Our Lady of Lourdes is a private Catholic school based in Bethesda, Maryland, serving pre-kindergarten through 8th grade. Gigawatt Group was approached by the school to design their new website, with the intended goal of making it look modern, mobile-friendly and user-centered.

Our team, led by Creative Director Jim McNulty, and Graphic Designer Yasmine Bouchlaghem, explored creative solutions to deliver an enhanced user experience for both the school’s faculty members and parents. The design process involved multiple phases from the discovery and user research to the creation of the prototypes and the website’s launch.

The team chose Squarespace as the hosting platform, based on its ease of use for future content authoring by the school administration, as well as its ability to integrate e-commerce into the site.  Gigawatt Group is a member of the Squarespace Circle partner program.

With both user experience and interface working hand-in-hand, the Gigawatt team was able to design a user-friendly and responsive website for the most optimal user experience, while still capturing the school’s culture, identity, and values.

“The team at Gigawatt was incredible. Their proactive, flexible and creative approach is wonderful. The results are fabulous.”
—DAVID LONG
Principal, Our Lady of Lourdes

See the full case study at the link below.

Case Study

Three Seas Podcast Production

Episode 1 | Big Names, Big Impact

We have been working on podcasts since 2005. In 2019 a friend of mine, White House Correspondent Brian Karem, asked if we could help him with his, called Just Ask The Question. I’ve been with Three Seas for almost three years, but I’ve been a non-fiction TV producer, writer and director for 30 years. Brian and I had worked together in the ‘90s at America’s Most Wanted in Washington, DC. Clean Cuts, our audio/sound design division, immediately improved the quality of his podcast in two ways – 1) By having him come into one of our acoustically treated studio sound booths to record with his guests; and 2) Having him in our booth would allow one of our audio engineers to oversee the recording sessions. Brian is usually on the run looking for stories, so when the opportunity to talk with someone on his podcast presented itself, he would often record wherever he happened to be, a hotel lobby, an empty office, a coffee shop, and so on. Not locations known for pristine sound recording. And he talked with some very big names: Mary Trump, Michael Cohen, Eric Swalwell, and more. While he focused mostly on politics, he also covered the entertainment and music industries. To help rebrand this long running series we had Richard Mijangos, a Graphic Designer from our video and graphics division, Cerebral Lounge, create new album art for his podcast. Now he was ready to move forward with a relaunch.

Episode 2 | Developing Expertise

There is a LOT more to making a great podcast than people think. The entire Three Seas team’s knowledge and experience in this popular genre has really grown over the last couple of years. It takes hours of development and prep before one second of sound is recorded…Topic, format, talent and guests, style, research, pre-production, branding, distribution, and oh yeah, what are you going to call it?

As everyone knows, doing business during the pandemic has been challenging for obvious reasons. Everyone at Three Seas has adapted extremely well to working in new ways, from various locations, and by using different technology and methods. New tools were introduced, which helped us grow in the podcast and audio books world. Clean Cuts has recorded some very famous people, including Michelle & Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Sonia Sotomayor, James Comey, Susan Rice, Jane Fonda, José Andrés, Joe Theismann, Patton Oswalt, and John Mulaney. And we’ve recorded guests for some of the most popular podcasts, Pod Save America, Freakonomic, 544 Days, The Oath and Radiolab to name a few.

Episode 3 | Pivoting for the Market

Due to the pandemic, we put SAG/AFTRA-approved Covid protocols in place for in-person studio recording, but we also developed ways to record people wherever they feel safest – with the highest-quality sound possible. We recorded talent both in-person – in one of our ten studio audio booths, and remotely – at the talents’ homes or offices. To do that, Clean Cuts created customized remote mic kits that were shipped all across America. Then our audio engineers helped set up their new gear for optimal audio quality. During 2021 alone, we completed over 400 successful remote sessions, not only for podcasts, but for commercials, video games, audiobooks, corporate videos and more. Our longest running podcast, Real Estate Today, is one that Clean Cuts currently edits and mixes in collaboration with the National Association of Realtors (NAR). It was created during covid from the radio show of the same name that Clean Cuts has recorded and edited since 2016. After 251 radio episodes, the transition to podcast was seamless. To date, we’ve worked on over 316 radio shows and 62 podcast episodes for NAR.

But inside our four award-winning boutique divisions, we do much more than pump out podcast recording sessions, edits and mixes. We run the gamut on the kinds of services we perform for our ever growing list of clients. We have expanded into producing, writing, marketing, analytics analysis, distribution and hosting several podcast series.

