Sarah Edmands Martin

DESIGNER

Associate Professor
University of Notre Dame

Designer, artist, and scholar working at the intersection of visual communication design, critical fabulation, and media aesthetics. 


Work
Play
Publishing
Teaching
CV
About

 


Recent News

UIC School of Design guest juror
m(other)ing exhibition open
forthcoming talk at Cornell





SARAHEDMANDS
SARAHEDMANDSMARTIN
SARAHEDMANDS


SWASH™ Brand

Art direction, brand identity, website design, stop-motion animation2015–2016
Art direction for the SWASH™ brand, including brand strategy, stop-motion promotional videos, social media campaigns, and web design.
    







Concept


The stop motion animation campaign created for SWASH™ features a playful, creative strategy . ​The SWASH™ Clothing Care System, developed by Whirlpool in collaboration with Procter & Gamble, is an innovative in-home appliance designed to refresh and dewrinkle garments in just 10 to 15 minutes. Utilizing a combination of heat and a fine mist from proprietary SWASH™ Pods, the system relaxes fabric fibers, reduces wrinkles, and neutralizes odors without the use of water or traditional detergents. The stop motion animations and promotional campaign bring an approachable, playful approach to teaching consumers about the new product.


brand identity
art direction
creative strategy
stop-motion animation
video concepting
storyboarding
website design



videos earned almost 20,000 impressions in one day





















SWASH™ addresses the modern consumer's need for convenient garment care solutions that extend the life of clothing while reducing reliance on traditional laundry and dry-cleaning methods. By offering a quick and efficient way to refresh lightly worn clothes, the SWASH™ system caters to individuals seeking to save time, money, and effort in their daily routines. Its compact design and ease of installation—requiring only a standard electrical outlet—make it a practical addition to bedrooms or walk-in closets, aligning with contemporary lifestyles that value both functionality and space efficiency.​











Impact


The impact and reach of the SWASH “St. Patrick’s Day” video spot by visually highlighting a dramatic spike in digital engagement: nearly 20,000 impressions in a single day. Google’s impression bar chart (right) underscores the campaign's rapid and successful audience penetration, validating the effectiveness of SWASH™’s innovative approach to digital storytelling.








The Competition


After about a month of the successful SWASH™ campaign, the brand’s direct competitor, Tide, began using a similar strategy for their own advertising campaign. Notably echoing the distinctive stop-motion animation style originally introduced by SWASH™, the attached imagery highlights Tide’s appropriation of the distinctive stop-motion animation style pioneered by Whirlpool’s earlier SWASH campaign. Specifically, Tide replicates SWASH’s innovative approach of folding and sculpting clothing into whimsical animal forms and objects, leveraging playful visual metaphors to communicate freshness and odor elimination. By directly echoing the tactile charm, meticulous folding technique, and vibrant minimalism that SWASH first established, Tide’s campaign exhibits a troubling lack of originality, undermining the creative authenticity that initially distinguished SWASH’s brand storytelling.