Are you a creative, media savvy, advertising genius who loves competition? Do you enjoy high socks, shin guards, sweat and soccer balls?

If your answer is “yes”, then 160over90 wants your team to compete in the Agency World Cup!

Advertising, branding, design, media and interactive agencies in the Philadelphia area are invited for a soccer showdown on Thursday, August 5 from 3pm-5pm for the Agency World Cup.

The teams will be co-ed and consist of 5 v 5 plus goal keepers.  Each game will last 20 minutes. There will be a minimum of a three game qualification stage, followed by a knockout/bracket stage. Teams will be scored three points for a win, one point for a draw.

The Agency World Cup will take place in Philadelphia and the exact field location will be determined based on the number of participating teams.

This competition will separate the creatives from the athletes so leave your projects at the office and bring your A-games to the field!

Please RSVP by Thursday, July 22

Michelle Prescott

AgencyCup@160over90.com

Wow, back in Philly, recovering from BBQ & information overload. Can’t believe how much we packed into a couple days in Memphis. So, I guess you’re wondering what happened with Command X—who won, etc. Well, I’m happy to report that Monina Velarde from Wheaton, IL is the new Command X champion!

The assignment was to make a statement about civil rights. Each one of the contestants had some sort of web component or online community built into their solutions. Ryan Fitzgibbon created a short film shot in black and white that was meant to inspire people to come together and share questions involving civil rights issues. An added element to his solution was a title card directing viewers to twitter to start the conversation. Search #startasking to see what the community has shared so far.

image courtesy of gelatobaby

image courtesy of gelatobaby

Alison Yard Medland created a guerilla marketing style campaign around the idea of taking risks and trust.

image courtesy of gelatobaby

image courtesy of gelatobaby

And, finally, Monina Velarde created a website for people to upload images involving civil rights issues, and a forum space to converse about these issues. A well-chosen photo with two protest signs that read: GAY IS THE NEW BLACK and LET MY MOMMIES MARRY really seemed to bring the conversation of civil rights out of history books and into the modern life civil rights issues we are facing right now. This image stuck with the judges and helped her to secure the win. I heard that Monina’s family drove down to see her present last night, I bet they’re very proud.

So, in conclusion, I’d like to congratulate to all of the Command X participants, let me assure you, this is just the beginning. I wish the best for you all and can’t wait to see the work your careers will hold.

Alison Medland, Ryan Fitzgibbon, and Monina Velarde

I’ll post again with some overall conference hi-lights soon, but this is it for my Command X reporting. I hope AIGA continues with this program, it really is a conference favorite as well as an amazing opportunity for anyone so lucky as to be chosen to participate.

All the best designers wear glasses

I can’t explain enough how completely surreal last night was for me. Sometimes I feel like my life is a movie, you just can’t make this kind of stuff up. I went from bumbling Command X contestant to guest judge within two conference’s time. At this rate, next time I’ll be an opening night speaker. Yeah, that’s a stretch,  settle to be guest DJ next time for the Design Observer party at least.

Fellow Kent State alums, me & Paul

So, absurdity and lucky-bastardness ruled my evening last night. At one point, I found myself sitting at a table in a closed room with Bonnie Siegler, Chip Kidd and Paul Sahre critiquing and discussing design. Me. Seriously? The design-gods must be laughing. It was so insane being involved and sharing my input and reasonings with such seasoned professionals. It really wasn’t easy making a decision, there was a some dissent and devil’s advocate-type discussion at times as the papers were shuffled and reorganized to reflect our top picks, but in the end I think we made the right decisions.

Here are the solutions:

Ryan Fitzgibbon

Bobby Genalo

Alison Yard Medland

Monina Velarde

Katherine Walker

Basically, we stuck to the brief as our guide. We evaluated how each contestant answered it, the merits of their concept and reasoning/explanation, and finally, craft and overall design. I know how frustrating it can be to the contestants to not know exactly what was said, or how the deliberation happens, all I can say is that we really took a lot of care in evaluating everyone’s work. No quick decisions were made. So, unfortunately, Bobby and Katherine were cut, and Alison’s Cap’n on Acid was the best of the three. We really liked Ryan and Monina’s executions but felt that what they were selling was a bit of a lie. Cap’n Crunch ain’t health food. If one of them had expressed that this would be a reconfigured new and healthier recipe, then that would have changed everything.

So, next challenge is to make a statement involving civil rights. The three remaining contestants were whisked away last night and were treated to a private tour at the National Civil Rights Museum here in Memphis. They are to come back and express something that made an impression on them, and execution-wise the court is wide open. It’s going to be a tough one, I’m so excited to see what they come up with. Ok, going to go and try to make it to some sessions, and hopefully a quick visit to the museum too.

Now they can enjoy the rest of the conference

It has begun. Command X is in full swing and boy was it strange to experience it as an observer this time around. I was surprised as we entered the ballroom a little bit by its size. It’s much more intimate than what we were dealing with in Denver, the stage much closer to the audience.

The night started out with some great speakers and presentations including Al Bell from Stax, who spoke about the power of creativity and courage, Stefan Sagmeister, who detailed his sabbatical and lead us all in song, and Carin Goldberg, who won my heart with her motto for the evening: fear-hope-disco. She then danced on stage to her favorite disco jam while images of her entire body of work flashed on screen to the beat. Amazing.

I knew it was time for Command X because that same jingle started to play that they used last year. I wasn’t nervous at all until then, I had a sort of Pavlovian response to the music, as it played I had a kind of sense memory reaction. I immediately felt my stomach tighten and felt like I might vomit. Yup, that’s exactly what it was like my first time on stage, it all came back to me.

Michael Bierut was a great MC, as always. Judges for the evening were Bonnie Siegler, Chip Kidd, Paul Sahre, and Carol (sorry didn’t catch her last name!) from Graceland. That’s right, since we’re in Memphis, their first task was to redesign the logo of Elvis‘ homestead, Graceland. Here is how it exists now:

And here are the contestants with their solutions:

Matthew Carl with his solution

Ryan Fitzgibbon

Bobby Genalo

John Graziano

Alison Yard Medland

Monina Velarde

Katherine Walker

The judges seemed to be a little bit harsher this year, Chip Kidd especially, and I’m not sure that everyone thought he was funny, I did anyways. Guest judge Carol did her best to make the contestants feel good about their solutions and made sure to say one nice thing about their executions to each of them. But, inevitably, two were cut and only five made it to the next round. Matthew and John were Command Xed and now can spend the rest of the conference like everyone else—drinking, I mean networking and learning things about design.

So, what’s next you ask? In keeping with the breakfast food theme from last year, ladies and gentleman, it’s cereal. Yeah, Cap’n Crunch breakfast cereal.

Seriously one of my all time favorites

The task at hand is to redesign the front of the box for a new demographic— adults. Pretty tough, I can’t wait to see what they come up with. I met all of the contestants last night and picked their brains about what type of direction they would take with the fearless Cap’n. I told each one individually that I thought it would be brilliant if they changed his ethnicity. I hope one of them does it, it would be hilarious, and in really poor taste—ok, nevermind, I hope they know I was joking.

So, until next time. Tonight I’ll be sitting at this table. Ok, gonna go grab some cereal, later.