprissoned or even executed for defending their communities from environmental crimes and dangers. One of the subjects was released.
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Project Details

Client: Gore-tex

Title: comfort is where you find it

Media: Television

Print

Web

Point-of-Sale

Retail Promotions

Events

For decades, Gore-Tex was the undisputed leader of waterproof/breathable fabrics for the outdoor apparel market. But in recent years, the brand faced commoditization. The goal was to create a campaign to drive brand insistence. The task was to broaden the target from the hardcore enthusiasts to include recreational users (“core to more”) without losing the brand’s autthenticity.

The campaign ran successfully for three years. The creative exceeded all prior benchmarks in concept testing, often by as much as 20%. In clutter-testing, it bested category leaders such as Nike, Timberland, and North Face in both recall and informed awareness.
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Project Details

Client: torani

Title: sensational classics

Media: Print

Ponit-of-sale

outdoor

With over 100 flavors, Torani syrups have traditionally been added to sparkling water to create "Italian sodas." In recent years, Toarani has become popular in specialty coffees. This award-winning campaign highlighted the different uses of Torani and served as both café poster and a highly sucessful print and outdoor campaign.
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Project Details

Client: amnesty international

Title: instant karma / eyes on darfur

Media: album Design

Print

outdoor

web

events

"Instant Karma: The Campaign to Save Darfur" used a mix of music, advocacy and advertising to focus attention on the genocide. The project, helped enlist over 50 artists including U2, Green Day and R.E.M. and partners such as American Express, Hard Rock and Warner Brothers Music.

The revenue generated allowed Amnesty to boost its campaigning, apply pressure on the UN and create tools such as our Eyes On Darfur site, which broke new ground by letting users watch over vulnerable villages using up-to-date satellite imagery. The Eyes on Darfur site received a Webby Award and a IAC Award for best advocacy website by using technology to drive meaningful change.
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Project Details

Client: rock the vote

Title: piss of a politician / yes or no

Media: Telivision

Print

Point-of-Sale

Outdoor

interactive

This campaign proved young people can be motivated by issues – as long as they’re presented in provocative ways that clearly show the stakes.

Media tools included TV PSAs, print ads, point-of-sale, outdoor, wild street postings, and a substantial viral web effort. In the end, Rock the Vote registered 565,000 new youth voters in election 2000 – 165,000 specifically from online activities. The viral web effort received an astounding 17.5% average click-through rate – one of the highest ever recorded at the time. The “Yes/No” campaign received a Gold EFFIE Award from the American Marketing Association for marketing effectiveness.
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Project Details

Client: noon

Title: home in a new light

Job: website

advertising

video

Sales Materials

packaging

marketing

Oversaw in-house creative department, brand development and marketing at this smart home start-up. Created the NOON brand “story” through websites, video, social, digital, print, OOH, collateral and packaging. Ad campaign increased brand awareness by 80% in key markets.
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Job Details

Client: Savant Power

Title: Rethinking the Grid

Job: Website

Sales Materials

Video

Product Design

UI/UX

ID

MarketingF

NOON was acquired by Racepoint Energy in early 2020 and Racepoint was subsequently aquired by Savant Systems in 2021. The redubbed Savant Power makes smart energy storage and monitoring solutions as well as lighting controls for Savant Systems (high-end home automation). Racepoint acquired NOON for it’s IP, talent, and off-the-shelf marketing and creative. I’ve overseen the transition and lead the creative and marketing department including all brand touch-points, product design input and ID for new product lines.
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Project Details

Client: Amnesty International

Title: Imagine Project

Media: Print

outdoor

posters

events

A worldwide follow up to the original "Imagine" campaign intended to get a younger audience involved by allowing downloads of contemporary artists covering John Lennon's classic. This campaign eventually led to the "Instant Karma" camapign and album that raised millions to help the refugees and displaced peoples of Darfur.
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Project Details

Client: University of california

Title: the way forward

Media: Outdoor

Print

interactive

The University of California has touched the lives of every Californian in ways both large and small. it is much more than just a university system. it is also a leader in research and medicine. The purpose of this campaign was to engender pride in the accomplishments our state university sysatem produces.
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