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Creature Is At SXSW!

Groupies, gamers and film gurus are all converging on Austin, and Creature's expert correspondents will be there checking out the industry's latest and greatest.  We'll be live Tweeting, Blogging and Facebooking over the next 5 days, so if you're one of the unlucky kids that got left behind this year have no worries, Creature has it covered!

Also (for the first time ever) Creature will be hosting an Interactive Panel! Check out the details on the SXSW schedule. Panelists will include industry leaders Michelle Gass, President of Seattle's Best Coffee; Polly LaBarre, Co-Founder & Editorial Director of MIX; and Jeff Howe who is credited with coining the term “crowdsourcing” in a 2006 Wired magazine article. He is also the author of an acclaimed book by that name, and he has been a contributor to NPR, Wired and other magazines.  Panel is at 11:00am, Tuesday the 15th at the Hilton- we'll be in the room with all the awesome people, you can't miss it.

What's Your Outdoors?

Look. We’re from the Pacific Northwest. We know what “outdoors” usually means to people. The thorough exploration of fleece’s many applications is but one example. We don’t wear fleece often. 

JanSport has always challenged this idea of the outdoors. As a brand that came from hardcore mountain-man origins to one that’s been embraced by students, clubbers and couch surfers of every stripe, they know it’s not so simple.

That’s what inspired the latest Creature x JanSport collaboration: What’s Your Outdoors? The goal: Redefine what it means to be outside, according to you. Everyone’s got a place — the spot they go to when four walls won’t cut it. And contrary to popular belief, that doesn’t always involve glorious mountain vistas or expansive bodies of water.

The project invites people to submit their favorite outside spot via 360° panoramic videos. As they come in, they’re stitched into a constantly looping chain. Seen together, they form a constantly shifting, growing, collective definition of the outdoors. The $10K prize is a nice deal-sweetener.

See the chain at jansport.com/whatsyouroutdoors

Pardon Our Packing Peanuts

Construction is well under way at the new Creature office, and last Champagne Friday we ventured the two blocks up the street for a quick tour.  The space is beautiful!  A mezzanine, 20 foot rolling library ladder, dedicated table-tennis area and a basement speakeasy-vault all await our arrival this Spring.  Here is a sneak peek of all the awesomeness to come.

The Birthday Cheat Sheet

It's Friday again, and that means two things; birthdays and bubbles! For those of you not savvy to the Creature traditions, we've put together this handy cheat sheet of how-to's and hand gestures for when we recognize a fellow Creature turning a year wiser.

The Salute and the Double-clap are the classics, but we've recently added a few new options to the mix.  Which one will it be tonight?

*Happy birthday to Shawn, Clara and Sandhya!

Art Activism: Remake America.

Creature did its bit for democracy during this year’s mid-term elections with a public art piece. The project was motivated by hearing statistics that voter turn out for mid-terms was extremely low in the US. That’s dangerous, because these are still really important votes to cast.  

The response was simple: remind people that every vote has the power to change the shape of the nation. Creative and Design Director Steve Cullen, partnered with fabricator Jack Hodges to create a large-scale and modular sculpture of the American flag. The sculpture was set up in pieces at community events during the week leading up to the elections. People were encouraged to rearrange the sculpture and take a photo with their creation. In return they had some fun and got a small hand written reminder note with the message “Remake America: vote.” And a url of the flickr gallery were all the images and artwork were hosted for the week.
 
Thousands of people—young and old—participated, and all left with a positive experience and hopefully something that empowered them to head to the polls. 

Love Is In the Air

Creature's been hit by Cupid, all over the office...

Happy Valentine's Day from everyone at Creature!

xoxo

 

Our Newest Creature

Hemant Jain joins Creature's Seattle office as an ACD, with a wealth of experience as copywriter/illustrator/designer and you could even say environmentalist. He has spent the past 12 years in advertising, working at agencies like Wieden+Kennedy (in Amsterdam, London and Delhi!), Leo Burnett, Ogilvy and Y&R India.

He has won perhaps every major international award that there is out there to be won including Cannes Gold, Silver, D&AD, One Show, Communication Arts, London International, Adfest Asia and a host of Indian awards. Interestingly he has won them not only for his copywriting skills but also for graphic design and illustration. 

He is also known for an ongoing environmental campaign in India called ‘The Great Indian Clearance Sale’. Which he calls an ‘ideology-free art project’.  http://www.greatindiansale.org/

Apart from advertising, his art regularly sets the blogosphere abuzz with his ‘illustrated dispatches’: http://www.munnaontherun.com/

He's a jack of all trades, and we're happy to welcome him to the Creature team.

Congratulations Ramon!

Cheers to Ramon and his lovely new wife Nicole! Ramon has been with Creature since the early years and is not only an amazing designer, but also rocks the most awesome handlebar mustache in all of Seattle. Nicole, you are a luck lady.

Congrats to the newlyweds!

An ECD of Three in the UK

We’re no strangers to talent here at Creature, but we’d be lying if we said we weren’t incredibly excited about our new creative trio heading up our London office.
 
