Fresh out of my first marketing job and on a brief hiatus to figure out what was to come next, I found myself with some extra time on my hands, so I got a few of my most creative friends together and pitched them a concept… "let's put all of our crazy design & marketing ideas into one insane, almost certainly doomed project". To fit the concept, I quickly came up with the name, Dead on Arrival, since we'd almost certainly all have to abandon the project once work picked up and calendars refilled.

Eventually, we settled on a business plan - one, very limited apparel drop with unisex t-shirts, supported by some interesting social media content & partnerships. All said, we leveraged Instagram, Shopify and a custom site that we designed & developed to make a small but tidy profit on our t-shirt launch.

Below - some of our apparel on display. Photography by the incredibly talented Maddie Humbles.

Below - a sample of some of the Instagram posts we put together for DOA. Our core thesis was that by featuring other micro-creators on the cusp of virality, we could create a positive community experience in which like-minded individuals are able to discover new creators more efficiently, and by spreading our posts, also spread DOA.

Below - the custom-developed homepage for the DOA website that my friend's and I created.

Below - a custom-developed product page that we created which utilized Shopify for online store functionality & drop-shipping provider Instaprint for our order fulfillment process. I integrated all of these systems myself on the backend to create a seamless experience both for ourselves & our customers.

There's a lot more design, video and other assets that my team & I created for our DOA launch. If you're interested in seeing more, please don't hesitate to reach out to me via email at max@astronautcreative.com - or simply fill out the form at the bottom of this page!