Potpourri

Long day. Helped a friend from church move. It was stinkin hot and there was the threat of rain but it luckily held out until we were done. They make their own bread (grind the grain and everything) and it is so yummy.

It is hard to believe that the end of the month is fast approaching.

I just learned about stuck pixels. They are single pixels that are usually red, blue, or green in color. They occur frequently in LCD monitors. You might have one on your own laptop screen. They can be fixed by gently taping the monitor for a period of time. Read more here.

Check out this great invention, the wearable sleeping bag. I should totally get one. [Source]
Don't know if I've already posted about them in the past, but check out Christian rock band Anberlin.

Currently listening to: Famous Last Words - My Chemical Romance (wow, this vid has been viewed close to 34 million times)

Haven't Let It Go Yet

Hmm...I don't have anything to post about tonight strangely. I bought Milanos today, which is cause for much celebration. Haven't had those for a long time.

Today was the first day in a long while that was absolutely gorgeous. There was a breeze (very rare) and it was slightly cooler and less humid than usual.

Finally got my Harry Potter copy today! It's been a week. Amazon, you stink. Speaking of Harry Potter (okay, I know I will stop after this...maybe), check out these two brothers Hank and John. They communicate through vlog (video blog) instead of emails/text every few days. The following is one of their non HP posts.


Also, if you are just now catching the HP bug or if you want a review of the 7 books, check out this week's Entertainment Weekly. Great issue!

Currently listening to: Separate Ways - Craig David

PhotoHunt

(post for Friday)
Home after watching The Simpsons. It was quite good. I'm just not used to it being so long (movie length vs. tv length). I wouldn't put it on my top for the summer movies but I had a lot of fun.
After the movie, we headed for a club. I stayed longer than expected. My partner from last quarter and I were the last people to leave. No joke. That's definitely never happened before. And I got nothing. Not even water. I really do live on the edge. Tried to go to another club afterwards but got denied entry because I was wearing sandals. The nerve!

But the best part was that we played many rounds of PhotoHunt (only the BEST arcade game in the world). It was six of us crowded around that tiny screen. Ah...brings back good memories. :)

I went online to try to find a PhotoHunt game for everyone and it turns out there are TONS. It is much less fun though because there are fewer people playing and the screen picture is TINY. But if you need to satisfy your PhotoHunt itch, here's one that's not too bad.
Photographer Norman Jean Roy's work. Love it!
I am working on something for Campbell's Soup. Did you know that the company owns Godiva? Weird.

Currently listening to: Tears of the Saints - Leeland (link is not to an official music vid but i really like this song)

Closing

Have finally finished Harry Potter. I have only been able to read during the pockets of time between working on symphony stuff, so it's a bit slow going. I'm not going to say anything in case it spoils someone else's reading experience, but ask me if you want my opinion.

My partner and I gave our symphony pitch today. A week of hard work and a lot of frustration. I felt like the stuff wasn't as good as the Mexican bookstore work but that is okay and the stuff turned out pretty good in the end. We already got our new brief two days ago (the cycle never ends), and this one will be a little more production artsy based.

Great VW ad.

Currently listening to: The sound of the week ending peacefully despite a tumultuous beginning

Bounce Back

A new day. How thankful I am that God gives us a new morning without fail. I guess I was just in a funk yesterday. It was unpleasant and I am glad that I am out of it. I am still feeling a bit of self-doubt that today was much better.

I am beginning to think that my Harry Potter will never get here. Today I finally got my A Fine Frenzy cd. If you remember, I raved about it a bit a week ago. I went ahead and got it, my first for a long long time. Sidenote: Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) turned 18 today.

It was revealed that Harold Perrineau, who played Michael on LOST, will be returning for next season. Woot! The actor was also in Matrix, 28 Weeks Later, and Romeo + Juliet for those non LOST watchers.

Wanted to cue you in on the Black Google, or Blackle. If you use Google as your homepage, you should consider switching. It takes some getting used to because white font on black background is harder to read but you could be making a difference. Because the white screen takes so much more energy, if everyone switched, a total of $75,000 (75 Megawatt-hours of power) could be saved. Read more here.

If you are looking for cool t-shirts, check out Threadless.

(copy:Well, this sucks.)

