Website decisions

I've got my concept down, and I've figured out a few more details. But, I'm torn between two different color schemes and fonts. Here are the two finalists (and when I say finalists, I mean what will probably be changed again.) These will be on the opening page of the site and when you click the travel suitcase, it will open up. Travel stickers will be on the inside of the suitcase and when clicked, will lead to things like my work, resume and fun useless facts about me. But like I said, I'm torn.

Where's the work?

Where's the work, you ask? Well more is coming, I promise. And I also promise to get that website going. For real this time.

Art Directors/Copywriters are not work horses.

I'm glad that my teams instructor brought this up today. When you work with someone, you concept, come up with new ideas and let your mind explore new ideas. You do not say, "attach some lines here" or "just art direct this up." It's a TEAM effort. At this point, you are working with your partner, not your creative director and not your junior. It's not black and white and there is no complete vetoing. So we are not work horses.

World's most Ridiculous Statue

Pride of Worcester, MA

Am I wrong or has this already been done with a small car?

Just saw on Adverblog that TYO Interactive design and Kyucon for Smartcar Japan have created a website that lets the user design their ideal Smartcar. Adverblog and I are on the same page about how this is VERY similar to the Mini campaign done a few years ago, but let's be honest. It's pretty much the SAME thing wearing a different coat.

Allow me to explain my thoughts on the "different coat" theory. When my sister and I were younger, we went to a restaurant with our family and friends around Christmas. For some reason, there was a Santa Claus there passing out candy to the kids. (hey, it's new england, we're weird) Anyways, my sister kept borrowing people's coats and going back up to Santa for more candy. The poor Santa fell for it but finally realized that this little girl probably didn't own a man's suit jacket that reached the floor. So the candy stopped.

The way I see it, consumers are like the Santa Claus. They won't want to be tricked over and over by the same gig.

I think as advertisers, we need to come up newer strategies, and although inevitably things will have to be recycled, we need to be more creative with what we do. Dressing up a Smartcar could be fun, I guess... But so could a Mini cooper, a Jetta, a dodge or a hyundai. Cars look funny in cheetah print because ANYTHING looks funny in cheetah print.

Let's take off the coats.

And you thought your parents were embarrassing.

This is going to haunt someone when they get to college... Also, that's a DOLL in that woman's lap...

Black Books = Saving my sanity.

So while I was stranded in Newport News Airport for 6 hours yesterday, I was really thankful for having three seasons of Black Books on my computer. (thanks Andrew) It's a British comedy that's actually funny. Bernard is like the more snarly Captain Jack Sparrow of a little book shop. His rum is wine and his friends are just ridiculous. I think it's by the same guys who did Shaun of the Dead? Whatever, it's just funny. And it helped me survive the airport without having to be sedated. I mean, what kind of airport doesn't have a bar?

Side note: I have to take my flip flops off in security and I can't bring a water bottle... but the woman a row ahead of me can bring a freaking CAT in her purse? Small travel size containers of lotion are also a security threat but we can bring pets on the plane with us now? My god.

What the hell is this?

Ollyollyoxenfree

I think we have break to recharge and get some inspiration after 11ish weeks of hard labor at the Circus. Some people get their inspiration from books, movies and drinking copious amounts of alcohol. Whatever works, right?

 I get mine from everyday life, which sometimes includes the former. It's break, I'm in Maine at my mom's house and here are a few of my favorite things that go on here:

- The way people here rate clam chowder. If they get anything less than the full bellied clams, it's crap. And the difference between soft shell and hard shell lobster. 

-Recycling. Since trashbags cost $7 and a first born here in Kennebunk, people tend to have a very detailed trash process. We end up having more recycled stuff and only one trashbag a week. Go earth. 

-Seeing an old friend after 10 years. Catching up. 

-Listening to my mom criticizing the tennis player on tv because she has a tattoo of a butterfly. "That Serena Williams is a nice girl. I bet she has no tattoos."

-Going to see Sex and the City. Being the youngest one in the theater by at least 20 years. 

