About
I came up through production,
and I never put the camera down.
Art direction is the job I do now. Camera, lighting and the edit are the trades I learned first, and I still work in them — which is why the idea and the finished cut rarely drift apart.
What I actually do
Sixteen years of art direction, plus a decade on camera. Concert and festival video for national touring artists, LED video wall design and programming, live switching and show control — then the edit afterward. Brand identity and packaging for a consumer product line held eight years, and B2B campaign and e-commerce work for a manufacturer selling to trade.
Most briefs lose something at every handoff. Fewer handoffs, less loss. That's the whole argument for hiring someone who can set the positioning, direct the shoot, and still tell you why it moved the number.
I like companies that make things meant to last and are straight about what they’re selling. After sixteen years, the work I’m proudest of isn’t what performed best — it’s what was true.
I still shoot 35mm and print it by hand in a darkroom. It’s a slow and faintly ridiculous way to make a picture now. I do it because working by hand keeps you honest about what an image is and isn’t.
The work I’ve cared most about lately looks for the same system running through a cell, a plant and a person — plant intelligence at one end, human health at the other, and how thin the lines between them are. Built from the study up, one fact at a time.
What I want next is a team where the brief starts with a real problem, where craft is the baseline rather than the bonus, and where the thing being sold is worth selling.
It starts with who.
My training is in marketing and strategic communications. So the first questions on any brief are commercial ones, and nothing gets made until they're answered.
Who actually wants this?
Demographic and audience analysis. Not a persona deck — who has the problem, what they already buy, and what they'd have to give up to switch.
Where do we reach them?
Channel strategy. Every channel has a different cost, a different audience and a different tolerance for being sold to. Choosing wrong is more expensive than making the work badly.
What do we say?
Positioning and message — the one thing that has to land, and everything we're deliberately not saying.
What does it look like?
Only now. Concept, art direction and production, working from a brief that already knows exactly who it's for.
Did it work?
Metrics, demographic read, channel efficiency. Then adjust. This is the part most creative leads hand to somebody else.
How I work
Four things I hold to, whatever the brief.
Start with the commercial problem, not the brief
A brief is usually a symptom of something further upstream. Solving the symptom is how good work dies in market.
Build the system, not the asset
One-off executions age badly and cost more every time. A brand system compounds — it makes the next twenty pieces cheaper, faster and better.
Direct from inside the craft
I've shot it, cut it, designed it and written it. So I brief in specifics rather than adjectives, and teams move faster when the direction is concrete.
Ship, then read the numbers
Taste with no evidence behind it is decoration. I'd rather be corrected early than defend a beautiful thing that isn't working.
I can do every job I direct.
Two of these are my specialism. The rest I can do well enough to brief properly, review honestly, and know when I'm being told something is impossible. I'll always tell you which is which.
Video
Photography
Graphic design
Web
Motion graphics
From the people who hired me
“Jonas is … a professional creative director. He has a way of motivating and inspiring on-camera talent and other creative production teams, which is why he was able to deliver outstanding results consistently.”
“A reliable, hardworking and intelligent director who … commands a high-level knowledge of multimedia and marketing, specializing in how video content and graphics can be leveraged to gain impressions, brand equity and views.”
“He creates high-quality marketing campaigns that generate sales leads and phone calls that often result in new sales.”
“It’s been over 7 years when we first started hiring Jonas for his professional services as a videographer and creative director.”
What I can own
End to end, not a slice of it.
- Brand strategy & identityPositioning, naming, visual systems, guidelines
- Creative & art directionConcept brief through final asset
- Video, end to endProduce, direct, shoot, cut, deliver
- PhotographyDirection, production, edit, colour
- Design & motionIdentity, layout, packaging, motion graphics
- WebSite design, build and maintenance
- Performance & analyticsAudience and demographic analysis, channel efficiency, reporting
Education
- MarketingAssociate of Arts
- BusinessAssociate of Arts
- EconomicsAssociate of Arts
- ArtAssociate of Arts
Tools & platforms
- DesignPhotoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Figma
- Motion & editPremiere, After Effects, Lightroom
- ProductionPhotography, video, direction, colour
- MarketingMeta Ads, Google Ads, Analytics, email