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Free the Thumb
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NOMO
Marcelo Petrella
Web / Social Campaign

Scrolling is designed to be endless. NOMO was built to disrupt the scroll. Fellow partnered with NOMO to create Free the Thumb — a campaign that doesn't just talk about the cost of constant scrolling, it looks like the rupture it's asking for. Raw textures, analog grit, and a punk-zine aesthetic cut through the very feed it's fighting against. Concept to completion, entirely at Fellow. This one we believed in.

The campaign needed to feel like a movement, not a marketing play — so every production decision was made in service of authenticity. Director Marcelo Petrella shot on a hybrid of formats: the Red Komodo X for dynamic handheld coverage and macro thumb shots with a probe lens; a Sony FX3 rigged directly onto a dumbbell and a paintbrush for an embedded first-person feel; and a Bolex capturing moments on 16mm, leaning into heavy zooms and an unpolished rawness. The Gen Z cast was given real space to be themselves — unscripted, unforced, and genuinely present. Real joy. Real movement. Real life over a feed.

The mixed-media aesthetic was the message. Halftone textures, contact sheet references, tape, grease pencil scribbles, distressed fonts, and thick-stroked NOMO stickers — all choreographed into what Marcelo calls organized chaos. The negative space created by the hybrid formats became a canvas for layered design and animation, with motion that mirrors the kinetic, fractured energy of a scrolling mind. Every visual choice was rooted in what Gen Z already knows and craves: nostalgia, analog culture, and something that feels genuinely made — not generated.

A passion project rooted in a shared belief in NOMO's mission. Because presence isn't a preference. It's worth fighting for.