I make experiences.
Not deliverables.

My name is John McHale and I am an award-winning creative leader & designer who focuses on product design, experience design, branding, and digital advertising…all things experiences.

I went to college to play soccer. Got in a band. Changed my major from pre-med to English. Found David Carson. Used a photocopier to graphic design.

I make experiences. Not deliverables.

Yep! I even spoke about my path in advertising and design to a couple thousand people in India at Kyoorius Designyatra. Made the evening news, too.

About getting going…I started my career in New York City designing book and album covers. They look pretty rough now, but it was a great learning experience.

OK. Here are some bigger things.

I found myself at Sapient in 2006. While there, I led the user experience and design system work for what has become an absolute icon in the beverage industry – The Coca-Cola Freestyle Machine.
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There are now over 50,000 machines pouring 11 million drinks a day.

Won a Cannes Lion for the world’s first interactive vending machine for Coca-Cola, and a United Nations Award for Public Service Advertising for modifying a box truck and driving it around the NCAA Final Four to help stop human trafficking.

Since we were on a roll with making vending machines that broke molds and won awards, we built this machine for Unilever that used facial recognition to turn a smile into payment. This won a Cannes Lions and Gold at SXSW (was one of 17 winners out of 1,500 entries).

I moved to London for a bit in 2014 and turned around a struggling Sapient office that was high on attrition and low on utilization. While there, we won AXE, Lloyds Bank, European PGA Tour, Dove, and British Airways. AXE was a juggernaut (and won a Clio).
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Some facts about AXE:

Axe became the fastest growing mens grooming brand in the UK after launch
Launched in 15 localizations and 25 languages
Post-launch brand value increase of 91% in the Brand Finance annual report
Winner, 2017 Clio for Best Retail Site
Winner 2017 IAC Award for Best Website

Joined this fintech startup in 2018 and developed the brand from the ground up. Helped grow it from three people and some seed investments to securing $91 million in funding.
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For GlueIQ, I helped create the launch campaign and design system for the $1.5 billion purpose-built vacation destination right next to Walt Disney World®…all before it was even close to being finished.