Locals You Don't Know: Sam Adams Photography

You may not know him yet, as he just moved to Denver, but if you are looking for that outdoor action/beauty shot, you may want to look in your back yard. Or just go to Sam's Website.

Hey, Here's My Beard

What a seem-less way to give a beard. Nice idea that had to start with how much someone wanted all the world to know what it is like to thoughtfully stroke your beard.

Dockers Be A Man

Never really thought of Dockers as a real mans brand, but props to them for being aware of the environment and cutting a niche for themselves.

What Wonderful Type Posters

Just read them, they need no comments. Then get 10 Pounds over at Brighten the Corners.

Captivating

Just try to look away from the product benefit. Just try.

Ruining Santa for 5 year-olds

I will never be able to think of Mrs. Claus in that way...(I was going to say again, but that feels wrong too)... but I will remember this ad for a long time. Nice Christmas Extension of a fun campaign.

Milk Worth Picking Up

We could all use a little better design on the packages, especially if it brightens up a commodity that doesn't really want to change. Here's to posting it so someone picks it up. Concepts by illustrator Sanna Annukka via TheDieLine

Sky HD: PIXEL

What a wonderful, captivating way to bring to life a product benefit. Visually fun and stunning in a world where the norm would be to show the beautiful picture. 1861United, Milan, Italy.

Donations Needed

This poster for Care Fertility caught me off guard for a moment with its simplicity and its honestness. What a wonderful poster.McCann-Erickson, Manchester, United Kingdom.

Inspiration du jour

Interactive architecture. Top: a modular wall that responds to environment; blocks become translucent or opaque in response to light. Bottom: tiny, modular robots that have the ability to roll around each other to create different spatial states in real time. The possibilities of these are endless. Check out more here.

Amazing Stop Motion Animation

Stop what you are doing now, push play and slip soul-fully into a book coming to life. This is beautiful!

Warm and Fuzzy.

Knitted science. Bizarre, yet cozy. Check out more here.

Target Gets It

Consumers want fun. Check out the selected card found over at NOTCOT. Get the whole story there.

Clean it Up

With stop motion none-the-less. Nice message from an unexpected place. In the US too. Evolution Bureau, San Francisco, USA

Carpet Cleaning

More Panasonic guerilla work and cant say the core of the idea is great, but who doesn't want that rug? Beautiful work.

A Little Humor

Tough product to promote, but the placement and humor would at the least make it possible to gain awareness. Never get to see enough of this.

Memorable

Polar Bear from Plane Stupid on Vimeo.

That'll make you think twice and remember the facts. Mother.

Tough and Attractive

Armadillo Scooterwear Tough Enough from Armadillo Scooterwear on Vimeo.

This is wonderful, takes the soft edge off of scooters and is, what I hope, is a wake-up call to every flip flop, short wearing scooter rider out there, pavement hurts just as much moving at 10MPH. Oh, and watch out for the clowns.

K.I.S.S.

Looking for a gift, this would do just fine.

Simple, Beautiful

Winning over London, Paris and New York... and me with the Art Direction. Chase Cash.

Spacious Thoughts

Hypnotic visuals with a memorable beat. This one will stick with you on both fronts. Found this over at BoingBoing and it features N.A.S.A. (North America South America) with some input from Tom Waits and Kool Keith.

Doritos 626

Amazing idea for a website from Doritos, again.

Say it with a smile

Love the direction for these. Obviously a One Show Winner, but also took top broadcasting prize for the Gunn Report, you know the award show that measures both effectiveness and creativity. Definitely reaction worthy.

Creativity VRS Design

If, like me, you find it hard to convey what you do (to anyone that doesn't do it—clients, parents, girlfriends, account guys) and how it really differs from, lets say, whittling—this is an amazing tool that can help. It will remind you that you are highly trained, and much more than the sum of your parts.

Thanks to Andrew Webb for the find.

50 Great Designs

The Dieline has a top 50 list of their favorite adult beverage designs. Definitely worth checking out more of the work over there if you are interested in having a better looking liquor cabinet this holiday season.

