You Kutztown kids did a fine job of imitating us for this poster photoshoot, we must say. Despite all the time that Doug & I spend crafting our ~*~signature looks~*~, apparently we can each be simplified for parody purposes:

Doug — a mustache.
Me — glasses & a scarf.

Above: side-by-side comparisons of a couple of our favorite student impersonators vs. THE REAL THING. (We couldn’t do a real-time comparison because Doug shaved off his mustache last week. THANKS, DOUG.)

Thank YOU, Kutztown! Hope to see your internship applications filling up our inbox ASAP.

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

As a creative director you need a myriad of things to align to make great work. An awesome client product certainly helps. An awesome product and a good creative process are even sweeter. But if you have both of those things going for you and the client doesn’t trust you you’ll likely end up frustrated, asking yourself “what if” as you close the bar on a Monday night. This is not one of those instances. This is a look at rebranding, through the eyes of the client.

It was in the summer of 2010 that I was introduced to Hiro Leung and Song Kim, owners and operators of Imagin Asia Restaurant Management Group based in Gainesville, Florida. In 2005 they opened Rolls’n Bowls, a restaurant where you can build your own sushi roll or rice bowl. It was met with great success and Hiro and Song realized there was an opportunity for expansion. It was soon after that, that our relationship began.

STEVE: Let’s take a step back in time for a minute. Tell us how the concept of building your own sushi roll came to fruition?

HIRO: It was a typical day at our other restaurant Dragonfly where one or two hour waits were the norm and we would go through crazy amounts of sushi rolls on any given day.  Getting to the restaurant at 10 in the morning and not leaving till midnight was part of our lives. After our busy shifts, we would usually end up eating whatever was left over as our family meal by creating our own roll or bowl. Mostly everything was gone by then so we had to be creative in making what was left into a meal. Ironically, we noticed that what we ate was really good so we opened up our initial QSR (quick service restaurant) concept that revolved around our family meal.  Build your own roll or bowl.

At what point in the restaurant’s existence did you realize that the concept was something special?

We usually travel around the Country looking for inspiration and we realized that we could not find anything like this. Furthermore, we have guests that not only ate our food but also wanted to open up their own store in their hometown.

Rolls’n Bowls was succeeding. Why was there a desire to rebrand the restaurant?

We knew that with the help of a great agency we could take our concept national. It’s like taking something that was good and making it great. The agency was able to tie and strengthen our brand so that we can be ready for our national expansion.

How does a quick service Japanese restaurant in Florida end up hooking-up with a branding agency in Philly?

Before we engaged in a full rebranding, we spent literally half a year looking for the right partners. I love Florida, but I have to say we don’t have the creative talent that other larger cites have and 160over90 was no exception. From the attitude, client experience and creativity we knew 160over90 was the one we wanted to work with. The question was did they want to work for a small growing concept such as ours. We used the beautiful weather and beaches to lure them.

Describe the rebranding process?

The Agency really took a huge dive and studied the market before suggesting any rebranding to us. We appreciated the many hours spent on the discovery process to not only get to know us but to also study the competitive landscape.

Inside Rolls'n Bowls

Getting to know the Rolls'n Bowls staff

Was there anything you were nervous about?

Definitely! We had a restaurant that was already humming and working. We didn’t want the Agency to just rebrand for rebranding sake. We needed them to make our restaurant better. Changing the “identity” was the most nerve racking moment. It had to not only sound right but also capture what we did well and elevate it to another level.

Describe the brand direction you selected. How did you know it was right for you?

The Agency had showed us two great directions, which made the decision very hard but after thinking in terms of which idea had the best long-term direction and the most authentic feel, it was easy.

After the brand direction was established we created a new name for you. Tell us about Yume Ume?

The name fits what we do and it has so much potential. It has subliminal message as well as a strong meaning. Our name is about creativity, fun, unique, fresh and intelligent. In Japanese it means delicious dream.

How would you describe the experience at a Yume Ume? How does the brand direction inform it?

The experience at Yume Ume is about dining out with personal expression focusing on the creative nature of the product. It is organic and illustrative celebrating imagination by highlighting the thrill of great slow food made fast.

What is your favorite piece of brand expression that has been created?

There are so many pieces to choose from but my favorite piece is the copy for our to-go container.  “Let’s go back to…your place”. It is so intimate, fun and emotional. Exactly what dining at Yume Ume is all about!

When is Philly going to get a Yume Ume?

Soon…very soon. If you’re reading this and would like to partner up. Come and check us out!

See more of our Yume Ume work here.

When we set out for our discovery trip to the University of Notre Dame I was curious and skeptical about what we would find out and experience on campus. For a couple of reasons: 1) it is already one of the most recognized university brands in the US and therefore comes by default with a lot of preconceptions and 2) I am always careful when religion gets married with education. Given that and the nature of a discovery I kind of was the devil’s advocate on a Catholic campus.

As strange as it might sound it is not a bad position to be in when you are trying to find out how water proof a concept, philospohy or idea is. If you already bought into something you don’t listen and look as careful as you probably should. But, no risk of that in this case. And that also had a lot to do with the people we interviewed and met with. As with every journey or road trip you’d take you come across things you didn’t expect, which more often than not is what makes it memorable in the end. With universities it’s rarely the beauty of the campus or the advanced labs you might see during a campus tour (although Notre Dame’s campus is cool and the view into the stadium from the press lounge awesome).

