Disney+ National Geographic
Pole to Pole

Advertising   |   Digital   |   Featured Key Art

From the edge of the Earth to screens large and small

We created the key art and global campaign imagery for the National Geographic series Pole to Pole with Will Smith, an ambitious expedition following Will Smith as he travels from the Arctic to Antarctica. The resulting campaign honored National Geographic’s explorer legacy while feeling immediate, modern, and human.

CHALLENGE
Pole to Pole with Will Smith spans the full breadth of our planet, documenting extreme environments, cultures, and climates. At the center of it all is one of the most recognizable figures in the world.

Our challenge was to resist the gravitational pull of celebrity. The imagery needed to feel earned, grounded, and experiential—presenting Will not as a smiling, posed star, but as an authentic participant shaped by the journey itself.

INSIGHT
At its core, Pole to Pole is about proximity—to the planet, to other people, and to the physical limits of the body.

Classic National Geographic imagery has long understood that the most powerful images aren’t distant spectacles. They’re intimate moments where the environment leaves its mark. We saw an opportunity to draw viewers into the expedition by collapsing the distance between the subject, the setting, and the audience.

APPROACH
Our creative approach was to position Will as a participant, not a presenter, with environments that press in, surround, and shape him.

KEY ART
The series key art centers on an intimate portrait of Will embedded within an extreme environment. We focused on a tight, face-filled composition that pulls the viewer directly into the experience. Rather than framing landscapes as grand backdrops, we allowed wind, cold, sun, salt, and exhaustion to register visibly on Will’s face — placing the viewer face-to-face with the expedition itself. The resulting image feels immersive and immediate, inviting the audience to share the physical and emotional weight of the journey.

PLATFORM ARTWORK
Across the Disney+ platform, additional designs of Will in the world’s most remote environments expanded the key art, broadening the sense of place while preserving its intimate, experiential point of view.

CREATIVE EXPLORATION
The show celebrates our shared humanity, inspiring a creative exploration of the diverse people Will encounters on his journey. Through this lens, we sought to highlight the similarities that connect us all—our common joys, everyday struggles, and the experiences that ultimately bring us together.

ON THE STREET
We brought Will Smith’s expressive, weather-worn face from the most remote corners of the globe into the heart of the city through a series of high-impact out-of-home executions. Animated digital posters and large-scale building wraps didn’t just display the imagery—they activated it. Subtle motion, environmental textures, and shifting light brought the portraits to life, echoing the movement and conditions of the expedition itself.

By pairing intimate, face-filled imagery with monumental scale, the work collapsed the distance between extreme landscapes and everyday commutes—inviting passersby to encounter the journey up close and transforming the city into a living extension of the expedition.

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