ian simoneaux

Yep, that’s me in a squirrel suit. For a brief period, I had to make internal content for Look Squirrel. Playing into several different aspects of squirrelly life and culture. From office life, to a squirrel’s honest take on a fellow animal, to schmoozing around SXSW with a backpack full of nuts, to doing a full on cover of Pink Squirrelly Club (trimmed to 1 minute), it was all for the squirrel bit.

When you think of Zippo, you typically think of lighters but they do so much more than that. During the summer of 2025, they tasked my tiny team with creating content to get people excited about torches, typhoon matches, and flamescapes. So, in the 100 degree heat of Austin, we burned some stuff to prove the power of Zippo products. What you don’t see in the final videos is the amount of sweat that I had to wring out of my shirt after standing next to a 110 degree heat flamescape in the already 100 degree heat.

Sometimes I get sent out to capture someone else’s vision. Academy tasked us to execute very specific ideas in mind and they wanted them to have a social flair to them. My mission, create all of these concepts using an iPhone, available talent for the larger group, and my stop motion skills. Lots of fun acting as more of a vendor in this instance vs a beginning to end concept maker. Animating spices…never again.

Deep Eddy Vodka is extremely prideful in it’s vodka recipe possibilities. No matter the season, sport, or situation their vodka can work well with it. My task creating recipe content that still had that signature Deep Eddy swagger to it; stylish yet sippable. I will say, prop styling beverages is HARD! I went through, at least, 20 cherries before I found the perfect non-damaged one that would work on camera.

INSIDE OCS

In Inside Boot Camp, we focused on the enlisted side of Navy recruiting. But, there is a whole other world that is seldom talked about on the Officer side. For a few days, I and a small team got to spend time at Officer Training Command Newport, RI. Documenting as much of the process as possible. Giving potential officer recruits a chance to learn well before they sign a contract.

I will say, you’ve never felt heat until you’ve stood in front of the GIANT WALL OF FIRE as a part of the fire prevention demo at OCS.

This little series sparked from creating spontaneous always-on organic social for 76 Gas. Sometimes when I get into an idea, I don’t let it go and this was one of those times. It started with this little crew of characters inspired by the 76 ball, personalities like Passenger Princess, Sound Sleeper, Music Mixologist, and Chomp Champ. It progressed into me trying to tap into current social culture to find other members of the crew that would pop up Gnome Wizards, Chappell Roan, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, and Deadpool & Wolverine. It all stemmed from a wish to make a small animated series, but this was not the time.

Sometimes, when I’m in a pitch there is an idea that I have passion for that just cannot be explained by a slide on a page; it has to be seen to truly be believed. Gaming Universe was one of those times where I loved the idea of creating a “metaversal” seasonal event that anyone anywhere within the gaming sphere could have fun with and participate in. We may have lost the pitch, but this video I made is a cool archival addition for me.

I always get sentimental looking at this project. Before 2016, my ad career didn’t really exist. I was a former animation student going to grad school trying to learn graphic design and motion graphics. Working in art galleries as a designer and even helping with exhibition design. Something wasn’t clicking until I did Job Propulsion Lab. When it came time for the Austin Addys, I was encouraged to submit some work. After some time, I found out that it won Best in Show Student Digital and Gold in Student Digital. Shortly after, it went on to win Silver in the Student Digital category in the District 10 Addys. A little project that could helped me see the value in my own work, so this one always holds a special place in my heart and keeps me humble.

Grad school was a chunk of my life that I would never change if I was able to redo this timeline. I got to try many things before I had to get serious with my thesis project. 2013-2016 was the time for explainer videos, so I naturally found them to be a worthy research topic for my thesis. I spent months researching methods and companies before finally putting together my own “trilogy” of videos centered around global climate change. Unfortunately, the final video in the series corrupted so if you want to see it, you need to go request it from my school’s archives.