Episode 4 | Three Seas Family Affair

The AFE Factor was the first podcast our in-house creative strategy agency, Gigawatt Group, created and produced for the Association for Facilities Engineering (AFE). This was a multi-layered project led by Creative Director Jim McNulty, Producer Lauren Schild and Designer Dana Cohen. We produced, recorded and edited the podcast, designed the logo, landing page and album artwork, while also managing the reboot of their quarterly digital trade journal.

We worked with Bram Weinstein and his Ampire Media to create our own new podcast series with another former colleague from my America’s Most Wanted days, Avery Mann. Along with AMW, he also spent time at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Avery now owns SOS ThreeSixty with his wife Nicole, a company that helps independent schools be safer through training and strategies, so choosing a topic for our podcast was easy for both of us. We created and produce Making the Case: Crimes Against Kids. Avery hosts the show and we interview victims, family members and law enforcement. We also produced a spin-off special episode for Fox TV, Making the Case: Inside America’s Most Wanted, about their new limited series by interviewing the 2021 host Elizabeth Vargas and one of the new show’s Executive Producers, John Ferracane. Gigawatt Group created the album art and hosts this powerful, and often very emotional series.

Other podcasts we work on, Health Innovation Voices: Deeper Conversations and Confident Conversations on Retirement, tackle tough topics and important issues as well. Mental Health Trailblazers: Psychiatric Nurses Speak Up is from the Minority Fellowship Program at the American Nurses Association. Clean Cuts and Gigawatt Group co-produce this informative series, as well as created the branding, the album artwork, and an audio teaser to help promote Season 1. Gigawatt also provides our client with detailed analytics to help shape, market and distribute the series. This provides them with valuable data: who is listening, for how long, where they are, and much more. We’re talking about doing a Season 2 for all of these amazing series, so stay tuned.

Multiple Three Seas boutiques also help make The Shake Up podcast for Hubspot, a developer of business software products for inbound marketing, sales, and customer service. We provide production support, writing, recording and editing for them. And Austin Caughlin, Markus Huber and Rich Isaac, our original music team from Noise Distillery, composed a custom music package specifically for the series.

Episode 5 | The Future

Late last year we produced our first video podcast series using multiple cameras and one of our in-house DPs. We can’t reveal the name yet, but it is set for release in April 2022. Our Sound Designers with podcast experience include Andrew Eppig, Harry Evans, Cory Foley-Marsello, William Lowe, Jonathan Miller, Archie Moore, John Rigatuso, Mike Goehler, Adam Rooner, and Nick Sjostrom.

As you can see, there’s not much we can’t do to help a client realize their vision – by creating an exciting, popular, top notch podcast series that everyone will be proud of. Maybe it entertains and enlightens a certain audience. Maybe it even makes a difference in the crazy world we currently live in. Either way, all of the professionals at Three Seas, Inc. take great pride in what we produce and post. We love working with all kinds of people, companies, agencies and organizations who want to get their message out there, or who simply want to tell a story for 30 to 60 minutes an episode. What is your dream podcast all about? Let’s talk….

Brian Leonard
VP Development
brian@threeseasinc.com

Campaign Features Contributions from Every Three Seas Boutique

Gigawatt Group is proud to partner once again with our long-time client, Howard Bank, on their latest broadcast and digital marketing campaign. The campaign features Zoom interviews of current Howard Bank business banking clients, conducted by our creative director, Jim McNulty.

“This project really highlights our ability to continue providing creative solutions for our clients, even with pandemic restrictions still in place,” McNulty said.

Gigawatt was able to leverage the entire Three Seas portfolio on this campaign, with Lauren Schild and Ellie Kunzig from the Three Seas team establishing the work flow for testing and recording the virtual interviews, Cerebral Lounge’s Giles D’Souza designing the animation, and Jonathan Hodges handling the editing and color correction.  Harry Evans from Clean Cuts provided the sound design and mix that featured a custom Xplodr music pack created by Noise Distillery.

Gigawatt Group’s digital strategist, Orlando Trott, implemented a social media campaign that combines both organic and paid media, and features a combination of :15 and :30 commercials combined with extended-length digital content.  Each creative element drives to HowardBankCares.com, a custom microsite developed by Gigawatt Group’s senior web developer, Amir Mishani.

Ready to energize your brand?

