JEFF BOORTZ – CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Jeff Boortz has founded Better Bureau for one simple reason: he and his wife Lauri have two kids. Contemplating the world his generation is leaving them is keeping him up nights. He wants to do all he can to make the world a better place while he has the time and strength.
BIO
Jeff Boortz is a Creative Director with over twenty years experience building brands in the entertainment industry across the US cable dial and across the globe. He is presently an Assistant Professor in Graphic Design in the Ernest G. Welch School of Art and Design at Georgia State University. He teaches Corporate Identity Design, Editorial Design, Graphic Design for Film and TV, and a Special Topics Class focused on Pro-social Design for area non-profits. Before forming Better Bureau Boortz freelanced as a motion design, writing, and experiential design for Atlanta-based Envy Creativie, and NYC-based Loyal Kaspar.
Before joining GSU Boortz founded a creative production company, UPRISING within Riot Atlanta, a post production facility serving the advertising and promotion industry in the South Eastern US. Boortz’s vision was to leverage the talent and comfort with all types of media of a new generation of directors emerging from SCAD. Under his mentorship they produced work for the History Channel, VH1, ESPN, and the newly launched NBC Sports Network. Under the UPRISING banner Boortz and his team also did brand presentations for JWT (Jiffylube), Focus Brands (Moes, Autotrader), and an iPhone ad for BBDO (AT&T).
Before joining Riot, Boortz was Chair of the Motion Media Design Department at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Boortz taught a variety of classes in branding, design and production at the undergrad and graduate level.
When he wasn’t teaching, Boortz was busy scouting talent for, and working to promote social purpose-driven brands through his non-profit design boutique, Open Mynd Agency.
Prior to arriving in Georgia, as the founder of 3 Ring Circus and Concrete Pictures, Jeff Boortz spent more than two decades designing for and promoting brands within the entertainment industry. It was Jeff Boortz’s artistic vision and strong leadership that earned his companies international prominence and extraordinary kudos for successfully promoting content, television networks, and distributor brands in the U.S., Latin America, Europe and Asia.
Jeff Boortz’s impressive roster of current and past clients includes Changents, Discovery Channel, Travel Channel, MTV, ESPN, HBO, CBS, NBC, FOX, Showtime, A&E, Telemundo, BRAVO, Court TV, Comcast, Charter Communications, Adelphia, Cox and others. On the international front, his clients have included Pro Sieben, and Sat 1 in Germany, Sony’s AXN, Animax, and SET, Universal’s 13th Street in France, and Canal Fox in Latin America.
A thought leader with an ardent rebel spirit, Boortz has personally designed and produced concept-to-completion brand expressions: marketing strategies, positioning documents, on-air packaging and promotional campaigns. He is the recipient of multiple international design awards, including two Emmys and “Best of Show” accolades from the Broadcast Designers Association (BDA).
Constantly pushing the envelope Boortz has helped MSOs promote their advanced products, including HDTV, VOD, Telephony, and High Speed Internet. He developed an innovative “tent pole” marketing strategy that used the power of upcoming programming events (the NBA Finals, The Oscars, The Olympics, etc) to frame a consumer call-to-action for HD service. He has helped package and promote the first wave of virtual networks in VOD including MoviePass, Tubetime, Sportskool, Select-On-Demand, Animae Selects, Exercise TV, and DriverSeat, as well as translate existing linear network brands into the medium for Discovery OnDemand, HGTV OnDemand, Food Network OnDemand, DIY OnDemand, and FineLiving OnDemand.
Always seeking a way to improve the cable customer’s experience, and the cable company’s bottom line, Boortz developed and patented a service, cableselect, that allows linear TV viewers to commit to viewing programs during promos for those shows, and provides networks a much-needed feedback mechanism on the effectiveness of their promotion tatics.
