A Cigar, Sweet Music & You

Less talk, more work.

This was done for Design Mark for the 17th Street Cigar Company in Bakersfield back in 2006.

That’s Marlin intern Jared Tomlinson.

Sweet Sweet Icons

Sweet Street Desserts is venturing into the world of the consumer and as such, is ramping up their brand to appeal to the delicate sensibilities of the rabid American shopper.

Here at Marlin, working with senior copywriter, Judith Garson, we put together the above 7-panel consumer brochure to be included in every outbound online order from the amazing Sweet Street confections factory in Reading, Pennsylvania.

The idea was to take a series of Sweet Street’s products and create photo-realistic icons reflecting the essence of the dessert.

I'll put up the complete series of images in a future post.

Exos Excellence

Exos from Steve Scott on Vimeo.

Stunning. And a bit creepy.

TXT ISLAND

Halogen

My pal Brian Williams, CD at Inspiration Networks, threw me a bone with an identity exploration for a documentary television network.

Halogen takes a faith-based approach to exploring real world issues without the all-too-common whitewashing or sappy storytelling many Christian programs trip over.

Up top are my favorite solutions to the problem. Below are sample pages for a Field Guide the network publishes to express the voice, tone and manner of the channel.

LogoLounge Master Series

A quick post to announce the selection of 6 logos I drafted to be included in the upcoming LogoLounge Master Library series.

The Master Library is a bit of a twist on the popular LogoLounge book series focusing on singular topics of reference including:
• Initials & Crests
• Typography
• People
• Animals, Birds and Mythology
• Shapes and Symbols
• Nature and Food
• Arts and Culture (including transportation, sports and architecture)

Here’s my work which LogoLounge and Rockport Publishers will include in the first book, Initials & Crests:

Separated at Birth

Is any idea really original? What’s old is new and what’s new is old?
I received an anonymous comment on my First Light post calling me to the carpet of unoriginality. The commenter pointed out a similar logo was created for another production company with a similar name and similar concept for an identity, Natural Light Films. Have I been called out?



The First Light Solution
Logo design, when it’s done well, seeks to create a visual play between the mark and the thing it represents. In my solution for First Light, I used a big door in the form of an ‘F’ revealing a crack of light for the movie production house. I wouldn’t say that a big ‘F’ by itself is compelling, nor is using light cascading from an open door original either. But the two together create an interesting representation of the specific nature of First Light:

“First Light can either be one of two things: 1. The big bang that brought you all to my blog, or 2. The first star a new telescope is trained upon. Either way, the metaphor is spot-on for what the production company is trying to do: Get young directors and writers funding to realize their digital movie making dreams.”

For a point of reference, and a look into the work done exploring the First Light problem, below are the options presented to the client:



The Natural Light Dimmer Switch
In the case of Natural Light the open door revealing a natural light source makes sense, but only in the literal form, and by itself, doesn’t create an ownable metaphor for the production company. On the Natural Light site there’s a brief statement outlining the mission of Natural Light:

“NATURAL LIGHT FILMS specializes in true to light documentary and television series production. We create programs that entertain, educate, motivate and involve each viewer as a participant in the lives and stories of each subject.”

So what do they mean by “True to Light?” I suppose it could be interpreted as presenting something as it is, or it could be faith-based. Whatever the reason, using an open door to represent the idea of “True to Light” simply isn’t unique. A quick search for ‘door’ and ‘light’ over at LogoLounge demonstrates the open door solution is a popular one:



What about my open door solution?
Clichés can be good, but most often they’re bad, occupying that place along the road where pedestrian design resides. Good logo design often employs clichés to build a familiar link between an audience and a company, but the best clichés are those with an unexpected or clever twist.

So, the bell has rung and the gloves have come off: The open door for Natural Light is a bit of a bore. It’s rendered well enough and it does make sense, but the ambitious contender simply sits in its corner hoping for another chance at the title. But really? With a glass jaw, and an open door to an alley littered with tired ideas, did the First Light logo ever have a shot, all the while lacking the heart of a champ?

