Intel Origami Campaign

Overview

Intel approached us with a simple but impactful goal: create an animation that would keep the brand top of mind heading into the holiday season. With no new product to promote, the campaign needed to celebrate the possibilities unlocked by Intel-powered laptops, and highlight what we already know about them: they are thin, light, and incredibly powerful. What started as a straightforward branding effort evolved into something much more ambitious. I led the animation direction for a series of visually stunning and emotionally resonant animations that showcased a world of creativity unfolding from Intel technology.

Intel wasn’t facing a problem so much as an opportunity: how do you stay visible and relevant without a major product launch? Their laptops were market leaders, but they wanted to remind customers of the exciting possibilities their technology empowers. The original concept from Intel’s agency, Razorfish, was to use origami to communicate thinness and elegance. Some of the executives at Intel were concerned: could this foundational concept carry a campaign? And how convincing and interesting would a laptop folding into origami shapes be?

We created an initial prototype of a MacBook Pro folding into an origami-inspired crane as a way to explore the concept and better understand the workflow.

Zooming out

This crane prototyope animation was much-loved by Intel, and we began developing the concept further as a team. During one early brainstorming session, we discussed an initial approach suggested by Razorfish. This was to focus on the beautiful details of paper folding to reveal a museum statue.

My concern was that by zooming in to intricate details of paper folding in 3d, we would use our schedule and budget creating some beautiful individual moments but miss the larger opportunity.

What if rather than zooming in, we zoom out? We should show the enormous world that is open for us to explore every time we open an Intel laptop.

The creative team at Razorfish loved the idea, and immediately went to work creating scripts for not one, but rather four different animations that showed the breadth of possiblities open to Intel customers.

Tweaking the concept in this way gave us the creative range to tell a much more impactful story.

From folded paper to digital worlds

Although the primary goal was brand awareness, we wanted to connect with consumers on an emotional level. The stories needed to resonate with everyday people: a parent cherishing their daughter’s laugh, friends watching a movie together across the miles, or someone impressing a date with a last-minute recipe. 

To ground the animation in authenticity, we hired an origami artist to physically fold every prop in the script: more than 100 unique pieces. This gave our team tangible reference points and ensured that the digital recreations felt as real as their paper counterparts.

The larger insight that shaped the campaign was that Intel-powered laptops are more than just thin and light. They’re gateways to creativity, connection, and discovery. This inspired the tagline “Unfold What’s Possible.” Rather than focus narrowly on origami as a technical metaphor, we zoomed out to explore the expansive worlds that unfold when you open an Intel laptop.

This process was critical to aligning our vision with the client.

Every prop was folded by hand before being digitally modeled and animated.

To establish the final look early on, we developed polished style frames that showcased the lighting, shading, and rendering style we envisioned.

Finally, we created detailed storyboards and animatics to map out each scene’s composition, flow, and timing.

These elements helped Intel and Razorfish visualize the final product and provided clear milestones for feedback and refinement.

We continually refined our animations over the course of the project, going from an animatic using storyboard frames and a scratch voiceover to playblasts from our 3d software, and eventually final lighting, audio, and rendering.

This was the Intro animation, inspired by the early insight in our initial kickoff meeting. Featuring an authentically-folded origami penguin family!

I don't know that I would choose this ringtone (for very long), but I have to admit it's an adorable laugh. Special thanks to Shayla Love for supplying the laugh itself from a very special voiceover artist.

This animation seemed very relatable to me, I think I would need more help than this to make such an ambitious meal.

Time Magazine Cover

I was honored to work with Intel again a few years later, this time with the rare privilege of art directing the cover of Time Magazine.