people watching at Wintergreen

the current temperature is 54 degrees and i am sitting in a ski resort in a t-shirt watching puffy burton jackets stroll past. the balding, patchy slope does not deter the hundreds of avid skiers and snowboards from getting out to practice. what has really begun to interest me are the designs on the backs of the snowboards.

imagine the process of design... the canvas, an odd shape, the implications being that this piece must function and speed and carve. this piece of art will never hang in a gallery and be admired for its ability to sit peacefully on a wall. those that stop by their local ski shop will goggle at it, dreaming of smashing it face down in the snow and speeding their way into the wind. this piece must recall the snowboarder's greatest ride, it must allow the 15 year old in the board shop to dream of being far away, doing tricks that they will never learn. only then is the piece sold. God bless burton and what he has done not only for this sport, but for graphic designers everywhere.

young americans

i don't know why they only did one summer season of this show, but it was like the boys from "young poets society" met the girls from "now and then." it's got great music and all the product placement coke could squeeze in. although sadly, robin williams is not in this one.

running segmentation study

We did a segmentation study on runners for Katherine Wintsch's Q&Q class. In this video, we each play the role of one of the segments.

BBH is the place for me

and I wanted to be a teacher when I was a kid.

"talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does"

*Thanks Laura, you're right. BBH does Axe, Ogilvy does Dove and oddly enough (with their conflicting messages, which I will follow up on) they are both owned by Unilever. Cheers.

the project cartoon

Fun new tool: projectcartoon.com

It's a good tool for if you want to use a metaphor in presenting an idea. In fact, I will more than likely be using this in one of the many presentations I have to write in the next two weeks.
I messed around with it a bit and here's one I came up with for the cruise industry:
http://www.projectcartoon.com/cartoon/3989

project yellow light

Project Yellow Light is a scholarship that was created by the Garner family to get teens to convince other teens to be safer drivers. Car crashes kill around 6,000 teens each year making it the number one killer of teens. Since 2003, we have lost seven times more teens from car crashes than soldiers in the war on Iraq.

I am amazed at the strength and hope that Mr. and Mrs. Garner have. I feel lucky to have been able to help with this project.

http://projectyellowlight.com/

retro-futurism

When you draw a picture of the future does it look something like this?

In the 1960s, artist Klaus Bürgle hypothesized that in the future we would all move below sea-level. As we all know, that has not yet come to pass. In fact, we have yet to significantly explore something like 75% of the ocean's floor.

Knowing what you know today about the current state of pollution in our water, can you draw that same hypothesis?

Indexed

I love these things. check em' out at: indexed.blogspot.com

Words of wisdom from Mark Fenske:

A brief is not magic dust, it is simply a starting point.

"No worthy problem is ever solved within the plane of its original conception." - Albert Einstein

A brief is not the creative answer to the problem, it is a creative way to look at the problem. Don't go to a creative and tell him what you want the creative execution to look like and say, because look and say only that and be nothing more.

"If you set out to write a poem about two dogs fucking, and you write a poem about two dogs fucking, then you've written a poem about two dogs fucking." - identity unknown

red, conspicuously absent?

This site will make you rethink evolution, childhood education and which socks to put on this morning.
http://www.r213g037b053.net/

trust me on this one. watch red.

decruitment

Search "adcenter" on YouTube and you will find this. Our "decruitment video as is referred to by the narrator. We really aren't this pretentious or mean...or are we?

Stolen!

Next Charles Hall assignment....

On this Charles Hall assignment we were provided with a scenario:
When you return home from class today, you will find your apartment ransacked and your most valuable possession stolen.
1. What was stolen?
2. Who stole it?
3. What do you have to do to get it back?

(Yes Charles,) I liked this assignment because it allowed me to showcase my second passion, (the first being advertising of course) French.

Enjoy.

This reminded me of the recent Fenske alphabet assignment...

A product I love-iPod Hoodies

How money is this?

Masking Tape Art

Defining a new form of grafiti art, masking tape art doesn't require a scrub brush to get rid of. These designs are beautiful, I love the sign-language type hand shapes.

Baby's first YouTube video

That's right mom and dad, I knew I'd manage it someday.

"Ideas worth spreading"

I don't think i even appreciate the full scope of the potential this conference has in generating ideas...Someday however, i hope to attend TED and learn first hand.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/

i would beg for a cubicle at a place like...

This photo is taken from Red Tettemer in Philadelphia, PA. I think these are guidelines to follow in regards to working in advertising. It is also currently the background to my computer.

http://www.coleweber.com/default.aspx#page=home

http://wk.com/

http://www.bc-p.com/

http://www.publicisqmp.ie/index.html

http://www.50000feet.com/flash8/index.html

http://www.element79.com/

kick it

"Dear aspiring strategist," began the paragraph on the graded paper I had just gotten back from Don Just. Well, at least he's got an idea as to where I hope to go in this industry, even if he does find my current work sub-par. Do I blame him though? The VCU Adcenter is more than just a route to getting a job, it's a GPS system that guides you to a new sense of self. My work, much like this blog, will be flawed, it will aspire to be great and miss the mark more often than not. But, what the hell, Wayne Gretzky said he missed 100% of the shots he didn't take and what's the use in not taking any risks?
So perculate it up, it's time to get strategizin'