Branding, Retail launch
BRAND,FILM &CREATIVE DIRECTION — Gabriel Tiedtke
Global brand and creative leader with a decade of experience spanning in-house, agency, and independent work. I turn ambiguity into clear brand systems, strong creative direction, and measurable business results. By pairing conceptual thinking with operational discipline, I build the foundation behind high-performing work; helping teams move faster, scale smarter, and maintain a high standard of craft.
TLDR: Strategic clarity, high standards.
Brand Systems
Building identity systems, brand architecture, and rollout frameworks that make brands clearer, more consistent, and easier to scale across teams, channels, and global markets.
Creative & Production
Leading campaigns, content, and visual worlds with a focus on strong judgment, clear storytelling, and work that feels both culturally tuned-in and commercially effective.
Design Operations
Creating the infrastructure behind the work—workflows, enablement, and decision-making systems that help teams move faster, reduce friction, and deliver consistently without lowering the bar.
Selected works 2015—2026
What it is
What I did
24 projects
Campaign
Copy/Paste
Brand Refresh
Yubico
- film acts opened, plus opening night and awards
- 6
- trailers for social
- 5
- festival talk that followed
- 45 min
- Client
- Novemberfestivalen
- Agency
- TIED Visuals
- Year
- 2021
- Medium
- Video, Brand
- Roles
- Creative Direction, Directing, Cinematography, Editing, Color Grading
The 2021 campaign for Novemberfestivalen, Sweden's national short film competition for filmmakers aged 16 to 26: a new tagline, the festival vignette that opened every screening, and five trailers for social.
The Challenge
Novemberfestivalen came with a color palette and a feeling (calm, solitude, being in the moment, becoming one with nature) but no idea yet, a tight timeline and a budget that had to cover everything. The campaign had to speak to 16-to-26-year-old filmmakers who live on TikTok, follow on from the previous year's “For the Love of Film”, and work both as a vignette before every screening and as short trailers for Instagram and Facebook.
The Approach
The idea arrived during my own main character moment: in the back seat of a car on a winding road on Gotland, window down, the sun just set in a pink sky, acoustic indie on the stereo. TikTok's #MainCharacter trend was all about living ordinary moments as if you were the lead in a film, which is exactly how filmmakers already see the world. I wrote the tagline “Make Main Character Moments” to work on three levels: a nod to an aesthetic young filmmakers know, a nudge to keep making films and live in the moment, and a promise that the festival is where they get the spotlight. The tone was romantic with a wink: funny enough that you smile at someone going all in on the moment, sincere enough that you want to do the same. I pitched it with a script, moodboard, storyboard and mockup, and shot in southern Norway. Then I edited and graded the vignette, a version for each film act, and the five trailers.
The Outcome
The vignette opened all six film acts, the opening night and the awards ceremony, and the five trailers ran on the festival's social channels in the run-up. The festival then invited me on stage for a 45-minute talk about why the message matters more than the title, and why prestige-free collaboration is how you get there.
What people said
“Deeply impressed by the first draft. Absolutely spot on.”
Watch · 6 films
Book
Kerr Jollof
Kind words
Don't take my word for it.
“I used to work at Adobe. We worked with an agency and I've never worked with anyone that I think is better than you are.”
Stakeholder2026 “This is absolutely awesome, Gabriel. There will be cheers and tears in the room when this is played…”
A film for a company eventVP of design · 2023 “I'm standing in the airport right now watching this and got chills through my body! Amazing job!!!”
A film for a company eventStakeholder · 2023 “The packaging is amazing on these”
The YubiKey packaging at Best BuyReddit user · 2025 “Just another brilliant idea you have… Must be hard to keep your ego in check with all the brilliance all the time.”
Colleague2026 “I just watched the video, and it is really impressive! The pacing, the editing, soundtrack is all top flight.”
A customer story film2024
Manifesto
Sharp taste. Clear systems. Less chaos. It's not just the work. It's the machine behind the work. Build the conditions for work that sticks. Creative direction is easier to admire than to operationalize. Some people make things look good. I'll also make things work well.
My background looks broad on paper; brand systems, campaigns, music videos, publishing, editorial, production. However, the thread running through it is simple: I like bringing clarity to ambitious work. Over time, that evolved into brand leadership: shaping identities, strengthening how creative teams operate, and creating the conditions for work that succeeds, both visually and commercially.
I work where strong creative judgment meets structure. Not structure for its own sake, but the kind that helps better work happen—clearer brands, smarter systems, sharper rollouts, fewer bottlenecks, and more space for the idea to hold up in the real world.
Roots in Stockholm. Based in New York.
Track record
- 2021—now
Senior Creative Director
Yubico
Brand, retail and DesignOps for the company behind the YubiKey.
- 2017—2021
Art Director, DoP, & Content Creator
The Amazing Society
Social-first campaigns for Jernhusen, Bixia, OBH Nordica, Tefal, Mylan and more, and the production setup behind them.
- 2014—2017
Director & Cinematographer
Freelance
Music videos and commercials for Warner Music, Björn Borg and TUI Group.
- 2016
Film, top grades in every course
Stillerska Filmgymnasiet
Recognition
- 2021
Speaker, Novemberfestivalen
A 45-minute talk on why the message matters more than the title, after creating that year's festival campaign.
- 2020
Best Cinematography, Novemberfestivalen
Colorist on Jag vill se Gällivare brinna, one of its five awards.
- 2019
The Reality Check
Co-initiated and produced an open tool that lets agencies audit who gets represented in their advertising.
- 2018
Guldvågen: Sweden's most gender-equal agency
Awarded to The Amazing Society. I was a founding member of the inclusion committee behind it.
- 2013
Best Short Film, Filmgala Norr
For Morning Coffee.