NGAGE now Hughes…

NGAGE now Hughes…
05/20/09

Sorry I have been out of sorts lately. I was on vacation, where I destroyed at least 5 burritos, frolicked on 2 beaches and took in a whole lot of sunshine in San Diego. Also, work has been crazy lately. We’re cranking out a website and promo pieces for Astound Sound. They’re an audio software that takes your compressed music and movies and expands the sound without stretching it. Its pretty incredible, and the work we’re doing for it is very cool. The new site should be live in a couple weeks. Here’s the banner I’m working on now, just to give you a sense.

But also, we found out a few weeks ago that my company NGAGE has merged with an agency known as Hughes, and that we are going to retain their name. Hughes has been around for more than 30 years, and has about 30 clients. Scottrade, our biggest client, will remain so for Hughes, but we are also bringing our other beautiful clients, much needed digital expertise and agency culture/brand. Here’s some of our combined work, I did some of it.

As I said, Hughes has been in existence for over 30 years, and has seen at least two generations of Hughes at the helm. They have been profitable, versatile and extremely thorough. They specialize in the front end, and the back end. The research, and the PR proliferation. We are charged with bringing them a better creative product, opening doors in the digital space and most importantly breathing some new life and freshness into the company.

The immediate question from everyone when I tell them is, “Is your job ok?” The answer is an overwhelming yes. First off, I plan to approach the situation like my job is in danger, even though it’s not. I’m going to dominate. But, lets go through the list of pluses in my court:

1. Hughes is an agency that falls more in line with my educational background (though I feel like my education may have been a bit outdated), and NGAGE has prepared me for where Hughes and the marketing world is moving. I’m covered.

2. My Creative Director will remain my CD, and immediate boss. This is huge, and if I was jumping onto a whole new creative team, I think I might be a bit more concerned. Though new creative thinking is never a bad thing, it’s nice that I am on the inside of this transition.

3. I don’t have to move offices again. Hughes (South Campus as we’re calling it) is coming here. Which means a new creative floor. Thus less shushing from the AEs and more creatives being creative; collaborating. Never a bad thing.

4. More clients. More variety. We’re like Y98 over here.

5. New people, more people. Fresh blood, fresh ideas. More business contacts. More growth potential.

So, I’ll keep you guys up to date on how I feel moving forward, but as of now, I’m pumped.

Invisibles

Invisibles
04/17/09

So I might be late to this game, but my boss turned me onto this after seeing my last post.

It’s on Filmwise.com and its called Invisibles.

They take still frames from movies and transform all the characters in the scene into the invisible man or woman. No head, no hands; even pets become simply a leash.

There are like 10 on a page and you are tasked at guessing them all, submitting and seeing how terrible you did.

David Johnson my Creative Director said its funny how tricky they are sometimes. I am like, “WTF, these are hard”. I consider myself a movie guy, and I can not get some of these. It’s frustrating, but really fun.

Get on it and tell me how you do. Here’s the quiz from my birthday (some are obvious, but some are really hard:

New Inspiration: Graphic Exchange

New Inspiration: Graphic Exchange
03/9/09

So last week I was looking for inspiration for a few projects we’re kicking off here.

I stumbled onto this Blogish site through another of my faves FFFFound.com.

It’s called Graphic-Exchange and I am seeing some amazing work being put forward for consideration.

Here are just a few examples:

The usability is random, and the load time is excessive, but the work up for discussion is second to none. This is a great resource for design trends and inspiration. It’ll make you mad how good some of this work is.

Fabien Barral is the guy who runs the site and he describes it like this, “graphic-exchange is an alternative to the “links only” web site, showing you the a selection of work directly on this site. I also use it to present my own work.”

He’s from France.

I get the sense from the site that designers can “exchange” professionally printed work with Fabien, post their work for his approval and posting, or just read and enjoy what is and can be done in the world of design.

Lastly, I like this autobiography. He describes himself this way, “I am a husband and I love my wife. I am a father and I love my daughter. I am not the clients I work with, I am the art I create with them. I am what I create. I create what I am.”

I’ll probably steal that, sorry Fabien.

Check it out, and be inspired

Quiznos Free Sub… ‘Nuf said…

Quiznos Free Sub… ‘Nuf said…
02/23/09

This will be a short, but really sweet post.

Register all your private and intimate information, and receive a FREE submarine sandwich from Quiznos Subs.

Go on. Do it.

I don’t think its a scam… but it could be. Hmmmm… Maybe I should have asked myself that question before submitting my info.

Damn.

Anyway, I’ll hope for the best.

Fun work

Martin Luther King Tribute
06/1/10

I wanted to attempt this style  in February, and being Black History Month I chose the Rev. as my muse.

His face is made up of the words of his epic Lincoln Memorial “I have a dream…” speech.

Take a look. I am having it framed as I type.

Smoking Goat Branding
04/1/10

I like beer.

Beer high in flavor, alcohol and price. I brew at home, but wouldn’t consider myself very good at this point. I’m working on it.

We have friends in Louisiana who I would consider really good. I designed some branding for their forthcoming brewery down there.

The Smoking Goat will hopefully be amazing, especially if I get some good beer out of the deal.

Have a look. Then drink a beer and have a look again. Continue this process until the logo looks awesome.

New Poster
02/4/10

This is a poster I made for my buddy Dustin.

A classic quote from him as we drove by Effingham, IL’s infamous and huge cross.

I thought it would look good in his new apartment.

Sheltered Perceptions
01/6/10

I recently got the chance to work on a project for the Humane Society. Given the fact that every time I walk into an animal shelter I have to be talked down from taking home every animal in the place, I was happy to help in anyway I could.

With the majority of pet buying in the United States coming from breeders, mall pet shops and unfortunately mills, animal shelters (specifically the Humane Society) are left overflowing with pets that need loving homes. They are running into a perception problem however, and many misconceptions about shelter pets are accepted as fact, and often repeated as such.

To get past this, we decided to take the problem head on, and address the most common misconceptions individually.

Here is where we landed:

Lauren and Dan sit’n in a tree…
01/5/10

My good friend Lauren is getting married in July, and though I am extremely jealous of her fiance Dan (don’t tell my wife), I made their save the date cards.

I use VistaPrint to print these types of things. Though the quality suffers, and the rumor is that they are destroying local community printers nationwide, for the price they can’t be beat. Check them out next time you want to customize your own holiday card or invitation.

Here’s how Lauren’s STDs turned out: