Fast Forward: it’s now 2011. It was a late Monday afternoon when the call from Quiksilver came into our west coast office. They needed help with a last minute project and asked if we could come in the following morning to discuss. We have a long standing relationship with Quik, so we knew it must of been important. We showed up to the office not knowing exactly what was going to be needed. Nothing like last minute, but we were up for whatever curveball tossed our way. Cutting to the chase, apparently Pirate Surf had been shelved in the mid 90’s; the product design and POV had been folded into Quiksilver’s line as a whole. The brand was “shelved” meaning the brand stopped producing product, and ceased distribution, and was basically put away for another day. Well, Quik wanted to bring it back. We were charged with re-animating the brand in preparation for some large meetings the following week. Tic Toc, time’s a ticking, we have one week.

A few additional twists:

1. We needed to make sure the brand could speak year round, a four season offering.
2. We needed to expand beyond just “Surf” – it needed to apply to the culture as a whole, and be accepted in the moto, music, surf, skate, and snow arenas as well.
3. The brand needed to speak to male and female audience
4. At a glance, the brand needed to represent the mainstream general perception of action sport culture and it MUST come across as authentic
5. And finally, it must be a modern day version of Pirate Surf as the days of typical grunge are long gone. So, what does Pirate look like and stand for, both now and for the next 5 plus years?

Before heading back to the office we made a run to the local Trader Joes to pick up some PIRATE’s Booty. We knew that with this time frame, we’d need to maximize our eating efficiencies for the next several days.

We rolled up our sleeves and got right to work. We ran it through our traditional process but modified for speed. We did our homework, both on the history of the brand, its competition, and current market trends given how Quik thought it should be positioned. We developed a very poignant creative brief in one days time, defining target audiences, unique positioning, values, personality, etc.

We launched into full creative mode pulling swipe and inspiration from wherever we could in that short time frame. It was actually quite liberating to work on such a stringent timeline. It was almost like a mini escape and everyone in the office was leaving the team alone for the most part. They were respecting “the code.” The biggest inspiration we had in our arsenal was a book called “Fucked Up and Photocopied” which showcases the “instant art of the punk rock movement.”

We really gravitated to these gems:

We wanted the look and feel to capture the life of this youth culture and energy, with a subtle nod to a Pirate’s life (Pirate to us represented unbridled freedom). We wanted a weathered feel, bold use of color, but a zerox monochromatic look which lent itself to high contrast black and white imagery, almost disheveled but not. Once we honed in on this certain look and had our overarching concept developed, too many sleepless nights began to set in.

Somehow we got a little “Captain” in us. We found ourselves talking like pirates, quoting pirates, discussing the hottest pirate actresses, and best pirate jokes, all the while playing surf videos in the background and skating the hallways late at night. We even earned nicknames along the way, for example, senior designer Justin was known as: “Captain Calico J-Beard”, and senior copywriter Kyle became: “Black Long Dolphin” for which reasons we wont get into (but lets just say it had to do with too much rum and a tattoo parlor).

Ultimately we solved the puzzle and delivered one kick ass brand. We not only delivered a presentation, we took it one step further and fully developed the brand. It was complete with all the trimmings, brand guidelines, packaging, instore, outdoor, gorilla strategies, web templates, and an ad campaign to boot. Quiksilver was set, and Pirate was well Tee’d up for re-launch.

Check out the full case study here and relish in the Pirate life: http://www.160over90.com/
——————
…and wasn’ really going to post these but what the hell.

A couple of side notes, incase you were wondering:

1. Everybody wants to be a Pirate. Even my 2 year old son. Argh! (he does a great impression, i’m still getting the image)
2. the top pirate quote at least in the office during the time: “… you are without doubt the worst pirate I have ever heard of … Ahhh, but you have heard of me…”
3. the top pirate joke: There was a pirate who wore a steering wheel on his belt buckle. One day, a landlubber asked him why. The pirated replied “I don’t know, but it’s drivin’ me nuts.”
4. hottest pirate actress: Penelope Cruz

Hang Ten is such a jewel, and was such a force in establishing the action sport counter culture. The brand was there in the beginning for surf, skate, snow, bmx and moto; and played a key role in exposing the sports to the mainstream audience by promoting events and competitions and getting them broadcast on network television (and this was back in the 70′s).

