Nick Lipton

For Avirex’s 50th birthday celebration, adidas created a capsule collection to put the brand in places it had never been. I helmed the creative writing and ideating the campaign, working with COLORWAY for production, Director Mez and photographer Jimmy Fontaine to bring this NYC icon to life for a new generation of fans. With NYC residents Joey Badass and MJ Herrera keeping things true to the city, we crafted a spot, photo campaign, drop and after party to keep true to Avirex’s legacy as a street icon, but captured through a modern lens the brand had yet to explore.

Vice President Brand & Creative.

Eleven hotels, four continents, 17 restaurants and one global goal: revitalize the iconic Ace Hotel brand after the catastrophic Covid shut down. Between opening three international properties and leading the Brand & Creative department effort across all physical and digital channels, we managed to redesign and rebuild the entire digital infrastructure, hit revenue records, set and reset digital traffic records, create fresh programs to lead sustainability and lead the conversation in boutique cool across the Hospitality Industry. Ace Hotel was a 24/7, 365 challenge to connect with the public, grow awareness across the globe, drive internal creativity forward and fix real business challenges daily, monthly and annually.

PRESS SELECTS:

Interview Mag: Wet and Wild in the Desert

Monster Children: Good Photo Japan

Variety: Maude X Ace Hotel Film Series

Surface Mag: Noma Heads to Ace Kyoto

Dezeen: Evangeline Comes to Toronto

The Australian: Ace Hotel Sydney Review

HypeBeast: Ace Toronto Now Open

Monster Children: DFA X Ace Hotel Brooklyn

Gothamist: Stellar “As You Are” in Brooklyn

Design Lines: Superette’s Capsule Collection

OffBeat: Ace NOLA Secret Ceelo Show

CN Traveler: Ace Hotel Toronto

Gainbridge "Let Your Money Work For You"

Hired as both Writer and Creative Director of the 2026 Gainbridge Anthem campaign. Run across broadcast and c-tv, this spot featuring Caitlin Clark was produced by the agency Better Half, a part of Cult Holdings.

The brief was simple, make annuity products attractive and relatable to a new generation of American workers. The solve, with brand ambassador Caitlin Clark was relate sustained, lifelong income as a part of planning for those with dreams of all kinds.

Briefed by Nike as a retail activation. Sold back as a three city photoshoot, combining retail activation, influencer strategy and consumer insight to create an out of home campaign from DC to NYC that would allow the agency (Colorway) to double the budget and win an annual Nike retainer due to the success of the work.

In 2025, I won a year long project with adidas to get a younger, more culturally forward demo to fall in love with the OG Superstar. Broken into three main efforts, partner moments (regional projects with mentorship from my team), UGC (contracted content creation) and major moments like our Miami Influencer Trip, All Originals (NYC Summer 2025) and Open Source (Fall 2025), a small crew of creatives and producers garnered a few hundred million impressions, created one of the biggest brand led streaming moments of the year, and shut down six city blocks in downtown LA by nothing more than word of mouth.

A multi-segment journey of sustained activity to bring Nike’s latest shoe (The Ava Rover) out of the campaign and into the streets. From retail takeovers in Philadelphia and New York City, to influencer campaigns with major BMX influencers, and an incredible seeding kit campaign that saw millions of impressions across multiple platforms, this project took a single brief and turned it into six months of sustained brand heat. A special note from the client, “This is the best work of my career.”

ONE SHOW FINALIST 2021 “JOB Brand Identity”

ONE SHOW SHORTLIST 2021 “JOB Rebranding”

ADC SHORTLIST 2021 “JOB Rebranding"

Almost 200 years of history and an iconic, generation defining Art Nouveau poster series lost its luster. Asked to rekindle the fire, and roar back into culture we overhauled the look, honoring the past while modernizing the tone for the next 200 years.

Marshall: Never Stop Listening

The 2021 Marshall Brand anthem had one thing going for it, Iggy Pop. Working with Director Kevin Castanheira we crafted a script that gave Kevin the ammo to unleash visual poetry. But the ultimate reward was having Iggy in the booth, who awarded the script with a guttural, “That’s a damn good line.”

After more than 70 years the Marlboro legend was beginning to fade. From initial packaging to brand creation and eventually world wide content creation, Marlboro Black was a whirlwind of big brand revitalization, innovation and craft. From product portfolio to world making, Marlboro Black focused on pushing the modernization of the Marlboro legend. Craft and storytelling led the way, and even the Wall Street Journal noticed the quality of our direct mail, "More like a VIP invitation."

