Told correctly, your brand becomes what people want to associate with & support, and what others brands wish they were.
your story is your x-factor.
Personalized Narrative Strategy, Marketing Direction, & Content Production (Photo, Video, Writing, Editing)
Based in Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A
48 Brands served & counting
Present & Former Work
“Relevance is the R.O.I. of great creative.”
- Jeff Staple
Those who matter and are remembered by people are the ones who do great things for the sake of doing great things.
Homareya by Yoyaman Takahashi
Los Angeles sushi OG Yoya Takahashi to open Homareya kushiyaki restaurant in Long Beach, CA September 10, 2025, after his departure from his East LA Arts District sushi concept: Kodo, and long tenure & legacy at Hamasaku Santa Monica.
Yoya is known for bringing Kansai-style food and omakase to Los Angeles in honor of his Kyoto roots. Japan’s Kansai region consists of Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe—where Wagyu originates—after immigrating to the U.S. in the year 2000, chasing his grandfather Akio Kobori’s Hollywood dreams.
Steep LA presents Gabby Masuda
Bloom & Sip: a Summer floral arrangement workshop & imbibe crossover, curated by Steep LA, featuring Gabriela Sage Masuda, an LA-based model, microinfluencer, & florist. Steep is a tea room in Chinatown, founded by designers Lydia Lin & Samuel Wang, merging their Cantonese + Taiwanese backgrounds, Chinese tea, traditional comfort foods, and a tea cocktail program that has been led by some of LA’s historically-greatest beverage directors—from names like Chris Amiam, Michelin Star Otium and Maybourne Bar alumni, to Bicyclette & Manzke restaurant family alumni [redacted until October 2025].
Client
Steep LA
Year
08/24/2025
What We Did
Filming, Video Direction, Video Editing, Photography Contribution
People-centric cultural transformation.
Feel Better Without Feeling Worse: Drink BRẼZ—the fastest growing “social tonic” alternative to liquor worldwide taking over wellness “parties” at SXSW 2025.
Two Brands, One Roof: Los Angeles sees an explosion in brands collaborating under one roof amid rising economic costs and compressing margins, as people begin to get creative and resourceful to better use space, reach, and together: beat the conditions while serving customers with new experiences.
Merging Non-Alcoholic Culture & Festivals: The New Bar—exclusive partner to Coachella 2024 & 2025, and Stagecoach 2025, making it fun to be non-alcoholic at festivals.
Comments from Clients & Collaborators:
-
![Portrait of Leonard Chan, Serial Entrepreneur behind OC's largest Street Concepts: Iron Press, The Blind Rabbit, Stowaway Tiki, and Long Beach's newest triple speakeasy: Midnight Oil]()
"Thank you, man. I just like that you're on top of things."
- Leonard Chan, Managing Partner & Serial Entrepreneur behind The Blind Rabbit, The Iron Press, Stowaway Tiki, Midnight Oil Long Beach, & many more Orange County Concepts
-
![]()
"Honestly, it's really nice having someone take all of the marketing off of my hands, who also helps me keep me accountable to growing the business."
- Chef Stephen Trujillo, Founder of LFTD; cv: The French Laundry, Tartine Manufactory, Tar & Roses, Bouchon Beverly Hills, Chez Panisse Berkeley, EDK Sonoma
-
![A Photograph of Shiloh Enoki, Founder of Tea at Shiloh, laughing with friends.]()
"Everyone always says they'll do this or that for us, but I like that you just do it!"
- Shiloh Enoki, Founder of Tea at Shiloh
-
![]()
"When I got the opportunity to open this 60,000 sq ft gym, you're the first person I thought of contacting."
- Bryce H, Former Fitness Manager & GM for 24 Hour Fitness District 9 (the #1 district in the U.S.)
-
![]()
"You’re the man 🙏❤️🔥"
- Aaron Nosbisch, Founder & CEO of BRẼZ
-
![]()
"Usually I'm nervous in front of a camera, but you made it really easy & comfortable!"
- Grace Reyes, Owner of Cafe 86 West Covina
Make it stand out.
“I still think about that marketing video you guys made a year ago. People still bring it up.”
One of our clients said this to us during a recent quarterly creative planning meeting.
Yes, that’s exactly what good creative should do.
It should live in the minds of people who engage with it.
It’s not just how many people view it. It’s how many remember it.
The Elements
-
Cultural Awareness
An understanding of your customers, rooted deep in immersed knowledge of the culture they participate in and what’s relevant & important in that world.
-
Taste
An understanding of specific market taste, pertaining to the tastemakers, craftsman, & icons of that culture, as well as what is taste in the greater market.
-
Vision & Thought Leadership
An ability & perspective to be able to foresee the future for that culture and forecast what customers want, that the market currently underserves.
-
Narrative & Storytelling (Creative Direction)
A deep understanding of the craft of telling a great story that connects to its audience and resonates such that it provokes their change & action-taking.
-
Audio-Visual Direction & Production
The ability to translate Creative Direction to audio-visual format with the right style, and the execution of Photography, Cinematography, & Sound.
-
Editing, Curation, & Strategic Delivery
The weaving together of produced assets to deliver the Creative Direction to the end audience in a presentation that connects.
The Process
The Process
Discovery: We meet and learn about your business, you, your purpose, and your need, as well as what’s working & what isn’t.
Analysis & Proposal: Based on what we discovered & what you want to achieve, we provide a few different options we think would help that you can choose from.