The symbol of hope, carrying over 50 years of brand equity, the Hang Ten FEET are widely recognized around the world. These little feet have an incredible recognition and almost everyone has a positive affinity for them. Some can quite put their finger on it, but they recognize it. Symbolic of the most iconic and stylish surf moves of all time, The feet, they represent both performance and the casual lifestyle. We had to bring them back, treat them with the respect they deserve. Give them a strong identity with a marketing message they can rely on.

Most people we spoke to associated Hang Ten with surf and California culture, but a few remember it as a fashion brand rooted in action sports. But really, it’s all three. Throughout the last two decades, the brand had changed hands multiple times, and has become available in many countries around the globe, each country having it own interpretation of the brand. The authenticity and meaning of the brand was being diluted, yet the notion of it stemming from california remained organically. Hang Ten was in need of focus and an injection of energy. Our job was to bring everything back into focus, and help reposition the brand as an all season brand, embracing multiple action sport cultures, appealing to both a male and female audience.

It can be difficult to describe the feeling of bobbing around in the sun in warm salt water, waiting for the next set to come in. The exercise for Hang Ten made me realize something. Its not the bobbing around in the water, its not flying through trees in fresh powder, its not skating the abandoned pool down the street, its the feeling you get by doing it. Its the good vibe, the relaxed and happy mental state. Vitamin D production promoted by the sun. The feeling you get from the first warm day of spring, the first day you can take off your shoes, and go barefoot.

Its kind of like the scene in “Die Hard” when Bruce Willis takes off his shoes and scrunches the carpet with his toes.

carpet crunch

We all know that feeling. All we needed to do was capture it. The work can be seen here: http://www.160over90.com/hangten.html

Have a good one.

All we had to do was capture the essence of this insanely awesome experience, which resulted in the work you can view here.

At the risk of humble bragging here (or is it old fashioned bragging?), this was the easily the greatest day of work any of us had ever had. The kicker? Our hotel was the site of the third most famous event in human history, the place where Grape Stomp Lady punctured her esophagus:

Unable to resist, our crew of highly trained thespians created the following re-enactment:

Once we arrived at the track, we got much, much, more serious about approaching these finely tuned, hand-built German marvels of engineering. Our automotive muse for this excursion could only be one person.

Compare!

Steve McQueen: A ruggedly handsome, danger-tempting iconoclast who was irresistible to women and a swashbuckling bon vivant that men aspired to be.

Contrast!

Justin LaFontaine: Everything McQueen is, but with a better understanding of kerning.

Our squad of Justin and (from left to right) Kyle Arango, Corey Levin, myself, and Megan Pomplas were ready. Well, most of us were ready; Kyle was equally intent on making his Facebook friends jealous of his jet-setting lifestyle.

Our fleet of vehicles:




Oh wait, that last one is the shitbox that I drive every day.

After a few minutes of instruction, some quality pastries and strong coffee, we hit the road. Kyle and I were partnered up, and we got behind the wheel of the SLS AMG, the gullwinged super car that costs upwards of $200K and has 563 horses sitting under its meticulously sculpted hood. Kyle and I had not been this excited since Bacon Salt was invented. What followed was inspiration for a headline.

