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When is imitation a form of flattery and when is it infringing on your intellectual property? I got a message last night that there was a....similarity...between a blog I recently wrote (for one of the brands we're managing) and the latest blog of another local business. And before I made any decision on whether to funk some wagnalls, I clicked on the link and read the blog entry in question.
 An idea is only as good as its execution. And to execute an idea well, you must take it to its logical conclusion - that is, don't half-ass the darn thing. Whole-ass, all the way.
 We're doing a poster series on tennis. Here's the first one. Thoughts? Feedback is appreciated.
 We received a very exciting visit from the Infantree boys this morning! They were making their way around Lancaster city on a book drop and were kind enough to leave a few zines with us. The We Are Lancaster website officially launched today - check it out for more images and for more awesome! Check out Tim's Twitter to see pics of the different drops around town.
 I saw one of these on the road the other day, shiny gray with a white roof, and I thought, Wow, Mini really went off-brand with that call. Because it looked like someone Frankensteined a Mini Clubman and a Scion xB and put it on a strict regimen of steroids. Who would do that? Who would have the brass balloons to tamper with nature like that?
 That drumbeat going boom boom boom inside your ear as you clutch your knees, trying to fill your lungs? That's not the stereo. That sweat dripping in your eye as you bend down to lift that barbell high one last time? That's not irritating. That burning in your legs and lungs? That's not pain. That's Max Power.
As you may (or may not) know, we offer 12-week apprenticeships through our client services company, Proto. It's a rigorous test of skill and steel, brain and brawn, an eye-opening introduction to the reality of working for people who don't care about kerning, much less the brilliance of your concept, a brave journey into creating in context (which for some reason never seems to be taught in this area). It's an adventure only for those few who are smart enough, who are crazy enough and who have big enough brass balloons to work for bite-size candy bars and the occasional free lunch. Through working with our interns, it has come to our attention that there is a great deal that graphic design programs and schools have either no inclination or time to cover, wide swaths of knowledge that are essential to the development of young designers as business people, as communicators, and as creatives. To fill that gap of knowledge, I've accumulated a list of books expressly recommended by the Unit for the purposes of cultural and creative education. UPDATED*
At some point between rep 15 and rep 20, someone switched my legs out with wooden stumps. Stumps that clomped loudly on the rubber floor, refusing to bend where my knees had once been. But I was less concerned about them than the fire raging in my lungs, a fire that refused to die down no matter how hard I gulped down air in raggedy gasps. And I was only halfway done with my workout.
Once Nick and I took a trip to visit our parents. We bought the cheapest plane tickets we could find, which necessitated a grand tour of greater Midwestern airport concourses (hello Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky) and the initiation of Nick's habitual pre-flight bowl of airport chili, both of which are rather ominous metaphors for today's air travel experience. That is, bland with the potential to churn the bowels at inopportune moments.
Here at the Unit we've always believed that creativity is a conversation. Our work gets better and becomes more meaningful when there's a little back-and-forth and everyone contributes their ideas and energy. Which is not to say that we create by committee. I've always conflated committee thinking with compromising, where you end up with a weak product or a weak idea because everyone adds (or subtracts) according to their own personal whims or agendas, without regard to the vision behind it. With that kind of thinking, people lose sight of the overall goals, if they had any in the first place.
Do you smell it? Do you? It's the smell of 3 Boxes O' Joe and my second cup of the day. And all that can only mean one thing - our Second Annual Design-O-Rama-Thon, presented by our graphic design studio, Proto! As is my annual tradition, I am live-blogging today's event. So here we go.....
Hello interwebs! We are currently accepting applications from Central Pennsylvania area not-for-profits for Design-O-Rama-Thon 08, Idea 002 from the new, improved GO LLC, an imaginarium and Progress Administration. DORT is currently being hosted by Proto, Idea 001 from the international design unit known as GO. (More on that in another blog entry.)
Proto is hosting the second annual Design-O-Rama-Thon on Saturday, December 6, at its headquarters in downtown Lancaster, PA. The event is a marathon mash-up of graphic design and do-goodery where local designers donate their time and creative skills to area not-for-profits. Proto is currently seeking volunteers for the day of the event and accepting applications for Design-O-Rama-Thon projects from local 501(c)3's.
I started lifting occasionally when I played soccer in high school, because I thought it would make me a better player. I shouldn't have wasted my time, since I still rode the bench. Do you know what would have made me a better player? Running. I just really hated running, which is sort of a detriment when you play soccer. (I don't have a problem running during a game or drills - it's just running for the sake of running that kills me. But you can't run during a game if you don't run just to run.)
Polaroid is shutting down production, as you may know. I have a great love for defunct and obsolete cameras, so I am quite distraught. Fortunately, Fuji still makes instant film, although it isn't compatible with Polaroid cameras. Still, the Cheki cameras are impossibly cute. I whipped one out one night and was booed for d-baggery until the snapshop slid out. Then I was rightly acknowledged as awesome. Maybe if Polaroid had tried that marketing strategy, "Instant Film Saves You From D-Baggery!", they wouldn't be in this fine mess. Anyways, this site combines my love for Polaroids and hypothetical questions.
The problem, sometimes, with having a good idea, an idea so simple and pure and obvious, is that it's simple and pure and obvious. And someone else somewhere else will also have that good idea. And will not be so lazy about putting it into action. Anyways, check out the link.
So these life list things have been all the rage this past year or two, if you haven't noticed. People are just raging down the street left and right nowadays, dodging bulletpoints and weaving through checkmarks. It's the most violent era of listmaking history ever. Or maybe it's not and I'm just thinking violent thoughts because Jeronimo just shanked me in our ongoing Facebook Superpoke! war. (For the sake of fairness, I should mention that I started it all by taking sexy back from him. Someone had to do it.) So in my fictional life list for my fictional life, Number 71 is to start an independent free weekly in Lancaster. Besides all the other independent free weeklies already out because of course mine would be so much better by virtue of my stealing every good bit from Philly's free weeklies. Like the I Love You, I Hate You bit from the Citypaper. So much unbridled, unedited, smutty hatred all in one place! I can only imagine how the Lancaster version would turn out... |
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