SportsCenter/Brian Kenny/Floyd Mayweather: Punch It Out

You may appreciate this video clip more after watching Kenny and Mayweather's heated interview a while ago. Entertaining content, check it out...(Side note): Mayweather/Pacquiao will hopefully fight on March 13th which will be one hell of a birthday present for me (my birthday is on the 14th).

Target tent displays

Today I was in the sporting goods/camping section in Target picking up an air mattress for my guests who'll be participating in tomorrow's activities...and I saw these cool miniature tent displays and had to take a picture of them; forget the real tents, I kinda want the displays.

Cool business card

(via fubiz.net)

Richard Wilde SVA Tribute: The Wilde Ones

After watching this tribute to Richard Wilde, the Graphic Design and Advertising Chair of the School of Visual Arts, I'm proud to be a graduate of this great institution. If any of you are contemplating going into the graphic design or advertising field, I would highly recommend this school. I learned a hell of a lot about design, composition, and just a better way of thinking. And as you will see in this video, all of the teachers are working professionals...meaning their side job is teaching about a subject/field that they actually work in on the regular. The 4 years of late nights in the dorm rooms and multiple 3 hour classes was well worth it.




(via creativity-online)

T Magazine "Something Big Something Small": Pharrell Williams

Cool article and video about Pharrell's Art Basel Miami 2009 project. Check it out here.

John Adams: On Set Tour

I know this is old, but I think this "On Set Tour" of the HBO John Adams mini-series is worth seeing, let alone the series itself. Any person who has worked in a craft (from carpentry, masonry, sculpting, painting, and visual merchandising to nails) knows that everything is in the details. Details make the difference. And this video is the epitome of that.

Creativity-online's new look

During my web surfing this evening, I took a stop at creativity-online and found they have a new look to their site. I seems cleaner and more "bloggish," but I have yet to see how functional this design is...I'll check that out when I scan through their latest content tomorrow.

Bathroom after the movie

After seeing a movie last night, I had to go to the restroom..It's kind of a routine I've developed. Washing my hands goes along with it; and when I went to dry my hands I saw this device. It worked, but it seemed like my hands would get chopped off after putting them in there.

Tim Burton: MoMa Exhibition

I got off the train sometime last week, and saw this poster for Tim Burton's Museum of Modern Art exhibition. I wasn't sure what the exhibition would showcase, but here's some of his stuff I ran across. Pretty cool.

Archer on FX

I might have to watch this when it comes out.

Gap: Sprize

Vancouver agency/company, Cossette, turned a Gap store on its head to announce Gap's new loyalty program, Sprize. On the program, shoppers who buy Gap products at full price will receive shopping credit for the price difference if if any of their goods go on sale in the following 45 days after their purchase. (via creativity-online)

Raul Garzon: New Reel

My boy Raul, or Garzon (what I call him) has his new reel and site up for display. This is a very talented dude, and has a ton of great stuff to show. Check it out.

JCPenney: Return to the Doghouse

This is a sequel to last year's JCPenney's Doghouse video . Even if you haven't seen it, you should still enjoy it:

Audi: Car Transport

The Ochocinco News Network

From his race against a horse, various touchdown dances, $1 bribe to an NFL referee, his official name change, to buying the necessary amount of tickets to keep a Bengal game from getting blacked-out, Chad Johns...I mean Ochocinco is probably one of the best things that has happened to the NFL in a while. He's hilarious, and you can see an ongoing display of that on his twitter page, which he calls "The Ochocinco News Network." If you're a football fan, or just a fan of fun you gotta tune in to that.

TV Box Set packaging

Yesterday I bought season one of Sons of Anarchy. The packaging was just ok, but I'm sure the box set of the series will be cool once there are multiple seasons out. However, one of the best TV box set packaging has to be Six Feet Under. It's been out for a while, but it's still great to look at..on a conceptual and execution level.

MK12's Showreel 2009

LG Chocolate commercial...I thought this was funny

Possible way of fixing a corrupt file

Earlier this week I was dealing with file difficulty. I had a corrupt .psd file, and every time I dragged the file to Photoshop I kept getting that infamous error message. So I asked my boy Raul what he thought I should do, and with a little teamwork we figured something out that I think would be useful for anyone who has or who ever will have a corrupt file that wont open. It's pretty simple, but a huge lifesaver:

(in the case of a ".psd" extension")
1. change the ".psd" extension to ".pdf"
2. drag the file with the ."pdf" extension into Photoshop
3. smile, and thank God for recovering your Photoshop file and the layers that go with it

cool video

check it out here.

