Aug 11, 2025

Unprepared & Ready to Fail: The Hollywood pitch that changed my approach to design

Erin Sarofsky

About this video

Description

What happens when you show up to a pitch completely unprepared? Transformation. It turns out that the way Erin had been approaching pitching—and her design practice as a whole—wasn’t bad, but it was far from great. Erin’s design thinking up to that point was missing a crucial ingredient: the ability to create work that deeply resonates. Work that goes beyond being just cool or eye-catching. In this talk, Erin shares how a one-hour meeting with some of Hollywood’s best writers and producers fundamentally changed the way she approaches everything.

Erin Sarofsky

Erin is the internationally heralded creative visionary regularly chosen by brand and entertainment titans to lead their most artful storytelling projects. In 2009, Erin Sarofsky launched Sarofsky in Chicago’s booming West Loop neighborhood. Recognized internationally for brilliant design-driven production that is limited only by the imagination, Erin and her firm have forged long-standing relationships with proven leaders of the advertising and entertainment industries. Under Erin’s leadership, Sarofsky is well known for creating gorgeous, innovative main title sequences for blockbuster movies and television series, including “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Ant-Man,” “Doctor Strange,” “Animal Kingdom,” “Shameless” “Community,” “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” and many others.