Currently listening to: Come On, Come Out - A Fine Frenzy

Going Under

(post for Tuesday)

Swimming in a little pool of self-doubt and exhaustion. Not a good combination. I love advertising but right now I feel so dried out. I feel as if I keep ramming into a wall with no avail.

Thankfully God gave me a little reminder of His love in the form of the moon tonight. Just when I was feeling a little miserable I look up and see it. Beautiful.

Since I am doing a lot of writing (for copy class) and a lot of fictional book reading (Harry Potter), I have found that I think in narrative. Instead of going to my computer to read my email when I wake up, I "rose from my bed, the last traces of sleep still heavily clinging to my eyelids. Walking over to my computer, I feel its smooth metallic surface and venture towards..." You get the picture. It's really quite funny.

Check out these great sushi themed things.
USB Flash Drives [Source]
Knit Sushi! by Amy Polcyn [Source]

Currently listening to: If This is Goodbye - Lifehouse

School = No Sleep

(post for Monday)

Hard at work, hard at work. It feels a little bit like I'm gasping for air. I'm a bit burned out by work already and it's the beginning of the week.

In terms of classes, I am currently working on John Deere, Walmart, a food and wine festival, and, as mentioned earlier, the orchestra. A nice mix. I am just glad it's not alcohol or computers! :)

Speaking of computers (okay, maybe I just can't get rid of them), here is an ad for Apple that you may have seen in the past. It's interesting because it uses a lot of famous (and also deceased) historical figures. Chevy did the same but got a lot of grief for it. Apparently it's cool if Apple does it but not Chevy. Good branding. (I like Einstein's hair blowing in the wind.)


Also wanted to post the classic Nike commercial. The tricks are really sweet (and definitely not something that I could ever do) but I realized recently that it is all just clever editing.


Back to work!

Currently listening to: Faith Like That - Johah33

Not What It Seems

Still no Harry Potter book. My roomie, who finished it in a day, is lending me his copy so I am a happy girl. Apparently Amazon really screwed up. A lot of people were left without a copy even though there was a guarantee (or your money back) for the book.

My next client for TIR is a symphony orchestra. I have a new partner and we met up today and had a few good first ideas. I hope that this assignment will be fun. The brief is extremely vague...appeal to people who don't usually go to the orchestra. Uhh....isn't that the majority of the population save a small niche? Anyways, we're trying to come up with ideas to put the orchestra in a better light.

Going along the same stream...cello quartet playing Barbie Girl. Not as good as it is in Dutch but still pretty cool.


Also, here are some other artists who are revamping the traditional classical world.
Shamisen masters The Yoshida Brothers (who were really big in HK two years ago) ft. Monkey Majik


Apocalyptica (long-haired cello rock playing trio)


These ads have been circulating for awhile so you may have seen them before. Pretty sweet use of type though. They are for Veja, a Brazilian news magazine. Tagline: Get both sides.
Ad for Absolut's new campaign, Absolut World.


To close, here are three spots from Ameriquest's Don't Judge Too Quickly campaign. I think that they are done pretty well.

Currently listening to: Halo - Texas

Propaganda and the Little Kid in All of Us

The last book from the Harry Potter series is officially out. I am still patiently (or maybe not so patiently) waiting for mine. My roomie got his and is reading it as I type. Ah!!!! I just hope that it arrives early this week.
So, the lack of posting should have keyed you in to the fact that I have been swamped this week. I've been crawling into bed and collapsing exhausted before having to pry myself up after too few hours of sleep. It's been good though. My partner and I banged out the Mexican bookstore project and it went well! We are really proud of it.

There are so many things I have saved up to post these last few days.

While working on a campaign for the Mexican bookstore, I did a lot of research on propaganda. It's such an interesting topic that I don't think I've truly appreciated fully. I didn't know this before, but there are different "shades" of propaganda - white, black, and gray.
White - the source is clear (e.g. Chinese work force posters)
Black - work that masquerades as being from a certain source but actually being from another
Gray - unclear source

Found this great site, Maopost.com, where you can put your face onto famous propaganda pieces. Hilarious!