We’re proud to welcome Ed Warren, Ben Middleton and Stuart Outhwaite – three creative émigrés from Mother’s London shop – aboard Creature, as our new UK creative partners, working alongside the familiar and esteemed Ivan Purdie.
 
As you’d expect, they come from distinguished stock. At Mother, they were at the helm of the agency’s Unilever account, creating some of the UK’s best-known campaigns. Including a couple of Campaign magazine’s top ten for 2010.
 
Check out their Pot Noodle ‘Sticky Rib’ TV spot to give you a flavor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74benH-G0oo
 
Collectively they’ve also worked across accounts as diverse as Beck’s, Powerade and Match.com. Notable work includes Four Feet from a Rat – a graphic novel series developed for listings magazine, Time Out, and the groundbreaking Pot Noodle the Musical, for Unilever, which debuted at the 2008 Edinburgh Arts Festival.

Ed started out as a planner at Lowe and DLKW before taking up the creative mantle at Mother. Ben and Stu are a well-established creative partnership after 8 solid years at Mother.
 
We anticipate big things from these three, so be sure to give them a warm welcome. We searched long and hard for our Creative Directors for London as we look to expand internationally, and I can’t imagine a bunch of guys that fit in better. We will have them visit as soon as we can so you can all meet them. They officially start in March. One last note; although Stu’s name is super hard spell, he’s really easy to talk to. Ed speaks Mandarin fluently. And it is rumored that Ben invented steak. 

The Refreshingly Hydrated New Nuun Website

After several months of hard work the new Nuun.com site is live. (Luckily, we had plenty of Nuun to keep us properly hydrated the whole time we were working on it.) The new Nuun.com is your interactive digital Mecca for all things Nuun. It includes everything you could possibly want to know about Nuun and hydration, as well as upcoming Nuun events, Nuun athletes, a plethora of pictures and stories from Nuun and Nuun friends, and of course the best place on the web to stock up on Nuun. So drop a Nuun into your water bottle and start exploring the new world of Nuun.

*Click the image to visit the new Nuun site!

Sincerely, Creature

A couple of months ago we decided to get a little fancy and make formal agency email signatures, hoping to create a bit of consistency for Creature correspondence.  Well, how silly of us to assume that people wouldn't find a way to turn even the most basic of office-wide protocols into an opportunity to express their creative genius.

Here are a few of the gems that were circulated through cyberspace.

Anywhere Great Coffee is Needed

More amazing new work for Seattle's Best Coffee launched today!

The central idea, “Anywhere Great Coffee is Needed", is a simple and clear statement about democratizing premium coffee. As a first step for the brand, it helps our audience understand that even though the brand shows up in what might not be considered traditional premium coffee locations, it's there for a reason: to improve the coffee there.

The campaign sets out to bring this simple idea to life with an integrated campaign mixing film, print, outdoor, and a strong social media component.

 

 

 

Seattle's Best Coffee "Level" System

The new packaging for Seattle's Best Coffee hit the shelves in December, just in time to kick off 2011. A new year, a new way to enjoy great coffee!  Quite literally, the Level system makes finding the right coffee as easy as 1-2-3-4-5.   It starts with Level 1, the lightest and mildest, and works its way up to Level 5, the boldest and most intense.  

The Level system features an innovative and bold new packaging concept.  Its unique array of numbers and vivid colors tell consumers exactly what they want to know: which type of coffee fits their taste profile. So, what's your Level?

The Perfect Holiday Gift

This holiday let’s not forget about our finances.

With the 401K starting to move a bit in the right direction and glimmers of hope weakly flickering on the horizon, it’s important not to forget one of the most important financial strategies around. The Mattress Wallet. 

(Click image to visit website)

It’s been a while since we last talked about Creature’s own Mattress Wallet, but since it makes such a great gift, I thought It might be appropriate to post it again. Great for those shopping for either a new mattress or a new wallet, this is the perfect gift for loved ones working on wall street, or most streets really. It’s also quite popular in Germany where strict attention to both finances and comedy are an important part of the culture.

Happy Holidays!

What is a pencil?

In our line of work, we make stuff. To make the stuff we make, we use a lot of various boxes with shiny buttons on them. You know. “Technology”.
 
But, back in the day, all it took was a pencil.
 
The humble pencil has fallen out of favor for many reasons. Mice and styli do not require periodic sharpening. Your ability to make mistakes is limited to 5.5mm of rubber. And No. 2’s dominance over the pencil market has never been satisfactorily explained.
 
But there are many reasons to love the pencil, too. Its slender form is sullied by neither buttons nor touchscreens. It doesn’t crash or require updates. It is highly mobile, fitting into most pockets and behind most ears. But mostly, it is one-step idea making. You pick it up. And then you make.  
 
And so. Here’s to the pencil. To Creatures. To those who make.

 

David
RETURN TO THE STREET WIZARD
Dave is head of the design studio, and a graffiti artist. This makes him the most “street” Creature.

DENCIL ONE
Dave's graffiti name is Dense One. You do the math. 

Chris
PROPERTY OF THE BLACK NAPKIN
Chris is the “crazy ideas man in very tight pants”. This pseudonym was one of his crazy tight-pants-induced ideas. 
 