-My short mom trying to help me put my surfboard on top her car. Surfing in the rain with the boys. Kicking ass. 

- Kids in lifejackets at the beach. Whatever happened to floaties? 

-deer and turkeys running around the field in the back yard. 

-Bennett's subs. Nothing in the entire world compares.

-watching the Office. I get it. 

So i've been writing a lot and getting ideas from everyday, simple things. And just a few more days until round 4 at the circus. 

Say my name.

So I'm in kinkos before panel at around 3 am, printing some ads and talking with a guy who works there. There are these HORRIBLE business cards that he is trying to print to my right. Some lame sports management business man thought it would be cool to have a logo of a half earth/half soccer ball. WHAT WAS HE THINKING? All his card said to me was you are jerk who thinks your job is the most important thing in the world. It's soccer, and as an Italian, I give it to you, soccer is a great sport. But you manage the players, so you aren't the one scoring the goals. You are like the baseball coach wearing a baseball uniform. News alert: you will not be playing in the game. Get that earth out of there.
And so I tell the guy who works there, "worst business cards ever. LAME." He laughed and pointed to the man behind me, who apparently was printing out his business cards at 3 am to give out later that morning. Needless to say, the kinkos guy gave me all my print outs for free. Thanks friend.


And.... here are a few business cards that I found.

Business card for an acupuncturist. Oh thats right, they poke you with needles. No thanks. But cool card.
Hi dave. Nice card. Cool Name.
Business card for a prank/toy shop. Not sure if they actually work...


Too bad the overall design is kind of lame. Bad fonts but great idea.
If the owner of this card gave one to my mom, her house would be on the town garden tour.

New England

We talk funny. Sometimes it can be confused with retardation. Or maybe just a speech impediment. Either way, we talk different. And you don't realize this until you leave the state, go some place foreign, like Atlanta, and come back again. I love it though. We talk like we are in a hurry because why waste time? Life's too short for pronouncing R's and those stupid thing called vowels. We also drive like we talk: moving right along.

So I'm in Maine for the next few weeks. Loving it already. Went to Bennett's subs for lunch with a friend and saw like 20 people I know, including the owner and my former science teacher, Mr. Bennett. Went to Feds for beer, Gritty McDuffs for Beer, Bull Feneys for beer... It was a good day.

Also, Puffins are great. They are a mix between a waddling duck and Toucan Sam. Very rare.

P.S my friend Robert needs to stop Puffin.

And the winner is....

So panel went well. Yea. They really liked my campaign for Auntie Anne's Pretzels and thought that with some actual cross-stitching and a few touch ups, this could be a book piece. Great copywriter: Lauren Silva. Thoughts anyone? Like it, hate it, either way, want to hear it.

So glad that panel went well. It can make or break the next two week of summer vacation so now I can surf with no worries. Always good to see hard work pay off, thanks Luke Sullivan for the motivation.
Now I'm in Maine eating lobsters, enjoying the weather and catching up with long lost ones. It's amazing how this place changes very little and I love it.

RITA

So back in the day, I used to be really bad at speaking spanish. But when I got to college, it was able to click perfectly thanks to painful years of hard work in high school. The woman responsible for ALL A's in my college spanish minor is Senorita Karen Moore. I may have been awful back in the day, but without all her persistence and coolness, I would never had been able to work with hispanic middle school students or have everything click in Spanish lit. So gracias Ms. Moore.

AND

Rita, as I prefer to call Ms. Moore, is also an amazing fractal maker. Random, I know. My goal is to one day be able to incorporate her art into my work. One day, rita, una dia.


UPDATE: I've been asked how I knew that Rita was into fractals. Well, Joey darling, as many people knew in High school, I am kind of into this art thing. I used to draw cartoons of my teachers, and Rita was so encouraging of my talent that she hung some of these pictures up by her desk. Rita, however, could never be sidetracked. No tangents. Except when it came to fractals and art. So every now and then, when the spanish got too much, we would get into a convo about some fractals. I loved it. And so did some of the students with senioritis.

