We have a winner!

Ad 2 DC announced at their happy hour last night that my design was selected as their winning logo

Check them out ad2dc.blogspot.com

Glass half full...

Glass half full...
A handful of months ago we had a job come through our hallways that called for a simple concept, simple execution and no budget. Hedrick Smith, an Emmy Award winning producer, was doing an exposé on the state of our nation's water: Poisoned Waters. After watching some of the rough cuts his team had put together, we decided that focusing on how water was affecting the viewers directly was the best way to promote the program.

Drinking water was highlighted because there was this sense of intrusion and violation when you thought about what specifically was in the this water that you were putting into your body. We kept the color scheme simple: black and white. That's the reality of the subject matter.

Glass half full... of what?

Halo Commercial with Funk

I posted some awesome Halo/Gears of War commercials a few weeks ago and I just saw this one on this morning. It's another awesome commercial with a funk to it. Check it out.

Work In The Wild

The 2009 public service campaign (done in 2008) ALH did for AAOS (American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons) is now out in the wild. It has only happened a few times but being able to see you work out there in the wild is a invigorating experience. Mike Mertz, a fellow art director with whom I have collaborated with of several projects was recently traveling through Chicago O'Hare Airport and snapped this photo.



Here is the print version that. The photo shoot was fun and I thank Dan Whipps for all his effort in making it happen.

Some Great Video Game Commercials

Just some quick videos this morning. Two really great commercials for two really great video games. Notice, no dialogue, only music, art direction and suspense! Chances are you have seen them...





And here is a behind the scenes look at the Halo commercial.

INNcredible

Below you will find one of the first ads I did at August, Lang & Husak. It was a tag-team effort between my copywriter "Adriana "So Fresh And So Clean" DiFranco" and myself. It was for a historic hotel out on the Eastern Shore of Maryland called The Historic Tidewater Inn. Lot's of birds, sailing, and antiques. The hotel was the biggest building in the town and had a lot of character to it. Everyone in the town and surround areas knew of it and had their own memories of the place. Leading up to the meeting where we were going to show the client concepts I was kinda stumped. I didn't have much a layout yet and I was still trying to wrestle the concept into place. Adriana and I had come up with some pretty solid headline directions, but nothing that stood out. As everyone was heading home for the day, I was getting a bit nervous. So I went for a walk and ended up in a local stationary and paper boutique. As I was browsing the shop a small card about knee level caught my eye. It had a Pen and Ink drawing of the Eiffel Tower on it and then it clicked. I thought to myself, "The Eiffel Tower is THE icon of France just as the Tidewater Inn is THE icon of Easton (the town it is located in)." And it could be applied to many different cities. NYC has the Statue of Liberty, Venice has the canals, Nappa Valley had the wines...etc. We could use these visual metaphors to sell the The Tidewater Inn. So I went back to work and played around for a little while. Ultimately what you see below is the end product. One of my favorite things about this ad is the tagline...INNcredible. One of my least favorite things about this ad is what it didn't become. Over the next couple of weeks we developed more ideas...and more taglines. But the client only had the budget for one ad. Well I hope you enjoy the work!

Some Quick Lunch Time Logos

So an opportunity presented itself today to do some work for the local farmer's market bike clinic. I am not sure exactly what they do, but I think the name says it all. While they might not be able to offer money, they can help with building a customized bike, and seeing as my bike was stolen 2 weeks ago it seems like a tempting offer. Here are two logos I created during my lunch today. I am meeting up with they guy tomorrow to see if we can strike a deal!

It All Starts Somewhere

As I begin to post my work up on this blog, I figured I would start with some of the early stuff. Texas Creative was a great portfolio school that stressed concept over everything else. We weren't even allowed to touch computers until you could handle a concept. It was these concepts that I really latched onto. That is where I got the passion for creative advertising. The ads you see here were created during my second year in the Texas Creative program. I came back to them after I graduated because my skills had developed a bit on the computer, and I didn't have a job yet. I worked on them and work on them. I borrowed all my equipment (thanks Paul), probably longer than I should have (sorry Paul). I would buy things to shoot as backgrounds and turnaround and return it later in the week. I happened to live across from a mall in Austin, so I kind of treated it as my own work shop. But enough about the back story. I will always look back at these ads with a sense of nostalgia. Shit I am only 2 years into the industry, but it seems so long ago. I hope you enjoy.

A Work... in progress

So this blog is and always will be a work in progress. I will use it to document my travels as I navigate the world of art direction, display my work and the work of others that I like/dislike, and to keep an eye on the world of advertising. And to start things off... will be my work from the past 2 years. In addition, I will also be adding work that just got the green light this past weekend! Look for that in the coming months. Until then, enjoy to work... and ideas.