dessie lazaroff
institutional problem → system → artifacts
ABOUT
I work at the intersection of strategy, story, and scale — shaping how emerging technologies define themselves, explain themselves, and earn trust.
Most creative work focuses on either aesthetics or strategy. This work focuses on the systems beneath them — the structures that allow complex organizations to communicate clearly and operate coherently.
visual systems + narrative frameworks + organizational identity
I work at the intersection of strategy, story, and scale — shaping how emerging technologies define themselves, explain themselves, and earn trust.
Most creative work focuses on either aesthetics or strategy. This work focuses on the systems beneath them — the structures that allow complex organizations to communicate clearly and operate coherently.
visual systems + narrative frameworks + organizational identity
ENOVIX
RED QUEEN HYPOTHESIS
REFRAMING COMPLEX TECHNOLOGY FOR MARKET ADOPTION
(Strategy Lead, Narrative Framework )Enovix had developed a next-generation silicon-anode lithium-ion battery: a serious engineering advance in a category that rarely communicates beyond specifications, performance claims, and generic energy imagery.
The challenge was to make the technology legible without making it small. I developed a strategic narrative that moved the story away from lightning bolts and battery icons, using Alice in Wonderland as a cultural chassis: curiosity, time pressure, impossible scale, and passage into a changed world.
The White Rabbit’s timepiece became a symbol for urgency and invention. The Red Queen Hypothesis gave the strategy its competitive logic: in a fast-moving ecosystem, standing still means falling behind.
The winning strategic frame was one direct line of copy: Enovix is not only seeking to create a new battery that outstrips the competition. Enovix is seeking to dominate the entire battery industry.
The result was a technical story with sharper consequence: not just a better battery, but an architectural shift with the potential to redefine the category.
The challenge was to make the technology legible without making it small. I developed a strategic narrative that moved the story away from lightning bolts and battery icons, using Alice in Wonderland as a cultural chassis: curiosity, time pressure, impossible scale, and passage into a changed world.
The White Rabbit’s timepiece became a symbol for urgency and invention. The Red Queen Hypothesis gave the strategy its competitive logic: in a fast-moving ecosystem, standing still means falling behind.
The winning strategic frame was one direct line of copy: Enovix is not only seeking to create a new battery that outstrips the competition. Enovix is seeking to dominate the entire battery industry.
The result was a technical story with sharper consequence: not just a better battery, but an architectural shift with the potential to redefine the category.
AICADIUM/ELIZA
FRAMING EARLY AI ADOPTION THROUGH TRUST, HUMOR, AND INTERACTION
(Communications Framework, Creative Campaign, Design)In 2022, I developed strategy for two AI concepts built on different readings of early conversational systems. One, an AI Trust Advisor, drew on ELIZA alone as a reference for conversational reassurance: a way to make questions, concerns, and ethical unease part of the interface.
The second, JokeStar, explored how AI adoption might be shaped not only by capability, but by human response. JokeStar focused on humor as an entry point, drawing on the surreal interaction between ELIZA based character and Zippy the Pinhead to imagine a workplace AI that felt more social, familiar, and less intimidating. The project treated AI adoption as a behavioral design problem: something people would come to through interaction, repetition, and cultural tone as much as through utility alone.
The second, JokeStar, explored how AI adoption might be shaped not only by capability, but by human response. JokeStar focused on humor as an entry point, drawing on the surreal interaction between ELIZA based character and Zippy the Pinhead to imagine a workplace AI that felt more social, familiar, and less intimidating. The project treated AI adoption as a behavioral design problem: something people would come to through interaction, repetition, and cultural tone as much as through utility alone.
EXEGER
POWERFOYLE CES LAUNCH
CULTURAL CAMPAIGN STRATEGY FOR AMBIENT ENERGY TECHNOLOGY
(Strategy, Narrative Framework, Design )Exeger’s Powerfoyle technology presented a difficult communications problem: it was technically advanced, materially quiet, and easy to under-explain. It could turn ambient light into usable energy, but the story needed to move beyond efficiency and sustainability into something people could immediately feel.
I developed a CES campaign strategy around a simple strategic line: Powerfoyle gives us access to the limitless.
The concepts turned that promise into visible cultural proof: illuminated wearable collaborations with experimental fashion houses; a living plant that charged a phone; and a city-wide “X Marks the Charge” map across Las Vegas, marking theoretical points of ambient energy. Each idea was designed to make invisible power feel tangible, social, and press-worthy.
The strategy repositioned Powerfoyle not as a technical material, but as a shift in expectation: energy harvested from the world already around us.
I developed a CES campaign strategy around a simple strategic line: Powerfoyle gives us access to the limitless.
The concepts turned that promise into visible cultural proof: illuminated wearable collaborations with experimental fashion houses; a living plant that charged a phone; and a city-wide “X Marks the Charge” map across Las Vegas, marking theoretical points of ambient energy. Each idea was designed to make invisible power feel tangible, social, and press-worthy.
The strategy repositioned Powerfoyle not as a technical material, but as a shift in expectation: energy harvested from the world already around us.
THE LIVING LIGHT SHOW
Wearable light installations turning brand ambassadors into moving demonstrations of ambient power.
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Wearable light installations turning brand ambassadors into moving demonstrations of ambient power.
POWERPLANT
A plant that charged a phone: a portable “seeing is believing” press object.
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A plant that charged a phone: a portable “seeing is believing” press object.
X MARKS THE CHARGE
A city-wide CES activation mapping theoretical ambient-energy points across Las Vegas.
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A city-wide CES activation mapping theoretical ambient-energy points across Las Vegas.
CREATIVEDRIVE
GLOBAL IDENTITY AND BRAND SYSTEM
BRAND ARCHITECTURE FOR A TECHNOLOGY-LED CONTENT COMPANY
(Creative Director, Brand Architecture)CreativeDrive was scaling rapidly across five continents — operating across technology, production, innovation, automation, and content-at-scale. Growth had created capability but teams lacked a shared language, and clients experienced output without understanding the brand.
The result was a unified brand language that clarified CreativeDrive's position as a creative-technology organization, extended across product, recruitment, editorial, and physical studios, and enabled global scale without dilution.
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The result was a unified brand language that clarified CreativeDrive's position as a creative-technology organization, extended across product, recruitment, editorial, and physical studios, and enabled global scale without dilution.
SEE MORE
