Made by moving atoms — yes, actual atoms!!! — using a two-ton scanning tunneling microscope that operates at minus 268 degrees Celsius. The film was built frame-by-frame, like claymation, but at 100 millionth scale. To get an idea of how tiny these things actually are, check out this link.
The courageous Seth Godin talks about getting out of your comfort zone because it’s not safe. Taking a risk? That’s safer.
44 minutes of enlightened conversation.
Retail stores have long struggled with the problem of customers shopping there, but then actually buying the products online. Best Buy and Barnes & Noble are great examples of chains hit hard by the phenomenon. Circuit City and Borders are examples of the casualties.
Now there’s another nail in that coffin: the phenomenally impressive digital fly-throughs being created for new boxed sets like this one from Concord Music Group (Hear Music) for Sir Paul McCartney and Wings.
One of the most difficult things about buying expensive products online is the inability to explore them — to touch and feel and handle and mess with the thing you think you may want to purchase. But a well-done unboxing video takes a huge leap toward giving you that experience. It makes it much more comfortable to part with your $160, to buy something you’ll clearly cherish if you’re a hard-core fan.
By contrast, CMG released their McCartney RAM project without an unboxing video. It hasn’t done as well as, say, their Duane Allman boxed set which did have a video — and which sold out in a week.
The buzz for Wings Over America seems to be working. My cousin Adam, a rabid McCartney fan and collector of many boxed sets, knew all about this one almost immediately. And now you do, too.
(Thanks to my friend Eric Eliel for sending this to me. He worked with Integrated Communications to help produce the package. Can’t wait to see it in person.)
In an internet-driven world, the need for printed material isn’t always clear. Sometimes a PDF will do. But sometimes you need that “thunk” factor…the credibility that an actual brochure creates when it lands on your customer’s desk. A physical piece has a different emotional impact than a digital one. And Be Green Packaging wanted a piece that set them apart.
They also needed the flexibility of a set of inserts that could be customized for a specific prospect or project. That required a pocket in the back to hold them all, and that meant die-cutting and gluing. So, for the graphic elements on the cover, we decided to use blind-embossing and foil stamping — all similar processes that could be done by the same vendor. And all this meant that the quantity had to be large enough to amortize the cost of dies and set-up.
But here’s the problem. Be Green just doesn’t need thousands of brochures. For them, a digitally-printed solution makes sense. They can run 50 or 100 at once, keep them up to date, and only print what they can use (which is environmentally sound, too).
The solution? Give them the best of both worlds. Produce a larger supply of covers with pockets. Then print and bind the body of the brochure as needed, in small quantities. The result is a piece that makes a wonderful impression, but is flexible and cost-effective, and can be brought up to date easily and inexpensively.
My first real job was painting signs for an imports store in Westwood Village, a block and a half from UCLA, where I went to college. I made $2.00 an hour, and I worked in between classes. I would paint between 15 and 30 signs a day — little ones to price bracelets and incense burners and toys. Big ones to announce sales, call attention to collections and promote specials. I did window displays, and often painted giant signs right on the glass. Once I covered an entire window with a wild exotic sun design and left a peephole in the center so people could look in at a display of brass serving ware from India. Then there was the time I was cutting out a series of small signs and managed to slice off the side of my finger with a matte knife. (Not recommended.)
I also moonlighted by making signs for a few retailers around the Village — an awning here, a big metal sign there. And I learned a few tricks of the trade from a ridiculously generous local professional, Bob Carter of Westwood Sign Service. Bob must have known that some college kid was not going to be serious competition. He kindly showed me how to thin One-Shot paint with kerosene to create just the right amount of drag on the brush, where to buy the right supplies and tools and how to create a pounced pattern for a really large sign. I learned to letter quickly, and to control my strokes around the curves. I never got great at it but I loved the process, and it helped me log some of the 10,000 hours I’d need in order to become adept at graphic design.
