Outside the Print Ad and Thinking

Before the economy took my job, we lost the pitch for Levi's.

I know... downer opening...not to worry because I had a blast pitching it, learned a lot about using my weirder ideas freely and got some sweet pieces out of it.

Here's one of my favorite.

Instead of the stage / audience set up used since the Cult of Osiris, why not surround the listeners with music? I was listening to my iPod Shuffle when this idea hit me.

Placing the audience in the middle so they're "together", I suggest that we have at least four stages and have the lights come up on different stages surprising the audience with who plays next. You won't know which way to turn until the lights come up on the stage.

Not only does the front row keep changing making the experience more holistic but the bands and musicians mix and match as well giving this concert the most spectacular element of continuous surprise.

Cartooning: Drawing the Candidates

Raise Your Hand

A comic series I'm working on that's kinda mean, kinda true and kinda I don't care I'm doing it anyway.

Costa Rica Pitch Media Release

So the news is out...Agency Spy just released the news about Costa Rica Tourism.

Click on the title to this blog.

I happen to be part of the team that is pitching this under Oberlander.

See my Costa Rica blog post below to review a few pieces of the work.

UPDATE: CAN'T SHOW THE WORK UNTIL THEY'VE CONFIRMED WHO WINS THE BIZ.

DOMAINATION: On A Shoestring

Click the title of this post to delve into the dark side of my mind. 

I made this as part of "Domaination". (See the DOMAINATION post for full up explanation.)

Bwahahahahaha...cough cough...yeah.

(and just in case clicking the title doesn't work...here's the site:)

www.onashoestringfilms.com

I Can Comp! A page takeover for Costa Rica Tourism Pitch. Shazza!

Copywriters don't usually get to explore arts outside the rich text format but on occasion we can be trusted to attempt something.

Here I made a phase 1, 2, 3 of what a nice take-over might look like for Costa Rica. 

The howler monkey comes swinging in, steals the Latest News headline and swings off with it while orchids bloom and the roots of the tree take over...and one of Costa Rica's amazing iguanas walks in. Oh and butterflies flutter across the page and through the tag line.

What do you think?

Weeee!

One Show Win

Worked with Denison Kusano on this back at the Circus right before we graduated. I blame this campaign for making me move to New York. I hadn't wanted to move here before that weekend, but by dancing with a pencil at the after parties, I was wooed by agencies in the city. 

Very glad it happened, even though I almost threw up on stage.

The brief was a bit weird in 2004. Sell advertising. Advertising people are less trusted than used car salesmen. I guess it depends on who you ask. But here was our solution. 

To see them up close click the title to this blog above.

Headline: Advertising. Creating a state of mind from a shoe.

Headline: Advertising. Creating a legacy from a soda.

Headline: Advertising. Creating an Apple from a computer.

DOMAINATION: Converse Google Spelling Bee

Created this video series with Stan Chin, the internet maestro. 

I wrote, shot and edited them. Stayed up all night. Had a blast.

It's the first ever search engine spelling bee.

To play the game, click the title to this post.

Converse 2009 "Laces Campaign"

The goal was to evolve a product campaign out of "Connectivity 2008" that was done by my partner Ian Toombs, the king of art rock.

This was the basic piece for Connectivity in the U.S. 

And here is the Laces campaign to follow it ------------------>

I think we did a fabulous job. There's an entire campaign from OOH to shoe boxes. 

Click on the link (title of this post) above to view more pieces in detail.

Converse's Suspended: A Graphic Novel That's a True Story

Came up with this when I read a news report this past Fall about a girl who dyed her hair pink in honor of her father who died from cancer. She was suspended from school for it. 

Converse loved the story so I drew up a concept for a series based on true stories of kids getting suspended for ridiculousness or simply expressing themselves differently. 

This is the first edit. There's a typo in the text, the timing is a little slow and I would rather end on a different frame that's left out. But I'm really proud of where it's going. Click on the link above will take you to the non-animated, frame version.

VH1 Black History Month Concept + Print

Concept: Since VH1 is a music entity let's create a amazing collection of sounds of Black History available for download on the VH1 site.

Great speeches, quiet ones too, boxing matches, court room recordings and clips from the radio, you could experience Black History by listening to the joys, successes, struggles and poetry of it.

Each download is to have a minimal charge in part donated to Historically Black Colleges and Universities. 

We called it The Pride Collection.

Kennedy Headline: Download compassion.

King Headline: Download courage.

X Headline: Download intensity.