Speaking of which, here is a similar site, Simpsonize Me, promoting the Simpsons. Burger King is doing some great work for the movie, which comes out on the 27th, I believe. You put in a photo of yourself and it shows you what you would look like as a Simpsons character.
Here is my look, in case you were wondering.
Talk about running out of ideas for reality shows...From what I can decipher, the new Who Wants to Be a Superhero involves picking which (weird) wannabe superhero will be immortalized by famed comic book writer Stan Lee. The contestants include characters named Ms. Limelight and The Defuser. Umm...no comment. (Uh, see more photos here if you really want to.)
Japanese company Elecom have designed M&M-like headphones. Read more here (English) or go to the original site.

This is getting to be a long post so I'll save my other stuff for tomorrow. Wanted to end with this campaign for Nido bird food. Tagline is: "Sir/Madam, your dinner is served." Great art direction. (Click on image for larger view.)

Currently listening to: Everything Glorious - David Crowder Band (fantastic, new favorite song of mine)

Change the World

(post for Wednesday)

Another insanely long day. I am so pooped so this will be a shortie.

Partner and I slaved away at our bookstore brief again today. It was a little like giving birth to a child (or, well, what I would imagine that would be like). Painful and tiring. I think we ended up with some good stuff but we have a long way to go. Luckily the stuff we're working on is good so it's not like some wasted effort on a fruitless project. Do you know it's really hard to convey the word "read" with any other word?

In prep for our brief, we have been looking at recent large scale guerrilla campaigns.
The first is an ad for Sydney's Earth Hour. I think I mentioned it briefly in a past post, but on March 31st, the entire city turned off its lights for one hour. About 57% of the population participated, which is staggering if you think about it. Read more about it here.


This is for the recent Tap Project in NYC (run by UNICEF). On March 22nd, World Water Day, everyone who dined out donated $1 each for tap water. UNICEF raised $5.5 million.


Last clip is a campaign by Fallon for Ted, the cheap branch of United Airlines. For a long while before the unveiling of the new airline, buzz was created around "Ted." Ted would go around Denver (which, as was later discovered, is the hub for the airline) and do random acts of kindness - pay for pizza, buy coffee, hand out flowers, appear at sports games. This was extremely large scale but low production and was quite successful.


Just wanted to post those to show the power of advertising (for humanitarian purposes and to raise awareness). Pretty amazing.

On a completely unrelated I'm-Still-Obsessed note, here is Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) in his new film December Boys. Still weird seeing him in a different role but I suppose I'll get over it (like Dominic Monaghan (Pippin in LOTR) in LOST).

Okay, I know this didn't turn out to be a short post. I made cornbread today. Cornbread!

Currently listening to: If This is Goodbye - Lifehouse

Experimental

Barely made it in time to post but here I am.

I was examining a bottle of ketchup today and...did you know that it contains high fructose corn syrup? Who would've guessed? This is coming from someone who loves drowning her fries (if she ever eats any) in ketchup. Yum.

Long day. Prelim presentation for the bookstore went well! They liked our idea...almost too much. Now we have to push it like crazy. I guess it's a good problem to have but my partner and I are feeling a bit overwhelmed.

Went to the bar with my classmates and teacher after class. It was nice to sorta chill in a relaxed setting. I got cranberry juice. Talk about experimental! But seriously...I usually find that stuff too tart.

Currently listening to: Chocolate - Snow Patrol (the music vid is pretty cool...takes place when there is only about half an hour before the end of the world)

New Findings

I just took a mega nap after dinner and wouldn't have woken up if E~ hadn't called (for which I'm grateful). I'm such a lazy bum.

On a happy note, I made cinnamon raisin bread today...and it turned out great! So thanks to sleuth E~ and her mommy, I have decided that the problem with my banana bread is the squishiness of the bananas. I will make another attempt soon.

Disney is putting a new spin on its next film. This movie has the potential to be really horrible and I hope that's not the case. Patrick Dempsey (Grey's Anatomy), James Marsden (X-men), and Susan Sarandon are in it so let's hope it isn't too bad.


Speaking of movies, has anyone heard of The Good Night? It stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Penelope Cruz, Danny Devito, and Shaun of the Dead's Martin Freeman. Apparently it was released earlier this year. Don't know how good it is but the movie poster is pretty cool. Here's the trailer if you're curious.