So my ears pricked up when I heard about this new documentary on 99% Invisible and found the trailer on Vimeo. Looks pretty damn cool to me. Maybe it will to you, too. Over the weekend, I’ll lift a glass to these amazing talented crazy people who make our visual lives a little richer. Can’t wait to see the film.
I see I neglected to immortalize our St. Patrick’s holiday e-card on the blog. Better late that never, eh? (It’s clickable.)
This full page ad ran on the cover of the List section.
(Click for larger image.)
Sometimes one of the hardest things to do is to maintain a message and an idea. People inside your company often get bored long before your target audience even notices what’s going on.
True, we’ve done some campaigns that change completely each year. But usually those were for events and the goal was to create a sense of freshness each time. The Revlon Run/Walk for Women and the Mercedes-Benz Cup Tennis Tournament fell into that category.
But often, clients are antsy to abandon things too soon. It’s the longer view that creates relationships, not the anxious panic that sets in when you’ve been working with the same idea for a while and you think your audience is already bored just because you are.
Trust me. They have other stuff on their minds. You’re really not that important to them. With infrequent placement and a limited budget, they’re barely starting to notice you.
Okay, now the other side of the coin.
This half-page ad ran inside the List section as a follow-on from the cover ad.
(Click for larger image.)
If you have a solid theme, a powerful idea, you can milk it. Stick with it — but play with it, expand on it or extend it in ways that keep things fresh, entertaining and engaging.
Our Collaboration campaign for Green Hasson Janks seems to get more interesting the more we develop it. The stories (thanks to writer Emily Hutta) are fascinating and surprising. And the collection becomes even stronger as a series.
We’re in our second year and this concept just keeps going. The latest incarnation appears this morning (Monday, March 11) in the Los Angeles Business Journal in the List section on Top L.A. Law Firms. The QR code links readers to the Green Hasson Janks website for the full tale.
Take a look. Even you might be curious about how P.T. Barnum and Jenny Lind’s legal contract was so central to their success.
Our campaign for Green Hasson Janks in the Los Angeles Business Journal continues this week with a new ad in the series featuring Howard Carter, the archaeologist who discovered the tomb of King Tutankhamen in 1922 and his backer and mentor, George Herbert, Fifth Earl of Carnarvon.
Their story has fascinated generations, and is another great example of collaboration, the theme of the ads and the guiding principle of Green Hasson Janks’s relationships with their clients.
The ad appears on the cover of this issue’s list of accounting firms, and is followed by a smaller one inside that adds more to the tale. A QR code directs readers to the company’s website where the complete story unfolds.
Check out the LABJ this week. And visit the Green Hasson Janks site to read all the examples of amazing historical collaborations.
(Here’s a link to the previous post about the campaign, too.)
This looks like a lot of fun. And it’s an interesting Kickstarter project.
Varnished surfaces add surprise to this corporate presentation piece.
We recently finished a presentation kit for the Los Angeles-based accountants and business advisors Green Hasson Janks. Ordinarily a folder isn’t something I’d crow about. But this one’s really special.
Designed as a container for new business presentations, it features an unexpected twist on the firm’s key graphic element — a bold ampersand with an upward arrow known in the firm as the Uppersand. It’s their symbol of collaboration and is featured prominently in all their marketing materials and advertising. (More on that next week.)
We deconstructed the symbol, overlaying copies of it to create beautiful abstract shapes where the solid portions overlap. As you open the folder, these shapes resolve into the actual ampersand which is fully revealed on the three-panel interior.
The effect is enhanced by the overall velvety matte aqueous coating which plays against the mirror-gloss finish of spot UV varnish. That high shine reveals the full ampersand as the abstract graphic elements merge. This coming together to create a powerful whole is, of course, the whole point. It’s a message that’s subtly alluded to by our visuals, and strongly stated in the text.
Kudos to our senior designer Kevin Consales for this beautiful concept, to ColorNet Press for the meticulous execution, and to Green Hasson Janks for the courage to try something powerfully different as an expression of their brand identity.