PRESS SELECTS:

Wall Street Journal: Marlboro Black Lures Millennials Who Shunned Cowboy Image

WSJ Podcast: Millennials Stoke Sales

ONE SHOW SHORT LIST: INTEGRATED BRAND CAMPAIGN 2020

In 2019/2020 Chicago's oldest boys and girls club needed help. Their mission to provide a safe place for the cities most vulnerable youth needed funding, and fast. We took the challenge, and set out to tell a story of empowerment, courage and creativity that gave kids a stage to tell their own story.

Congratulations to our Photography Partner Sandro Miller:

International Photo Awards First Place 2020

Advertising Gold PX3 2020

When Nike launched the Pegasus Premium in Summer of 2025 we brought the Nike x Foot Locker launch campaign to life in a Red Hook Studio. Transforming the space into both a deeply bright, saturated world to bring the “pop” and energy of the shoe to life, and curating an assortment of work to meet any retail or social background need, the team walked away with a small photo campaign that celebrated the latest runner worldwide. Shot by the one and only Jimmy Fontaine.

Fifteen minutes caused millions of organic impressions across Instagram, Tik Tok, Linkedin, Reddit and more, including a fact checking by the AP News.

What started as a pitch to Adidas to break with Ye led to an organic post that caught like wild fire. Read below to see the reaction.

PRESS SELECTS:

HITC.com: Post Fools Twitter

Apnews.com: ‘Bye’ to rapper Ye

Adland.tv: Adidas fan says bye to Ye

Creative Director - Copy

For a time, every word from the Equinox machine came through my desk. An era of turbulence for sure, but one that allowed me the opportunity to test and learn with AI based April Fools projects, art show curation, voice building, and the always interesting task of molding the language of science and engineering to fit the brand tone of a luxury fitness club. Equinox was demanding, fast-paced and gave the Creative Team a chance to blend visual storytelling with language that stoked aspirational fire in the minds of 300k members and an attentive would-be consumer.

Music Video for Smoko Ono, Chance the Rapper and more.

A Covid-era music video crafted remotely, with a bunch of rappers who lost hard drives and at the last moment declared, “What if we just went shopping in London.”

PRESS SELECTS:

Lyrical Lemonade: Chicago Never Fails to Impress Me

Complex: Smoko Drops New Music

Pitchfork: Chance joins Smoko on Winners

Brand & Product Creation

Gallo Wines brought a business problem, "We have vodka, now what?" From nothing, to now one of the most popular drinks in America, High Noon started as an idea to turn hard liquor into something more approachable. From bottle to brand values we crafted High Noon a world filled with merch, mini-web shows, launch parties and an idea with enough legs to outlast us.

PRESS SELECTS:

Winemag: We Got it Right, Brand Bravery Made it Work.

Fine Wine & Spirits: The High Noon Hype

Ad Age: We (Mikey Hester and Myself invented it. Now it grows.)

Packaging Gateway: The Original Push

The Drum: Yeas Later the Brand is Still Going Strong

COPENHAGEN

Charged with leading America’s second oldest brand back to prominence. First, we infused a new look and feel to match the quality and craft of the product itself, then we created new programs to celebrate the 200th anniversary, to celebrate the history and to ignite a new pride among those that chew. The result was reclaiming the #1 position in the market after just 18 months.

Asked to bring culture back to Camel, we embarked on a mission to define the brand as a supporter of art and the arts community. From investing, nurturing and opening large scale arts initiatives to partnering with artist to bring new life into old packaging, we gave Camel a much needed boost when it needed it most.

Massive in France, unknown in the USA. Tasked with bringing the OCB front and center to a US market we ditched the surrealism and antiquated stoner motifs of the European brand for a more refined, intelligent and naturally focused identity. Using the product as a guidepost, OCB USA became a hit, complete with the swag, stories celebrity fire power to keep America rolling.

Maison de la Luz is a private luxury guesthouse in New Orleans. Tasked with growing awareness without encroaching on the private nature of the estate, we set out to push the sister bar (Bar Marilou) while showcasing the stunning truth hidden behind the hotel’s front door. By creating and using key principles for how to showcase the hotel, and creating a web of discreet, highly targeted media buys, Maison saw growth without ruining its secret.

Asked to build the Creative Department at Graduate Hotels we opened 25 new properties, boiled down the brand to connect hyper-locally and nationally and executed a wide range of new ideas.

PRESS SELECTS:

GoProvidence: Hotel Invites the Public to Paint

USA Today: Lebron James Expands Efforts

Forbes: Unlimited Stays this Summer

Travel & Leisure: All You Can Stay

Conde Naste Traveler: $400 Summer Pass

Afar: Graduate Hall Pass Continues

Travel & Leisure: Hall Pass Comes Back

Muerte Studio was a publishing company created by Nick Lipton and Alicia Gutierrez. The brand published 12 photo books and support campaigns by the likes of Atlantic Records photographer Jimmy Fontaine, motorcycle racer and professional photographer Scott Toepfer, Emmy award winning documentarian Eric Fernandez and more.