Fall In

How to fall into a war isn't the most conceptual line but the simple hand cut type is just wonderful. Might have lost its impact if it were illustrated.Tita, Milano, Italy.

Between the Folds

What looks to be an amazing documentary on the connection between art and science in origami will be screened for free through Starz and RMPBS November 24th. Go here to get tickets, should be fun. Should be art. Should be eye opening.

Hot Wax

Want to get the coloring urge out of your system? Pokemon not going to satisfy you, then you need to get your hands on this more adult themed coloring book by Tyson Mcadoo. Not exactly sure who needs this but the art is stellar, worth picking up.

Rethink Can Packaging

How about it, would you buy this? I would, and not only for the earth friendly thinking. Mostly for the design. Concept by Harc Lee.

Two as One

Pretty well coordinated acting on a simple message. Amazing take from what was, I'm sure, the brief and bringing a little life and fun to it. Saatchi & Saatchi, Sydney, Australia

Stop motion walk down memory lane.

Oh how I long for the days of craft, hand crafted, artistry. Worth the five minutes.

ADCD Student Show

You're looking at the Best of Show winner at the 2009 ADCD Annual Show, a simple, yet spectacular poster concocted by Shanna McNear from Colorado State University. Shanna also received a scholarship along with prizes donated from our generous sponsors.

The gallery opening was last Friday at the Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design (RMCAD) and displayed the next generation of creative artists hailing from Colorado and Wyoming schools. 

Here are the 2009 winners! Congrats!

• Shanna McNear, CSU, Best of Show and Best in Category/Graphic Design

• Ryan Secora, RMCAD, Best in Category/Digital Illustration and Best in Category/Traditional Illustration and Judge's Choice

• Danielle Alvarado, Univ. of Wyoming, Best in Category/Packaging + Judge's Choice

• Jeffrey Steffonich, Metro State, Best in Category/Packaging and Best in Category/Logo, Identity + Judge's Choice

• Elisa Wikey, RMCAD, Best in Category/Direct Mail

• Lauren Kobayashi, CSU, Best in Category/Editorial Design

• Jennifer Juarez, Community College of Denver, Best in Category/Graphic Design

• A.J. Sapala, RMCAD, Best in Category/Photography

• Aaron Bailey, CSU, Best in Category/Print Advertising

• Chris Branson, Art Institute, Best in Category/Publication

• Louise Eckardt, Univ. of Wyoming, Judge's Choice

• Andy Lindberg, Univ. of Wyoming, Judge's Choice

• Hannah Beningo, Univ. of Wyoming, Judge's Choice 

Many thanks to hand out:

Thanks to the judging panel: Stephanie Fay, Creative Director of Ripcord; Randall Erkelens, Creative Director/Founder of Section 45; Eric Nance, Creative Director and Founder of Epiphany Graphics; and Jay Roth, Senior Copywriter of Integer.

Also, big thanks to sponsors for supplying prizes to Best of Show, Best in Category and Judge's Choice winners.

• Apple

• Wacom

• Adobe

• Meininger

• RMCAD

And thanks to Village Roaster and Chipotle for coffee and food, respectively. 

Great show. Can't wait until next year.

Multidirectional Locomotion

Can the Halodeck be far behind? Technology is so much fun.

Veer Contest Winner

Veer had a contest, it was to make their logo out of anything and this won. Seen the idea, but the execution is very cool.

Veer Contest Submission from J.D. on Vimeo.

Want to Launch a Phone?

Why not make it entertaining and throw in some wonderful animation while you're at it.

Pregnadel

Controversial, absolutely. That aside, talk about a package that will be noticed and make you consider what is the product does and, possibly, make you think about what this product means to you. Brilliant idea that is a highly conceptual oasis among the conceptual-less world of drugs. Via thedieline.com

No Photoshop Necessary

Liu Bolin paints himself to fit into these backgrounds. Amazing!

Grabbing you

Fun interaction until it ruins your clothes or is a lint riddled magnet, but seriously, props to the lateral thinking.

