Stephen Icardi

Location

Brooklyn

Portfolio

stephenicardi.com

One-sentence bio

I am a previously home-schooled, New York-based art director with an unhealthy love for cats and a love of stumbling upon unique artists to collaborate with.

Creative philosophy or approach

Having come from a unique background myself (self-taught creative and homeschooled), I find that creativity truly comes from the uncovering new and interesting topics, artists and people. The reason so much advertising looks the same today is because people and brands are more comfortable replicating an idea or style they see rather than paving a new way or using a new style.

Recent work I’m proud of

I recently produced a campaign for a startup called Policygenius – an insurance marketplace finds people the best insurance for the best price. We wanted an idea and a style that broke through the same-same visuals you see all over the NYC subway.

Our idea came from the truth that insurance is purchased for the uncertainty of the future. The 1950s and 1960s predicted what the future would look like and they were definitely wrong. Most of the illustrators from that time were not alive any more, so we tracked down an artist on that could capture the style of retro-futurism.

Recent work I admired

Chobani has carved out a unique space for themselves and their most recent campaign for Oat Milk called Almost Milk is no different. They’ve managed to capture a whimsical Americana feeling that looks like Normal Rockwell and Wes Anderson had a very perfect baby. Their work isn’t just beautiful, it’s conceptually strong and cleverly crafted with humorous headlines like “Almost Spilled the Almost Milk.”