Assignments like Medalist remind you of the pure joy of advertising. It’s a classic. Great product needs a distinctive, strong brand.

Medalist is a small, smart outfit out in Reading, PA. They have a technology that does this thing, and does it really well…it’s a fabric, SilverMax, that eliminates/controls scent and body temperature. And weighs next to nothing. And is comfortable. The apparel is used by hunters, cops, firemen, and performance athletes. Oh, and astronauts! And anyone else who puts it on- regular folk, expecting moms, construction workers, etc…It works exactly as described, and it’s the best.  And they need a brand.

So the brand we built is as direct and unfussy as the product. What do hunters, cops, firemen, and performance athletes have in common?  They are demanding, passionate experts. And when they do what they do, they are defined by moments. The score, the count, the save, the rescue. Straight as pie. Just make it count. Same thing with the work. Great headlines, powerful type, epic photography, bold intense color palette – same thing.  Just simple, classic advertising done with passion and chops.

Think of it this way…if Medalist was a band, I’d like to think they’d be Cheap Trick. Direct and intense with just enough humor and art to make you realize how well made and smart it really is….check out the work here.

I am a cyclist and a fervent music fan. So you can imagine how excited I was a couple weeks ago when David Byrne stopped by Philly to talk about how bicycling has helped transform the urban experience. Unfortunately, no  music jams or giant-suit wearing were involved. But, all that bike talk was just as stimulating for the noggin.For those of you who aren’t aware, Mr. Byrne has been a cyclist for the past 20 years (he started back when biking wasn’t a cool or even socially-accepted mode of transportation). His recent book, Bicycle Diaries, chronicles the observations and insights he collected from his experiences biking in cities around the globe. (It’s one of his favorite things to do during his downtime on tour.) I received the book at our agency’s secret santa gift exchange, and have been thinking a lot about how cycling has changed the way I interact with our fair city, and how the city (powers that be/motorists/pedestrians) has responded to the growing popularity of urban biking.

The whole idea of bike-person-city interaction is also really relevant to my own experience in Philadelphia. As a car-worshiping Midwest transplant, I felt isolated and intimidated by the city during my first months here–until I bought my SE Lager, I finally made the switch after test-riding a friend’s bike, and getting my first taste of freedom. It made me realize how much more quickly I could get around–and get a feel for–my new city.

Now I’m hooked. My favorite time to ride is after a late night at the office when my brain can take a breather, I feel the wind on my face, and I become human once again. Second to that feeling of midnight euphoria, I also love my morning commute to work, where I pass through several different neighborhoods, each with its own distinct personality. Part of Philly’s charm is that neighborhoods can change so drastically from block to block. It’s great to see all of the funny interactions that neighbors and strangers alike have when they bump into one another on the sidewalks, sharing greetings and laughs. I also love the random snippets of conversation that I sometimes pick up out of context (it feels like I’m experiencing in real-time one long take in a Wes Anderson movie).

I’m not alone out there either. At the forum I learned that almost 10,000 Philadelphians bike to work, a higher percentage than in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago or D.C. This makes sense, I guess, since about half of our creative department gets here on two wheels.

It will be interesting to see how the city changes as more people start riding bikes in the next couple of years. From the way the David Byrne discussion went, it seems like Philly has a promising future to become the most bike friendly city in America. We’ll see, but with the recent win of the $17.2 million Tiger grant, we might be well on our way.

Photography was prohibited at the event, but I was able to snap some quick shots of the beautiful film montage that played on a loop beforehand as we waited in the crowd. It was composed of bicycle scenes from the movies that portrayed how much fun it is to bike. I thought it was a nice way to start the night and complimented  the speakers’ talks which focused heavily on how cities have been planned, how we get around them, and how these factors ultimately affect the city dweller’s everyday life. Scroll down to see if you can name that movie or television show.

Odds and Ends from the Forum:

Extremely Interesting Books Mentioned:

The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs, The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander

For The Ultra Curious:

The event was officially titled Cities, Bicycles and the Future of Getting Around: A Special Urban Sustainability Forum and was hosted by the Center for Environmental Policy at The Academy of Natural Sciences. Fellow panelists included Ignacio Bunster-Ossa, a landscape architect and urban designer from Wallace Roberts & Todd (WRT),  Alex Doty, Executive Director of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, and Katherine Gajewski, Philadelphia’s Director of Sustainability and implementer of the mayor’s Greenworks initiative.

Loyola University Maryland is quickly becoming my favorite client to work for. They are always open to trying something new and different. We recently completed a double-edition Sophomore/Junior Search Piece, and if all goes according to plan, it’s going to totally blow some high schoolers’ minds. Or at the very least, get them thinking about THE FUTURE. The pieces are finally printed, and within the next couple of weeks, high school students throughout the east coast will be receiving not one, but TWO oversize newsprint editions in their mailboxes. I know! Rad— right???

Mad props to Alcom and Evergreen for helping make our newsprint dreams come true. It was my first time on press for a web job, so I took a ton of photos. I’ve included some here to give you a sneak peek. Photos of the finished pieces will be up soon. Enjoy!

Watch ya self.

