MEDALIST

Assignments like Medalist remind you of the pure joy of advertising. It’s a classic. Great product needs a distinctive, strong brand.

Medalist is a small, smart outfit out in Reading, PA. They have a technology that does this thing, and does it really well…it’s a fabric, SilverMax, that eliminates/controls scent and body temperature. And weighs next to nothing. And is comfortable. The apparel is used by hunters, cops, firemen, and performance athletes. Oh, and astronauts! And anyone else who puts it on- regular folk, expecting moms, construction workers, etc…It works exactly as described, and it’s the best.  And they need a brand.

So the brand we built is as direct and unfussy as the product. What do hunters, cops, firemen, and performance athletes have in common?  They are demanding, passionate experts. And when they do what they do, they are defined by moments. The score, the count, the save, the rescue. Straight as pie. Just make it count. Same thing with the work. Great headlines, powerful type, epic photography, bold intense color palette – same thing.  Just simple, classic advertising done with passion and chops.

Think of it this way…if Medalist was a band, I’d like to think they’d be Cheap Trick. Direct and intense with just enough humor and art to make you realize how well made and smart it really is….check out the work here.

Heaven Is A Place —Where Everyone Bikes

I am a cyclist and a fervent music fan. So you can imagine how excited I was a couple weeks ago when David Byrne stopped by Philly to talk about how bicycling has helped transform the urban experience. Unfortunately, no  music jams or giant-suit wearing were involved. But, all that bike talk was just as stimulating for the noggin. MORE

New Loyola Piece Drops— On Newsprint!!!

Loyola University Maryland is quickly becoming my favorite client to work for. They are always open to trying something new and different. We recently completed a double-edition Sophomore/Junior Search Piece, and if all goes according to plan, it’s going to totally blow some high schoolers’ minds. Or at the very least, get them thinking about THE FUTURE. The pieces are finally printed, and within the next couple of weeks, high school students throughout the east coast will be receiving not one, but TWO oversize newsprint editions in their mailboxes. I know! Rad— right???

Mad props to Alcom and Evergreen for helping make our newsprint dreams come true. It was my first time on press for a web job, so I took a ton of photos. I’ve included some here to give you a sneak peek. Photos of the finished pieces will be up soon. Enjoy!

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Vans and the places where they were.

Joe Stevens, the filmmaker behind Made In Queens, has been documenting custom and conversion vans across the West since 1996. His site ‘vans and the places where they were’ is a catalog of his endeavor. Enjoy.

Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists ‘58 – ‘68

Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists 1958 – 1968, on exhibit now at three gallery spaces at Philadelphia’s University of the Arts, is the first major exhibition of female Pop artists of the era. Its quite a reclamation project – planned over the course of four years, a majority of the work has not been shown in over forty. (Roberta Fallon and Libby Rosof’s Artblog has a nice write up about the show here.)

The usual pop concerns are in play, with a heavy emphasis on the complexities of female iconography in mass culture. The art is on the whole great, if a little roughly hewn. Gems abound – Idelle Weber’s stark geometries and silhouettes, the provocative (if a little strident) photo-montages of Martha Rosler, and Dorothy Grebenak’s hooked wool rugs of Tide boxes, and Bugatti logos. Marjorie Strider’s Green Triptych balances genuine sexiness and wry commentary in equal measure, not an easy dynamic to pull off. The show runs until March 15. A catalog is forthcoming. Check it. (via shepelavy.com)

Martha Rosler, Family Portrait with Car, 1966-72,
Chryssa, Ampersand IV, 1965
Rosalyn Drexler, Home Movies, 1963
Marjorie Strider, Green Triptych, 1963
Joyce Wieland, Young Woman’s Blues, 1964

Design happy.

Can happiness be visualized through design? How can design and creativity evoke happiness? And in the age of tongue-in-cheek visual media and mass advertising, do representations of happiness have to be so cynical?

I recently stumbled upon this interesting TED talk, in which graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister discusses the ways that design can portray happiness, and the distinct moments when design has brought unexpected happiness to his life.

Interestingly, Sagmeister cites a couple of urban guerilla projects that reframe the way that people normally interact with the city. (Examples? One project that replaced boring subway signage with graphically identical “life instructions”; another that placed blank voice bubble stickers over existing signage, inspiring passers-by to contribute their own dialogue to a given scene.) From a branding and creativity perspective, these are inspiring examples about how unexpected creativity and design can contribute to the happiness of a visually-savvy audience–on a deeply personal level.