Ramon 
REST YOUR BEAN HERE
Ramon is known for his incredible mustache and devising innovative uses for pencils, including his “bean trap” invention. “Bean” is a Creature studio euphemism for a certain, well, lady part. 

Brian Bosworth
THE OTHER BRIAN BOSWORTH
The first Brian Bosworth was a magnificently mulleted linebacker for the Seattle Seahawks. This is other one.
 
Clara
FOR FEMININE DESIGN USE ONLY
CO-FOUNDER, IHATEWOMEN.INFO
The official woman designer of Creature, Clara is also co-founder of a new website celebrating all things woman, Ihatewomen.info.
 
Pam 
FOR CHERISHED SECRETS ONLY
Account team feedback for one of Pam’s projects deemed her ideas lacking enough “cherished secrets”. These pencils are to remind her that whenever she reveals secrets, she should also cherish them.
 
Pat
JUST LIKE AMERICA, NO. 1
Pat loves America. He loves it so much he almost got a tattoo of America exploding out of his arm. Thankfully, he didn’t. And has this pencil instead.
 
Pat McKay
PATSBEAUTYTIPS.NET
Pat “Pretty Boy” McKay has the best head of hair at Creature. It is Adonis-like, curly and lustrous, as if lathered nightly with a cream of mayonnaise and motor oil. More tips at the soon-to-be-launched patsbeautyblog.net.
 
Simson
ARTIST FORMERLY KNOWN AS SAM
Simson was named by his grandfather, who intended to name him Simpson but, as this was before the era of spell-check, accidentally wrote down “Simson”. Somewhere along the line it became Sam. But he’d rather be called by his given, incorrect name. 
 
Sarah Faulkner
WILL TRADE FOR TRANS FATS
Sarah is an adorably petite senior project manager. She also consumes an ungodly amount of processed, deep-fried foods, often in the Funyun family. One day, her metabolism will shut down, and the universe will be right again.
 
Dax
CREATOR OF “THE DAX SPECIAL”
Dax is an incredible producer, known for his humilty and his zen-like “dudeness”. Which makes his signature breakfast especially interesting: five shots of espresso on ice.  
 
Shawn
SHAWN DIAZ BUTT SCRATCHER (TM)
Shawn is a talented illustrator and designer, whose talent is inversely proportional to his cleanliness. His refreshing disregard for public itching is commemorated in this pencil.  
 
Brian Choi
I’D RATHER BE A PARLIAMENT
Choi is a surly Korean fellow with a penchant for soju, losing at poker, and procrastination via frequent cigarette breaks. 
 
Adam
FOR OFFICIAL LAWSUIT USE ONLY
Adam, a well-intentioned and talented art director, was once studying to become some sort of fancy scientist. He now spends his time exploiting the absence of a Creature HR department. 
 
Anu
FINNISH PENCILS ARE COOLER
Anu is from Finland, which means she was born with preternaturally great hair, a “funky” fashion sense, and an indecipherable accent. She is cooler than you. And so are her pencils.
 
Justin
WILL TRADE FOR FOOD
Justin is a trim and sarcastic copywriter with a keen ability to sniff out unattended scraps of food on people’s desks. Often confused with JB, resident Creature garbage-eater and dog.
 
Julian
THE THINKING MAN’S TIMBERLAKE
Yes. His last name is Timberlake. He is not related to that other Timberlake. This Timberlake is infinitely more learned, fashionable, and receding-hairline-ish.
 
Kaylin
IF FOUND: YOU LITTLE!
Kaylin, a sassy producer, is known for her sassy sassiness. A particular, much-loved sassy retort is immortalized here, in this pencil.
 
Kristie
HARPER COULD DRAW THAT
One of Kristie’s greatest accomplishments, surprisingly, does not come from her long career as a media expert. Her elfin daughter, Harper, which is probably the cutest thing alive, has earned that title.
 
Hilary
#1 CREATURE FANTASY RANKING
Hilary is a powerful, intelligent, insanely hot single mother who runs pretty much everything at the agency. Creatures, male or female, are defenseless against her charms.
 
Gingold
K-PAREVE
Jason is Jewish. Sometimes. These pencils are for those days he likes to “Jew it up”.

Robson
NO REWARD IF FOUND
The only Canadian of Creature, Robson should be a sweet, harmlessly boring Creature novelty. But since he controls the company checkbook, he is evil.
  
Jim
CREATOR, THE POOPLESS DOG (TM)
Jim has an impossible idea he likes to bring up, extremely frequently, and with the same amount of gusto each time: A dog that doesn’t defecate. Jim is also a benevolent and incredibly intelligent, caring, forgiving boss.
 
Matt
CAPTAIN SS CREATURE
Matt is what you would call a “good dude”. As a seaman and a bossman, he steers the proverbial Creature ship. So far, major James-Cameron-worthy icebergs have been averted.

 

* All pencils created by the endlessly talented and clever Shirley Hendrickson, wordsmif and copywriter extraordinaire, as holiday presents for her colleagues. Thank you, Shirley!

