ESPN The Magazine Cover

I've been meaning to post this when I first saw it a couple of weeks ago. This cover of ESPN The Magazine is pretty cool. I like the type placement and the photography of Tim Lincecum (who is a beast). The SPD design annuals usually has a ton of nice editorial designs in them, from inside spreads to covers; most of which are for Times Magazine or New York Magazine. Check it out if you get a chance. You can find them in certain Barnes and Nobles in the Graphic Design section.

Myk'l Hanna: Hard Rock Cafe Performance (Detroit)

(Part 1)


(Part 2)


I've known this guy for damn near all of my life, probably since I was around 4 or 5 years old. Myk'l has been singing ever since: performing in school talent shows, Carnegie Hall, and many other venues. And on Sunday, March 1, he performed at the Hard Rock Cafe in Detroit, Michigan. A big difference between Myk'l and other artists is he is a true artist and musician. He writes, studied and his still studying music in school, and he knows how to play a couple of instruments as well.

Continue to keep your ears and eyes open to some of his future music and performances. I'll continue to post info about him as I hear it. Soon we're going to go into the lab and create some CD art for him too, so I'll keep you abreast of that as well.

Kanye West: VH1 Storytelling

Saturday night I saw Kanye's Storytelling on VH1 Soul. Regardless if it's VH1, Letterman, or a show at Madison Square Garden, Kanye knows how to put on a show. He never plays or sings/raps a song with the original cd music. It's usually remixed specifically for the show, which gives the fans something more to experience. And beyond the music, the actually scenery is great. He spends a lot of time thinking about the show-experience. I think Kanye has a lot of loyal fans because of his loyalty to his craft. I love seeing that.

Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory

This is one of my new favorite shows. I liked Rob and Big and this show has that same spirit to it, but times 50 in the fun department. Watching this show, I see that life is too short not to have fun and go after the things you wanna do...check the show out though, you might like it.

Tiger's back

Today was Tiger's first day back since his injury...The fun is over.

Black men in advertising

from left: Geoff Edwards, Keith Cartwright, Feh Tarty, and Jimmy Smith

I've been actively following the whole advertising world for about 2 and half years or so now, and after going through Creativity magazine, reading ADWEEK, looking through award annuals, etc, it seemed as if you had to be a white guy with black framed glasses and a scruffy beard to be in advertising. So, in the February 2008 issue of Creativity (Creativity's 50 issue), where they were honoring the top creatives of the year past, I saw an illustration of a black guy and my eyes lit up. It was Geoff Edwards, former co/ECD of T.A.G. San Francisco, and now co/ECD of Fancy (San Francisco). I later found out he is also from Detroit, and actually went to high school a couple of blocks away from my house in Detroit. Since then, my eyes lit up more and more. In July, during a portfolio review at Wieden and Kennedy, NY, creative director of Brand Jordan, Keith Cartwright, critiqued my book (that was a pretty big deal to me). We also talked about the Jordan XXs that I wanted, and how he had a bunch of them. Then, Feh Tarty of Wieden and Kennedy, London got on my radar after I saw that he'll be one of the judges at the ANDY awards this year; and most recently the GCD of Gatorade, Jimmy Smith of TBWA, Los Angeles, after hearing him discuss the "G" campaign on adage.com.

If anyone is wondering why I'm blogging about this, it's because I think advertising (which has made huge leaps and bounds already) needs to continue be more diverse because it is a global language that is being spoken, and the perspectives from all races, religions, and backgrounds need to be in the conference room when working on an ad campaign.

I apologize if I'm leaving anyone off the list, which I'm sure I am; but I hope to be adding to this list more and more as time goes on.

Audi: School's Out (commercial)

I saw this commercial during the Oscars last night; Not that this is the greatest commercial, but it's rare seeing good car commercials. Usually you just see these product shots of cars driving around tight corners, or throughout the rocky mountains and a voice over saying something about winning the JD Power award and 0% for over 16 months. So I thought this was pretty cool.