Dentists? Hmmmm … let’s see. Pain, time holes, insurance worries, guilt? Dentists get a bad rap when all they are trying to do is help us avoid the car crash that is bound to happen when we don’t see them on a regular basis. It is a monument to the limitations of preventative medicine. Most dental ads try to dodge this bullet but showing happy, beautiful, pain-free people with nothing on their minds but happy thoughts. I decided to do a test in the local newspaper with a series of ads that don’t sugar coat (HA!) the issue. They ran in rotation for about two months and performed remarkably well. Simple direct graphics with a bit of edginess that don’t insult the reader. What’s even better is that they stand out from the rest of the Zoloft inspired dental ads running in the same paper. Gary is a good friend of mine (and my dentist). It is nice to have somebody who trusts my ideas and is not afraid to test outside of the box.

Just in case you were wondering. The best performing ad? The toothache guy. The least performing ad? The pretty girl with perfect teeth. Of course it could be the offer. I have never been excited by teeth whitening. It could be because it is an inexpensive loss leader. But since every dentist does it, it reads like white noise to me.

This is the final for the Motivity logo. I ended up modifying the logotype by hand. That is always fun. A unique letterform for a unique client. So much to do, so little time. Yep. You guessed it. The end of the semester.

Yep, three posts within the same week. Life is getting back to normal. School is covered, Studio work is doing good, and I actually spent time with the family this weekend. OK. So, a client gives me a thumbnail of a character they want drawn for a product display. The client sells (amongst other things) custom barrettes for little girls. This client gives me a thumbnail for the design / illustration and gets me started.

Over the course of my career, I have seen hundreds of client provided illustration thumbnails. They range in quality from the vaguely intelligible hieroglyphic, to the amazingly adept.

This is an example of one of the latter. The thumbnail gives me great distinguishable lines, direction, size, product display, gender, and proportion.

When I receive thumbnails from clients, I will often provide thumbnails back to make sure we are talking about the same thing. In this instance, I drew a nice tight mockup in Sketchbook Pro, directly from their thumbnail.

I finished up the illustration, in Adobe illustrator using a custom pressure sensitive brush. To top it all off, I have been using it as a classroom sample for an assignment we are currently working on.

I’ve created a new website for Mike Kennedy’s campaign for CdA city council. I do a fair amount of work with Mike at Intermax Networks and I have known him for many years. The graphics which include yard signs, hand bills, this web site, a 60 sec video spot (commercial) and other collateral. We are also talking about a billboard and voter registration cards. Anyway, it is good work for a great guy who lets me have the creative freedom to incorporate my ideas into his overall campaign strategy.

There is something about me that likes the “outside the box” approach that grass roots guerilla marketing lays claim to. I like it even better when the results of those guerilla promises actually deliver. What do I like about it? It could be the on-the-low, biggest bang for the buck, stand up and take notice, no holds barred, mentality. It could also be that it forces a designer to stop thinking pretty and corporate and gets you dirty.

I have recently completed a somewhat market focused ad built around a three cent xerox flyer on yellow paper that will be distributed, posted, tacked, and handed out by volunteers here in Coeur d’Alene. The ad was built from the ground up to be lossy — the the more grittier and grungy the better. I created some hyper contrasty Photoshop magic from a picture that was already in-your face. For me, the ad is definitely a stretch. For my client, it is also an experiment in something different x 10. I don’t want to let too much out of the bag, but I will post a visual of this next week after we tally the results. Until then … here is a sneak peek.

It has been a long time coming, and I have not yet reached the point where I can say to myself that it is finished (is there ever such a point?) but I have successfully updated my portfolio and made some navigation changes.

To start off, I killed all the drilling down into specific folders and lumped all my logos and advertising together. I have also brought all my illustration under one umbrella. This should make it easier to view samples and keep navigation simple. I have moved my sculpting portfolio off of this site and I am moving it to another domain. I know this goes contrary to what I was saying earlier this year, but it never felt right to have it sort of frankenstein-ed onto this site. Instead of a blog, however, I think that my sculpting site will be a stand alone informational site. We will see, a lot of this rearranging is still in the air.

Comments or no comments? The rest of this site is open to comments and those of you who read and send “good vibes” my direction are encouraged to keep doing so. A few of you have noticed that I do not have my portfolio open for comments. I am not sure why I choose to do this? It is not like my portfolio is more “formal” than the other parts of my blogfolio. I will think about it. If you want to influence the decision, I can be bribed with M&Ms or you can leave a comment here.

For years I have tried to balanced my studio advertising work with an eclectic mix of national and local clients. Some of these clients live in here in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Others operate corporate offices out of Spokane, Washington, or Seattle. From Florida, to New York, to Chicago, to LA, I am lucky to have made a a valuable impact with a variety of clients, a few of which I have actually met in person. It is a interesting world we live in when I can collect a $50,000 check from somebody, whom I have worked hand-in-hand with, and feel like I know like a good friend, and yet I have never seen their face.

It is wonderful, however, to do local work where I can see instant reactions to my creative efforts, and bank the rewards of a personal face-to-face meeting. It is hard to cash a spontaneous smile, but the value really is priceless.

Braided Accents has been one of my Coeur d’Alene clients for over six years. When they call up in a panic on Wednesday afternoon and need an ad by Friday morning I am happy to oblige service. As a long term client they have banked a lot of smiles in my account.

Ok, it’s not the academy awards. But from time to time I will get the opportunity to work on a commercial and I always jump at the chance to keep my skills up to date and my finger in the pie. This was a quick fifteen second spot that appears on public television and is very controlled. In fact all PBS “Ads” are very controlled because they do not want the ad to be overtly “selling” anything. It is really more of a branding opportunity with a phone number, and no call to action and no claims, and no single product endorsements. It is fun though. And since my Brother Mike, does video production in New York, it is a very easy web-based collaboration. It is not client approved yet, but as soon as it is, I will post it for the world to see.

Now … where’s that red carpet?

I’ve been working on a lot of divergent projects but this one takes the cake (ewww). I have partnered with a person who is introducing advertising in of all places … urinals. I know this seems a bit out there, but the demographics and retention numbers play out and it is, after all, a captive audience. That being said, I feel that it needs to be accomplished with a nudge and a wink. It’s hard to take yourself too seriously when you are pitching a stranger who has his life in his hands. Since I am working with this guy, doing the ad design and layouts for the boards, I have placed a few ads as starter seed to help his selling efforts. Yes this relies on toilet humor, and yes it is not an evening at the opera. Still and all, I am not sure if I have crossed the line of taste.

As bathroom ads go, it is not a product placement on a urinal cake, (ewww x 2) nor is it a branded game on the same, both of which exist in the narrow but lucrative market of toilet ad specialties. So I should be grateful.

I am trying to have some fun here. Who knows in the end I might actually drum up some business.

This is a copy of the logo and web head that I have been trying to send to a client all week. For whatever reason my emails are being blocked and they are not receiving my mail. Soooo … I have uploaded it here for them to review at their leisure. (Gina, click on the small image to the left to view a larger picture of it. let me know when you have seen this!)

For all the rest of you reading this … yeah, well … it’s a work in progress.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled programing.