John Burnett's DESIGN PORTFOLIO
THE POLESTAR 5
30 Seconds to the Moon
THE POLESTAR 5
Conquering the 30-Second Car Commercial
Client / Brand: Polestar
Role: Creative Director, Art Director, Audio Director, Composer, Editor
Timeline: 14 Days
Tech Stack: Nano Banana, ComfyUI, Wan 2.2, Veo 3, Suno, Photoshop, DaVinci
Commercials… in… Spaaaaaace!
Marketing a product requires an abundance of imagination… and those flights of fancy are unceremonously grounded when faced with logistics, budgets, or any other pesky offshoot of reality. But with Ai, any idea is viable. Imagine the technical, legal, and breathtaking (literally) ethical concerns of filming on the moon. With Ai, the whole production cost less than a moonpie.
UTTER LUNACY
Commercials are incredible canvases to paint the unreal in impasto strokes. From unstoppable pink bunnies powered by a single AA to throwing a sledgehammer through a dystopian Imax. With Gen Ai, the potential of oldworld CG and practical effects have been supercharged. As a specific example, this 30-second spot took less than 2 weeks to finalize- with zero logistical deadends.
MISSION TO THE MOON
I had a crystal clear vision of what I wanted for Polestar: the car dashing about on the moon to showcase the benefits of a more budget-friendly reality. Once I made the black 3D model (sourced from the official Polestar 5 patent), I made sure the glossy paintjob reflected the moonscape as a repeating motif. Choosing to make the only colors come from Earth and the red tail lights helped to anchor the commercial in thoughtful design rather than insistent “slop”.
I wanted Polestar to not just look different, but act differently from the testosterone-fueled ads of their competitors.
STAR MAPS
Storyboarding the commercial was a unique challenge because the music determined the visual edits, not the other way around. While the music was still in production, that meant a unique approach: generate the clips first, compose the music – then combine the two through intuitive A/B testing on the fly. Interestingly enough, that meant the vision only really came together while editing, not strategizing – and certainly not while debating with a committee.
THAT’S AMORE
Polestar isn’t like other car companies and I wanted the music to speak to that far more than the visuals. That meant translating mood into musical terms: intimate felt piano, a whisper-soft female voice, and vast reverb. The result is a vacuous, beautiful and delicately melancholy melody that supports the visuals without overshadowing them. I took such an active role in the music that I actually sourced my own singing into Suno to generate the melody and lyrics (yes, technically that’s me singing).
HARMONY OF THE SPHERES.
We’re so proud of our work, here is a free download of the theme song: For Nina. It is a slightly longer version that what you hear in the Commercial. The song was sourced from my singing and processed through Suno.
< Download the free Single, For Nina. (right click and Save As)
MOONSTRUCK?
From 30-second spots to entire video game assets, let’s see what I can do for your workflow
JOHN BURNETT
Designer . Mentor . Innovator