Most often it is the stories and people you meet that embody the essence of the brand and bring it to life immediately. In the case of this trip it was definitely the meeting with 94-year-old Father Ted (Rev. Theodore Martin Hesburgh, C.S.C.), former long-time president of the University of Notre Dame, holder of the world record for most honorary doctorate degrees (150) ever awarded to one person, the first figure in higher education to receive the Congressional Gold Medal and the highest civilian honor the Medal of Freedom, former Chairman of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, advisor to several US Presidents and a thousand other unbelievable things. Simply put he was one of the most impressive people I ever met for as least as many reasons as he has doctorate degrees.

Especially amongst catholics he is a living legend, one that always fought for a better tomorrow and against the perception that as George Bernard Shaw (founder of the London School of Economics and Nobel Prize winner in literature) once said “a Catholic university is a contradiction in terms.” Father Ted believes “there is no conflict between science and theology except where there is bad science or bad theology.”

With everything he has been involved with, from being appointed by President Eisenhower to the Civil Rights Commission in 1957 and by President Carter to head a delegation of Americans to a global conference on science and technology for development in 1977 to going on a fact-finding tour of refugee camps around Kosovo for the United Nations in 1999 he is the living proof of his and Notre Dame’s philosophy.

Given all the skepticism I had going into this I have to admit that Father Ted was just an extraordinary icing on an amazing cake and the whole team got convinced not only by him but the whole, extremely passionate, welcoming and open-minded community we experienced during our trip. Now our big challenge was to capture everything we learned and to translate that into a Notre Dame undergraduate brand that can convey its story to a variety of different audiences in the most engaging and truthful way. Communicating all the facts, achievements and opportunities, especially to the 16- or 17-year-old high-school student that starts thinking about what they want to do with their lives.

And now, roughly six months later we hold the seminal piece of the new brand in our hands, fresh off the press. I hope this viewbook will inspire and convince the audience as much as we were inspired and convinced. And when it comes to advocating, no question I am now on Notre Dame’s side.

See more work for Notre Dame here.

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.

“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.

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

Last Friday I left the City of Brotherly Love for a trip to the American South. For my first ever visit to Alabama, I was heading to Greensboro to volunteer a couple days of my design time alongside a friend who works with HERO (Hale Empowerment & Revitalization Organization), a non-profit housing resource center.

Greensboro (population 2,731) is located in Hale County, one of the most poverty-stricken counties in Alabama, and draws the support of many non-profits and community service organizations. It was great to visit this town that I’d heard so much about — a design Mecca that has been receiving a good deal of press over the past few years. I met so many energetic and engaging people who were completing degrees, fellowships, or AmeriCorps service programs with various groups in town, such as: HERO, YouthBuild, Project Horseshoe Farm, Rural Studio, Pie Lab, and Habitat for Humanity.

While it was an inspiring and insightful trip, it was also an intense time to be visiting this region of Alabama. Although Greensboro was mostly untouched by the April tornadoes, many of the surrounding towns are suffering from extensive damage. The HERO office on Main Street was transformed into a FEMA Disaster Recovery Center for three of the days of my visit, as those affected community members came by for disaster assistance.

A big thank you to all the welcoming people of Greensboro that I met this past week! Looking forward to visiting again soon. (And stay tuned for an upcoming blog post that details the logo design process that my friend Julie and I created for a new program within HERO…!)

Above: Inside an in-progress schoolhouse behind Greensboro’s Main Street.

Above: A peek at the front counter and open kitchen of Pie Lab, described by the NY Times as “a combination pop-up cafe, design studio and civic clubhouse.”

Above: Two of the amazing $20k Houses ($10k labor and $10k materials), a concept created and realized by students of Auburn University’s RuralStudio. “The 20k house project seeks to address the pressing need for decent and affordable housing in Hale County. The aim is to produce a model home that can be reproduced on a large scale, becoming a viable alternative to the trailer in this area. The challenge is to build a house for $20, 000 that can be bought in conjunction with the ’502 Direct Loan.’”

So when Loyola University Maryland hired 160over90 to create the acceptance packet for their incoming class, we knew it had to be something more than a letter of acceptance and a bumper sticker. It had to appropriately conclude the Loyola story that we began telling with the Sophomore/Junior Search Piece, and it had to inspire accepted students to commit to Loyola.

We looked at the acceptance packet as a chance to excite, immerse, and help students imagine their future at Loyola. Keeping these goals in mind, we created a suite of acceptance materials that, as a whole, emulate the Loyola education in all of its complexities.

The resulting Acceptance Initiative provides a glimpse into greyhound life from every angle—through a booklet, a Web site, and various social media tie-ins.

The acceptance booklet is a pocket-sized guide to Loyola that reflects just how frenetic, exciting, and inspiring college can be. Thought a series of provocations, prompts, questions, statements, facts, and descriptions, the booklet features content that’s as wide-ranging as the Loyola experience. Basically, it’s the teaser before a movie you really want to see.

The booklet’s provocative (yet static) content leads naturally into the Accepted Student Web site, which features constantly changing information and digital tie-ins to the Loyola virtual tour and facebook. The site itself encourages engagement by aggregating incoming student statistics, viewpoints, and interests.

On the whole, the Loyola acceptance initiative takes something exciting yet unknown, and turns it into a tangible, vibrant experience. It makes the decision to take that next step a little more certain. And it helps students be confident that the choice to enroll at Loyola is the right one.

(more photos after the break)

Come check out our lecture next Wednesday, March 9th at the Kanbar Performance Space at Philadelphia University.  We’ll be answering questions that have puzzled human kind for centuries. And if we don’t have the answers to said questions we’ll show a bunch of work and speak to how we make it. Also, we’ll have a limited number of screen printed posters (pictured above) that you can take home with you. See you there.