Daily
Most Contagious 2008
Contagious Magazine is giving away a roundup of their most contagious stuff from 2008, and it’s very worthwhile. Grab the pdf here.
(Via Ian Tait)
CP+B Copying... Itself?
On the heels of the BK Whopper Virgins campaign (which we happen to think will dominate Cannes this year), Crispin Porter + Bogusky is rolling out another taste-test campaign – this time for Domino’s oven-baked sandwiches vs. Subway’s whatever-they-call-em-shit-flavored sandwiches.
Funny that Brandfreak notes, “in a recent BrandIndex survey of 5,000 consumers, on a scale of -100 to 100, Subway food received an overall score of 55.1, while Domino’s pulled in a -8.3.” Not sure who they’ve got tasting those sanguinies, but it’s certainly not the gourmet fools over here at The Egotist.
WWF: Light Bulb
This spot certainly sticks out in a pile. Agency: DraftFCB, Toronto.
(Via Coloribus)
Craig No More
Let’s make one thing clear. During the rousing debate we’ve had about Denver designer Craig Holden Feinberg on our site over the last week, no one has questioned the quality of his work. His character, well, that’s another issue.
If you missed the debate, you missed a good one. At Craig’s request today to “not be a part of your website anymore,” we’ve removed the post about him and taken him off our list of Recommended Talent. Apparently, it doesn’t take long for the truth to come out in a city this size. (And we’re happy to continue providing a forum to make that happen.)
As for the future, we’re assembling a group of 10 of the top creative directors in Colorado to help us assess talent before we ever include them on our recommended list. We think it will add strength and credibility to the recommendations we’ll continue to offer in 2009.
Some Good Advice for Interns
For any of you youngsters who are looking to start a new internship in 2009, or maybe just looking to turn-over a new leaf with your current internship, this is worth a look.
(Via FFFFound)
ESPN pulls a page from Apple's playbook
In celebration of its new site, ESPN has launched an obnoxious-yet-awesome new ad on their front page. It might not be as graceful as some of Apple’s page takeovers, but we applaud the effort. The ad doesn’t seem to want to come up consistently, so here’s the dedicated URL.
(Thanks, Nathan!)
Monday Morning Muzak: Thievery Corporation – Radio Retaliation
Wherein we tell you what tunes to pop in to put you in the best possible mood on Monday morning. Today, we suggest Thievery Corporation and their CD Radio Retaliation, released September 23 of this year. Nice irie tip on this disk to help you start the new year feeling good.
THEY's Corkpop for Veuve Amiot
Here’s a little holiday number THEY did for Veuve Amiot.
Here’s what THEY say about it: “You can’t do much in 10 seconds. So no voiceover. No supers. Just the basics: a mountain lion, a knitting widow, a strongman with a peacock on his shoulder, and a few other essentials.”
Here’s what THEY say about themselves: “THEY are a group of nice people in Amsterdam who came from KesselsKramer and DDB and Jung von Matt and a hip-hop crew and a football team and a fishing boat.”
Funny shit. Be sure to pop over to their site for some additional holiday joy.
corkpop from Theyupload on Vimeo.
You Should Know About John Fellows
Our friend Steve Whittier at Factory Labs recently turned us on to John Fellows, a fantastic illustrator living in our midst who we’re adding to our list of Recommended Talent today. Here’s some interesting tidbits about John that you likely don’t know.
LIFE:
• Grew up as an Army brat and never lived anywhere for more than 3 years until college.
• Got C’s in high school art classes.
• Spent 6 years after graduating college doing design and illustration in Philadelphia and summers in the Swiss Alps helping run a hostel in the town of Gimmelwald.
• After spending a season being a ski bum in the Swiss Alps (2001-2002), relocated to Colorado in the winter of 2003.
• Worked in the Keystone Sign Shop for 3 years, designing + building trail signage, logos, stickers, t-shirts, posters, etc. for Keystone and Breckenridge.
• Moved to Denver in Summer 2007 after a nice 6 week stay in Europe.
TOOLS:
• Linoleum, knife, wooden spoon, ink, roller, and computer (but also pen + ink and silk screen).
• Linoleum lends itself to backpacking really easily. John always take pieces with him whenever he travels, making prints to give out or to send home as postcards.
WHY LINO:
“‘I did that once in elementary school,’ is something I hear all the time. I rediscovered it in college. It freed me up from being a control freak when I drew. No matter what the original drawing looks like, the finished carving will have a completely different feel and look.”
INSPIRATION:
• Travel, art, snow, international departure terminals (Even the crappy ones. LAX, he’s looking in your direction).
• Foreign cities (or cities in general).
• Foreign magazines: Monster Children, PaperPlane, King Brown, Wooden Toy, LoDown, etc. (kick American magazine ass).
• People that make the life they want and are happy.
CLIENTS (partial list):
Breckenridge Ski Resort / Keystone Resort / The Keystone Neighbourhood Company / HessenMob Skateboards (DE) / Charter Ski Magazine (NZ) / Mountain Hostel Gimmelwald (CH) / The American Cancer Society / MTV
COOL PROJECTS:
• Being asked to design a series of decks for HessenMob skateboards over in Germany (coming 2009). Past artists include: Shepard Fairey, Dalek, Flying Fortress, Don Pendelton, Mark Gonzales, etc.
• Designing the 2007 and 2008 Blues & BBQ poster for the KNC up in Keystone.
• The 2008 Adrenaline Film Series poster for the KNC. After printing, he hand-cut 175 posters to create the mountains.
