Recently Philadelphia-based portrait photographer Chris Sembrot had the daunting task of shooting professional soccer players as though they were comic book characters. Not an easy project. Sembrot was hired to shoot a campaign for the Philadelphia KIXX, a professional indoor soccer team. He was already known to the Wilmington, Delaware-based agency Deardorff Associates who were handling the account from a former creative director who worked there, and the agency was just looking for the right job to put Sembrot's great technical skills to use. Sembrot and illustrator friend and partner on the job, Ford Haegele, wowed the agency with a quick comp on their approach to the project. Art Director Kathleen Brooke came to Sembrot with the idea of shooting these soccer athletes as if they were modern comic book characters. The campaign included hiring an illustrator who could create a "modern comic book" feel, while integrating the portraits of the soccer players into the backgrounds.

Sembrot and illustrator Haegele worked to create three 3D backgrounds that would illustrate the idea of the player breaking out of these comic book backgrounds. Sembrot readily admits that this was a project like nothing he'd ever done before. The excitement, degree of difficulty and collaboration with the other artists and creatives only made the job more enjoyable and successful to boot. The Philadelphia KIXX campaign will appear on bus shelters, billboards and outdoor banners.