Decision: If one of those directions work for you, we’ll send over an agreement, so we can officialize and begin to serve you.
Research: Once signed & your deposit is received, we begin deep research cycles to gain awareness of your audience’s culture, who & what matters in that culture, and understand how tastemakers are navigating.
Vision: We paint a vision of the various directions we could help you take your brand, including visuals, so you can see, envision with us, and decide.
Creative Direction: We’ll then craft the narrative and lay the story out in writing.
Producing: We’ll plan how to bring the creative direction to life with visuals, including who to shoot, what to shoot, where to shoot, and who to involve. Create a shot list, so that all important things are captured during shooting. And we’ll schedule & coordinate with all necessary parties, vendors, equipment, and beyond: to organize the needed shoots.
Executing (the Shoot): The execution of photography, sound, & cinematography or videography during the scheduled shoot or event to capture or bring what’s been planned to life.
Editing: An extended period of artistic tying of the shot photos & video footage together to create the magical end content your audience will see. Deep polish and collaborative process with Creative Direction to translate the narrative into a viewable experience that connects with people.
Review & Revisions: We’ll review the photography & videography with you to see if any changes need to be made, and make those changes.
Curation & Strategic Delivery: We’ll take time to package the creations and suggest a manner, style, & approach of delivery to maximize the creations’ ability to reach your audience in the most impactful ways possible, so that you get the most out of what’s been produced. This is a consultancy.
Launch or Media Management: Depending on whether we are managing your media distributions or you are, the managing party will launch the media across 1 channel, or multiple channels, to your audience and the public for activation & reception.
Promotion: The coordinated effort between us & all of our associates and you & all of your team and associates to promote the published media across every channel & touchpoint possible, across hours & days, to maximize its reach and impact. Promote, promote, promote—that’s the rule.
Performance Data Review: (Management Clients Only) Once the campaign or content asset concludes, we’ll review the performance data, discuss it, and set adjustments (if applicable) for the next one. Repeat, review, iterate—all either in collaboration with you or on our own, depending on our arrangement, and develop the strategy on an ongoing agreement to continue to scale & evolve the creative.
Producing - Promotion Cycle #2: Begin back at the Producing step for the next set of photography or videography, to bring to life the second bit of the overall Creative Direction, and continue until the narrative cycle is complete.
Inquiry: If you’re interested, fill out the contact form below, so we can reach out and schedule a remote or in-person meeting with you.
Creative Direction & Planning Revisit: Once the former Creative Direction narrative approaches its completion and all photography, videography, & content writing is nearing completion for it, we sit back down with you to determine the next chapters’ narratives, and what story to tell next for you and your brand.
Start here:
Marketing & Content Production involves a ton of knowledge & expertise, skill, expensive equipment, and volume of work. We’ll walk you through everything—save you time, money, headache, and trouble. All you have to do is fill out this form with your name, contact, & who you are, and we’ll reach out to facilitate.
FAQs
What does Paintbrush do? (strategy, production, management)
We are a Creative House of skilled director-level experts & doers with successful careers in commercial creative, startup, and large organization campaigns & projects. Paintbrush has 3 arms: Strategy, Production, and Management. Some clients work with us for 1 or 2 of the prior; others work with us for all three. Strategy is consultancy on direction, execution, & implementation for best results from time & spend. Production is photo, video, & writing. Management is facilitation of all media, publishing, & engagement.
Who should hire Paintbrush?
The people who should work with us are brands or Founders who have a strong product but need support with marketing, photography, and videography, and/or brands and founders who want to invest in building brand and platforming their story & voice.
Is Paintbrush a social media agency?
We are a marketing & production agency, helping clients strategize their marketing and produce the visual & written assets to market their brand. Those assets (“content”) can be used on social media platforms—yes—but also on client websites, for e-commerce, paid ads, at events, in presentations, to supply PR publications with assets to use, and further.
What level of budget should I expect to work with Paintbrush?
Every brand should set aside a budget of around 5-15% of revenue for all marketing—which includes, strategy & planning, production, and rollout. Brands will tend to fund marketing using sales revenue or investment money if they are pre-launch, pre-revenue, or pre-profit. For independent clients still in growth stages, many will fund marketing with personal income, and use marketing to create business revenue & return that investment over time. As the experts on creative, we’ll advise on how to get the most out of the budget you have: to achieve a strong outcome during discovery. For a general idea, our smallest offering is $400 and our largest offering is north of $100,000 for larger scale campaigns distributed to huge audiences.
What do people hire Paintbrush for? (photo, video, marketing)
People who hire Paintbrush, and agencies like ours, are at a level where they understand that strategizing marketing is highly analytical, highly laborous to implement, but highly valuable in returns when done well.
People who hire agencies like ours also understand that production is more expensive & time-consuming to navigate aimlessly and self-produce than to outsource and use that time for more direct returns like business development, ops & product improvements, or sales.
I just want photo/video for myself or an event; can Paintbrush help?
Yes, we do photo & video for Individuals, Personal Brands, as well as Event Capture/Documentation—both one-offs and many long-term ongoing branding contracts to produce content for new companies building their new startup, already platformed-individuals scaling their personal brand, and founders who are growing their organization to its next levels. It’s just a matter of having a discovery meeting, and seeing what you’re looking for and matching the content strategy to your resources. Every person who has a discovery call with us, leaves feeling more-informed & excited—whether we begin immediately or in-time.
