AD2 Roanoke

CreateAthon is “a 24-hour, work-around the clock creative blitz during which local advertising agencies generate advertising services for local nonprofits that have little or no marketing budget.” 2009 is the 1st year (of which I hope they’ll be many) in which Roanoke agencies and design firms from the SouthWest Virginia area collected their gear and made haste to the call. Now, while the Roanoke CreateAthon was adopted and organized by our sister organization, AdFed, several AD2 members were asked to participate. And, brother, they did not disappoint. Here are a few of our stories.

Hear more from Aimee Drysdale, Erica Gliener, myself and others after the jump.

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Prepare your mind for maximum rocking, lest it be
BLOWN AWAY:

I don’t want to tell you how to do your job.
But, could you make the logo bigger?
Bigger, bigger, make it big.
Make the logo bigger.

Make the Logo Bigger by Burn Back

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

[Link thanks Courtney G.!]

Also, Make My Logo Bigger Cream!

The time is here for the Ad2 Reunion!  We have all our embarassing surprises crafted and ready to be displayed, the Totally Tubular Tinis, Banaramas, and Aqua Net Blue Motorcycles are ready to be shaken, and we’re all ready to party tonight at 202 Market at 6:00.  Hope to see everyone there!

It’s official, I spoke with Steve FM and they will be taking requests and playing whever WE want at the Ad2 Reunion!  Steve FM hosts parties every Tuesday night at 202 playing music and videos from the 80s and 90s, and it’s always a great time.  This coming Tuesday will be even better with the addition of Ad2 Roanoke past and current members all jamming out and reminscing over their favorite videos and favorite experiences from Ad2.  Can’t wait to see everyone this coming Tuesday!

After landing in Phoenix last night, my traveling companion and I stopped in Scottsdale for some late night mexican food. A necessity after spending half the day on a plane. On the way to Glendale, around to my hotel, we drove through what I now know understand to be “New Scottsdale”, the “ritzy” part of town; lots of new finished construction and that sort of thing. Two and three story buildings full of Neiman Marcuses and Crate & Barelses and trendy places to eat with obscure spanish sounding names, full of slick modern architecture built out of cheap looking materials and painted in dark and neutral colors. All things that make me feel like they are trying so very hard. Too hard, almost.

Why is this new part of town with the new money trying so very hard to emulate what we’ve seen in so many other parts of so many other cities that are perceived as “upscale”? The truth is that this sort of perception works. This is where the marketing and fiduciary statistics works against the creative process. They see a product succeed and want that success for their product, so they mirror the design with hopes of mirroring the success.

Pablo Picaso famously said “Good artist copy. Great artist steal.” I often tell new designers that when they go to look through a magazine or on the web for inspiration to look at what makes the thing they like the thing they like. That is to say, find out what makes that great design great, whether it’s composition, color, the way it works in the space they’re given or even the way you interact with it, and then use that as a lesson to apply in they’re design. You’re not stealing or copying, you’re learning from what works. It’s definitely a step up from just outright “creative theft”.

Jeff Veen gives this 5 minute Ignite presentation that touches on all of this. I enjoyed his parallel between iPhone knock-offs and the “cargo cults” that developed after WWII.

So, if good artist copy and if great artist steal I submit the best artists (and in this case, designers) are the ones worth stealing from.