Seed A.I.

Seed A.I. @ Pulsewave in NYC, 01.05.08 (1/1) from 2 Player Productions on Vimeo.

Music of the moment.

Faviconation

For quite some time, I have been fascinated with those little jewels up top in the URL address bar of our browsers to the cybernet. I think of them as a virtual lapel pin. Kind of like wearing a U.S. flag or Rotarian pin further stating the wearer’s allegiances.

Favicons are very much in vogue and seem to be a hallmark of better designed sites. Weighing in at 16 pixels square, getting the little icons to communicate the essence of the corresponding site isn’t always successful. Click the favicon collection above to see a downloadable mini-poster of favicons I like.

The solution that works well for this blog is right up there in the address line. The circular indent makes a nice pointer to the URL. It’s simple, it’s bold, and it relates to the identity of this blog.

Getting a favicon to work for your site is a snap:

1. Design your favicon (or download a free one)
2. Save it as an .ico file. (There is a Photoshop plugin to save your file in the right format, there is a site you can upload your art to that will save it properly, or you can try the favicon.ico Generator site to design and download your icon.)
3. Drop it into the root folder where your website resides and refresh your browser to see it work.

If you want to attach your favicon to a blog, here are links that explain how popular blogging sites accomplish this:

Blogger
Wordpress
Typepad
MovableType

Still not sold on the value of a favicon, take the advice of my wife, “It’s good for everyone to have a favicon.”

Fonstruct: The Democratization of Type

Online tools are becoming more ubiquitous, but more importantly, quite useful. FontShop has teamed up with Rob Meek (über type geek) and created an online font building application.

FontStruct makes designing, downloading and sharing fonts a snap. Simply choose different block shapes and grid sizes to build out all the glyphs commonly found in commercially produced fonts.



My first stab at a font using the tool is Madeline (today was her birthday!). The font is a contemporary digital sans serif display font. There are 98 glyphs including numerals, punctuation and lowercase letters.

Click here to download Madeline.

Madeline in use:

Ware?

The best cartoonist, designer, illustrator and satirist ever.

Mack? John Mack? Copy that.

Longtime ad man, creative director, agency principal and veteran wordsmith, John Mack wanted a simple portfolio site. So I helped out. Along the way I thought a simple expressive mark that reflected his sensibilites and style would help ground the site. Above is the result of the effort.

John Mack also wears really cool shirts.

First Light Logo

Mr. Tom Russell had his lovely wife (and my longtime friend) Courtney (Schieber) Russell enlisted me to work a mark up for a startup movie production company, First Light Productions.

Tom, professor of cinematography at Brigham Young University, filmmaker, and ex-ad exec, is an absolute riot. As evidence, checkout Napolean Dynomite. I swear, on all that is good and right in the world, that when I saw the movie I turned to my wife in the musty darkness of a dollar theater in Bako and whispered, “Holy guacamolé! That has to be directed by Tom.” I was close. Some of his students put the cult classic together, but Tom's influence was impossible to miss.

Tom, if he were Hawkeye Pierce, would have as his Trapper John McIntyre role filled by Bill Nelson. The two, along with cousin Steve Gabbitas, have worked on a gagillion projects over the years with the full-length dramatic comedy, Mr. Dungbettle as their fractured-family jewel.

First Light can either be one of two things: 1. The big bang that brought you all to my blog, or 2. The first star a new telescope is trained upon. Either way, the metaphor is spot-on for what the production company is trying to do: Get young directors and writers funding to realize their digital movie making dreams.

Tom, Courtney (Bill and Steve), you light up my life.

Bakersfield Jazz Festival Poster

Boom. In your face.

For ever and ever and ever I have done posters for the Bakersfield Jazz Festival on and off and on and off and now on again. Mark Ramsey is the A.D. on the gig and enlists my help to get a poster together every couple of years.