Contact Jim McNulty
Email: jim@gigawattgroup.com
Phone: 202-888-0504

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.'” – Fred Rogers

These are strange times. At Cerebral Lounge it means we’re looking at each other through a camera instead of over a cup of coffee. We’re emailing, and texting and chatting with folks, but we’re not wearing pants.

Regardless, we’re still hard at work, trying to do our part to make this world a better place. That’s when longtime friends Meredith Light and Beth Ruoff contacted us to help create an informative PSA about slowing the spread of Covid-19 for Gillman Communications, sponsored by the Gates Foundation and Public Health Seattle & King County. Needless to say, we jumped right in.

Creative Director Giles D’Souza came up with a geometric approach that was “…simple and expressive… The circles needed to emote. The simplicity added to the inclusive nature of the messaging.” With support from designer Richard Mijangos, Giles created a powerful, elegant animation that amplified steps we can all take to save lives, and leveraged the elementary nature of the geometry to deliver easy to understand messaging about how to slow the spread of Covid-19.

Harry Evans, Senior Sound Designer and Mixer with our sister company Clean Cuts, took inspiration from the animation approach and utilized subtle musical elements to reinforce the message; placing low reversed piano behind every mention of Covid-19 and adding synths and bells to punctuate movement and ideas. Harry’s signature musicianship proved advantageous allowing him to create a new melody for the close of the spots.

We’re keeping our spirits up during this scary time by watching the helpers, and doing anything we can to fall into that group ourselves. Stay safe everyone, we’ll only beat this if we all do our part.

Clean Cuts is proud to announce the work our team has done for the release of two new games that are making waves in the gaming world!

ASGARD’S WRATH

The Clean Cuts team has finally come up for air after three years working on the highly anticipated Oculus Rift/Rift S exclusive “Asgard’s Wrath.” In this epic VR action-adventure RPG game inspired by Norse mythology, you play as a fledgling god, possess mortal heroes, and transform animals into loyal warriors.

This is the sixth release with our long time friends at Sanzaru Games as their dedicated audio team. Our collaboration has grown over the years and we all worked hard to make sure the soundscape is every bit as rich as the immersive visual world.

“Asgard’s Wrath is a fantastic action-adventure RPG that can stand with the best of them on consoles and PC, but the fact that it’s meticulously crafted for VR means it sits in a league of its own”
– Gabriel Moss, IGN

Our audio lead Jared Bartlett and sound designer Tristan Panniers took the reigns on sound design, FMOD implementation and the overall mix. Everyone on the Clean Cuts team touched some part of the project in order to make the (virtual) reality come true. We crafted everything you hear across the six sagas in the game: unique weapons, intimidating creature voices, and lush ambiences.

Creating the assets for the 30+ hour epic was half the challenge but the step of FMOD implementation and mixing breathed life into every sound and immersed the player fully into the world of Asgard’s Wrath.

NBA 2K20

Clean Cuts is proud to have continued its 6th year of collaboration with Visual Concepts and 2k Sports for the release of NBA 2k20. This is the 20th installment of the world’s best selling NBA video game series– it has been critically acclaimed and nominated for numerous awards since 1999. This year’s game features celebrities such as Idris Elba, Thomas Middleditch, Rosario Dawson, and Lebron James!

“On the court, NBA 2K20 is a dazzling experience that matches the energy and presentation of its real-life counterpart”
– Ben Vollmer, IGN

Lead by Cory Marsello and Jonathan Miller, our team provided sound design and mixed all the MyCareer cinematics, following MyPlayer’s path from college all the way through the championship parade.

Along the journey we created dynamic locker room chatter, edited radio shows, crafted ambiences, and added detailed layers of audio for the Live Locker Room that changed based on how My Player performs. This was the most immersive year yet!

Be sure to check out all of our hard work, and the work of our friends at Visual Concepts in this year’s game, released on September 6th!

SOUND LIKE YOU MEAN IT

Clean Cuts is an award-winning creative boutique producing inspired, emotional audio and sound design for all media.

Have a project in mind? Contact Tom Dao.
tom@cleancuts.com

One of the risks of exponential growth for many SMEs is maintaining the same passion, purpose and values which were the catalyst for the company’s ascension in the first place. As one of the fastest-growing companies in Baltimore, L2 identified the need to develop a brand architecture that ensured the core values of the company remained front of mind for employees as they expanded, as well as attract new talent to join the company.