The Men of Movember

Movember (the month formerly known as November) is an annual moustache growing charity event held every November which raises funds and awareness for cancers that affect men.

At the start of Movember guys register with a clean shaven face. The Movember participants, known as Mo Bros, have the remainder of the month to grow and groom their Mo, raising money along the way to benefit men's health.

This was Creature's first year participating, and although we were a bit shy of our goal, the Mo's were above and beyond anything we could have hoped for.

 

Cheers!

A tradition started by Matt and Jim when Creature first opened its doors, every Friday we celebrate making it through another week alive.  Champagne and Pacifico abound (cupcakes too if there’s a birthday!) and we toast to the week’s successes.  There’s really no better way to start the weekend than around the fireplace at Creature.  So happy Friday, bottoms up!

 

Your Call is Important to Us

For many years Creature has had the hold music that comes with the Cisco IP phone 7941. As everyone knows the stock hold music on the Cisco IP phone 7941 is like elevator music, without all the edge. Since we are methodical in everything we do here at Creature, we did some focus groups and found a trend that people don’t like music that is terrible.
 
To remedy this and treat our callers with hold music that’s more reflective of our company, we commissioned a creative team to compose some new hold music and produced it in house with agency talent.  Give us a ring or check it out below.

Creature_Hold_Music

GRACE

The Global Resource for Advancing Cancer Education (GRACE) is an organization that is near and dear to our hearts.  Founded by local Seattle Oncologist, Dr. Howard (Jack) West, GRACE is an online resource dedicated to providing expert-mediated information on current and emerging cancer management options in order to empower patients, caregivers and health professionals to become direct partners in cancer care.  

When GRACE started in 2007, it was so well received that their current website could no longer keep up with the overwhelming amount of user and doctor-generated content.  The look was stale and the site became hard to navigate making it difficult to find content that was relevant to each individuals’ needs.  GRACE needed a redesign of the brand and a new website.  

Creature did a complete overhaul. First by giving GRACE an identity, then revamping their website, developing a site that allows users to browse through recent posts and content as well as search for specific information.

Emergency Tie Rack

Did you wake up late?  Sleep through the alarm? Or perhaps you’re just Steve Cullen and fell asleep upside down on the agency couch.  Either way, you’re royally screwed- you’ve got a presentation, and all you have are the wrinkly, drool-stained clothes on your back.

Well, no need to stress- emergency tie rack was designed for just such situations.  With 10 luxurious options, there’s an instant professional up there for everyone.

Please use your emergency tie with caution! Side effects include: a newfound respect from colleagues, the inability to take no for an answer and the strange desire to carry a brief case.

Note: Creatures actually wear these.  

 

The Big Red Fridge

Seattle's Best Iced Lattes were made to be an every morning experience; something you grab and take with you on the run to help you start your day.  We know not everyone wakes up fully dressed, coffee-in-hand, ready to take on the world, so we brought the coffee to them with the challenge to "discover your inner morning person."

The Big Red Fridge popped up on street corners and sidewalks all around Southern California, delivering a refreshing reward to those brave enough to open the door and awaken their own inner morning person.

 

More Inner Morning Person to come on www.welcometocreature.com, stay tuned!

Be Citywise

Why Ants you ask?  Well let’s face it, love them or hate them, ant farms (or ant cities as we call them to appease the lawyers), are fascinating people magnets.

In this instance they also happen to demonstrate a relevant point about both City University of Seattle’s philosophy and curriculum. 

By using ants as a demonstration of project management and organizational structure you get an idea about what you might learn. This in turn is a great demonstration that education comes from all angles.

Puppy Love

A tribute to the other creatures that roam the halls at Creature.

Mandy and Toby

 

Matt and Charlie Brown

 

Ray and Bentley

Favorite Website Awards

The FWA is an organization that recognizes "the very best in cutting edge website design."  Among other big fish like Nike and Lexus, Creature's Pacifico website was recently given this honor.

Congrats to the entire Pacifico team!

A Creature Farewell

Last week’s champagne Friday we had to say goodbye to the fantastic Mr. Eric Larkin, who is headed back home to the East Coast.

He left us on this memorable note:

Eric's Goodbye from Creature on Vimeo.

 

Good luck Eric, you will be missed!

 

 

Sherry in Seattle!

One of our most fabulous clients, Sherry Council of America, has made their way to Seattle on the next stop of their East to West coast road trip.

Seattle, the city of Fino and seafood, welcomed the Secret Sherry Society with open arms.

What are their plans whilst in town?

Well, yesterday, August 25th, the Society hosted a Secret Sherry Tasting at Pike and Western Wine Shop, where guests enjoyed an assortment of Sherry wines, coupled with delicious tapas.

Even though the entrance was a secret, folks seemed to find their way in to experience the excitement.

This weekend, the Secret Sherry Society is a sponsor at the International Food Blogger’s Conference happening here in town.

They’ll be gathering at Theo Chocolate on August 28th for a pre-dinner cocktail party for conference attendees.

Salud!

Pack up your mallows, it's Bonfire Sessions time!

 

The Cave Singers. August 28. A secret location in the woods. If you’re lucky. 

