Pacbrake

Project Overview

Client: Pacbrake
Industry: Automotive · Heavy-Duty Truck Parts · Manufacturing
Platform: Meta · Facebook · Instagram
My Role: Visual Creative Designer — Primary Designer
Agency: Strategy Labs

Pacbrake is a US-based manufacturer of premium heavy-duty truck performance parts and braking systems, built for serious work trucks that need to perform under real load. As part of the Strategy Labs performance marketing team, I took over as primary visual creative designer for the account after the previous designer departed — responsible for developing and producing paid social ad creative across Meta campaigns. I worked alongside copywriters, media buyers, and account managers.

Creative Approach

Pacbrake’s audience is serious truck owners and operators — people who value engineering quality and performance over aesthetics alone. The visual direction needed to feel as tough and capable as the products themselves: dark, dramatic, industrial, and built with intention.

I developed a cinematic creative style for the account using AI-assisted image generation (ChatGPT image tools) to create high-impact product visuals that would be difficult or expensive to shoot traditionally — placing real product imagery into dramatic environments with smoke, sparks, dynamic lighting, and engineered detail. Each AI-generated scene was then refined and completed in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, adding copy treatment, brand elements, and production-ready polish.

The result was a consistent visual language across the account: dark moody backgrounds, bold typography, and product-hero compositions that communicate engineering superiority without saying it directly.

AI-Assisted Creative

This account was an opportunity to push AI image generation as a legitimate production tool — not for shortcuts, but for creative possibilities that traditional photography budgets can’t reach. Using ChatGPT’s image generation tools, I developed dramatic product environments: an exhaust brake surrounded by sparks and engineering blueprints, an air bag suspension component rendered with cinematic smoke and industrial lighting, a heavy-duty truck breaking through cracked earth under a stormy sky.

Each image was generated through careful prompt engineering to match the brand’s dark, aggressive aesthetic — then refined in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to add typography, brand logos, and final production polish. The AI handled the environment and drama; the design craft made it on-brand and ready to run.

Tools Used

Adobe Illustrator · Photoshop · ChatGPT (image generation) · Meta Ads Manager