• Creating an illustration for a ski mag out of NZ. It depicts “Tawhirimatea,” the Maori god of weather, delivering a blast of winter to the Southern Alps.
• The Employee Handbooks for Keystone and Breck.
FAVORITE COUNTRIES TRAVELED (in no particular order):
Switzerland / Croatia / Spain / Australia / New Zealand
TWO FINAL NOTES:
• Will trade design/illustration work for plane tickets. Seriously.
• I know, I know…. I need to update my website.
Marley & Me Movie Spoiler
Heartless L.A. vandals ruin it for the rest of us. But bad puns sort of deserve this kind of treatment, no?
(Via Slashfilm)
W+K Radio
Wieden + Kennedy, Portland is going to start broadcasting a live radio show on Monday January 5th at 9am (PST).
The radio extension exists to inspire creativity through provocative conversations, interviews and artistic expressions relating to arts, culture, media, and music. We’re starting small with minimal programming hours, with a goal to eventually share an equal amount of programming between our seven different offices and their communities worldwide. Stop by the studio if you have something to say.
Sweet stuff. You can listen here: wk.com/radio.
Oh Brother
We spent a few moments on the sofa on New Year’s Day. Okay, about 800 moments if you must know. TNT was promoting the heck out of Trust Me, a new series premiering later in January. The show stars Eric McCormack (cute) and Tom Cavanagh (ridiculously cute) as a creative team at an ad agency. We can’t recall if they were referred to as a “hot shot” team, but let’s assume. It’s hard to say if this show will be the least bit watchable, but one line of teaser VO is stuck in our heads. Here it is: “In the high stakes world of advertising, only the best of friends will survive.” So think about that, those of you who go to work each day with mere friends and co-workers. Better make ‘em your BFFs or your days are numbered.
In Case You Missed It
Hopefully you spent your New Year’s Eve anywhere but in front of the TV watching Anderson Cooper in Times Square. If that’s the case, please enjoy this short clip in which Kathy Griffin deftly handles a (presumably) drunken heckler. Ms. Griffin, your chutzpah humbles and inspires us. You’ve earned a standing invitation to become a guest editor of The Egotist.
Save Ink, Save The Planet
SPRANQ, a creative communications company in The Netherlands, created a new font called Ecofont. It’s designed to reduce the amount of ink used to print our everyday documents.
Appealing ideas are often simple: how much of a letter can be removed while maintaining readability? After extensive testing with all kinds of shapes, the best results were achieved using small circles. After lots of late hours (and coffee) this resulted in a font that uses up to 20% less ink.
We like this idea. Think of the last 11-page “brief” you received. Then think of the number of times the account team reprinted it after changing two words. It adds up quickly.
Awake But Still Dreaming: Free Art
Matt Scobey, along with some others, is having an art opening Saturday night at Emmanuel Gallery from 6-10 PM. All of the stuff Matt is showing is free to take off the wall. So, come by and take something home. Sweet New Year’s gift if we do say so ourselves.
In The Egotist Inbox: Chun Lim
There’s some nice motion graphic design work on the reel of Chun Lim, who has worked with many of the agencies and productions houses in Denver. Give it a watch.
The World's Top Advertising & Design Blogs
As ranked by Alexa. The Top 25 Ad Blogs here. The Top 90 Design Blogs here. Lots of exploring to do in these two lists.
The Far Side Reenacted Through Photography
This Flickr set features Gary Larsen’s The Far Side cartoons reenacted using photography. You can even create your own and get it posted. It’d be nice to see the original cartoon they’re mimicking next to the shots.
Asics: Pursuit of Perfection
The story of Asics told through origami.
Origami In the Pursuit of Perfection from MABONA ORIGAMI on Vimeo.
(Via Fubiz)
Heineken: Walk-In Closet
This is what great advertising does best, taking a common occurrence (excitement over a new walk-in closet) and flipping it on its head. What a brilliant idea.
New Wednesday Morning Poll >>
It isn’t shop talk, but it’s certainly on Denver’s mind. Care to weigh in on Shanahan getting canned?
6 days ago / / Link
A Note About Us Recommending People
It goes something like this. Someone emails us a link to their site, typically with very little to no description about themselves. We click through and check out their work. It seems very nice. We trust their resume is accurate and that all work featured is their own. We don’t interview. We don’t ask questions. We don’t gauge personality or test them out with real assignments. We look at the work and we recommend people according to the work. That’s it.
What we expect if the community we’ve built through this site is working properly is that all the other personality, likability and skill level stuff will come out in the comments below the post. Which is what happened yesterday with Craig.
As a whole, we’ve worked with a fair share of Denver’s talent, but there are undoubtedly gaps in our collective reach. In cases like this, all we can do is judge by the quality of their portfolio and leave it to you as community to sort out the rest. We encourage all of you to use your best judgment when reading comments and, as always, we’re open to any suggestions you may have on how to best provide you with quality, reliable content.
Chrysler Thanks America with a Huge #@*! You
In the last two weeks, Chrysler and GM have accepted $23 billion dollars from Americans as part of their bailout plan (yeah, you). In return for your gratitude, Chrysler ran two full-page ads in USA Today and The Wall Street Journal with a ‘Thank You, America’ message – costing more than $500,000 in media (and not counting the cost of agency creative development or media placement). Here’s Fox Business Happy Hour co-anchor, Cody Willard, calling them out today during an afternoon broadcast. How badly does this piss you off?
(Via AgencySpy)