This summer, Creature has had the pleasure of creating with JanSport the first ever installment of the Bonfire Sessions, a free concert series celebrating the epic memories that can only be made outdoors.

Here’s how it works: The location of this fantastic concert is kept top secret until you arrive to the show.

The only way to get there? Why, a magical Bonfire Sessions bus, of course! We’ve been hinting clues to the bus stop location throughout the past few weeks, and finally today are announcing the top-secret location – it’s landed in front of Quinn’s in Capitol Hill, on the 1000 block of Pike, between 10th and 11th.

Our bus-stop celebration will happen tomorrow (Thursday), where we'll have hot dogs, music, and fun!

Start lining up early, only the first 100 people in line will get a spot on the bus.

Buses board at 5:30pm and depart at 6:00pm sharp on August 28th.

So get your lining-up shoes on. 

The lucky handful will arrive to a unique campfire concert with the Cave Singers, beer, mallows, sparklers, singing, stars, barns, lights, darkness, meats and nonmeats, boys and girls, bug bites, magic.

Basically, the perfect evening. See you all there!

Winners!

Our not-so-secret Secret Sherry Society has just been selected for the 2010 Print magazine Regional Design Annual. The posters artfully emulate the tastes of various types of Spanish wine through a set of eight characters.  See “The 8” on our web portfolio or hold out for a hard copy and buy Print Magazine.  If you want to experience what it’s like to be apart of the Secret Sherry Society go to _______at______. Or just keep an eye out for mysterious projections on city walls.

Also on the list for the Design Annual is JanSport’s Reclaimed Art Canvas campaign where we used the nostalgia of drawing and writing on a backpack and took it to a whole other level. At the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival we put up huge blank canvases—the same canvas used to make JanSport packs—and let anyone who wanted to go to town with paints, markers and other art supplies. The end result was fourteen vibrant, one-of-a-kind murals that we took back to the JanSport factory to cut apart and sew into backpacks. Watch the video below and see it for your self!

JanSport Reclaimed Art Canvas, Bonnaroo from Creature on Vimeo.

Visit the Pacifico Website. Seriously, book your flight now.

One of the great things about working with an off-the-beaten path, adventurous brand like Pacifico is the ability to collaborate on unique ideas and turn them into reality.  The most recent example of this is the new Pacifico website MexicoViaPacifico.com.  It's a website without web pages.  It's four hand-painted walls you can actually visit.  It's a destination website.  Check it out online, click around, and literally explore part of the world of Pacifico.

With this new site, we're taking visitors off-the-beaten path to places that are part of the Pacifico DNA:  

• an historic alleyway in Mazatlan, home of the Pacifico Brewery
• inside the factory of renowned board shaper Ody Ordaz in Puerto Escondido, home of some of the best surfing in the entire country -- it's known as "the Mexican Pipeline"
• a quite courtyard at legendary Hotel California in the heart of Pacifico country in Todos Santos, Baja
• a wall overlooking the California coast in Venice Beach, CA

    

A project like this is a little more complex than a standard website, as you might imagine.

Ody Boards is located in the La Punta area of Puerto Escondido, for example, where phone service is patchy at best and internet connections were non-existent before this project.  The perfect place to set up a web cam and stream video 24 hours a day.  

And we recently needed to make a content update to the homepage in Todos Santos as you can see above, which in the world of Pacifico means buying a couple cans of paint, hiring a Mexican street artist (some work for beer).  

Projects like this, with all their inherent challenges, are what makes what we do so fun, and being shortlisted for a Cyber Lion at Cannes earlier this month made all the work worthwhile.  

Creature + JanSport + Bonnaroo = Amazing

A few of us Creatures had the splendid opportunity of venturing out to Great Stage Parkon, a 700-acre (2.8 km²) farm in Manchester, Tennessee, 60 miles southeast of Nashville.

Why, you ask? Well, for Bonnaroo, of course! If you aren’t sure what that is, click here.  Ahmazing. 

Lucky for us, one of our amazing clients, JanSport, participates as a sponsor every year. This means we get to play too. 

It’s a pretty rad idea: 

JanSport invites concert-goers to paint their hearts out on various 15x5 foot canvases, and, over the course of the year, we turn the painted canvases into limited edition, one-of-a-kind backpacks (proceeds of the backpacks to to Big City Mountaineers). 

Awe.Some. 

This year was round two. We were excited, and having done it once before, we were ready. 

We arrived a few days before the concert so we could set up the tent and get all our goodies ready. We knew to expect heat, and humidity, and mud up to our eyeballs, but when the wall of 300% humidity hit us upon arrival, we were not prepared. IT.WAS.HOT. 

But we’re troopers. And we were able to get our tent panels hung, our wooden easel built (thanks to John Haile and Bob Horn) with minimal dehydration.

Thursday, June 10^th the festival began. Droves of music and art lovers filled the farm, and soon our tent was a flurry of excitement. JanSport lovers filled the tent ready to paint their hearts out, so their artwork would eventually become a backpack. 

We had repeat visits from folks who just couldn’t get enough. 

We even had people come back who had painted last year, looking for their art that had been turned into a backpack. 