In 2022, Ace Hotel planted a flag in Sydney, Australia. We built a highly anticipated restaurant with the one and only Mitch Orr to helm the kitchen, built an identity around his unique style and the deep cut reference to the buildings original use (a kiln that helped build the city around it) and brought a fun, energetic, yet polished approach to the graphic style. A mix that matches Mitch’s love of all things hip hop and innovation with the stunning views and prolific dishes. Go to Sydney, give it a try, grab a table at kilnsydney.com.

PRESS SELECTS:

HypeBeast: Material Marvel Kiln Opens at Ace Hotel

Vogue Living: First Look at Kiln

Gourmet Traveller: Mitch Orr’s Soaring Rooftop

Coming out of the pandemic we turned New York’s famous Breslin restaurant into Breslin Burger. A summer pop-up to celebrate and expand upon some of the most famous menu moments, in a fast and safer setting as the world tip toed outside again.

PRESS SELECTS:

Gothamist: Breslin At The Ace Hotel Reopens As A Burger Joint

The first restaurant in the Ace cannon to exist on two continents, LOAM began as a mission to bring healthy, upscale fare to the DTLA area. Eventually, the brand expanded to Surrey Hills, Sydney, Australia where the ethos of good ingredients with a little edge took hold and took off.

PRESS SELECTS:

LA Downtown News: LOAM Gets Down to Earth

BROADSHEET: LOAM, the First Diner in Surry Hills

Asked to help a new Level One Blockchain company sell itself to investors and consumers alike. What began as a brief for event recap videos expanded to the need for brand and gaming focused videos. The problem? All we had was footage from one event. The outcome, worked.

Asked to, “Save the business”. As CMO’s exchanged hands three times in 12 months, we pitched a series of new launch campaigns for Mike’s Hard Seltzer. We made a series of social moments, none of which I care to remember, as we pitched multiple, wonderful versions of the main campaign to various new client faces. Eventually, the client took an indefinite pause on the project, and the one asset we did sell through for Seltzer haunted me as a multi-million dollar media buy followed my every move from coast-to-coast.

Legendary Cub’s stars Kyle Schwarber and Javy Baez asked if I could help them do good. So, we did.

The first mission, help Left Fielder Kyle Schwarber nail his foundation from a look, feel and messaging standpoint. Since we built it, it has been carried across multiple teams and touched countless lives. Javy Baez wanted to do the same, so we turned his nickname into a community building platform of his own.

PRESS SELECTS:

MLB.com Schwarber Launches Platform

CBS: Schwarber hosts Neighborhood Heroes

Washington Nationals: For Good

PRESS SELECTS:

La Vida Baseball: Los Magos

What if coffee was secondary? With an alley entrance and a nice space, we created Good Chemistry to be a community arts space first, and a coffee and snack shop second. The result has been fantastic, and from the multi-color brand pallet to the name, it has become a brand that signifies togetherness, radicalness and is now proudly a home for the avant garde and Sydney’s most creative.

PRESS SELECTS:

Eat. Drink. Design. Good Chemistry Shortlisted 2022.

Covid ruined a lot of things. But after a rough run with the local community and a global pandemic I was asked to recreate a space and rebuild a revenue stream. Strategy led the way, and a space was built not only for, but with Chicago’s young, creative community in mind. One that leaned into the who’s who of the Chicago scene to build trust and confidence that this would be a place for all. When the building was sold and the club was closed we lost a great little identity built on the truth and history of the city, but Chicago lost a place where everyone felt included. A young writer has a touching tribute below.

PRESS SELECTS:

The Tribe: What Ace Hotel’s closing means for Black millennials

Time Out: Little Wild

In a building known for its wood aesthetic, with a kitchen built for wood-fired fare, Alder embraced all things modern and upscale while creating a sister rootop lounge for a more uptempo, casual affair. Evangeline, as it is called, was named after the original feature length film made in Canada (an ode to the cities cinematic history) and is currently one of the best nights and views in all of Toronto.

PRESS SELECTS:

The Travel: New to the Michelin Guide

Elle Canada: 48 Hours in Toronto

DISCOVER:

Evangeline, a sister brand and great night out.

BERETTA TACTICAL IDENTITY

Beretta had a problem. The 500 year old Italian weapon maker could make the best hunting weapons on earth, but had zero respect in the tactical weapon world. So, we broke from tradition and leaned into core values every soldier holds dear. The result was a campaign made for men who do serious work (and those who aspire to be them), but the campaigns meatiest legs were ultimately put on hold as two large nations began placing massive arms orders and all marketing funds were rerouted to manufacturing.