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.

Now Hiring: Senior Writer & Senior Designer

Make something memorable. Turn the category on its head. Be better than you were yesterday. Fail. Try Again. Collaborate. Brush up on your German. Take it on the road. Fight for the idea. Make up words. Go to the conference, then speak at it. Coax it out. Document it. Get on the birthday list. Push it. Cheer the Phils. Question presidents. Change minds. Make espresso. Learn the process. Dump beer on your boss. Start it up. Check out Billy Penn. Create brands. See all twelve toes. Put it on the crit wall. Find out why. Present it yourself. Ask for help. Assert your opinion. Share inspiration. Celebrate small victories. Do shots to big ones. Tell a story. Invent characters. Color outside the lines. Blog. Earn a nickname. Create a haiku. Debate. Turn your work space into a lodge. Get on the dance floor. Apply.

Volkswagen, Nike, University of Dayton (?!>), Apple…

Something you may or may not know about us is that we have carved out a bit of a niche in University marketing. Essentially, we believe that if more universities took cues from how consumer brands market themselves (since in many ways they are), as opposed to thinking of themselves as strictly academic institutions (which they also are), they will be more successful. For us, higher education branding offers a myriad of challenges, considering the number of audiences a college or university must engage, the multitude of communications channels the brand can effect, and the unprecedented competition in the marketplace.

After all, if we are talking about recruiting potential undergraduate students who are 17 year-old seniors in high school—they are constantly bombarded with marketing messages and vehicles that are awesome, innovative, unheard of, crazy, and interactive strategies from all different types of companies and industries, many with monster budgets. Most universities are also situated within 50 miles of at least ten colleges, and are competing with hundreds of other universities on everything from academics to financial aid packages. How can a university position itself in this type of cultural landscape in a meaningful way? Something tells me sending a brochure with headlines such as “Our Campus-Your New Home” is not exactly going to send the kids a-running. These kids are committing at least four years of their lives, and student loan payments for significantly longer, to their college choice.

So, similar to consumer brands, one way a university can break through is by looking at its brand as a University-wide asset and ensuring its messaging and tone appeal to all of its key audiences (e.g. prospective undergraduate and graduate students, parents, guidance counselors, alumni, donors, etc.) and engage them with relevant and compelling content and imagery.  This helps ensure they don’t let themselves off the hook with the same old “three in a tree” (infamous shot of three students on campus, with three distinctly different ethnicities), status quo.

The Chronicle of Higher Education, the most respected news publication in higher education, recently sat down with one of our favorite university presidents for a podcast. Dr. Daniel Curran, President of the University of Dayton, is a strong proponent of branding and shares a similar vision of branding universities as we do. To this end, Dr. Curran and the University have recognized the necessity of strong branding and marketing in the Strategic Plan, which sets forth a vision for the University.

“5.1: COMMUNICATE AND MARKET MORE EFFECTIVELY THE QUALITY OF THE UNIVERSITY’S DEGREE PROGRAMS, ITS RESEARCH AND SCHOLARSHIP, ITS RESIDENTIAL LIFE, ITS DISTINCTIVE COMMITMENT TO INTEGRATING LEARNING AND LIVING AND LIVING IN COMMUNITY, THE CHARACTERISTICS OF MARIANIST EDUCATION, ITS ENGAGEMENT WITH THE REGION, THE NATION AND THE WORLD AND ITS FOCUS ON THE FUTURE.” (Strategic Plan: Five Common Goals)

We salute you, Dr. Curran.

Take a listen to the podcast here.