Anatomy of a Headline:
Now, we thought we had an understanding of what these cars were, and what driving fast was like, but then you step behind the wheel and are instructed to hit the gas as hard as you can. Within nanoseconds, your heart gets pinned to the back of the leather bucket seat, your head kicks back from the G Forces, and an uncontrollable smile hits your face and laughter takes over. In fact, here’s a ghetto video I took of Kyle’s first run with the SLS (I get too excited and curse in it, so beware):

The resulting headline and spread:

There’s a whole lot of work over at our main site that I’d encourage you to check out. It aims to capture the essence of fun and excitement from the event, where normal folks get to channel their inner Steve McQueen and become as giddy as children on a sugar rush. We hope you enjoy it, cause we sure had a blast making it.

And we can’t thank the people at Mercedes enough for the experience. They were generous and unbelievably accommodating during the trip, and they’ve been a pleasure to work with through our relationship. And with clients like that, you always go the extra mile (per hour?) for them.

“From the CEO to the stock boy, everyone who picks up a stick at Maverik Lacrosse has actually picked up a stick. Every piece of gear we build starts with 28 NCAA All-American, 10 NCAA Championships, 21 MLL All-Stars, 7 Team USA Players, 10 MLL Championships and 3 All-World Players-–and those are just the guys who work here. We’ve played the sport to the highest level. And now we create the gear to help all players do the same.”

This paragraph of copy we wrote for the 2012 Maverik Lacrosse product catalog goes to the core of what the brand is and what it offers. Maverik knows the sport like no other brand in the mix. Being dissatisfied with the quality and performance of lacrosse equipment, professional players John Gagliardi and Jay Jalbert decided back in 2005 to develop gear themselves that would provide players of all levels with a competitive advantage based on the insight they’d bring to the product development. With the help of other professional players that joined the expanding company they have since then grown into a multi-million dollar operation but amongst their main competitors Maverik is still the underdog brand. However being used to fight for success they are determined to do exactly that and become the #1 brand in the world of lacrosse. And that’s where 160/90 comes into play.

When we met with Maverik for the first time early on this year they were ready to take their brand to the next level and asked us if we’d be interested in helping them get there. They realized that knowing the game and making top-notch lacrosse gear only gets them so far if consumers have no clear picture of who Maverik Lacrosse is and what it is that makes their products better than the others. In many more meetings with key stakeholders, discovery trips to stores, watching games, talking to players and the sales force, trying out gear, studying the competitive landscape, looking through websites, blogs and reading lacrosse magazines we started to understand what’s going on in a world of its own.

Lacrosse is a badass sport and there is a reason why the Cherokees referred to it as “The little brother of war”. Back in the early 15” century injuries and even deaths were common during matches played by the indigenous tribes in North East America. While then each team could easily consist of about 100 to 1,000 men on a field that stretched from about 500 yards to a couple of miles long the game has evolved into a high power battle between 10 players on each side contained within 110 by 60 yards. Now Maverik makes the high-tech gear that not only prevents deaths on the field but lets the game be even more aggressive, powerful and faster than it already was.

With all the intelligence we gathered throughout the discovery and beyond our job became pretty clear, we had to develop a brand that combines the aggressiveness and power of the game with the unique insight and perspective Maverik works into their equipment, ultimately conveying to the consumer why Maverik gear helps elevate their own game. Now back to the first paragraph.

To see more work, click here.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc9_4e6Nzw8

Also: I’d like to shake hands with the copywriter who named the Lone Jogger. I hope they reveal in the final season of Mad Men that it was Don Draper’s last hurrah.

It’s been a crazy summer at 160over90. There’s been miles of travel (what’s up Los Angeles, London, South Bend), plenty of fun, and a lot of great work, thinking, and collaboration. But before we leave the dog days of summer behind (it’s been one of the hottest Philadelphia summers on record) we wanted to share some of our most recent client work.

We’ve added 11 new clients to our site and over the next few weeks The Boomerang Table will feature a behind-the-scenes view into the work of each. Get your phones, iPads, and computers ready and let us know what you think.