Our fearless print reps

Our man JT, Snappy Dresser and Production Manager Bad-Ass

Joe Stevens, the filmmaker behind Made In Queens, has been documenting custom and conversion vans across the West since 1996. His site ‘vans and the places where they were’ is a catalog of his endeavor. Enjoy.

Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists 1958 – 1968, on exhibit now at three gallery spaces at Philadelphia’s University of the Arts, is the first major exhibition of female Pop artists of the era. Its quite a reclamation project – planned over the course of four years, a majority of the work has not been shown in over forty. (Roberta Fallon and Libby Rosof’s Artblog has a nice write up about the show here.)

The usual pop concerns are in play, with a heavy emphasis on the complexities of female iconography in mass culture. The art is on the whole great, if a little roughly hewn. Gems abound – Idelle Weber’s stark geometries and silhouettes, the provocative (if a little strident) photo-montages of Martha Rosler, and Dorothy Grebenak’s hooked wool rugs of Tide boxes, and Bugatti logos. Marjorie Strider’s Green Triptych balances genuine sexiness and wry commentary in equal measure, not an easy dynamic to pull off. The show runs until March 15. A catalog is forthcoming. Check it. (via shepelavy.com)

Martha Rosler, Family Portrait with Car, 1966-72,
Chryssa, Ampersand IV, 1965
Rosalyn Drexler, Home Movies, 1963
Marjorie Strider, Green Triptych, 1963
Joyce Wieland, Young Woman’s Blues, 1964

Can happiness be visualized through design? How can design and creativity evoke happiness? And in the age of tongue-in-cheek visual media and mass advertising, do representations of happiness have to be so cynical?

I recently stumbled upon this interesting TED talk, in which graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister discusses the ways that design can portray happiness, and the distinct moments when design has brought unexpected happiness to his life.

Interestingly, Sagmeister cites a couple of urban guerilla projects that reframe the way that people normally interact with the city. (Examples? One project that replaced boring subway signage with graphically identical “life instructions”; another that placed blank voice bubble stickers over existing signage, inspiring passers-by to contribute their own dialogue to a given scene.) From a branding and creativity perspective, these are inspiring examples about how unexpected creativity and design can contribute to the happiness of a visually-savvy audience–on a deeply personal level.

Something you may or may not know about us is that we have carved out a bit of a niche in University marketing. Essentially, we believe that if more universities took cues from how consumer brands market themselves (since in many ways they are), as opposed to thinking of themselves as strictly academic institutions (which they also are), they will be more successful. For us, higher education branding offers a myriad of challenges, considering the number of audiences a college or university must engage, the multitude of communications channels the brand can effect, and the unprecedented competition in the marketplace.

After all, if we are talking about recruiting potential undergraduate students who are 17 year-old seniors in high school—they are constantly bombarded with marketing messages and vehicles that are awesome, innovative, unheard of, crazy, and interactive strategies from all different types of companies and industries, many with monster budgets. Most universities are also situated within 50 miles of at least ten colleges, and are competing with hundreds of other universities on everything from academics to financial aid packages. How can a university position itself in this type of cultural landscape in a meaningful way? Something tells me sending a brochure with headlines such as “Our Campus-Your New Home” is not exactly going to send the kids a-running. These kids are committing at least four years of their lives, and student loan payments for significantly longer, to their college choice.

So, similar to consumer brands, one way a university can break through is by looking at its brand as a University-wide asset and ensuring its messaging and tone appeal to all of its key audiences (e.g. prospective undergraduate and graduate students, parents, guidance counselors, alumni, donors, etc.) and engage them with relevant and compelling content and imagery.  This helps ensure they don’t let themselves off the hook with the same old “three in a tree” (infamous shot of three students on campus, with three distinctly different ethnicities), status quo.

The Chronicle of Higher Education, the most respected news publication in higher education, recently sat down with one of our favorite university presidents for a podcast. Dr. Daniel Curran, President of the University of Dayton, is a strong proponent of branding and shares a similar vision of branding universities as we do. To this end, Dr. Curran and the University have recognized the necessity of strong branding and marketing in the Strategic Plan, which sets forth a vision for the University.

“5.1: COMMUNICATE AND MARKET MORE EFFECTIVELY THE QUALITY OF THE UNIVERSITY’S DEGREE PROGRAMS, ITS RESEARCH AND SCHOLARSHIP, ITS RESIDENTIAL LIFE, ITS DISTINCTIVE COMMITMENT TO INTEGRATING LEARNING AND LIVING AND LIVING IN COMMUNITY, THE CHARACTERISTICS OF MARIANIST EDUCATION, ITS ENGAGEMENT WITH THE REGION, THE NATION AND THE WORLD AND ITS FOCUS ON THE FUTURE.” (Strategic Plan: Five Common Goals)

We salute you, Dr. Curran.

Take a listen to the podcast here.

But when the Travel Channel’s Anthony Bourdain does the same thing for a credit card, oh man is it awkward—as witnessed here on the recent Istanbul episode (the clip in question comes at around the 3:15 mark):

For anyone who watches Bourdain’s show regularly, it just seems like something the guy would never sign off on—unless it’s an inside joke to his viewers, sort of a knowing wink of “you wouldn’t believe these guys dropped a six-figure check in my lap.”