Even in the blistering 98-degree heat and 3000% humidity, folks loved to paint! 

Not only did we get to share the JanSport love with 75,000 sweaty festival-goers, we also were able to see some amazing acts. 

From Kings of Leon, Stevie Wonder (or as we like to call him, the 8th Wonder of the World), Jay-Z (ahmazing!) and Dave Matthews, to Steve Martin, Conan O’Brien, and Aziz Ansari, our nights were filled with music and laughter, good food and good friends. 

And sweat. Did I mention how hot it was? 

Be sure to check out JanSport’s Reclaimed Art Canvas website to see all the beauty that came from the week. 

Inspirational. And hopefully we’ll see you at Bonnaroo 2011!

The Funmaker Recital Series

 

It’s happening here at Creature. As you may have read, we did a music video here recently for the Long Winters to provide some content for  www.giveseattle.org. You can also check it out here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWX2DNIOdxo. Lot’s of great previously unreleased tracks from the bands that participated. For our part in this non-profit charitable event, we received some karma, a fun shoot with talented performers, and a Wurlitzer Funmaker organ. As far as we can tell, it’s from the 70’s. I’m not sure why anyone would buy a Casio or any other keyboard when you can pick up one of these things of beauty for like $40.00.  It does it all. But with unequivocal style. The keyboard has three levels. It simulates banjo, has the full drum kit, and everything else you can imagine. The only thing our amazing Funmaker doesn’t have, is someone to exploit its glorious sounds. John Roderick of the Long Winters is on the list to be one of the first to perform at our Funmaker Recital Series. The plan is simple. Every 4th Champagne Friday or so we’re going to bring in artists to spend a little time playing the hits of their choosing on the Funmaker. We will most likely document this for those of you who want to witness some choice organ numbers. We’re looking for talent. So, all would-be Funmakers please send Hilary an e-mail at hilaryl@creatureseattle.com. We’d love to hear what you’ve got. Champagne will be served of course.

Thanks,  Jim

Happy Holidays, everyone!

A few people here at Creature put in some extra hours outside of work to make sure we spread some holiday cheer. Enjoy!   

 

http://singingchristmassandwich.com

The Give Music Video Teaser

We're always up for a challenge, and even more up for a good cause. That's why when Singer/songwriter John Roderick of The Long Winters approached us about doing a music video for The Give, we jumped at the chance. 

The challenge of course was to do a music video with a small budget and even less time. To get this done we assembled a dream team that included Director Branson Veal, Lenz Film, Olin Padilla (Editor) and Angela Morgan (talent). We then propped for 4 days straight, painted through the weekend, and got little sleep. Despite the exhausted state we were in, we knew all the while it was worth it. 

We recorded the song on December 7th at Clatter & Din in Seattle:

                                                 

Art Director Kristi, Copywriter Sarah, Producer Kaylin, & Director Branson 

                  
 

                                    John At The Studio 

We started filming on the 8th at 3pm in the Creature conference room, which you won't even recognize in the video. That's what 4 days propping will get you. Thanks to a lot of coffee and some dedicated folks, we went all through the night and wrapped at 6:00am the next morning.

The video itself combines both stop motion with real time motion to create a great story.  We even got animal talent, Mischa (one of our designer's dogs) to make an appearance in the video...SO CUTE!  Stay tuned for the final cut in the coming week...

Ryan Berkley

At Creature we are extremely fortunate to partner with talented folks all around the world. This year, one of those very talented people was Portland based illustrator Ryan Berkley. We worked with him to create eight different personalities for eight different types Sherry (secretsherrysociety.com). One of those Sherries, Cream, was featured in the 2009 Communication Arts Design Annual. 

      

      Amantialldo is slightly nutty.               Cream Sherry is sweet and velvety. 

     
       Fino has a dry and delicate wit.        Manzanilla comes from a seaside town.

We were searching for the perfect illustrator for the Sherry project when we happened upon Ryan’s booth at a craft fair in Seattle. We were smitten right away. Who wouldn't be, his entire body of work sheds a unique light on the personality of our furry (or feathery or fishy) friends. Check out some of our favorites:

       

            A real self starter.                       He is quite the ladies man. 

     
 
   You'd best stay on his good side.                       It's business time. 

You can view all of his work on hits etsy page: http://www.etsy.com/shop/berkleyillustration?page=1

Or read his blog to keep up with the latest and greatest: http://letsshare.typepad.com/berkley/

iLingual iPhone App: Speak 3 Languages With Your Mouth

 

Out there in the land of iPhone apps there are an abundance of funny apps. However, as funny as this app seems don't be fooled by its sillyness. iLingual is actually a fun clever little app that takes language translation to the next level. For those of you who travel, learn new languages or want to just see what it looks like to speak German, French or Arabic with your own mouth this app is for you.
 
 
Here's how it works: you snap a picture of a mouth—yours, your girlfriend's, or just a photo from a magazine—which iLingual then analyzes and converts for animation. Then, you choose a phrase from the app's 400-strong library, hold your iPhone over your mouth and there, you sort speak French, German or a little bit of Arabic, with a disconcertingly segmented, animated pair of lips. Félicitations! [iTunes] 

See it in action. It apparently works well with locales in France.