Mercedes-Benz

University of Notre Dame

Maverik Lacrosse

Michael Ryan Architects

Hang Ten

Yume Ume

Tectron

School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Nike Australian Open 2011

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Pirate Surf

Summer is here, and so are 160over90′s creative interns. For the next few months, James Alex Snyder and Ryan Hubbard will call One South Broad Street home. And call home only to speak to their mothers.

Ryan was born and raised in central Iowa, sharing a hometown with Cleveland Indians great, Bob Feller. Ryan is entering his senior year at Iowa State University, studying graphic design. He enjoys baseball, music, High Life, food (though you wouldn’t know it looking at him), and good company.  One day he plans on growing a gnarly beard.

Check out his work here.

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James Alex is a graphic designer who lives in Philadelphia. He lives in a one-room apartment with the girl he loves. They play in a band together. When he’s not thinking of things, he’s making them. He is smitten with the books of Charles Bukowski, the music of The Pixies, and the challenge of keeping his shoes tied. He has a wonderful habit of hugging strangers.

He lives online at printsandtheresolution.co.

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We asked James and Ryan a few questions about life and design. They gave us answers about Ray Romano and Marvin Gaye.

1. The biography of your life, what would it be titled?
Ryan: The Art of Being Awkward

James: I Saved Latin. What Did You Ever Do?

2. If you could trade places with any other person (real or fiction, living or dead, past or present, etc.) who would it be and why?
R: Frodo Baggins, Post-Mt Doom. Being a hobbit and living in middle earth would be
awesome, I just wouldn’t want to deal with orcs & giant flaming eyes.

J: Whoever Francoise Hardy was kissing in 1966.

3. If you could have any one superpower, what would it be?
R: The ability to stop time.

J: To sing like Stephin Merritt or Marvin Gaye.

4. What is the best advice you’ve ever gotten?
R: Don’t sweat the small things, and always do what makes you happy.

J: You really only need to know three chords.

5. If you could put together your dream rock and roll band, who would you pick to play what?
R: Ray Romano would play everything. At once.

J: The Pixies. Without revision. Well, maybe with Keith Moon sometimes.

6. What art movement(s) are you most influenced by?
R: Post-Modernism and Art Deco probably influence my work the most. But they
don’t dictate my work by any means.
I try to pull from a variety of sources pending on the needs of the project.

J: International Typographic Style, Pop Art, and Dada.

7. If you’re house is on fire, what is the very first non-living thing you’d save?
R: If my computer were in better shape, I’d take it. Since it’s gonna need replaced in
less than a year, I choose my bass.

J: My sketchbooks/love letters (really, they’re the same thing).

8. Last movie you watched?
R: I watch Roadhouse before bed every night.
(but in actuality, I took my girlfriend to see Water for Elephants. That was probably the
last movie I’ve seen.)

J: Exit Through the Gift Shop and Fast Times at Ridgemont High double feature.

9. Last book you read?
R: Design as Art by Bruno Munari

J: Over The Anvil We Stretch by Anis Mojgani

10. A quote that best describes you?

R: “If I were a real werewolf I’d wear baggy clothes so my nice clothes
wouldn’t get all torn up.” – Tracy Jordan of 30 Rock

J: “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars” – Oscar Wilde

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Assuming they don’t run off together to start their own agency in the Caribbean, James and Ryan will be contributing to the blog as well as posting a final project later this summer. Stay tuned!

They were also the folks behind the Kickstarter video for Chunklet’s Indie Cred Test. HIlarious!

Which makes this one all the better. I was expecting a cringeworthy “oh, here’s another nostalgic look at how schmaltzy Philly can be at times” when suddenly Shmitty plants one in the face of all those lawyer fat cats—AND delivers a friggin product benefit.

If you want people to buy your celebrity endorsement ad, make it believable, and give the celeb a reason to be there in the first place.

The first video below is part of “the creators project”, a docu series done by VBS. It gives some interesting insight into Brain Farm’s camera and technical equipment that allows them to capture their amazing footage. The second one is their general reel which has just more of those action and nature moments like the footage of the avalanche in the beginning.