AI Production Log — São Paulo, Brasil

Thirty years directing brands.
Now I direct the machine too.

Three campaigns, three real clients, and one product of my own — built on a shared method: concept, image, video, copy and even a working AI product, generated and directed end-to-end, the same way I'd run any production.

RoleCreative Director, Frank&Einstein BasedSão Paulo, Brasil LanguagesPT · EN · ES MethodGenerative AI, start to finish

Why this exists

Most "AI portfolios" show demos — a pretty render, no client, no stakes. These three didn't work that way. Each one started as a real brief for a real business, went through rounds of client approval, and ran in market: a loyalty promotion, a social content series, a product launch.

What changed is the production line behind them. Concept boards, hero visuals, supporting stills, teaser and support films — generated, directed and finished with AI at every stage, with me sitting in the seat a photographer, illustrator and editor used to occupy. The craft judgment is the same thirty years I've always brought; the toolkit is the one I use now.

ClientAmérica Restaurantes
Project40 Anos — "O Colombo"
Year2025
ToolGenerative AI — image + video
DeliverablesKey visual, social stills, teaser & support films

A 40-year-old brand, turned into a running joke worth collecting

América — a São Paulo restaurant chain — turned 40, and the brief was a loyalty mechanic dressed up as an event: spend R$120, earn a bill called "o Colombo"; collect ten, unlock a discount. The name did double duty — Christopher Columbus, the "discoverer" of América (the continent, the brand) — and became the spine of the whole campaign, staged as a Renaissance banquet of burgers, steak and delivery bags.

Every still and every clip below — the parchment texture, the cast of apostles, the product plating, the aged banknote — was generated and composited with AI. No studio shoot, no food stylist, no location.

Key visuals & social stills
Quanto mais Colombos, mais delícias para você — Renaissance banquet key visual
Key visual — "Quanto mais Colombos, mais delícias"
Dia do Hambúrguer, Dia de Colombo
"Dia do Hambúrguer, Dia de Colombo"
Já pensou em pedir figurinhas como acompanhamento?
World Cup sticker tie-in — burger
Os convocados do América — steak plate with stickers
"Os convocados do América"
Seu delivery ainda mais gostoso — delivery bag with stickers
"Seu delivery ainda mais gostoso"
Teaser & support films
"Última Ceia" — key visual, animated
"Colombos caindo" — bill drop
Campaign teaser
Campaign support film
"Dois Delícia" — dinner offer
ClientAmérica Restaurantes
ProjectT8 — 1985 Throwback Series
Year2025
ToolGenerative AI — image + copy
DeliverablesSocial content series

Before streaming, there was a shelf.

A companion series to the 40th-anniversary campaign, built around the year América opened its doors — 1985. Each post pairs an AI-generated "then" scene with a one-line hook, letting a São Paulo audience feel the distance between then and now: video store shelves before streaming, sticker albums before emoji.

Series
Streaming, era prateleira de locadora
"Streaming era prateleira de locadora"
Emoji, era cartela de adesivos
"Emoji era cartela de adesivos"
ClientPickless — Anti-Theft Apparel
ProjectBermuda Anti-Furto
Year2025
ToolGenerative AI — product & lifestyle imagery
DeliverablesProduct stills, lifestyle portraits, poster, film storyboard

A hidden pocket, sold through honest fear

Pickless makes apparel with a concealed, invisible-zip pocket — a second pocket inside the pocket. The campaign leans on a very Brazilian anxiety (phones getting lifted at the show, the game, the festival) and sells the product as the fix. No studio, no samples, no model call sheet — the product shots, the two lifestyle portraits and the stadium poster were all generated with AI.

Product & lifestyle
E se existisse uma bermuda anti-furto?
"E se existisse uma bermuda anti-furto?"
Hidden zip pocket detail
Hidden-pocket product detail
Bermuda anti-furto — football lifestyle
Lifestyle — football
Bermuda anti-furto — rock lifestyle
Lifestyle — rock show
Celulares são mais roubados do que o time do Palmeiras — stadium poster
Stadium poster — retail activation
Storyboard — campaign film, 7 panels

The story the whole campaign is built on: a phone lifted mid-show, in a crowd too busy filming to notice. Drawn frame by frame with AI in a charcoal-pencil style to pitch the film before a single shot was scheduled.

Storyboard panel 1 — wide establishing shot of the band and crowd
01 — Establishing: the band, the crowd, phones already up
Storyboard panel 2 — POV shot through a phone screen
02 — POV: everyone filming the same shot
Storyboard panel 3 — man filming from behind, lost in the moment
03 — Lost in the moment, phone raised
Storyboard panel 4 — a hand slips into his back pocket
04 — A hand slips into his back pocket
Storyboard panel 5 — wide shot of the crowd cheering, unaware
05 — The crowd never looks down
Storyboard panel 6 — man reaches for his back pocket, sensing something wrong
06 — He reaches back — something's wrong
Storyboard panel 7 — close-up on his alarmed face in the crowd
07 — The moment the show stops mattering
VentureMEE — own product
ProjectDigital Twin — beta
Year2026
ToolProprietary elicitation method + LLM
StatusLive beta

Beyond campaigns: building the twin, not just the ad

MEE is the venture I'm building now: a proprietary elicitation method for turning a person's judgment, voice and decision patterns into a Digital Twin — an AI clone that isn't a chatbot with a persona bolted on, but a model of how someone actually thinks. Connect it to specific skills and it becomes something a team can lean on: a way to catch your own blind spots, and a version of you that's reachable by peers, direct reports and leadership even when you're not.

The site below is my own twin, live — first proof that the method works before I put it in front of clients.

Live Beta
Talk to the twin
FM
Fernando Mainardi Digital Twin · MEE
"Olá, sou o Digital Twin de Fernando Mainardi. Designer estrategista, facilitador e empreendedor. Pergunte sobre design, marca, negócio ou estratégia."
O que uma marca deve comunicar? Como lançar um produto? Precificação criativa O que é um Digital Twin?

Tools in rotation

Midjourney

High-quality visual concepting and mood exploration for early-stage art direction.

Claude

Strategic thinking, structuring campaign narratives and client-facing documents.

ChatGPT

Fast ideation and iteration across a wide range of creative tasks.

Gemini

Research and Google-ecosystem-integrated tasks.

Lovable

Rapid prototyping of functional interfaces without writing code from scratch.