Newcomer artist A Fine Frenzy releases its debut LP on Tuesday. Lead singer Alison Sudol has been called the female Coldplay. Her voice reminds me of Joy Williams or a female Augustana and the CD is pretty great. Her song Rangers is my "Currently listening to" track for today so check her out. She's getting a LOT of buzz and I think she might be the next big thing.

Check out these patterned trash bags. I love design, but this seems a little excessive. [Source]

Currently listening to: Rangers - A Fine Frenzy (I am a big fan of this song!)

Shh, I'm Watching the Commercials!

Did some good prelim work with my new partner this morning. We sat in a bookstore cafe and it got our creative juices going. I am excited about this new client and I hope that we produce some cool stuff.

Sonshine (annual Minnesotan summer Christian music festival) kicked off yesterday. I'm envious of anyone who's going.

Spent the afternoon perusing through new commercials so I thought I'd post a few of the better ones. Enjoy!


(This is a pretty good and easy to achieve effect with slow shutter speed. I think it's cool that they did a whole commercial based on it.)




(Nice production.)


(Almost classic Nike spot.)


Thailand is known for its fierce advertising. The stuff definitely holds its own against the Amer-Euro agencies. They put their own sense of humor in commercials (if you recall the green tea caterpillar ad). Check out these two. The second is part of a larger campaign.

Click here.

And finally, I thought I would throw this SNL skit in as well. Pretty great.

Currently listening to: 1234 - Feist

Welcoming the Weekend

(post for Friday)

I am done with Burger King! At least for the time being. Presentation went fairly well. I know I have some stuff to work on. It took 3.5 hours to get through all the groups. Some of the ideas were good, some not so much. I guess that's to be expected after only 4 days and this being our first assignment. Up next: a client for a Mexican bookstore. Should be interesting.

Don't know if anyone has seen the recent LifeSavers ads ("It's good to be sweet"). I think they are pretty great. Here is one spot from the campaign.

Just wanted to post this. It's one of my favorite scenes from the movie (and I'm sure many of you will agree).


If you're still going through the Harry Potter craze (which I obviously am), check out interviews with Emma Watson and Rupert Grint on Yahoo's The 9.

FINALLY, a photo...here is my new stylin' do. I haven't had bangs since 8th grade. Sorry for the delay in picture posting. I barely have time to catch my breath.

Currently listening to: Bullet - Mat Kearney

Games

Today I had my first ever Whopper. I don't think I have ever gotten anything at Burger King except for the cinnaminis for bfast. It was...well...fast food. I did find the mayo interesting. I was just glad I didn't have to try the Texas Double Whopper (my current project), which has 1050 calories and 69 grams of fat (106% of your rec. daily intake). Ugh.

Have been doing mad prep for the upcoming pitch. My partner and I have some good ideas but presenting my creative always makes me nervous.

Because I've apparently become a wimp for cute animals...

And this is what I was talking about yesterday. Harry in casual sports jacket/suits...yuck yuck yuck. [Source]
Been wanting to post about this viral site for quite some time. It is a game-based web ad for the Toyota Scion. It's actually quite dark - the game consists of killing sheep-like characters that have green blood - but I guess I'm not the target. Cool graphics though.

Chevrolet has also done its own game viral site. The graphics take a little too long to load, but they are beautifully done. Even though it's in another language (Swedish?), I've been told the game is pretty straightforward.

Six Flags is trying to revamp its image with two new campaigns. My teacher was on this account, which is why I'm posting about it. The behind-the-scenes part is the coolest.
Check here for the special fx campaign and below for the low production version that they did in their office.

Is anyone familiar with Oregon Trail? I was trying to explain it to some people in school and they had either never heard of it or never played it. What? I thought it was a requirement for all American elementary students. Such a great game. And created by C~ students no less.

Currently listening to: First Time - Lifehouse (this video has a cool white to red effect...struck me as very Christian)

Fan Club

(post for Wednesday)

Two raves for today. Just got back from watching Harry Potter. It was so great! They have definitely improved in terms of acting, special effects, and keeping the viewer sucked in. True, there are some departures from the book that fans will get upset about...and I don't know what was up with the wardrobe for Harry (they had him in casual suit jackets...what?!?) and Hermione (striped sweaters, ugh), but I really enjoyed this one. Can't wait for the Deathly Hallows!

