email: jonathan@jnewkirkdesign.com

Jonathan Newkirk has spent over 20 years working in the consumer products space leading creative
branding development for literally dozens of the world’s most beloved global properties. He is a seasoned, hands-on creative leader with progressive experience building globally recognized franchise brands and managing $1MM budgets. Enthusiastically takes on challenges working across all consumer touch points where capturing consumers and delivering a premium brand experience matters. A proven leader and expert collaborator who can rally the troops and speak the language of design, marketing and engineering.

Lead development of TRANSFORMERS "ROBOTS IN DISGUISE" show LOGO. The logo had a scan feature that provided fans with points that could be redeemed in an app.

Personally designed the "BONKA ZONKS" BRAND LOGO.

Personally designed TRANSFORMERS "GENERATIONS" product segment LINE LOGO. This is the brand segment targeting adult fan collectors and one of the brands biggest revenue drivers.

Personally designed TRANSFORMERS 30th ANNIVERSARY LOGO CONCEPT

DIRECTED TRANSFORMERS X WORLD CUP CAMPAIGN for regional applications around the event.

Was given the challenge to mix World Cup hype with Transformers for an ad campaign. Some said the two worlds couldn’t be combined. Playing off the major good vs evil themes, I wrote the tagline “Defending against world domination” and art directed an illustrator on the imagery.

DIRECTED TRANSFORMERS X WORLD CUP CAMPAIGN for regional applications around the event.

Lead Strategy and Execution on Brand Standards & Global Usage Guides

Spearheaded Character and Entertainment Guides

Transformers Robots in Disguise Show Guide

Spearheaded Show Bible & Content Guides

Personally developed the logo for the fictional business called "buzzblast" where the Power Rangers worked in Season 1 Dino Fury

My design for BUZZBLAST Logo for Power Rangers Dino Fury Season 1

In show, the Power Rangers have day jobs. They work at a media content company called “Buzzblast”. The production team needed a logo that could work across different brand touch points. I designed the logo with the ranger colors hidden inside.

My BUZZBLAST logo concept application page. We needed the logo to work on different props and appearances featured in the show.

The Buzzblast logo was designed to work in a few different places. The picture in the upper right is an overlay from the set design concept image from the production team.

Lead design and execution on BEYBLADE CHAMPIONSHIP AND GLOBAL "BE THE ONE" LIFESTYLE BRANDING

An outside agency came to us with the marketing slogan “Be The One”. I lead the development of the visuals which included creating a photo style, artwork assets, logos and branding support across web, print and live events. The look became a global franchise face of the brand.

BEYBLADE "BE THE ONE" WEB VISUALS (LIFESTYLE)

BEYBLADE "BE THE ONE" WEB VISUALS (PRODUCT)

Personally concepted and lead design on closed box re-launch of G.I.JOE Classified Series (2023).

Really enjoyed the challenge of making a closed box engaging. Wanted to have fun with the other hardcore fans and I had an idea to place hidden "Easter Eggs" in each of the front panels inspired by either the cartoon, PSA’s or commercials. The illustrations I sourced artists that were exceptionally good at capturing personality.

To promote fan engagement across print and social, part of my art direction for our 2023 line was to feature a hidden reference to a retro show or comic moment in each image.

I wanted to lead the packaging and social media with what I thought the fans would enjoy, not just what felt normal. So I pitched the idea of creating images that contained hidden elements from past content either animation, comics, PSA’s or commercials. The idea was well received by fans.

Drove development on Hasbro's first NFT producing 4000 digital variants which were part of a physical product offering.

In 6 days, created 4000 individually unique NFT’s for sale on Hasbropulse.com. The NFT’s were sold alongside a digital token redeemable for a physical black and gold exclusive Megazord.

Designed and Executed BEYBLADE VIDCON TOURNAMENT BOOTH AND DEMO AREA (2019)

Concepted BEYBLADE VIDCON TOURNAMENT BOOTH "Beyblade Simulator" Experience where fans get to ride a branded gyroscope.

BEYBLADE VIDCON SIGNATURE WALL - Vidcon is about personal expression. So I came up with the idea to allow fans to express themselves on our walls! This is what they looked like after the convention!

BEYBLADE VIDCON TOURNAMENT BOOTH SIGNATURE WALL (Before Picture)

Lead design on a Transformers re-brand, segment strategy and global rollout across licensing, entertainment and all regional markets.

Prior to the rebrand, each of Hasbro’s sales territories (US, EU, LATAM, ASIA) were using different branding, logos, character art. I was tasked with creating and launching a unified global look. The look was designed to create consistency across consumer products and entertainment segments.

TRANSFORMERS REBRAND (KID TARGET)

Tagline and layout to convey a visual strategy to my team. By drawing attention to the everyday actions of the characters, we can elevate their personalities and build more connection.

When I was thinking about the “how and what Transformers Generations branding one of my creative goals was to get people to connect better with the characters. I came up with the tagline “A Moment in the Life of a Transformer” as an internal design call to action. The purpose of the line was to creatively align our team to always depict Transformers as sentient and in action. This would provide an opportunity to convey more personality and details about the character.

Directed a series of TRANSFORMERS GENERATIONS PROMOTIONAL POSTERS to help raise awareness of the upcoming product line. The strategy was to make the line feel like entertainment to promote engagement.

Directed SAN DIEGO COMICON DEVASTATOR PACKAGE. The front of the package opened up like a bulldozer scoop which played nicely into the character which was made up of different construction vehicles.

Personally designed MARVEL "SIGNATURE SERIES" BRAND LOGO

Personally designed several EARLY typography LOGO concepts FOR CAPTAIN AMERICA MOVIE LOGO

Personally designed "TITANIUM SERIES" BRAND LOGO which was originally part of the Star Wars line but quickly branched out to include other brands.

Personally designed the "GO-BOTS" REBRAND Logo

Demonstration of how the Transformers iconography could translate to APP ICON

Personally designed SEASON 1 TRANSFORMERS ROBOTS IN DISGUISE PROMO POSTER using existing character art which I directed.

A promotional poster I designed for Season 1 of the new animated show.

Personally designed concept Poster for Season 2 TRANSFORMERS ROBOTS IN DISGUISE using character artwork I directed

Spearheaded segmentation strategy and branding for TRANSFORMERS ROBOTS IN DISGUISE line

Drove design on TRANSFORMERS "AUTHENTIC" LOGO and creative strategy

Developed and Pitched an EVERGREEN TRANSFORMERS "AUTHENTIC" Retail PROGRAM

TRANSFORMERS FASHION CONCEPT

STAR WARS FIGURE PACK (THIS IS THE ACTUAL CONCEPT IMAGE LUCASFILM APPROVED)

Lead design on STAR WARS BRANDING & PACKAGING

Lead design on IRON MAN BRANDING & PACKAGING which Marvel adopted as their line look

Directed creative on BONKA ZONKS BRANDING & PACKAGING

LINKIN PARK X TRANSFORMERS

MATTHEW REINHART X TRANSFORMERS

"TILL ALL ARE ONE" TRANSFORMERS SDCC EXLUSIVE

SAN DIEGO COMICON BOOTH CONCEPT (2017)

YOKAI WATCH ENDCAP CONCEPT

YOKAI WATCH PALLET PROGRAM CONCEPT

PErsonal drawing

PErsonal drawing of Littlest Petshop Concept Characters

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