....as promised

Lately, I've been looking and listening to the same things, and as I was listening to this N.E.R.D. interview, I thought to myself, "It's time to turn it up." Yeah they're are gonna still be things on here from creativity, swiss-miss, fubiz, and of course stuff from wieden and kennedy, but my intake of information, music, artwork, and the like is going to definitely expand. I'm excited about this, and I hope, if I haven't already, I can give you some goosebumps and inspire you.

For starters, here's the N.E.R.D. interview I was speaking about (you can check out all 4 parts, but I'm only posting this one)..They spoke about their upcoming album Instant Gratification, Rhea (the new addition to the group), and briefly about Pharrell's movie-scoring project with Hans Zimmer on Despicable Me.










via xclusiveszone.net, and blog.honeyee.com/pharrell

I have some inspiring things on the way...stay tuned

Michael Jackson: This Is It

This movie documented the rehearsals of his highly-anticipated concert tour, and from seeing the types of things they were doing I think the tour would have been very good. At 50 years old, Mike still had the moves. Put it this way, he was dancing at like 50% speed and was still killing the background dancers. I don't want to ruin it, but you should check it out to see the time spent at perfecting a craft..and not just in dancing, but everything that's around it: lighting, stage presence, music, "swag", etc. They claim it's only out for 2 weeks, so go see it soon.

Jodan Brand: Break to Build commercial

Adidas commercial

When a group of people at a bar stop their conversation to stare at the tv screen for a commercial, you know it has to be good.

I've been meaning to post this for a while

The Good Book: Burton Snowboards 2010 catalog

Sometimes stores have these free jewels you can walk away with. Yesterday I happened to find one of them. This new Burton catalog is pretty cool. From the outside of it, it looks like a thin bible, with the textured cover, embossed gold lettering, and the gold trim on the. They continue the bible's visual identity by numbering the pages like chapters/verses (1:2, 2:1, 3:5, etc).

First Official Day

So if you've been following my blog for a while you may know that I was selected for the Young Blood program at Chiat/Day last November, and it started in January of this year.

Just wanted to say that about a week and a half ago I was officially hired as a junior art director. Same job duties, just a different cube, and a couple extra pennies in my pocket.

Today is my official first day. I'm really looking forward to what's to come.....

Jet Bue Commercials

I don't think these are the best commercials in the world, but i think they're very appropriate for Jet Blue's brand...feel good commercials kinda.

Making of the Blueprint 3 Album Cover

Major props to Dan Tobin Smith for this installation.

ESPN Monday Night Football: Interactive storescape

Another hit from W+K...the NY office this time though.

del Potro Appearance

During my lunch break today I went over to Nike Town to possibly buy a t-shirt and ran into a big crowd of tennis fans. I quickly found that Juan Martin del Potro (the U.S. Open Champion, and he's "that guy" who beat Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer) and John McEnroe (former short-tempered tennis player) were going to make an appearance within the next 20 minutes of my arrival. Seeing that famous folk are usually late, I decided to just leave, and grab something to eat. Woulda been cool, but it's all good.

Sick Audi ad

Nike Pro Combat: Alter Ego

Cool commercial put together by Wieden + Kennedy, Portland and director David Fincher; featuring my boy Adrian "All Day" Peterson.

Halo 3 ODST: The Life

This is a great follow up to the Halo Believe campaign by T.A.G., San Francisco.

The One Club's Wrath

So, DDB, Brazil produced an ad for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) a little while ago, but WWF rejected it. They saw the ad below as being insensitive, and didn't want to be a part of it. DDB, Brazil apparently still entered this ad into the One Show competition and they were later called out on it.


(copy: The Tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11.)

The funny thing is that this probably isn't the first occasion where a fake ad has been entered into award shows. There are so many creatives who are award hungry and would do anything they can to win them. Awards are important in prolonging your career, but you have to have some dignity and integrity about it.

Because I'm a member of the One Club, I received an email today about their new "crack-down" award policy. Here's a piece of it (read the whole thing here):

By now you have likely heard of the controversy surrounding DDB Brazil’s “Tsunami Ad.” At this point DDB Brazil has withdrawn the ad and it has been stripped of its merit award. As more facts come to light in regards to the legitimacy of this ad the One Club has decided to implement what we believe to be the most stringent and thorough “fake ads” policy in our industry. The One Club defines “fake ads” as: ads created for nonexistent clients, ads made or run without a client’s approval, and ads created expressly for award shows that are run once to meet the requirements of a tear sheet. For 2010 and onwards, the One Show will be adopting the following new rules and penalties.

An agency or regional office of an agency network that enters an ad made for nonexistent clients, or an ad made or run without a client’s approval, will be banned from entering the One Show for 5 years.

