Founder-led · Los Angeles
Createinnovative conceptsthat leave lastingimpressions
A founder-led boutique brand management and creative direction firm. Every engagement is led personally by Vern Harris, from the first conversation through execution.
Based in Los Angeles. Active across New York, Miami, and Los Angeles.
You work with the principal, not through layers.
- Strategy
- Brand
- Influence
- Campaigns
- Experiences
Track record
Experience across culture, entertainment, sport, media, and consumer brands.
- Pepsi
- MTV
- HOT 97
- Def Jam Recordings
- SiriusXM
- Sony BMG
- The Fader
- New York Yankees
Names are presented as historical experience documented in ILMG's corporate profile and do not imply current affiliation or endorsement. See the full record
A note from Vern
“I built ILMG around a simple belief: the strongest work begins with listening closely, understanding what makes a client different, and staying personally involved from the first conversation through execution. There is no one-size-fits-all program here. Every engagement is shaped around the objective, the audience, the timing, and the impression we intend to leave.”
Vern Harris
Founder, President & CEO
What we do
ILMG creates the message, directs the experience, and shapes the lasting impression.
We understand the message a brand needs to communicate—and the experience its audience needs to feel.
01
Brand Management & Creative Direction
Structure, cohesion, and clarity for ambitious brands — positioning, narrative, identity, and expression aligned around one direction.
- Positioning, narrative, and messaging
- Visual identity direction and creative oversight
- Brand architecture and long-term stewardship
02
Brand-Led Digital Experiences
Websites treated as living expressions of the brand rather than isolated technology projects.
- Digital brand strategy and narrative
- Information architecture and user-flow direction
- Visual, image, and motion direction
03
Brand Launches & Cultural Introductions
Every touchpoint designed around how a brand should enter the market — and how it should be remembered.
- Launch positioning and audience strategy
- Partnership, talent, and campaign direction
- Experiential concept and full production
Range
Five worlds, one discipline.
The categories differ. The method doesn't. Mission-led organizations get the same strategic attention as a consumer launch or a cultural moment.
- 01
Entertainment & Culture
Artists, properties, and cultural moments that need relevance, not just visibility.
- 02
Fashion & Beauty
Categories where taste is the product and the details carry the argument.
- 03
Technology & Product
Innovation explained in human terms, so the idea travels further than the spec sheet.
- 04
Consumer Brands
Launches and repositionings that need distinction before they need volume.
- 05
Nonprofits & Mission-Led Organizations
Purpose translated into a narrative that supporters, partners, and communities can repeat.
Mission & community
Purpose deserves the same craft as a product launch.
Mission-led organizations sit beside entertainment, fashion, technology, and consumer brands in ILMG's practice — not below them. The work is the same discipline applied to higher stakes: find what the organization is truly for, say it plainly, and build the moments that let a community feel it.
- Clarify the mission in language everyone inside can agree on
- Translate purpose into a brand narrative worth repeating
- Align identity and messaging across programs and audiences
- Develop campaigns and gatherings that connect with the community
- Strengthen positioning for partners, sponsors, and funders
- Communicate impact with clarity rather than inflation
Category-level description of the work. No organization names, figures, or outcomes are published here.
How we decide
Five decisions, in order.
Each one narrows the next, so the creative work is the consequence of a choice rather than a preference.
- 01
Listen
What is actually going on here?
Long conversations before any recommendation. What the business needs, what the audience believes, what has already been tried.
- 02
Find the tension
Where does this brand disagree with its category?
The useful friction — the thing everyone else keeps repeating, and the thing only this client can honestly say.
- 03
Take a position
What will you be known for?
A point of view sized to the real goals, budget, and timing rather than to an award deadline.
- 04
Land the idea
What will people remember?
One organising idea with enough form to be recognised on sight and enough discipline to survive every place it goes.
- 05
Protect it
Does it still hold up in the room?
Media, influence, partnerships, and events planned together, with the same person on it from brief to execution.
Selected work
Created, directed, produced.
Featured experience
Fight Weekend at Thriller Villa
During Mayweather–Pacquiao fight weekend in Las Vegas, ILMG conceived and produced a celebrity-hosted experience at Thriller Villa from start to finish. The event welcomed approximately 2,000 guests and brought sport, entertainment, hospitality, and culture together in one destination.
ILMG Role: Concept Development, Event Strategy, Creative Direction, Talent Coordination, Partnership Alignment, Guest Experience and Full Event Production.
Experiential workBrand-led digital experiences
Brands we directed into digital form.
ILMG does not only manage existing brands. We create original concepts, develop their identities, and direct how they become market-facing experiences.
- 01H2MIBrand-led digital experience
- 02Legends of CreativityBrand-led digital experience
- 03Compassion Outreach ProjectBrand-led digital experience
- 04MegaBiz JackpotOriginal venture & brand creation
ILMG Role: Brand Strategy, Concept Development and Creative Direction.
Representative engagement type
Mission & Community
A nonprofit or mission-led organization is doing meaningful work, and the public version of it doesn't yet match the substance behind it.
Clarity is the kindest thing you can give a mission. Say what the organization is for in language a supporter can repeat without notes.
By design
A limited number of engagements at a time.
ILMG takes on a deliberately small number of engagements so Vern can stay close to the work — in the room for the thinking and present through execution. Specialist support is assembled per engagement around him.
ILMG accepts a limited number of engagements each year. Every project receives founder-level creative direction, with specialist teams assembled according to scope.
You work with the principal, not through layers.
- Direct access to the principal, start to finish
- Individual attention rather than a shared account queue
- Scopes tailored to the assignment, never packaged
- Discretion around client detail as a default
- Quick, direct answers instead of routed requests
- Relationships measured in years, not campaigns
Next
Tell us what you're building.
The objective, what needs to change, and why now. Vern reads every brief himself.
You work with the principal, not through layers.