Squarespace is once again reimagining what it means to build a business online — this time with a touch of surrealism. The website-building platform’s latest campaign, directed by Love Song’s Walid Labri, brings entrepreneurship to life through a cinematic trilogy of ads that transform everyday ambition into visual poetry.
Following the brand’s 2023 Change Your World platform, this new collection of spots — “Goth,” “Ohm,” and “Skydive” — expands the idea of how unconventional passions can evolve into real businesses. The result is a whimsical series that turns the mundane into the magical.
“The businesses we focused on might seem unconventional, but they’re simply extensions of what our customers love,” said Nate Skinner, Squarespace’s Senior Director of Global Brand. “Our goal was to show how, with just a few steps, anyone can turn an idea into reality — often with unexpected, even surreal, results.”
The first two 30-second films, Goth and Ohm, set the tone for the campaign. Goth opens in a dreary office, where a burst of gothic transformation suddenly electrifies the space — drab colleagues morphing into macabre glam. Ohm, by contrast, features a wellness guru gliding through the streets on a levitating couch, exuding serenity and confidence on her way to launch a mindfulness retreat.
“The thrill of creating something that didn’t exist before connects all entrepreneurs,” added Skinner. “We wanted to capture that feeling — that spark of transformation — and show that Squarespace is the platform for all kinds of creators, no matter how unconventional.”
The final film, Skydive, released this week, takes the surrealism to another level. It follows an adrenaline junkie designing her skydiving school’s website mid-freefall, as her entire house plummets through the sky. Furniture spins, curtains whip in the wind, and walls crumble — until her parachute opens and her website design is complete. The sequence, developed with Time Based Arts, is both thrilling and strangely poetic.
For director Walid Labri, the project’s appeal lay in its ability to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. “I was drawn to the idea of three films where the unexpected unfolds within the mundane,” he explained. “In Ohm, for example, the moving couch was the surreal element, but we shot everything else practically — camera work, lighting — to make the magic feel believable.”
On Skydive, the challenge was less technical than imaginative. “The real work was keeping the crew’s sense of wonder alive,” Labri said. “Technically, we were ready. It was about helping everyone visualize what the VFX would bring to life.”
Each film is paired with a custom Squarespace website template, designed by the brand’s internal creative team to mirror the personality of the stories on screen. “These uniquely expressive spots allowed us to create website templates that carry the same spirit of individuality,” said Albert Chang, Brand Design Manager at Squarespace. “From animated logos to scrolling text and bold image blocks, every element reflects the creativity seen in the films.”
The campaign will run across connected TV, digital video, paid social, and display in the US and UK. For Squarespace, it’s the next evolution of its long-running philosophy: “A website makes it real.”
“There’s an intentional consistency in our approach,” Skinner concluded. “We want to show that entrepreneurship can be as imaginative as it is practical — and that Squarespace is where ideas, no matter how unconventional, become reality.”