It's 5am and it's almost Breakfast time.

Copy by the fabulous Kim Healy. Tagline says "It's something to get up for."

And on that note, I'm going to bed.

Sallie Mae is the Devil

School costs money. More than what most people have. So, for the majority of us, we need loans. Sallie Mae is supposed to help students get loans for an education but instead make it so difficult that it becomes a full time job just getting a loan to go through. Now imagine being a student with no cosigner and having to deal with these spawns of satan.

I thought money lending was illegal...

Quick story: In florence, there is Palazzo degli Strozzi (where Fendi and my old school are located). The family Strozzi were a bunch of money lenders who charged so much interest in their loans that people ended up paying twice as much and more for what they borrowed. People became broke, economy suffered, life sucked. The government put a stop to this nonsense and the word Strozzi eventually materialized into Stronzo... which means asshole. So the government needs to step in and get rid of these Sallie Mae Stronzos.

Dave Holloway, the reason the Circus has a tent.

Once upon a time, a junior at James Madison University interested in getting the advertising club back on track, contacted a JMU alum in the advertising world. I was that junior, Dave Holloway was that alum, and now I'm at the circus and not at Law school.
Dave just came to speak at the Circus, second time for me and a few others hearing him speak. Always awesome. For those who don't know, he's the godfather in the advertising industry and has done some of the coolest stuff, written an amazing book and just all around really great at helping out the creative newbies. So this guy helped me figure out how I need to go to the creative circus and what I need to do to break in this steel bolted industry - mucho inspiring. I'm still amazed that I had enough courage to call him and if I have any success in advertising, I pretty much owe it to him.
check out his website,AMAZING stuff, buy his book: www.daveholloway.net

streetwise

So I was looking at the White+Partners blog and they found this new idea in South Korea of a virtual wall for a crosswalk. I know a million places where this should be.... a million places in Atlanta. To people in this city, stop sign means pause, and red light means maybe look both ways before you gun it across the intersection.

oh and speaking of car stuff... $4 a gallon??!?! I want a mo-ped. stat.

I want one of these.

Since when did my little car require $52 at the fill up? Right now, I'm working on some smart car stuff which just makes me want one even more. (just you wait, it's brills)
Not like I wouldn't be in tears at the loss of my baby, the silver surfer, but I think everyone in this country needs a smart car.... or a bike. At least raise maybe put a few solar panels on the top of your car.
Which totally brings me back to sixth grade when my little group of guys and myself won the school solar panel car race in the Sea Road parking lot. I think we won pink t-shirts if I can recall... not so cool.

I missed watercoloring.

So it was book cover time at Type class. I really missed watercoloring and doing things by hand, especially since it was something I've been doing since the beginning of Lola time. This is one of five we had to do for tomorrow... or I guess today. Since the book is about life, love and death in the eyes of the generation X, I used a lot of themes about change or reminiscent of nostalgia. I got the idea of a tattoo with the title for the idea of a generation X, watercolor for a softer image to represent love and Gotica and Retro lettering for life as a past. Voila. My other themes besides the tattoo one above were the New York Subway, Coffee, Airplane Jet setting and Brick/Cement walls with graphittiesque colour. We'll see which one wins tomorrow at class.

Quick story: When I was a young girl of maybe 13 years, I took some classes at Maine College of Art. During my first oil painting class, I was sitting next to this emo-ish goth college kid. While I was painting some some purple flowers in a vase, she was painting a bleeding heart. The kind from anatomy books. Not really that accurate or even artistically done well. I never thought I would ever be painting a bleeding heart ever in life.

When life gets you going, do a cartwheel.

Found this picture of a friend of mine doing a cartwheel and thought it would be a good inspiration for this vector drawing. Love using illustrator. I entered this, Johnny cash and some other things into the student show.
In the next few months, I plan on incorporating more hand drawn stuff into my work. I've only spent about 20 some odd years and 100 grand in higher education learning fine arts. Might as well actually use it.

Personal note: I broke my toe today and I have an ear ache. So I can't walk and can't hear. Awesome.