Diz Chair

Wha...? Posting twice in the same month? Crazy.

Anyway, do you love furniture? Well I do! And this chair is what it's all about. The Diz chair designed by Sergio Rodrigues is hand-built from solid eucalyptus and the stuff of dreams. I discovered it in the products section of Design Hotels. It's $7500.00 a piece but well worth it if only to have your body ensconced euphorically in this work of art.

Musica Bonita

Came across this promotional site for creative director Sebastien Agneessens. A highly educated and ambitious cat that goes by the name of Seb Leon when promoting his musical offerings. I'm a big fan of how well his promotional site is designed. It's clean, rich with information about the artist and gives you a clear understanding of what Seb is puttin' down.

Currently the music industry is in a death spiral and one way to create a much needed following is by taking the fight out of the empty Best Buy music aisles and onto the internet. More and more, artists are stretching opportunities online to tell the story, provide downloadable assets such as free music and artwork and allow for fans to congregate. Radiohead, Brian Eno + David Byrne and Wilco are all there at the front and leading a pretty solid charge.

Pitfire Pizza

Here is a recent logo I created for a chain of artisan pizza restaurants called Pitfire Pizza. The mark is suppose to communicate a mid-century, North Beach SF, craftsman vibe.

Honda Day

So, after many weeks of work, today is the day we finally present the work for a pitch for Honda Motorsports.

Being a dad and having a serious fear of winding up roadkill on the 405, I have never really embraced the whole idea of being on a motorcycle. That scene in the movie where Pee Wee Herman peels out on a Harley goes about 100 yards and smashes through a billboard comes to mind. Yet, somewhere in the back of my mind I do have a dark corner reserved for that reckless feeling of freedom and mind-numbing speed that only a motorcycle can deliver. It was great to work on the assignments and I gained a tremendous amount of insight into the various bikes and the people who ride them.
Honda is one of those dream brands that has a spot in American pop culture - hell, I had a cool long sleeved Honda motorcycle t-shirt in 7th grade and never even owned a bike.


Honda just needs the right nudge to be that lust-worthy brand it deserves to be. For one reason or another, the company that made the statement "You meet the nicest people on a Honda" and made motorcycles cool for everyone, somehow fell into a sea of sameness and receded into the background. Honda is a strong leader brand and has the power to be a Nike, Apple or Starbucks - if only they are willing to put it out there again.

If we get it, I really hope I get to work on it - and maybe even get a bike like an Interceptor or a Shadow...

Taxi Cafe

I work at a pretty great place. It's an ad agency filled with really hip, smart, people all devoted to a common purpose of creating brilliant work. It's pretty cool, but, not that cool. Why? because I just discovered an even cooler place. TAXI, an ad agency in Vancouver, BC. They have managed to combine two things together so naturally and beautiful that it hurts. Advertising and Coffee.

Behold, TAXI CAFE. Taxi decided that it would be a good idea to create a coffee shop in the entrance of the agency where clients or anyone looking for a great cup of coffee can stroll in and sit down. At the same time, Taxi is also displaying some pretty great branding that gets noticed (see above images) in a city over flowing with coffee shops. There is even a plan to open up an additional one across town away from the agency.

The Future of Advertising

Lately, I've been using Nike+ as a perfect example of where advertising as a medium may be headed.

Nike+ is a brilliant collaboration between two companies Apple and Nike, in which the end results transcend a mere product offering but rather a cultural shift in terms of what we as consumers expect from top brands and ways that the brand connects us to what is lust-worthy about that brand.

"In 2006, Nike and Apple teamed up to create a device that measures and records the distance and pace of a walk or run. The information is transmitted from a sensor located in the sole of your Nike running shoe and stored on your Apple iPod Nano. The kit is able to store information such as the elapsed time of the workout, the distance traveled, pace, or calories burned by the individual wearing the shoes, and display it on the screen or broadcast it through the headphones of an iPod. The receiver displays information comparable to that of the iPod kit on the built-in display. After a run, the receiver can be plugged straight into a USB port and the software will upload the run information automatically to the Nike+ website."

What are the results? A killer product that is supported by a well-thought out website. Nike+ taps directly into a collective that are fervently passionate about fitness and provides them something that can feed that passion.

"In addition to tracking personal workout statistics, the Nike+ integrates directly with the Nike website (created by R/GA). Workout data can be automatically uploaded to the website during an iPod sync with iTunes or through another program via the website's public API. The uploaded information is mostly not personally-identifying, but does also contain some personal statistics such as weight (if configured). Workout data is stored in XML files on the iPod, which has led some web and applications programmers to offer alternatives to the official Nike reports. On October 19, 2006, new features were added to the Nike+ website, including the ability to name runs. Forums were also added (which they refer to as "talk some trash"), allowing users to meet and challenge other runners, ask questions, and give feedback. Recently, there have been several more additions to the Nike+ website including but not limited to: a challenge gallery where all user created challenges are viewable, the ability to name the route taken when running or walking, compatibility with the new iPod Nano (fourth generation), a distance club to view everyone's total distance traveled, fastest 5K et cetera."

The positioning and messaging of both brands (Nike+Apple) are communicated seamlessly by providing an experience with tremendous benefits and then backing it up with a FREE website that allows the user additional opportunities to enjoy the product. Without a doubt, the best example to date of how a company can create a deep and lasting brand culture that is measurable and memorable.

Super Bowl XL111

The New York Times wrote an interesting article article regarding this year's Super Bowl logo and how the Super Bowl's identity reflects us as a nation, current graphic design trends and our intense passion for the game. Additionally, The New York Times created a slideshow of alternative marks created by various design firms to show a different look for this years game. Personally, I think it best to leave this type of logo development to the pros, although I can't say that I am that impressed with what Landor produced for this year's game. Dull, lifeless and pedestrian, the mark lacks any sense of excitement, depth or passion. Steven Heller said it best when he was quoted as saying “looks like the Bank of America logo.”