Nice to see you.
I’m Desmond. I’ve been a lot of letters, including CCO, ECD, EVP, and CW. I've worked at big agencies and bigger tech. I've won every major industry award for creativity and received zero accolades for the novel I wrote. But I’m really just a human living in Chicago who uses creativity to solve problems. This is my portfolio.
Feel free to skip your next meeting and take a stroll through my work. ⌵
Esurance Save 30 Winner of two Cannes Lions ⌵
Dramamine: The Last Barf Bag
Winner of seven Cannes Lions, including a Grand Prix. Case study video ⌵
The Last Barf Bag Long Form Film ⌵
New Orleans Pelicans Won’t Bow Down, Gold Addy Winner ⌵
Won’t Bow Down Case Study Video ⌵
Chicago Blackhawks Ready to Work
A season’s worth of content, from awareness to conversion and episodic and in-game experience ⌵
Writer & Director Shot seven spots in one day for a season-long ticketing campaign
This is The California Clipper for any Chicago people who were wondering. My creative & director partner was Adrien Bindi. Our DP was Andrew Wehde who shoots The Bear.
Altoids The Curiously Strong Mints. LIA, Andy, and Clio Award Winner ⌵
Esurance StarTrek movie partnership.
They asked for a commercial, we brought them a serial comedy about an underachieving Starfleet crew. These are the voyages of the USS Not-the-Enterprise ⌵
Zatarain’s Will it Fri? Live. Gold Addy Winner ⌵
The French Word for Murder ⌵
My world-famous novel
★ ★ ★ ★
My world-famous novel ★ ★ ★ ★
The French Word for Murder
I don’t consider myself to be a novelist. I’m more like a short-form writer who doesn’t know when to stop.
The French Word for Murder is the story of Bradley and Veronica Piper, an affected Bay Area couple who make a small fortune in advertising and buy their dream home in the tiny French village of Saint-Arnac. They purchase the home En Viager, meaning they must wait for the current resident, Agnes Depuy, to die before taking possession. The problem is that despite being very old and in bad health, Agnes just won’t die. Desperate to move in, Bradley and Veronica go to France to hurry the process along.
Currently available on Amazon for all my mother’s friends to read.
Currently hovering around 4.5 stars on both Amazon and Goodreads. It’s polarizing to some, which I gladly take as a compliment.
“Mr Lavelle wrote an utterly charming and entertaining novel, a mysterious romp from California to France. Bonus points for anyone in the brand and advertising industry who will snicker at the industry characterizations.”
- Someone named Christi
“This is the type of book that you can perfectly picture as a movie. The characters are complex (you love to hate them and then you end up loving them), the plot is insane, the scenery is both gorgeous and aspirational along with being lonely and desolate.
- Soemone named Sara
“I wasn’t expecting such a snappy well-written tale from Kindle Unlimited. The underlying lament on modern American life is cushioned by sharp dialogue, deftly drawn characters and a galloping plot. It’s a light read, but entertaining and enjoyable.”
- Someone I don’t even know