STRAIGHT
UP

Client: Mesmeric Media
Role: Designer
Tools: PowerPoint
Deliverables: Logo, twelve-slide pitch deck, one-sheet

A pitch deck for a talk show

Mesmeric Media was taking a show out to broadcasters and sponsors: whiskey, legacy and unscripted conversation, hosted by Queen V. I designed the mark and the twelve slides that carried the pitch.

The situation

A show with a host and nothing to look at

The premise was strong. The page an executive could hold did not exist yet.

StraightUp is a conversation series: a master blender pours a drink for a guest in a warm Tennessee room and the two of them talk with no script and nothing off limits. The producers had the host, the format, a distribution plan and a list of the guests they wanted in the chair. They had no name treatment, no palette and no deck.

The brief was the deck and the one-sheet that travels with it, built in PowerPoint so the producers could keep editing after handover.

What the deck says belongs to the client, so on this page the body copy is placeholder text set at the lengths the real copy ran. The slide titles, the segment names and the guest list are as they were.

Process

The mark first

Neon, because the show is a bar at night.

The name came from the client. I set it four ways before touching a slide: inline neon capitals, two Deco serifs with a script line under them, and a heavy grotesque with a full stop. Every version sat under a small crown for Queen V, between two bronze rules.

First round, four faces. The neon capitals went forward.

The second round kept the tube lettering and worked the line underneath, from script to Deco serif to a plain sans. Then colour: the same mark on navy, green, red and amber before the plum won.

The neon StraightUp mark set on four grounds: navy, dark green, deep red and amber — Colour round. The plum from the first board stayed.

The final mark is cream tube lettering with a magenta core, a bronze crown, and the show’s subtitle in the Deco serif that became the deck’s display face.

The system

One room, lit the same way

Every slide sits in the glow of the cover.

The ground is the same plum on all twelve slides, dark at the edges and lit from the centre. Titles are set in Queen Consort, the face from the logo, in cream, never white, with a bronze rule above or below. Body copy is Archivo Light in the same cream. The photography is warm, barrels, bottles and back-bar light, so the amber reads against the purple the way a glass reads against a dark bar.

The order follows the pitch: what the show is, who hosts it, how an episode runs, who might sit in the chair, where it airs, how it gets marketed, what else it becomes, and who to call.

Four devices, and where each one comes from.

Bronze rule, cream Deco titleThe two rules around the logo, carried onto every section title
Plum glow, dark edgesThe cover’s neon ground, repeated under every slide
Hairline bronze frameEvery inset photograph, and the contact card at the end
Translucent panel over the photoText stays legible where it has to sit on the host’s portraits

The deck

Twelve slides, in order. Body copy is placeholder, set at the real lengths.

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The host in a rust-coloured dress, leaning on a white bar in front of a wall of whiskey bottles

SERIES LOGLINE

Two hands clinking whiskey glasses in warm bokeh light

SERIES SUMMARY

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The host in a black leather dress and pearls, holding a bottle of Uncle Nearest 1884 in front of shelves of bottles

ABOUT THE HOST

The host smiling at a white bar, the shelves of bottles behind her out of focus

ABOUT THE HOST

EPISODE FORMAT

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Whiskey pouring into a cut-glass tumbler over ice

The (Cold) Opening Pour

A white country house with barrels on the lawn and a path through the grounds at golden hour

Titles

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A woman in silhouette in an armchair, a glass of whiskey on the table beside her

The Backstory

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EPISODE FORMAT

Two women in silhouette with glasses raised, talking in a lounge lit in amber

The (Unfiltered) Conversation

Two hands touching whiskey glasses over a table with a decanter and an ice bucket

The Legacy Sip

POTENTIAL GUESTS

Taylor Swift • Bruce Springsteen • Dolly Parton • Shaq •
Tyler Perry • Reese Witherspoon • Jon Batiste • Chris Stapleton • And many, many more

Black and white portrait of Taylor Swift

Black and white portrait of Bruce Springsteen

Black and white portrait of Dolly Parton

Black and white portrait of Shaquille O’Neal

A bottle of Uncle Nearest 1856 on a barrel top, lit from behind

DISTRIBUTION

MARKETING

Phase 1: Brand Building & Tease

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Tactics include:

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Phase 2: Launch

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Tactics include:

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Phase 3: Sustained Engagement

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Tactics include:

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MORE THAN JUST TELIVISION

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Sponsorships & Partnerships:

(more coming soon)

The host in a black blazer and pearls, standing in front of a stack of whiskey barrels

A barrel hall, two rows of casks under pendant lamps

CONTACT

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A name, a mark and twelve slides.

Pitch deck and one-sheet designed in PowerPoint. Logo, visual system and slide design.