Never been allowed in a Sky Box before. The chocolate cart was sick.
Thanks Harris!
February, 2008
20
Feb 08
The Trump Family
So a few people have been asking to hear the Trump story… so here it is. For those who don’t know, Trump International Hotel and Tower had their grand opening a few weeks ago. Got great reviews - I can’t wait to get into the restaurant, Sixteen, great interior. Our friend Mary over at C2 called us two weeks before the opening. Conversation something like this: The Hotel is opening… it’s still being built… the top floors are being built… the bottom floors are opening… there’s a HUGE crane on top of the building… the city of Chicago demanded that they build a protective structure… it’s going to be under construction for a year… it’s opening… they would like to hide the fact that it’s under construction… we need to show ideas immediately. COOL!!! I go home, my mom is visiting, she doesn’t believe that I have a meeting with Ivanka (which I don’t, but I’m hopeful). We present ideas which include wrapping and lighting the interiors of the support structures which will changes colors - would look great from the river.
One night I’m at an event - Mary calls me, she’s on hold with Colm, who’s on hold with The Donald himself who is looking at our ideas. I’m feeling pretty cool. The decision is made that because this is a temporary fix, we’re going to do a smaller version of one of our ideas. Probably a good call considering it needs to withstand an full year of abuse and all that four seasons of Chicago weather can hurl at it. btw: this is all going on while the temperature is somewhere below the North Pole’s. Every meeting is outside the tower’s main entrance and is a test of the humans skin’s endurance to the cold. I missed a conference call that Ivanka was on. Mike, who was leading the construction team, said that he’d sell me the number - I told him my wife would kill me. Construction was completed just in time. Greatest feature was building gray structures around the concrete bases - cleaned up the main site line in one day. Definitely the best bang for the buck. We’ll post some photos once we thaw.
finally thawed :
13
Feb 08
HOW Magazine’s “Best of Show”
Sorry… doesn’t quite do it for me. Not only that, but I have a difficult time classifying it as “design”.
We just got the latest issue of HOW Magazine, which happens to be the International Design Annual. For anyone who isn’t in the creative world, HOW is a pretty handy magazine for Designers and Freelancers that usually has some great tips on running a business. Things like setting rates, turning down potentially disasterous projects and interviewing tips. Two or three times a year they, like all other magazines, put their stamp of approval on what constitutes “good design”. Or rather, they get three or four judges to give their stamp of approval on what they think “good design” is.
I can only imagine the posturing and high minded arguments for or against each entry. This year it seems that the best design in the world, is less “design”. A series of 16 posters, each with a print run of around 120-200 promoting underground concerts around Montreal.
I don’t necessarily have an issue with the style itself, though I am tired of it. It was interesting for it’s playful audaciousness a few years ago. A rebellion against all things corporate or digital. But since it’s so easily replicated, it’s everywhere now and lacks the “Holy shit! I used to draw like that on my note books in high school! That’s sooooo crazy!” impact it once had.
Here’s a quote from one of the artists about the project that took the top honor: “The ideas used in the posters to get the message across could be a literal element from the show, have to do with some kind of play on words or just be a total freakout of what we think is visually appropriate for the event.”
Sounds like pure interpretation to me. Does that count?
I wish we could do “total freakouts” that we think are “visually appropriate” for our clients. Unfortunately I don’t think we would be able to count them as clients for long.
But enough about my creative jealousy, and back to my original point; Can it be classified as “design”? Where is the line between “Art” and “Design”? Simply saying that it has type on it doesn’t hold water. And saying that it was for a paying client or that it’s promotion doesn’t work either. When you remove the designer’s self-satisfying style, are you left with any kind of meaningful residue of a message?
If not, I vote “art”.
4
Feb 08
Spam Responses
We thought it would be cool to keep the comments open and available for all to go crazy without anyone having to patrol it. After all, this is an open forum for discussions and opinions. After one weekend of being slammed by spam comments, we had to shut it off. Who are these people? Don’t they have anything better to do than to work on spamming programs? Why don’t they have clothes on? Aren’t they cold? So, I apologize that we now have to patrol the comments - a few bad (and under-clothed) apples ruin it for the rest of us. We’ll try and post as many comments as possible.
Super Bowl stats: I’ve lost the coin toss to Greg 10 years running. This is a 50/50 bet. Shouldn’t be possible. Best commercial: Coke, balloons. Although, it was nice to see Alice Cooper making appearance on the Bridgestone commercial. I have much more respect for Bridgestone now.