Creative corner with Jen Appel from The Oriel Company

Fueled by a passion for storytelling, strategy, and “a good chorus,” Jen Appel asserts herself as an artist champion, first and foremost. Transcending the scope of media relations, she not only engineers multi-dimensional campaigns blanketing television, online, and print, but she also fosters brand alliances, coordinates high-profile events, and arranges organic promotional opportunities. At the Oriel Company, she represents a roster of buzzing disruptors and GRAMMY® Award-winning legends alike. Jen Appel is based in The Oriel Company’s Los Angeles office.

Our recent chat with Jen discusses her favourite campaigns and talks about the overlaps between visual creativity and music.

IM LOVING

Right now, I’m very in love with current Surrealist photographers like Elizaveta Porodina, Zhong Lin, Mika Ninagawa, Szilveszter Makó, Cho Gi-Seok, Sarah Eiseman, Chiron Duong, Lauren Tepfer, Lara Zankoul, Theo Liu.

FAVOURITE VIDEO

This is the first music video ever directed by acclaimed photographer Mark Seliger. The concept looks at the Madonna/whore female archetypes through the lens of dance - in some frames, Hole’s front woman Courtney Love is a ballerina; in others she’s a stripper. Hole always subverted feminine “ideals” in their work, from Courtney’s lyrics to using the Barbie font for their band logo, and this video is no exception.

BEST ARTWORK

I’ve always loved the covers of Bjork’s albums. Every cover has Bjork dressed as that album’s “character” who visually embodies the themes, emotions, and sounds of the record.

RECENT CAMPAIGN

I’m proud of all of the campaigns The Oriel Company – which I co-founded in late 2020 – has done since we launched. This includes incredible work for Andre 3000, Zoe Kravitz, Phoebe Bridgers and boygenius, Questlove and The Roots, Steve Lacy, Syd, and THE INTERNET, Weezer, Robyn, Dev Hynes, Juliette Lewis, Amazon Music, The Killers, Paramore, Michael Stipe, 88rising and many of their artists, Flo Milli, Jamie Campbell Bower from Stranger Things, Wet Leg, Channel Tres, Betty Who, Stagecoach Festival, Ebon Moss-Bacharach from The Bear, Arctic Monkeys, Original Creative Agency, Foushee, Wolf Alice, Kelsea Ballerini, Electric Feel Entertainment, Tenacious D, The B-52’s, Kelli Giddish from Law & Order SVU, iann dior, Broken Social Scene, and many more.

COLLABORATION

I love all the collabs that Brain Dead does with artists. They did a brilliant one with our client Dev Hynes in June 2020; he designed a t-shirt that said “If you love black culture, protect black lives,” and the shirt’s sales raised over $500K for two orgs that benefitted the black and LGBTQIA+ communities.

HOTTEST RECENT VIDEO

This is from 2021, but I’m still obsessed with the video for Olivia Rodrigo’s song “good 4 u” directed by Petra Collins. It is the visual epitome of what teenage obsession *feels* like.

GO FOLLOW

Bethany Cosentino who played in Best Coast. I am biased since she is one of my clients, but no one else so easily balances being smart, hilarious, vulnerable, socially conscious, informative, and compassionate on social media the way she does.