Bringing Back the Campfire Brand

I had the chance to lead creative direction on a national campaign for Coleman — The Outside Is Calling — a brand with serious heritage and decades of memories baked into its gear.

The goal was to reintroduce Coleman to a new generation, while honoring the people who’ve had it in their camping kits for years. To help bring that vision to life, I reached out to Forrest Mankins — a Montana-based photographer I’d followed for a long time. His work always felt timeless to me. The kind of images that make you feel like you were in the moment, or wish you had been.

We shot on location near Glacier National Park and in Bozeman, Montana. As someone raised on the East Coast (and used to the Catskills), seeing that kind of open, rugged beauty in person was something else.

I walked away from that shoot having learned a lot — about working with talented people, about trusting vision, and about film photography. Forrest shared how he often compares his edits to his film scans for true-to-life color, which stuck with me. Been experimenting with it ever since.

This was one of those projects I won’t forget.