2. The entire team credited on the “fake” entry will be banned from entering the One Show for 5 years.

3. An agency or regional office of an agency network that enters an ad that has run once, on late night TV, or has only run because the agency produced a single ad and paid to run it themselves*, will be banned from entering The One Show for 3 years.

The U

Miami Hurricanes win over Florida State Seminoles tonight was definitely one of the best games of the college football opening weekend. Led by Sophmore Jacory Harris (one of the first black quarterbacks at UMiami in I don't know how long), Miami put on a show. Quick, fast, composed, and young as hell...Miami almost has the perfect formula to do something big this year in college football. They have a very tough schedule for the first 4 weeks of the season, but if they remain composed and do what they did tonight, they can do some big things this season, and bring University of Miami back to "The U" of years past. Congrats to Jacory, and coach Randy Shannon...Let's keep it rollin.

Denzel Washington -The Book of Eli trailer

I've been meaning to post this for a while now. African-American revolutionary, police officer, detective, coach, boxer, gangster, or thug are neither of the roles in which Denzel will be playing in this movie. It's refreshing to see him branching out a little. Check it out...

Couple of cab photos

The last couple of days I've been in SoHo at and editing studio to finish up a project, and here are a couple pics from the cab rides there.


(new Grant Theft Auto "poster" painted on the side of a building)


(the old DKNY landmark in SoHo is now housed by Hollister...not sure what I think about that)

Rhapsody Music - Jay-Z

Warning: you gotta be a Jay-Z fan or a music head to get this. Good job Droga5.

Monday Night Football (Adrian Peterson)

In the 3rd season of Monday Night Football on ESPN, Wieden and Kennedy, NY express Adrian Peterson's Monday-hardships.

Art & Copy

Last night I saw the much anticipated film Art & Copy. It's a documentary film about advertising and how it influences all of our lives. My friend Francisco saw it at an earlier time yesterday and texted me 2 different messages: 1. [it] reignites my passion to want to create work. Save the world and be in advertising; 2. I went with a couple of people. One was crying. And I got the chills down my spine. Don't miss it.

I definitely thought the film was going to be good, but similar to Francisco, it reaffirmed the reason why I studied about this trade in school, why I've worked 147+ hours within 2 weeks, stayed up countless nights, and even slept at work. It also gave more life to a pet-peeve of mine: people saying "It's just advertising." It's is a very exciting and can be a very rewarding business....if you do it right. Advertising influences a ton of people and the ones coming up with the work have a responsibility of knowing that, and not just doing stuff for the hell of it.

If you get a chance check it out. Here's the trailer.
Below are a couple of the many legends of the advertising world that were documented in this movie.


Lee Clow (TBWA/Chiat/Day, L.A.)


Dan Wieden (Wieden and Kennedy)


Hal Riney (Publicis & Hal Riney)


Jeff Goodby (Goodby, Silverstein, and Partners)


Cliff Freeman (Cliff Freeman and Partners)

Madden '10: Push

" "

This morning my friend Steve sent me an email with this image attached.

Share Creativity

I was doing my daily checkup on creativity-online and they added a new feature. They added the ability for you to embed, share, and download video. Seems like a minor thing, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who's wanted to download a great commercial from there.

So you want to become a designer?

Liz Danzico, chair of MFA of Interaction Design program at School of Visual Arts (my alma mater) connected with professional designers and digital designers to fill in this blank:

So you're thinking about becoming a designer? If I could tell you only one thing about going into the field, my advice would be __________.

Below are my two favorites, but you can see all of them here.


Jim Coudal / Chicago / Founder / Coudal Partners

Jared Spool / Hotel Room / CEO, Founding Principal / User Interface Engineering

Wow

Go Forth

I'll try not to be corny about this...but a friend of mine was very depressed a couple of weeks ago, and she saw this ad/poster (done by Wieden and Kennedy) in the subway, and said that the tag line "Go Forth" and the copy, "Do the best you can and don't look back" really inspired and motivated her to keep pushing and to "go forth." I just wanted to post this because it's another example of how important and effective advertising is. A lot of times, it goes beyond JUST selling products.

Soulstage: The Roots

I get the chills every time I watch this video. And I want that t-shirt that Quest Love has on too.

Library Design

Collider, one of my favorite design studios/shops did a hell of a job designing the information graphics for the new Surry Hills Library in Australia. Here are a couple of screen shots from their site.

Make Her Say (Kid Cudi, Kanye West, and Common)

The visual aesthetics and editing in this video are very nice.