 

3 amazing days in San Francisco

I just returned from Creative Social SF and wanted to share some highlights. First, a bit about Creative Social, this is a bi-annual gathering of about 40 of the world's best digital creatives directors and  agency owners in the world.  A few of the highlights for me: The trip to Pixar. Amazing to meet the artists and directors behind these incredible feats of animation. A couple others: Drinking coffee at Blue Bottle and then later, absinthe at St. Georges distillery. Aside from the culinary field trips and cool speakers (Craig Newmark, Saul Griffith, Brad Bird, etc), there was some great worked featured from the Socials. Here's a link to a few of my favorites:

http://www.ommwriter.com/

http://www.spezify.com

and see some more cool stuff here:

http://www.creativesocialblog.com/

 Matt

No Mas Presents: Dock Ellis & The LSD No-No by James Blagden

Secret Society induction party: live art, cocktails and Mike Cina interview

Trade in a secret for a Sherry cocktail. That was the basis for a San Francisco cocktail-party-turned-live-art-event where hundreds of culinary, entertainment, music, design and fashion personalities were inducted into the Secret Sherry Society.

Attendees confessed a secret, got their drink and then watched as their secret was transformed into printed pieces of original art. The art was put on display (about 50 or so pieces) for all the guests to take with them and will be part of an online gallery built this winter. There’s even some rumors of a limited edition collectors book.

Seattle-based Heaters DJ’d the perfect vibe for the night where literally hundreds of secrets were turned in (free delicious Sherry cocktails helped people find their muse). The crowd loved the entire experience and passionately debated the merit of various secrets. Some guests even left with a dozen or more pieces of the artwork.

To create the live art, Creature's own Steve Cullen partnered with Mike Cina, founder of the legendary design firm You Work For Them. After the event the two caught up for a quick chat.

SC: We kinda had some sweaty palms the day before hand.

MC: For me it was the day before when we "practiced" a bit. Since the live element was not there and we had never done it before, it was hard to know what to expect. I like being prepared and there really was no way to know what to expect. But after getting the first secret, I realized that this was going to be like riding a bike. As soon as I read the first card, I felt more relaxed and ready to have some fun. The rest of the night was very enjoyable.

SC: Ever done anything like this?

MC: I have done some live work before but it is normally controlled and planned out. This was amazing on many different levels and I got a lot of inspiration and insight by designing in the moment. I definitely think we pulled it off. When you consider the amount of time spent on each work (about 5 minutes) and the nature of it all, I think it turned out amazing. People were very thankful to have their secret done visually and I am sure they talked about it a lot to other people. I feel like we really touched people through the work.

SC: What secrets stood out to you?

Secret Sherry Society Road Trip

At Creature we’re willing to do whatever it takes to get it done, even if that means driving a 10 - foot Uhaul filled with props from Seattle to San Francisco. So that’s just what I, along with our Associate Producer, did last week. The reason: a fabulous party we were throwing for Wines from Spain (more on that later in its own post). It turns out driving vs. shipping the amount and weight of our props would save us several thousand dollars, so we had some trucker hats made (obviously) and away we went.

Some highlights of our drive down include:

• Literally 5 minutes after we left is started thundering and hailing. It took us five hours to make the usually 3 hour drive to Portland.

• Immediately on leaving received 5 calls from worried co-workers. Aw- some sweet Creatures. xo

• We rode the entire way with our favorite prop, a stuffed Pheasant named Fred, in the cabin. He was a good sport about it.

• Dinner in Portland at The Observatory- delicious Chicken Fried Chicken and cute décor. Highly recommend it if you’re in Portland craving some classic American cooking. theobservatorypdx.com

• An overnight stop in Salem, OR where I met the lovely night manager at the Marriot Residence Inn.  His name was Tar.

  The only room they had was a full bed. Thankfully we survived without any awkward snuggling situations.

• Breakfast at Word Of Mouth Neighborhood Bistro in Salem. Their breakfast changed my life. Biscuit, fried chicken, fried egg, bacon, cheese, gravy, and home fried. Suicide by grease never tasted so good. wordofsalem.com

• Some errands in Medford, OR. That is where we saw this gorgeous snuggie display. If it looks this good on the mannequin, imagine how it could look on  YOU!

• Hitting the first In N Out in Redding, CA. In retrospect, consuming a Double Double + Root Beer + Milkshake + fries immediately after driving through curvy Shasta Forrest in a Uhaul was not the best idea.

•  On completion of our trip we heard BEP "Boarderline" approx 2,910,324 times, and Miley Cyrus "Party In the USA" 39,230 times.  

• Arriving in downtown San Francisco at midnight. FYI, The Clift valet parking does NOT take Uhauls. 

Thankfully we were able to ship the props back via ground and flew back. After setting up and breaking down the fabulous party, I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t have survived the drive back. 

FIVE IDEAS OF THE FUTURE

These five innovations are not necessarily the coolest or newest ideas off the block, at the least, they are the 5 most un-tapped gold-mines in my very very credible opinion.

