CALEB KUHL
Creative Director · Designer · Director · Photographer
Story is king!
About Me
Creative director and designer with 20 years building brand systems and visual identities for national brands and faith-based organizations. I work at the intersection of brand and product, developing the guidelines, typography, color, and storytelling that keep a brand consistent across every touchpoint, from first concept through final production. My background spans book and product design for a national ministry publisher, creative direction for commercial brands like Toyota, Disney, and Chewy, and am currently the Director of Photo and Video at Church of the City in Franklin, TN. I care most about work that carries a mission, and I lead brand and design work that makes people feel something and moves them to act.
Education
Southwest Baptist University
Bachelor of Science - Graphic Design
Work History
Lead creative and production for national campaigns, partnering with agencies and brands including Toyota, Disney, AT&T, Chrysler, Nissan, Infiniti, BMW, Hyundai USA, Citibank, Chewy, and Anheuser-Busch. I own the work from first pitch through final delivery.
- Develop and present treatments and pitch decks that win national campaign work
- Direct talent, crew, and production from concept through post, on budget and on schedule
- Shape creative within brand guidelines to keep vision cohesive across every deliverable
- Write copy and scripts, and lead production meetings that align agency, client, and crew
- Shoot product and lifestyle imagery, and direct the look from set through final grade
- Direct post houses on narrative cuts and CGI assets to protect the story in finishing
Lead all video and photography for the organization, owning creative and production across a small team of staff, volunteers, and freelancers (2 to 5 per project).
- Oversee pre-production, production, and post for story films, social assets, and promotional video
- Build the storytelling strategy as part of the broader creative and missional vision
- Develop, curate, and prioritize the video slate across shorts, podcasts, and emerging formats
- Hire, train, and lead staff, volunteers, and freelancers to shoot on-brand, on-story work
- Partner across departments and with outside vendors to keep every project moving
Owned the editing and retouching pipeline for entertainment, lifestyle, and automotive campaigns, holding visual quality and consistency across every deliverable for high-profile clients including 50 Cent, Chris Brown, Soulja Boy, Mazda, Fiat, Dodge, and Ford.
- Built final composites from multiple plates: color-matching paint swatches, refining seams, retouching talent, sky replacement, and final grade
- Managed file workflow, data wrangling, and on-set retouching for real-time adjustments
- Consulted with photographers, art directors, and clients to keep final output aligned to the creative vision
- Delivered seamless execution from pre-production through post under tight deadlines
Designed print and packaged products for a national faith-based publisher, taking concepts from pitch through final production with brand consistency across a large catalog.
- Pitched new product concepts to internal stakeholders, developing designs from idea to production-ready deliverable
- Designed book covers and product packaging, balancing catalog-wide brand consistency with individual title identity
- Led design on exclusive collaborative study materials tied to The Passion of the Christ, coordinating with partners to hit a high-profile release
- Ran on-press print checks with production vendors to verify color, typography, and quality before full runs shipped
Skills
- Brand systems & visual identity
- Design guidelines & templates
- Typography & layout
- Illustration & iconography
- Art direction
- Product & packaging design
- Creative direction
- Storytelling strategy
- Treatment & pitch development
- Copywriting & scripting
- Directing (live action & talent)
- Photography (product & lifestyle)
Work
Toyota
Project: 2025 Highlander
Anniversary Limited Edition
Commissioned to acquire still assets for Toyota’s Limited Edition Anniversary Highlander. This was a CODE RED project captured in beautiful Mendocino, California. Project is currently live on Toyota’s website:
2025 Highlander
Kia
Project: EV Commercial Spots
Commissioned to Direct Kia’s 2024 EV line of vehicles. Delivered 12 short form videos in total, both for web and broadcast.
Citibank
Project: Small Business Campaign
Commissioned to capture assets for
Citibank. For this project we documented a successful small business owner’s day to day, utilizing her small business Citibank card to earn points towards her vacation. We then documented the vacation to Todos Santos, Mexico, illustrating Citibank’s benefits for small business owners.
Woolly Co.
Project: Woolly Co.
Apparel Design
Developed and illustrated unique designs for Woolly Co., thoughtfully crafted to resonate with adventure seekers, passionate travel enthusiasts, and the outdoorsy, granola-loving community who embrace an active, nature-centered lifestyle.
Chewy
Project: 2023 Chewy Campaign
Commissioned to capture assets for Chewy marketing material, applications ranged from printed material to web, both social and landing pages for chewy.com and social media applications.
Retouching
Project: Target & Fiat
I had the opportunity to retouch images for both Target and Fiat Motors, where I was responsible for creating final composites by blending multiple plates. This involved color-matching vendor paint swatches, refining car seams, retouching talent, replacing skies, and completing a final color grade to ensure a polished result.
AI VIDEO & GENERATIVE WORKFLOWS
I direct AI-assisted video and image work, combining filmmaking fundamentals with current generative tools. I treat AI as a production multiplier, not a shortcut. Direction still governs story, pacing, and brand integrity.
Direct multi-model workflows across Kling, Google Flow, Veo, Midjourney, ChatGPT image gen, and Nano Banana, choosing tools by shot need rather than defaulting to one platform
Work from generated images or my own photography as source, animating real shots into clips for brand-accurate, art-directed control
Generate across models, then cut and color the final piece in DaVinci Resolve for a finished, broadcast-quality result
Generative fill and asset extension in Photoshop for clothing, background, and architecture replacement at campaign quality
Hold character and scene consistency across sequences, the part most AI work fails at
Pacifico AI Test.
For this 30-second spot, I animated still photos I captured into a cohesive narrative. The difference comes down to the source material. Most generative AI video falls apart because it's built on AI-generated images from the start. When you animate real photography through Kling 3.0, the quality holds up remarkably well, and the results are simply far better.
Chewy AI Test.
This one started from an actual stills campaign I shot for Chewy. Rather than let those images live as photos alone, I animated them into a 30-second piece, and the same principle held true: AI video is only as strong as what you feed it. Spots built entirely from AI-generated frames tend to drift and distort, but starting from real campaign photography gives the motion something solid to hold onto. The payoff is footage that stays clean, consistent, and convincing all the way through.