(might I add that this is a really bad movie poster...yawn)

Second rave is for Lifehouse's cd Who We Are. Sooooo good. Much better than their self-titled 3rd album.

Okay, I'm usually not into the cutesy animal stuff...or, well, I am, but not enough to post it, but I just had to put this one up.


Check out this great bird vase while you're at it.

There are a few ads that I am tempted to post but I think they are a bit risque. So, gentle reader, I will abstain.

However, I will post these fabulous billboard ads. I first saw these many years ago; and the whole campaign is one of my favorites. Simple and to the point. These are what come to mind when I think of using advertising for good. They were commissioned by an anonymous patron and I know that they are all over the place. See more here: [Source] [Source]

Check out Mute Math's Typical. It's been done before, but production still pretty cool.

Currently listening to: Broken - Lifehouse (I am such a fan of this song!)

Burgers and Photographers at Their Finest

Since, as you know, I am doing BK as a client, I have been reading diligently into the brand. I found this bizarre story about how a customer flew into a rage and almost hit an employee with his truck at the drive thru when he was told they were out of fries. He was sentenced to 45 days in jail.

Check out Kenny Muhammad (aka the Human Orchestra). Amazing. I'd probably feel lightheaded in 10 seconds.


A 10,000 year old well-preserved baby mammoth was found in Serbia and has been recently sent to Japan for further study. It is said to be one of the best specimen samples (fur, eyes, and trunk are undamaged). For picture and more info click here.

Wanted to feature a few photographers today:
Ed Freeman

Jeff Olson

Camilla Akrans (look at that lighting!)

Nicolas Moore (I love the look of these Ferragamo ads! I considered these while planning out my comps.)

Wanted to end with this BK ad from SuperBowl 2006. I love the production! I realized that I have never had a BK burger. Hmmm....

Currently listening to: Las de la Intuicion - Shakira

By the Seat of My Pants

Sorry for lack of posting. Too many things to juggle at once. I think I will gain full momentum on Wednesday.

The Director of Advertising for Burger King came to speak with us today. She talked mostly about The King (I think he's so creepy). Pretty cool though. Did you know that there laws regulating the amount of calories that can be shown in kid's food advertising?

Check out BK's viral site, Subservient Chicken. You can tell the chicken what to do.

Because I am in Teacher In Residence (TIR) class, I will be creating an entirely new campaign each week with the visiting guest speaker as a judge. This class is going to KICK MY BUTT. We're talking whipping entire campaigns (not just one print ad) out in 3 days. In a way, I'm excited to see what the end products will be from this term.

Went to a Celia Cruz (aka Queen of Salsa) exhibit yesterday. She had the most amazing shoes. Wow. Check out these, which are "heel-less". No heel, just an added extension from the base of the shoe. It gives the impression that she's lifting off the ground. They look fabulous. I wonder if they were comfortable.
Pictures are forthcoming. Can't hit the ground running quite yet.

Oh, and I totally wanted to post this on Saturday but didn't get a chance to.

Currently listening to: Pinar del Rio - Celia Cruz

Dirty Laundry

Who knew that doing a load of laundry could take an entire day. I was all set to start this morning and now it's close to 10:30 and I'm still not done. I think the machines are messed up and I'm going to rewash because my clothes came out smelling gross. What an unpleasant experience.

Boeing is planning on releasing its new 787 on Sunday. This will be the first new craft in twelve years from the company (which released the 777 in 1995). The 787 will hold around 230 people (half the size of the AirBus, if that helps put things in perspective) and the first airline to fly it will be ANA (All Nippon Airways). [Source]

Harry Potter release is fast approaching! J.K. Rowling has been recently quoted as breaking down in tears after penning the last few chapters. Read more here.

(Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint at premiere)

And because I'm still excited about this collaboration...

(Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in Revolutionary Road)

Check out this ad for Darbo jams. Nothing spectacular but I like the production a lot.


Nike direct promotional piece by Publicis. Pretty sweet.

I thought this clip was quite well done. Ah, procrastination.


Last but not least, tune into Live Earth tomorrow...18 hours of broadcasted concerts around the world (much like the Live 8 event). The whole show is being held to raise awareness for global warming. If you have time, check it out.

Currently listening to: Sugar Tunes - Balan