Supported by powerful creative crafted by the Gigawatt design team, L2’s brand messaging was launched at an event attended by high-ranking public figures, members of the military, and first responders.

We are so proud to have partnered with an organization that has such a powerful story and vital role in supporting our nation’s heroes.

Ready to energize your brand?

Contact Jim McNulty
Email: jim@gigawattgroup.com
Phone: 202-888-0504

Cerebral Lounge Makes Its Netflix Debut!

Our team of animators, led by Creative Director Giles D’Souza and Editor Ian Corey, had the exciting opportunity to create the main title design for “Family Reunion,” a new Netflix Original family sitcom.

We are very proud of this project and the marketing materials that followed, including web videos and a billboard promoting the series in Times Square. The project was directed by Lee Konen, who traveled west to capture the fabulous cast having fun on a green screen at the world-renowned Paramount Studios in Los Angeles.

This footage was used to create a vibrant, graphic environment that sets the tone and tells the backstory for the series. “Family Reunion” is now available for streaming on Netflix!

Bringing your stories to life

No matter the scope of the project or size of the budget, Cerebral Lounge works with producers, directors, networks, agencies, and other creatives to bring your stories to life.

Have a project in mind? Contact Mia Regalado.

Phone: 301-495-9000
Email: mia@cerebral.tv

Howard Bank recently relaunched their brand with a campaign that reflected their commitment in helping build legacies for the people, businesses and communities they serve and centered around their new tagline: “We Care About Here.” We were thrilled to contribute.

After conducting a thorough research and discovery phase, our team led a full overhaul of their brand architecture. This overhaul laid the groundwork for us to create a through the line campaign that included television, digital, social media, and a microsite as well as a full range of branded collateral. Check out the microsite.

We were honored to partner with them at every stage, helping to evolve their brand through this emotive, powerful campaign that leveraged the talents of each of our creative boutiques. It’s always a privilege to work on a campaign you truly believe in, because if you’ve ever worked with us, you know that we care too.

Looking for branding guidance? Contact Jim McNulty.

Challenge

Burney Company, an SEC established investment advisor company recently launched a wealth management brand and were looking for a branding agency to craft a brand architecture that resonates with their target audience, build out a visual identity that reflects the brand then apply this to collateral and a brand new website.

Approach

We began by identifying the attributes that collectively differentiated Burney in the market: independence from industry convention and original thinking, sophisticated in-house expertise, a true sense of trust and security and the promise of acting as truly invested partners. Building on a foundation of solid research and insights, we were then able to craft a robust brand architecture that articulated their value proposition while communicating a compelling brand story that leaves a lasting impression on their audience. We then pushed ahead with the development of a new logo, font, color scheme and other branded elements. Finally we built a full custom website from the ground up, with a backend tailored to suit their needs, a design that reflected their aesthetic and messaging that reflected their brand. We even produced an anthem video to feature on the homepage which reinforces their brand promise.

Results

Building a brand experience from the ground up gave us an opportunity to play to our biggest strengths, which is crafting fully connected brands, then producing content, collateral and websites that reflect and enhance the brand identity.

Gigawatt Group. Clever together.

Meals on Wheels: A Gigawatt Group Case Study

Challenge:

Script, shoot, edit and deliver a 60-second spot that convinces one of the world’s biggest philanthropic organizations to invest in Meals on Wheels. In one week.

Solution: 

Mobilizing all of the capabilities of Three Seas in a moment’s notice, we were able to ideate and present four solid creative ideas to MOW. The same day, they signed off “House Down the Street”, a live action spot that uses sound design, color and copy to deliver a poignant message of hope and an emotive call to action.

Results:

We scripted and shot the piece in three days, then edited, mixed, color corrected and added graphics in just two days to deliver a day early and well within budget.

Gigawatt Group. Clever Together.

Bucket Concerto: A Noise Distillery Case Study

Challenge:
Create an original piece of music for a series of UMUC spots. The music needed to reflect the energy and diversity of the college, and a decision was made to use percussion as the creative focus. But the client wanted something a little different.

Solution:
Using a combination of close microphones and room microphones, we recorded multiple rhythmic patterns using buckets, trash cans, hand claps, foot stomps and other unconventional percussion instruments. Those patterns were then combined in various ways to post score the spots. We removed all sonic treatments from the recording space to make the room as loud and bombastic as possible.

Results:
An organic, original and powerful piece of music that reflects the college and the student body; and one happy client.

Noise Distillery. Sound Like No Other.