This year, Mark wanted to see something with silhouettes and a big splash of color—something to compliment the atmosphere the springtime event puts out. Marrying up the illustration with some expressive type, the poster is a departure from the past post-these-bills we've knocked out before.

Yes we do.

Marlin Rocks.

The best projects are the ones where you can do whatever you’d like. The best-of-the-best projects are when you do something you’d like to do for yourself. Marlin Rocks is just such a project.

Marlin was visited by some folks from “they-who-must-not-be-mentioned” and to say thanks for taking a look at us, we put together two iPods with music selections from some of the crew.

But what made it real cool was a video introduction of the songs which Judith Garson and my man Quentin Brown put together. They went around and had folks present their pick for the playlist. We set the iPods to play the movie first thing when the recipients turned it on.

Would anybody like to send me an iPod?

Real Smooth

Getting smooth to work for you.

Seattle’s Best Coffee (SBC) is a well-known brand that’s owned by a much better known brand, Starbucks.

The SBC folks had a SYSCO trade show to attend and needed a simple handout to create a little (yep, I’m gonna say it) buzz.

Smooth is the name of game with SBC so, working with copywriter Chris Rock and AE, Ashley Earwood, we developed the above piece with the head, “Smooth works for you.” The message was directed at SYSCO reps, delivering what they’re looking for; something that sells itself.

The mechanics of the piece were a literal play on the headline; the lid pops off and reveals the message.

Real smooth.

Let’s Go Bowling

Downtown Quentin Bowlin’ Brown.

At Marlin, we don’t just drink Starbucks coffee, we make it look good to drink Starbucks coffee.

We do tons of work for Starbucks Foodservice. They’re the folks who get Starbucks into places that Starbucks retail hasn’t penetrated (unbelievable, I know). Every year the FS people have a national sales meeting and for FY08 they all got together one evening for billiards and bowling at Garage in Seattle, Washington.

We presented several options (mostly gutter balls), but the beauty above was the spectacular splasher that got the game to a cool 300. Head kegler, Matt Rose, did a quick sketch of a mug as a pin (which forced me to cough up a beer frame—I’ll getch’ ya next time, Rose) leaving me to pick up the spare by tackin' down the stars as goal posts and nailin’ a barmaid down the back ends to the kickback with slick type and touch of good old fashioned distress to get ’er in there. But hey! We were sandbaggin’ just to get ’em to pickup the next beer frame.

As the legendary Chick Hearn once crowed, “Bowling for dollars, where the money goes up, as the pins fall down.”

Soccer Clubbing

Young Ben owns the soccer pitch.

My youngest son, Ben (Bubba), is an anomaly. I have done fairly well in sports, but I always had to work at it. Ben on the other hand is a natural. He plays on two soccer teams, one through the YMCA and the second is a competitive club team under the monicker of Magic Soccer.

Both teams have been without a proper logo, with the Y team using the provided t-shirts and the Magic Soccer team sporting cheap uniforms from South America. So it was time to get them branded properly.

The Cones, coached by Ben’s uncle Jon Timson, was named by Ben’s cousin George due to the brilliant orange of the Y shirts they wore during their undefeated season.

Magic Soccer is coached by Jonathan Marquez who is a fantastic, supportive leader for the U11 boys. Growing up between Missouri, San Diego and Venezuela, Jonathan’s coaching style has created an unstoppable force to be reckoned with.

We are Magic!

Hot Hot HOT Cocoa

Oh how I miss Critch. No, not that critch.

You see, Gale Venosdel (or Critch, aka Lawrence, to me) was an art director here at Marlin. He’s now gone back home to roost in Tulsa and keeping his family fed via Littlefield.

He, Chris Rock, account exec Dan Schultz and I worked on a direct mail promotion for Starbucks hot cocoa. Gale did almost all the work on this one. He got me involved to tighten up the typography and illustrations.

Believe it!

Tin Man

Coffee cake is great. But Sandy’s Sour Cream Coffee Cake (SSCCC) is an out-of-body experience.

