LET'S TALK ↗
● DARREN KAPAHI / CREATIVE DIRECTOR + BRAND BUILDER

DEEZY.

I build brands.
I direct worlds.
I make ideas impossible to ignore.

Two decades across music, fashion, culture, CPG and digital. Today, I fuse human creative instinct with AI-accelerated production to bring ideas all the way into the real world.

EXPLORE MY WORK ↗GET TO KNOW ME ↓
SLANG fashion campaign creative directed by Darren Kapahi
CULTURE
MEETS
CREATIVE
TECH.
HUMAN TASTE.
MACHINE SPEED.
CREATIVE LEADERSHIP / BRAND SYSTEMS / AI IMAGE + FILM / DIGITAL COMMERCESCROLL TO EXPLORE ↓
CREATIVE DIRECTION✳BRAND IDENTITY✳AI IMAGE + FILM✳PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT✳FASHION + CULTURE✳ECOMMERCE
01 / SELECTED WORK — OLD SCHOOL MEETS NEXT GEN

THE WORK.
SPEAKS.

Brands built, campaigns released, products launched, and stories put into culture. Work across disciplines, not just a gallery of pretty pictures.

Awesome Ice Tea beverage packagingBRAND BUILDING / CPG / DIGITAL

AWESOME ICE TEA

Co-Founder & Chief Brand Officer · Complete identity, packaging, content engine, retail storytelling and Shopify.

2019—NOW
SLANG fashion outerwear campaignFASHION / ARTIST MERCH

SLANG MUSIC

Creative direction, premium apparel and artist collections, e-commerce, campaign content.

2024—26
VANISH
TODAY.
AI / EDITORIAL

CREATIVE AI & FILM

Directing human-led concepts with accelerated visual production, compositing, motion and finishing.

2025—NOW
PEPSI
WE INSPIRE.
BRAND CAMPAIGNS

PEPSI / RPM GRP

NAACP Award-winning “We Inspire,” Bronx Flavor, Beats of the Beautiful Game.

2008—19
SHOWOFF
RECORDS
MUSIC / CULTURE

MUSIC PACKAGING

Billboard-charting Statik Selektah releases, Termanology, identities and artist campaigns.

2011—15
02 / MY TOOLBOX — NOT JUST A JOB TITLE

ONE BRAIN.
MANY MOVES.

From the first sketch to the final frame, I connect strategy, design, production, and launch.

01 / VISION

Creative Direction

Brand strategy, concepts, art direction, identity systems, campaigns and creative team leadership.

02 / PRODUCTION

AI Image + Film

Human-led creative systems blending prompts, 3D, cinematography, post-production and compositing.

03 / CULTURE

Fashion + Product

Merchandise, apparel collections, forecasting, design, packaging, overseas sourcing and manufacturing.

04 / DIGITAL

Commerce + Web

Shopify, Webflow, Framer, UX/UI, ecommerce and integrated brand experiences.

05 / STORY

Campaign + Content

Social, OOH, scripts, storyboards, editing and launch-ready multiplatform campaigns.

06 / EXECUTION

End-to-End Building

Concept development through sourcing, content systems, investor presentations and finished campaigns.

03 / SUBSTANCE — THE RECEIPTS

THE PROOF.

Creative output matters. So does what the work does in the real world.

20+

Years across creative direction, branding, fashion, music and consumer products.

250+

NYC retail locations achieved for Awesome Ice Tea in eight weeks, according to 2026 résumé.

40%

Reported rebuy rate across first 90-day Awesome retail accounts.

01

NAACP Award-winning Pepsi “We Inspire” campaign.

04 / BEHIND THE WORK — CREATIVE OPERATING SYSTEM

HUMAN TASTE.
MACHINE SPEED.

AI isn't the idea. It's the production engine. Creative judgment is still in control.

01 / DEFINE

Start with the idea.

Audience, objective, brand codes, cultural tension and the right visual point of view.

02 / SYSTEMIZE

Build the rules.

References, storyboards, consistency systems, production and motion logic.

03 / PRODUCE

Make it real.

Photography, AI, 3D, editing, retouching, motion and compositing.

04 / DELIVER

Finish with purpose.

Brand review, polish, final art, delivery and platform-ready content.

05 / THE PERSON — NOT THE PITCH DECK

I'M DARREN.
THEY CALL
ME DEEZY.

I'm a New York-based creative director and brand builder who has spent a career moving between disciplines that don't always share a room: hip-hop and high fashion, packaging and commerce, traditional filmmaking and emerging AI.

I work inside brands, alongside founders, with artists and across agency teams. That perspective helps me create work with personality, cultural relevance and a practical reason to exist.

LINKEDIN ↗

SELECT EXPERIENCE / TIMELINE

Awesome Ice Tea

Co-Founder & Chief Brand Officer · 2019 — NOW

PlaceBrandHere™

Founder & Creative Director · 2021 — NOW

SLANG Music

Freelance Creative Director · 2024 — 2026

RPM GRP

Freelance Creative Director · 2008 — 2019

Showoff Records

Creative Director · 2011 — 2015

NAACP Award · BevNET LIVE Semi-Finalist · Billboard-charting campaigns · Harvest Cup packaging recognition.

THE STUDIO / EXPANDED CREATIVE CAPABILITY

MEET
THE
STUDIO.

Good ideas shouldn't stop at a moodboard. I founded PlaceBrandHere™ to help fashion, entertainment, and consumer brands execute extraordinary work from strategy through production.

Same creative perspective. Expanded production capability.

EXPLORE PLACEBRANDHERE™ ↗
THE NEXT GOOD IDEA STARTS HERE

MAKE
SOME
NOISE.

Looking for a creative leader, a co-conspirator, a new brand, or an AI-accelerated content team? Tell me what you're making.

DARREN@PLACEBRANDHERE.COM ↗