Mad Men Suits

Yesterday, I was walking down fifth avenue near my old stumping grounds, and came across this Banana Republic window display sponsored by Mad Men. Thought it was cool (obviously because I took this picture). Go get your suits, take it easy on the whisky, cigarettes, and sexism, and get ready for the new season of Mad Men premiering August 16th.

Funny Banner ad

Stop motion used beautifully

Barclays: Fake

Me gusta mucho.

Brand connection

Working in midtown in NYC, it's always funny seeing tourists in their UG boots walking around taking pictures in front of Trump Tower, the glass box Apple store on 59th street, the Louis Vutton store, etc. Today I saw a girl taking a photo in front of the Versace store, with her hands resting below the logo. But the interesting thing is, if you're touring in a different city, why do you feel the need to take a picture in front of stores? Some may do it to tease their friends and say look where I went, and others may do it because it's their favorite store....but I think it's more than that. I think these brands have such a strong connection with people, that they feel the need to physically connect with the brand. Brands make people feel a certain way when they interact with it. For example, I'm a huge Nike fan, and sometimes I walk up the block and around the corner to go around Niketown just for the hell of it...and now that I think about it, when I first came to NY, like the tourist I was, I said "Let's go to Niketown, I gotta see what it's like." The difference was that I don't wear UGs.

Covergirl: Ellen

It was cool seeing this commercial because it seems like they're redefining who a "Cover Girl" can be, and reshaping the stereotypical model of what beauty is.

Pharrell's steps to success

I haven't seen the posting for third video of the series on youtube, but once I see it I'll post it.

Congradulations on 15

In addition to the NetJets commercial below, Nike had a "number 15" commercial prepared for the commercial break directly after the match was over. Cocky, maybe..but he's a beast. However, watch out for when Rafael Nadal comes back.

The Best Entertainer of All time: Michael Jackson

I still can't believe he's gone, but I wanted to post his You Rock My World music video because this is one of his underrated videos when it comes to dancing. Check it out here (unfortunately, youtube won't allow me to embed the video).

Cool bathroom faucet

I went to use the bathroom at a bar today, went to wash my hands and I noticed this nice faucet. If you're wondering, I did wash my hands before taking this picture.

Christlikeness

Today I visited my friend's church Redeemer Presbyterian, which is on 68th Street and Lexington. The church is doing a series of sermons about the life of David, and they had a guest pastor today who was giving the sermon. The message comes from 1 Samuel 16:1-13, and it's about God commissioning Samuel to anoint one of Jesse's sons as King. The significance of that scripture is that out of Jesse's 8 sons, David was the least likely, in appearance, to be king. His brothers were bigger than him, and they had the stature of a person you'd want to protect you. However, when the sons were presented before Samuel, God let him know that it wasn't any of the older 7, but that David was the one. The message was about how God seeks our heart and not our outward appearance, and about the importance of character.

The pastor then spoke about how when you're in a relationship with someone for awhile, your characteristics starts to rub off on one another. He acknowledged that he's from Georgia, but speaks with a mid-western accent. And that's attributed to being married to a woman for 15+ years who's from St. Louis, Missouri. He ended with saying how maybe the strategy of Christians reaching their goal (being more Christlike) should be repositioned. Maybe the focus shouldn't be directly on being like Jesus, but more so being with Jesus. Because if we're in a relationship with Him, His character will rub off onto us.

Top Chef: Masters

Last night was my first time ever watching Top Chef, and I have gained a whole new respect for chefs. I've always respected the process of food being made, especially the way my family throws down in the kitchen. But the creativity and care that I saw the chefs put into their food was pretty cool to see. It made me think, are the most creative professions, those that directly appeal to one of our five senses?

Good talk from Pharrell

I saw this on Kanye's blog and posted this immediately.

Leroy Smith: The Michael Jordan of Motivating Michael Jordan

This campaign done (I think) by W+K is hilarious. Leroy Smith (Charlie Murphy) claims to be the person that beat out Michael Jordan for the last spot on the Laney High School Varsity Basketball team; and Smith says that motivated Mike to be the best basketball player of all time...Now he's bringing the motivation to you, here.

Kobe and LeBron MVP Puppets

With the huge marketing push of wanting to see Kobe vs. LeBron in the NBA Finals, it's funny Orlando knocked the Cavs out last night; it was definitely entertaining seeing the Kobe and LeBron puppet commercials too. And if you didn't know, David Allen Grier was Kobe's voice, and Kenan Thompson was LeBron's. Here are two of the ones that I liked the most.

The Tonight Show wth Conan O'Brien: Premieres June 1st

So after a couple of months of Conanless late-nights, Monday he'll be back. But in LA. Below is a video of the new set, and a countdown to the premiere.

