Isaac
Hernandez✳Independent concepts
Creative direction · Design · Motion
All campaignsSpecUnsolicited campaign concept · 2026

Sportiefs Matcha

Every good day has a warm-up.

A spec campaign for a Boston matcha brand that sits between sport and slowness. A 15-second stop-motion film and a six-image editorial series.

Creative direction · Stop-motion film · Editorial photo direction · Copy
“The warm-up” / 15 s film, 16:9, with soundSpec concept · AI-generated stop-motion
01 / The briefInsight, idea, direction.

The whisk is
the first rep.
Why this idea, for this brand.

The brand

Sportiefs sells Uji first-harvest ceremonial matcha in tins, and runs a whisk-to-order cart for events, fitness activations and launches around Boston. Its own line is “Matcha made for slow mornings and good days,” and its journal writes about walking, Pilates and the art of doing nothing.

The insight

The name says sport. The voice says slow. Whisking matcha is thirty seconds of small, repeated movement, which makes it both: the first exercise of the day, done standing still.

The idea

Every good day has a warm-up. Matcha becomes the warm-up before the run, the class, the commute, or doing nothing at all. The film counts it out in reps: scoop, whisk, rise.

01

Reps, not recipes.

Borrowing training language makes a tea ritual feel like part of an active day without shouting about performance.

02

Handmade on purpose.

A clay bowl, a card tin and a paper whisk, animated at 12 frames per second. The judder says “made by hand,” which is what first-harvest matcha is selling.

03

Inside their system.

Helvetica, navy and paper white, taken from Sportiefs’ own site. The campaign adds an idea, not a new identity.

02 / The filmThree reps and a sunrise.

Scoop. Whisk. Rise.

A top-down miniature set. The scoop tips powder into a clay bowl, a paper kettle pours, the whisk works the foam up, and the foam turns into a paper sunrise inside the bowl. The end card lands the line. The 4:5 cut is the same master, cropped for the feed.

16:9 master · 4:5 feed cutDownload film
03 / Editorial seriesSix frames of the morning.

Where the
warm-up happens.

Directed as one shoot: early light, film grain, navy and matcha green only. Each frame puts the bowl next to a different kind of good day, from the river at dawn to the studio, the cart and the kitchen table. The tin carries no label so nothing is passed off as the real packaging.

Close-up of hands whisking bright green matcha in a speckled ceramic bowl with a bamboo whisk, navy sleeve, window light on a wooden table.
01 · The first rep
A runner in a navy track jacket holds a steaming cup of matcha on the Charles River esplanade at dawn, the Boston skyline soft behind.
02 · Before the run
A woman in navy sits cross-legged on a Pilates reformer in a bright studio, a small bowl of matcha on the wooden floor.
03 · Before the class
A plain matte navy tin beside a heap of vivid matcha powder on white paper and a bamboo scoop, in hard morning sun.
04 · 30 g, first harvest
A navy-awning matcha cart on a Boston brownstone street, a barista whisking while guests gather behind.
05 · Whisked to order
Overhead: a bowl of whisked matcha, navy running shoes, a bamboo whisk and a folded newspaper on a white towel in morning sun.
06 · The warm-up, laid out
04 / How it was madeKey poses to film.

Built like
a stop-motion set.

One master set was designed first, then each key pose was made as an edit of it, so the bowl, tin and tabletop never drift. The poses were animated, dropped to 12 frames per second, and given a one-to-two-pixel frame-to-frame jitter so the motion moves like hands touched every frame. The film is AI-generated with fal.ai models, then art directed, cut and finished by hand. It was not physically animated.

Key pose 1: empty clay bowl, navy card tin, bamboo scoop with green powder and a paper whisk on navy paper.
Pose 1 · The set
Key pose 2: a navy paper kettle pours cellophane water into the bowl of matcha powder.
Pose 2 · Pour
Key pose 3: the paper whisk stands in a bowl of pale green clay-bead foam.
Pose 3 · Foam
Key pose 4: inside the bowl, layered paper hills with a pale yellow paper sun rising.
Pose 4 · Rise
05 / Campaign copyProposed, not final.
Headline

Every good day has a warm-up.

Film supers

Rep 1 — Scoop. · Rep 2 — Whisk. Thirty seconds, wrist only. · Rep 3 — Rise.

Tin insert card

Your warm-up, 30 g.

Social captions
  • Before the run, before the class, before the inbox. Thirty seconds, one bowl.
  • Rep 2 is the hard one. Wrist only, then foam.
  • Slow mornings count as training.
Cart menu board

Today’s warm-up: ceremonial, iced, or with oat.

06 / RolloutWhat exists, what could follow.

Film · 16:9 and 4:5

The 15-second stop-motion spot and its feed cut.

Completed

Editorial series · six stills

A carousel and a journal header set for the Sportiefs Insider blog.

Completed

Studio partner poster

For Pilates studios and run clubs that host the cart: “Today’s warm-up is on us.”

Proposed

Cart menu board and cup sleeve

Rep numbering carried onto the menu: Rep 1 ceremonial, Rep 2 iced, Rep 3 with oat.

Proposed

Tin insert card

“Your warm-up, 30 g” with a three-step whisk guide drawn in the stop-motion style.

Proposed

Real stop-motion shoot

The film rebuilt by hand with a physical clay-and-paper set, using these poses as the animatic.

Proposed
07 / The takeawayScope & notes.

If the whisk reads as a rep, the brand gets to be sporty and slow at the same time.

Project scope & production notes

What this covers

Campaign idea and copy
Stop-motion film direction and edit
Editorial series direction
Rollout plan

Made by Isaac Hernandez to show how he would approach the brand, and shared with Sportiefs.

What it is not

An unsolicited spec concept, not commissioned or approved by Sportiefs. All imagery and film are AI-generated (fal.ai: nano-banana 2.1, minimax h3, stable-audio 2.5) and art directed. They do not depict Sportiefs’ real products, packaging, cart, staff or customers.

No results or client approval exist for this work.

Concept, art direction, copy, type and edit: Isaac Hernandez. Film, stills and music generated with AI models under his direction.

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