Blacknoise

Fun for a Monday. Check out Black Noise's video using a mix of animation and camera moves. Got to give props for the boom box beats.

Couldn't resist

Maybe because as the core of comedy and advertising, its really just a dick joke.

Bar Codes From Japan

It occurs to me that sure you will have to convince your client that this will still work, but the attention to detail that is needed to notice this and execute to it might just be more important to your client. That attention to detail might even be noticed by your client's customers which may lead to more sales and more work for you.

Japanese Bar codes from Japanese firm d-barcode. Which also makes me wonder why they needed a full firm for this detail?

Presenting the Concepts, Picking a Winner

Photos, top to bottom:

1. The Winning Team:

Concept: Burn the Wall

Mentor

David Schiedt : Creative Director, Buster York Creative

Students

Loni Huston : Metro State College of Denver, Senior

Mia Huang : Colorado State University, Senior

Kyle Olsen : Colorado State University, Senior

2. Part of the Burn the Wall concept included tagging pizza boxes so the art travels

3. The three presenting teams were very organized with their rationale.

Honorable Mention

Concept: Rail Car

Mentor:

Jay Roth : Senior Writer, Integer Group AND ADCD President!

Students:

Brooke Schott : Metro State College of Denver, Senior

Adrian Newman : Metro State College of Denver, Senior

Kate Dzintars : University of Denver, Senior

Lynette Losasso : Arapahoe Community College, Sophmore

4. They were also excited about their concepts.

Honorable Mention

Concept: The Scrawl

Mentor:

Steve Koloskus: Principal, Extra Strength Marketing

Students:

Lauren Shviraga : Metro State College of Denver, Senior

Katie Matteo : Colorado State University, Senior AND ADCD Student Advocate!

Daniel Ahrens : Metro State College of Denver, Junior

Kendall and Peter discuss the problem and the many solutions proposed

5. Kendall and Jamie talk to the teams about their concepts and pick three of the ten to present.

At about 9pm, Kendall Peterson from UAF and Jamie Webb, the brief writer, circulated room, talking to the teams about their concepts. It was impressive to watch their involvement, their sincerity at treating this like a real opportunity for these students. That's part of what makes The Brief so great: it is a real opportunity. The work will get used by the client.

They chose 3 teams to present their ideas, and in the end, one team, one concept to follow through with. Remember the basic problem at hand:

How can we create and launch a newsworthy art program that enables true self-expression?

The idea centered around getting street artists to express themselves in ways that are both satisfying and profitable for them and whose format or venue is acceptable and appealing to the city and community (read: legal and non-vandalising). The concepts tonight ranged from movable train car installations to pizza boxes in actual use, and included ways for the artists to exhibit and auction or otherwise sell their work.

In the end, the team with the pizza box concept won the project. That's just the kernel of the idea, really. The concept, titled Burn the Wall after the colloquial language of showing up another artist, included auctions, subversive formats, and a "rebellious" aesthetic, and is easily executable on a variety of budgets and scalable to fit the needs and growth of the client's program. (I'd personally love to see some of the Cherry Creek style boutiques and chains sign-up to have their bags tagged beautifully; Ann Taylor, Betsey Johnson, etc, with traveling art that reaches across age, style and economic gaps would be interesting.)

Congratulations to the winning team and the client. And thanks to all who participated in this year's Student Brief. Another great ADCD event.

Blackout at the Briefies!

Okay, that's a little extreme. There wasn't actually a blackout, but the frenzy of work caused a bit of a logjam in the bandwidth and, thus, yours truly could not access the very important ADCD blog dashboard, which meant that you were left hanging last night. Apologies for that. I know you were pacing the floor, waiting for the next post with hardly a breath exiting your lungs (well done, btw, that's a trick to pace and hold your breath simultaneously!) It was state-of-the-art liveblogging, after all, right? What is "liveblogging," anyway, really? It occurs to me now that next year we should consider Twitter.

Anyhoo, back to the action. Kind of.