So, you may remember a few weeks back when we posted about a fictitious story that caught my eye on The Onion. In said story, a man supposedly proclaimed his ‘devotion and love’ for the Pepsi brand during ceremony at a convenience store where he was surrounded by a small group of friends and employees.
In all seriousness, consumers are proclaiming their love for brands more and more these days and in very unique ways. From tattoos, to ‘Liking’ a brand on Facebook, brands mean more to consumers today than ever before.
All that said, I’m not so sure that The Onion story was all that far-fetched because late last week I stumbled upon an article on USAToday.com about retail wedding trends…
So, it appears that more and more, people are pledging their “I do’s” to their significant others, while in a retail establishment. You won’t believe this, but this includes having weddings at places like T.J. Maxx and Taco Bell. That’s not all though…. Include Home Depot and Cold Stone Creamery on that list too! It’s pretty unbelievable to me, but hey, I only got married at The Cincinnati Nature Center’s Krippendorf Lodge (which I highly recommend by the way!).
Be it brand loyalty, saving money, or the desire to be a little different, people are actually going through with this, so there’s not telling what’s next. Is it good for the brand? I can’t see how it could possibly hurt. Is it good for the bride or groom? Well, if you are “self proclaimed Maxxinista” (make sure you read the USA Today story relative to this comment) or a Chalupa fanatic, perhaps you can shop or get your Mexican food fix on before/after the ceremony. If you bring a whole wedding party, they can join in on the fun too. I’m sure these brands won’t complain about anyone spending a little money before or afterward the ceremony, so I’d say it’s a win-win.
The site features an original design that leverages the dark undertones and religious/spiritual rites objects from the film itself to help create a perfect canvas to promote the film project. HQ created a system of photography, illustration and animation to round out the unique aesthetic of the site. Based on a graphic novel concept, this film short was created by director James Moran of Trumac Films to generate interest and support for the broader story and sequel opportunities around the main character, Deacon James (Johnathan Schaech).
An excerpt from the Lost Rites graphic novel showing Deacon James fighting it out with deity Ageria
Additional methods of connecting with fans and supporters include a custom-designed blog and a Twitter account that will help keep tabs on the post production, and screenings of the full film short at Film Festivals and COMICON in the future. Be sure to have a look at the teaser trailer posted on the site along with some of the behind the scenes photos. The film may be short, but it leverages all that Hollywood can offer including some great talent, advanced CGI and audio engineering.
Behind the scenes with James Moran (Director) and Johnathan Schaech (Deacon James)
We are proud to add this to our history of over 20+ film sites. Best of luck to Lost Rites, Trumac Films and Deacon James’ future as an on-screen character!
The kind folks over at Ponoko.com recently featured HyperQuake’s own “Create Your Own Environment” poster when they posted a feature on their blog entitled “Put the X-acto Away”.
Tes One — laser cut paper
The post features 39 posters from 20 different designers for your viewing pleasure. It’s definitely very cool to see how others are using laser cutting techniques to bring their poster designs to life. Weather the canvas is cardboard, ceramic, wood, standard poster paper, wood and even stainless steel (yep, stainless steel!), laser cutting is helping bring designs to life in some refreshing and inspiring ways.
We’re honored that the crew at Ponoko saw our poster and included us in the feature. Thanks again Kristen!
Make sure you go over to check out their post and take a look at some of the other designers work. And if you aren’t familiar with Ponoko.com and what the site is all about, let’s just say if you are interested in ‘making’ something, the site might come in handy.
Every time I see amazing photos of or collateral for a hotel, it’s invariably one of the Ace Hotels, with locations in Portland, Seattle, New York and Palm Springs.
Ace Portland
Ace Palm Springs
Imagine you are staying at your really cool designer/musician friend with really great interior design taste’s apartment. That is the Ace Hotel, which somehow manages to appear both impossibly cool AND approachable at the same time.
The Official Mfg. Co in Portland, Oregon created some of the most beautiful things for the PDX location, and Ace NYC is filled with murals and original art (I know because I did one). The Ace’s own blog is as inspiring as any design blog, and the rooms are surprisingly not outrageously priced. Highly recommended.
Sometimes you are so involved in a project that you forget to step back and ask yourself, “Self, we both know this looks fly, but does what I just made make any sense?” and sometimes the answer is no. We have all been there.
Dan Hopper writes, “A friend of mine sent me the banner ad, which I’ve been staring at for the last ninety minutes alternately laughing at it and curling up in a hyper-confused, existential panic. Vote for my favorite video? Of Adam Carolla and Klondikes? Who? Cars? String?”
I’m just going to go on record and say that I don’t understand Sketcher’s Shape-Ups. Apparently, nor does anyone else because according to a story on USAToday.com disputes about whether they work or not, are safe or not, are cool looking or not, etc., have yielded no definitive answers either way.
It doesn’t matter where I side on this really because I don’t know enough about these to make an accurate assessment, but I will say that Joe Montana is part of their marketing and Joe knows sneakers.
Even the smallest of brands need to pay close attention to what’s going on with their brand in the market place.
Case in point, Johnny Cupcakes out of Boston, the t-shirt company that you’ve seen me write about on the blog way to many times. Though J.C. is not a huge mega-brand by any means, that doesn’t keep him immune from people trying to hijack his brand, do what they want with it and make money off of it.
Sure, we’ve all seen bootleg Oakley sunglasses before among other things, there was a time in the 90′s when I lived in NYC that you couldn’t walk down the street without seeing knock offs being peddled everywhere. But that was Oakley, an expense, well known and well respected global brand. As in demand as they were at the time and as expense as their product was, it was almost kind of expected that someone would make fakes to sell.
Now, I wouldn’t have expected to have seen what was posted on Twitter and on the J.C. blog the other day about a Bangkok, Thailand based store being raided and the owner arrested for selling huge amounts of fake Johnny Cupcakes goods. From the looks of the photos, we are talking HUGE amounts of fake shirts.
As you can see from the photo below that was also posted on the Johnny Cupcakes blog, apparently there have been quite a few people trying to infringe upon the brand.
Its certainly interesting to me to see such a small brand having this happen to them, but it’s also a reminder of the importance of having a pulse on what others are up to with your brand.
You know, the type of ads that literally scream at you to look at them, confuse you, blare sounds from areas unknown (which then let your coworkers know you aren’t working), etc.
The ads will integrate HD video content and aim to continue to provide viewers advertising content, now with integrated editorial content. I’m all for innovating the simple and old-school banner ad a bit, but making ads bigger, more intrusive and more disruptive isn’t the answer from my perspective.
As the story points out briefly, internet users don’t respond well to these types of ads, so I’m not sure making the ads bigger and more disruptive is the answer. The word after all is disruptive (root word; disrupt) and thanks to dictionary.com, I can say with certainty that associating an ad with any of these feelings might not leave the viewer feeling to good:
1. to cause disorder or turmoil in
2. to destroy, usually temporarily, the normal continuance or unity of; interrupt
3. to break apart: to disrupt a connection
After much extensive research (exhaustive, really) I’ve decided that run-and-jump games are my favorite. They are easy, they are addicting, and they tend to have a wicked sense of humor. It’s Friday, enjoy:
Canabalt has you running and leaping off of rooftops to avoid imminent apocalyptic demise. Run away! Watch out for those boxes!
An old one that I am surprised is still around, is Drop Kick the Faint. Take your punk aggressions out on those Saddle Creek weenies!
But perhaps my most favorite of them all is Robot Unicorn Attack, featuring robotic unicorns, stars, sparkledolphins, making dreams come true and perhaps the most perfect soundtrack of them all, the tune “Always” by Erasure.