Boortz’s renaissance spirit has led him into areas branding firms don’t usually venture, including the production of Journeys of the Heart, a 9 Hour social purpose reality series for Rainbow Media’s Equator HD channel set at an orphanage for deaf children in Peru. Not content to stop with programming Boortz conceived and created an original HD network, Moov HD for the VOOM HD platform, to foster creativity and innovation through non-narrative motion arts.
Boortz has also channeled his passion for storytelling and the film medium into successes as a producer of independent art-house feature films (Dream With the Fishes, One, and Cherish) and as feature director (Tear It Down). Additionally, he expanded the scope of his agencies to include film effects, creating over a dozen futuristic advertisements for Steven Spielberg’s feature film Minority Report.
Boortz received an M.A. in Film Production from USC Film School and his B.F.A. in Graphic Design from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
CONCRETE PICTURES
Concrete Pictures was an entertainment marketing agency working for Cable and Satellite Companies, TV Networks, and Content Producers out of Philadelphia. Here is a montage of some of our work. The individual pieces that follow were all designed and directed by Jeff Boortz.
ESPN – NHRA Drag Racing – Main Title
Drag Racing fans are a rare breed. They embrace what can only be described as a cross between Heavy Metal and Rocket Science. In designing this package for the sport, authenticity was the most important factor. This high energy blend of speed and “bad boy” graphics was just what was called for.
TNT – NBA on TNT – Promo
TNT knows drama, so when they got NBA games to air they knew they needed to view them through the filter of dramatic storytelling. This promo, like a movie trailer, features the main characters of the sport, engaged in a pitched battle. The sound track reminds us how basketball is urban and fun. Finally, TNT takes ownership of the entire sport, by branding the game, the court, and even the players with its iconic logo.
3 RING CIRCUS
3 Ring Circus was the first company Boortz founded. Headquartered in Los Angeles, the firm did entertainment marketing, advertising, and content creation (mostly feature films), hence the “3 Rings.”
Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report – Advertising
Steven Spielberg’s feature film, starring Tom Cruise, is set 50 years in the future where murderers are caught before they commit their crimes. Advertising can recognize you, making it impossible to go on the lamb.
Precog Temple
This following spot, for the scene outside the Precog “temple” was designed to show the manipulative nature of the government by highlighting the difference between the their propagandistic depiction of the idyllic lives led by the Precogs and the harsh reality revealed later in the film.
Lexus
To support the story point that Tom Cruise’s character could actually evade authorities in a future where computers tracked your every move, Steven Spielberg conceived that the ultimate luxury car, a Lexus, would allow you to override the computer and choose your own path. This power was so great that it is, in this spot, represented as an act of deviance against the gods, which doesn’t anger, but pleases them.
One Night Stands
Steven Spielberg wanted to present a future where anything was possible, and the height of luxury would be to have a world renown chef come to your home to prepare a meal for your family.
NETWORK BRANDING
Boortz has created a number of on-air brands for television networks in the US and across the globe. The following are some of the most noteworthy.
Canal FOX – Latin America
Fox wanted to leverage the allure of Hollywood for their Canal Fox brand in Latin America. This on-air package was designed to exude romance, warmth, and sophistication in order to appeal to an upscale audience from Mexico to Brazil.
UPN – USA
With Sci-Fi classics like Star Trek Next Generation on their line-up Paramount wanted to position its new network as “the first network of the next century.” We created this decidedly male on-air package that oozed testosterone and heavy metal.
ProSieben – Germany
ProSeiben, a popular German movie network, wanted to transport its viewers to Hollywood- not the real Hollywood, but rather the mythic wonderland evoked in the films of Busby Berkley in Hollywood’s Golden Era.
NBC – 1992 Olympics in Barcelona – Late Night Open
This Emmy award winning package combined the surreal architecture of Barcelona and a sensual depiction of athletes to package the late night coverage of the sporting event on NBC.
BC – World Track and Field Championships – Main Title
This Emmy award winning main title was designed to set the tone for the upcoming Barcelona Olympics on NBC, one characterized by traditional heroic athletes set against the modern technology-driven coverage of the games on NBC.