In an effort to express the uniqueness of SSCCC Sweet Street wanted to offer the snack in a tin through their cybernet store.

I utilized off-the-shelf SSD assets and invented a few new ones to create a brand dress that felt Sweet Street but uniquely its own.

We shipped off the concepts to the big heads in Reading, PA only to have the whole project evaporate into the misty mountains of the Ozarks.

Oh well.

Marlin Stationary

With the parting of the ways of Marlin and Deep, a new identity for the new millennium was called for…


The Marlin Company has been around for nearly 25 years and have had several logos along the way. With this iteration, through our long history and niché recognition, we were confident enough to hone the brand from ‘The Marlin Company’ to ‘Marlin’. We also shortened the horizontal footprint by creating a ligature between the ‘i’ and ‘n’ and mirroring the dot of the eye to make (every copywriters worst nightmare) a banger. The logo reads as Marlin, though if you were to study it, the ligature might become tiresome. But a great mark ought to be seen, not read.

The stationary was printed on the Curious Collection’s Curious Metallics. We had each item’s reverse flooded with one of four Pantone solids. The business cards had the four colors alternating so that all employees received a deck with four different variations of their calling card.

Oh, and about that banger I mentioned above, stick it Rock! And you too Garson!

Booth Bear Label

Booth Ranches, a citrus grower in Orange Cove, California, was founded by the great-grandson of Times Mirror founder Harrison Gray Otis’s namesake, Otis Booth

Ranked number 181 by The Forbes 400, Mr. Booth leaves the day-to-day operations to his daughter Loren. She stumbled into my studio on a referral by interior designer Napier Hill, where we began working to develop the Booth brand.

The Otis Orchards label uses a variation of the iconic California Grizzly Bear from the state’s flag standing sentinel over the fruit of their labor. The bold graphic was designed to pay homage to the Booth family’s long history with Los Angeles and the Golden State.

Cheat

The Art of Pastry Chefdom.

Our heroes, Sweet Street Desserts, provide the nation’s leading restaurant chains delectable desserts that make a pastry chef question their very existence.

The SSD team here at Marlin is always thinking about ways to position the Reading, Pennsylvania confectioner within the minds of operators and ultimately consumers.

Marlin’s president, Michael Stelzer, and senior copywriter, Judith Garson came up with the idea of a cheat sheet for pastry chefs. The solution was simple yet impactful: Create a bible-like book that operators could use as a ‘cheat‘ to offer diners gourmet desserts without the expense of an on-site pastry chef.

My design application used a bible-like format with a calligraphic ‘Cheat‘ imprinted upon a vellum flysheet and overlaying a beautiful plated dessert with the cover typography and ornamentation crafted to the tone of an old tome.

Amen.

Catalyst

Agencies have war rooms. We have a Cat Room, or CAT.RM.

Cat, short for catalyst, is how we summarize our approach to creative problem solving. A catalyst is something which accelerates a reaction. That’s what we attempt to do at Marlin.

This mark has two drops coming together to form the ears and face of a feline.

Me-Yeeooow!

Marlin Employee Handbook

It's time to throw some new stuff up.

When I started at Marlin I was handed a little black vinyl three ring binder outlining the company’s mission, vision, structure, rules, etc. It was OK, but it didn’t remotely capture the soul of the comapny and the dynamic personalities that make it up.

For the quad-annual company meeting held at the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, we decided to revamp the employee handbook and formalize the relationships between the four companies under the Marlin Network umbrella. It covers all four companies, Marlin, Deep, iMarlin, and Food IQ.

The image above represents the marks of the four agencies that make up the Marlin Network, and the design of the book is the tone that will become the Marlin Network’s website currently under development.

Lea & Perrins Steak Sauce

How does one extend the brand of an iconic staple like Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce? Aw, read on dear blogged, read on...