Care for your craft

I've posted things that Kanye has said on his blog before, and it usually it deals with his concerns for his product. It's cool seeing that people put in the time and effort to insure that things are as perfect as they can be...and making sure no one messes it up. Here's what he wrote on his blog today:

Twitter, and Facebook, and iPhone....Why?

Today it was pretty hot in New York, and I figured it was a good time to go to Baskin Robbins and get some ice cream (my favorite is vanilla on a waffle cone, just in case you're ever in need of buying me ice cream). I looked up the closest location to me, and at the bottom of the website's page I saw something that made me laugh and cringe at the same time. It was 2 links: 1, to take you to Baskin Robbins facebook page, and 2, a link to follow Baskin Robbins on twitter. Who the hell wants to follow what Baskin Robbins is doing on a hourly basis? Maybe I'm mistaken, but this doesn't seem right. A lot of companies are buying into the hype of twitter, facebook, and iphone applications, and every brand doesn't belong in those environments. If anyone would follow Baskin Robbins twitter log, please comment on this post and let me know why.

Flash of Genius

I know I'm late, but last night I watched the film Flash of Genius. The movie is about a doctor by the name of Robert Kearns, who invented the Intermittent Windshield Wiper (windshield wipers that can go at various speeds), fighting against Ford Motor Company for stealing his invention. This movie being based in Detroit was one reason why I loved it, but there was a specific scene in the movie that gave me goosebumps.

Let me set up the scene in your head first. Dr. Kearns is representing himself because of the lack of money, there's a man who's has a PhD in electrical engineering, Professor Chapman, sitting at the stand and he's being questioned by Ford's lawyer. The lawyer asked the PhD recipient to explain the dynamics of the windshield whiper that Dr. Kearns claims he invented. The professor begins to talk about the three parts of the winshield whipers' motor and how they work together to make it work...and how neither of the three parts were created by Dr. Kearns, because they have existed well before Dr. Kearns was born. "No further questions" was stated, and then came the good part. The cross-examination. Dr. Kearns approached the podium with Charles Dickins' Tale of Two Cities book. Because I have the movie right here, I can quote what was said:

Dr. Kearn: I liked to read the first few words if I may. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness." Let's start with the first word, "It." did Charles Dickins create that word?
Professor Chapman: No.
Dr. Kearn: What about "was?"
Professor Chapman: No.
Dr. Kearn: "The?"
Professor Chapman: No.
Dr. Kearn: "Best?"
Professor Chapman: No.
Dr. Kearn: "of?"
Professor Chapman: No.
Dr. Kearn: Look, I have a dictionary here, and I haven't checked, but I would guess that every word in this book could be found in this dictionary.
Professor Chapman: Well I suspect that that's probably true.
Dr. Kearn: Ok, so you agree that there's not probably a single new word in this book?
Professor Chapman: Well, I don't know, but that's probably true.
Dr. Kearn: All Charles Dickins did was arrange them in a new pattern isn't that right?
Professor Chapman: Well I admit I haven't thought about it that way.
Dr. Kearn: But Dickins did create something new didn't he, by using words...the only tools that were available to him. Just as almost all inventors in history have had to use the tools that were available to them...all of these inventions that were made from parts that already existed right?
Professor Chapman: I guess that's technically true....
Dr. Kearn: No further questions.

Moving to a new planet

In response to the last post, me and my friend Francisco created this video for the 2009 young lions cannes competition. The brief was to create a video between 30 seconds and 1 minute, and to raise the awareness about the importance of climate change. While we were thinking about the video ideas we found it interesting that most people would agree that it's easier to move to another planet than to stop climate change from happening. So, this is our video/petition to moving from earth. There will be more videos, interviews, and posts regarding this issue at changeofclimate.wordpress.com.

Cannes Young Lions; 48 Hour Ad Contest

Here's the basic schpill of this contest: On May 15th a brief to make an ad will be released, and on May 17th the ad must be submitted. To find out more information about it check out youtube.com/canneslions.

A peak into the future

This past weekend I was in Washington, D.C. for my brother's graduation, and on our way to dinner I saw this class being taught in an alley. It was a Segway riding class. As soon as I saw it, it reminded me of Demolition Man, or even Minority Report. I've seen people on Segways before, but it would be crazy if people have them like they have bicycles.

3D Brick Breaker

I just downloaded this application for my iPhone, and it is very addicting...very fun. The only thing I worry about is the first page that pops up before the game starts warning me about the possible chances of having epileptic seizures. So to all my readers (the 3 of you), if you don't see another blog posting soon...it's been real.