I had the opportunity recently at Marlin to redesign the existing L&P Steak Sauce bottle (the final is to the right). Now, you might ask yourself, “Steak sauce? I didn’t know Lea & Perrins did a steak sauce?” Well, they do. But they haven’t made great inroads on the category leader, A1. And it’s no wonder. The plastic form factor and bottle dress is apeing grocery store chain's generic packaging big time. And nothing says quality like plastic. Some condiments do fine encased in a synthetic shell, but something that goes on steak…? It must be like drinking champaign from a plastic cup.

To kick off the project, Rob Nelson, AE and account director on Heinz lead us in a product cutting of L&P, A1, and Heinz steak sauces. A1 was the familiar standout, but the L&P tincture surprised us: It was clearly the better steak topper.

The mandatories for the design included parchment, the L&P logotype, the shield, burgundy, and the shape of the label and bottle. Given all this we came up with the expected and several unexpected solutions (my favorite is highlighted as the bigger bottle up top).

We were striving to make the new bottle family with the familiar worcestershire sauce bottle without creating confusion with consumers. In the end, though the design isn’t a compelling re-introduction of the sauce, the final bottle feels like an old friend. Which is to say, it’s been around forever, just misplaced and forgotten in the back of the refrigerator’s throng of condiments.

Hasbro games.com Logo

File this one in the category of DOA.

Hasbro has owned the URL game.com since the beginning of the Cybernet. The time finally came to put the name to work, and as such, contracted Marlin to develop a mark that would lead the brand launch.

The assignment guidelines dictated a logo that was fun (but not goofy), colorful (but not loud), youthful (but appealing to adults). Kind of like the kitchen sink. After several rounds, the Big Tuna, Matt Rose, and myself put together several ideas to hang on a shingle.

Here’s an incomplete sampling of what we presented:


We ended up with the logo at the top of this post. It has a digital kick without being too video game-goofy. The coloring is bright, but the candy-like quality helps it feel more of a form factor than a two-dimensional pastelly Easter egg-like mark.

The logo was approved and ready to ship off to Hasbro’s contracted web firm. We waited anxiously for the go ahead.

We waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

And then...

Finally...

They killed the whole project.

Sweet Street Sample Menus

Every year folks in the foodservice industry gather for the National Restaurant Association’s NRA Show.

Marlin client Sweet Street Desserts always has a significant presence at the show with workshops, samples, and a memorable take-away.

For the 2007 show, art director Gale Venosdel (now with Littlefield), senior copywriter Judith Garson, designers Kendall Schlichting and Stella Kang (now in Chicago), and myself were asked to design restaurant category menus to show possible dessert groupings. We tackled Italian, Brassiere, Tropical, Steakhouse, Cafe, American, and Fusion to round out the categories.

I put together the gate-folded pocket portfolio where the menus nest as well as the Italian, American and Fusion menus.

The booklet is crammed with ideas helping restauranteurs get in the dessert buying mood.

Lej Eyewear Booklet

It's been a while since my last post. The month of July was busy with work, freelance and travel. But, now it's time to catch up...

Local ear surgeon and inventor, Scott Estrem, had great success with the Ototek Loop, a tool to clean impacted earwax (yummy). Overcome with the entrepreneur spirit, Dr. Estrem set about attacking the semi-omnipresent scourge of humanity: The sun.

Lej eyewear seeks to solve the problem of top-down sun glare and brow sweat. The Marlin creative team of Chris Rock, Michael Stelzer, Dan Schultz, and myself set about to name the new product, develop a logo, a brand identity, marketing position, tradeshow presence, and associated collateral. Though the glasses are unconventional, they we’re a big hit with Maria Sharipova’s coach at the SGMA show in Las Vegas.

Flour Power

Mission Tortillas rock! And to to get brokers out in the foodservice world amped, Marlin was asked to develop a campaign to make Mission Foods a rockstar.

The campaign had several components associated with it including three logos: Fresh Fest, Cornzilla, and the featured Flour Power mark seen above.

Creative Director, Matt Rose passed me a rough sketch of a raised fist grasping wheat in a mock "Power-to-the-People" attitude. And from the simple, yet powerful, idea, a (rock)star was born.