Let's do this David Letterman style. (That is not a sexual proposition, I just mean we'll count backwards)

5. 3D WALL PROJECTIONS

New technology by Nu Fromer Digital Media allows projectors to render realistic 3D looking objects on buildings.

Can you imagine hooking this thing up to a Nintendo NES and playing duck hunt in the windows. Or shooting my next commercial on location of the location it will be played.

4. MULTI DIMENSIONAL CAMERA

Imagine linear story telling + google street view technology. Yellow Bird has created a linear video camera that you can control. Can you imagine telling a story from every angle? Will this be the beginning of 360 degree movies?

 
The possibilities are endless or maybe orgasmic.

Os Gemeos - Creators of very cool things.

For those of you who don't know them, Os Gemeos are pair of living street art legends. Of most recent fame, they were asked to paint over the landmark Keith Haring mural on Houston St. in NYC. Many thought this wall would go to an NYC artist to carry the torch from Haring, but the fact that the wall has been left pretty much untouched, shows the level of respect these cats get.

They've got a show in their hometown of Sao Paulo at the famed FAAP entitled "Vertigo" It looks incredible.

 

see the rest of the show here.

Great new old music

Thanks to a friend in NYC, I've come across this great album. It's old but recently has had a surge in popularity. The story of the artist is almost as awesome as the album itself. Here's the cover. Check it out on iTunes and then check out the link for the story of Rodriguez.

http://www.sugarman.org/afterfact.html#sleeve

An Always Sunny Halloween

Dearest Readers,

As influencers of pop culture happenings, we hope you are all familiar with the brilliant show on FX entitled "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia". If not, this post will be lost you. And you should be ashamed of yourself. Assuming that you all are aware of it, a few of our golden children decided to be the cast of the the play "The Nightman Cometh" from one of the more famous episodes of Always Sunny. We think they pulled it off flawlessly. But you can draw your own conclusions....

 

Detective Sherlock Roy

Early in 2002, there were rumors of a new ad agency opening its doors on Capitol Hill in Seattle, WA. An investigation was started by private detective Sherlock Roy to solve the mystery of why this agency was named "Creature". With a day of through sniffing the perimeter, going through garbage cans, and smelling every employee... he solved the mystery. The Founder, pictured here, is the most senior member of Creature recruited all the way from Amsterdam to bring inspiration and credibility to this establishment. 

Yours Truly,

Sherlock Roy

ps. happy halloween!

Interactive piano stairs

Thefuntheory.com, a Volkswagen viral campaign in Sweden by DDB Stockholm, encourages people to make changes for the better by making the changes more fun. Interactive technology used as piano key stair steps that sound when you walk on them or a cavernous trash can that plays sound effects get people to change behaviors through play.

 

Even cooler than the fact they got a ton of people to ignore the escalator is the fact they could actually improve upon artist Remo Saraceni's walking piano. There is something about a piano you can walk on that is so awesome that you have to become a little kid and play with it. I've never seen anyone who didn't like playing on one. But now it's (gasp!) stairs that make noise! The best part is: No magic is taken away by guessing at how they work.

Super 8 Obsession

Every once in a while, people ask us about our Super 8 films for Pacifico. (mexicoviapacifico.com) Certainly it makes sense for that brand and its gritty off the beaten path essence. And I’m super happy Super 8 and Pacifico made such a great match. Because I think it allows a lot of people here at Creature to not only understand fully and authentically what this brand is about, (a form of method advertising) but it also allows people to brush up against the inherent coolness of Super 8. You can learn a lot about film on a basic level shooting Super 8 and that in turn can influence all forms of creative expression. You think in a different capacity with a camera in your hand. 

For me, Super 8 takes me back to my childhood. Yes, before the great VHS or Beta debate there were Super 8 movie nights. Normally at my house they consisted of horribly shot, shaky, dark footage of trivial events like the installation of a new fence. Jumping in the neighbor’s pool or babies with disgusting food on their faces. All without sound. Regardless, there was something cool about that film and quality and warmth it brought out. Those waves to camera at an awkward speed are burned into my head and are as inherent to Super 8 films as the clicking of the projector.

Later in life, I started getting into borrowing my father’s camera for rudimentary claymation films. They were terrible. I had to edit before I shot. Because the shooting schedule was also the story board and there was zero margin for error. Of course there was plenty of error and it almost became a character in these pieces.

Years later, I came across an estate sale in Sausalito. Among the normal plates and clock radios there was an 8mm projector and about 25 films. (8mm is the predecessor to Super 8 and was a non-standardized format.) These films documented the adventurous life of a family in the late 40s and 50s. Some films documented sailing trips from San Francisco to Cabo, some were ski trips to Sun Valley. Others documented camping trips. But most remarkably, these films were beautiful shot and edited into 20 minute pieces. Not the 2 and a half shaky bits I was used to. To me, these were the ultimate Super 8 films. Taking full advantage of the technology of the time and captured by masters. Watching these films brings a feeling of nostalgia that I admire and value.

These films of course became the inspiration for Pacifico, and perfectly capture the nostalgia of that brand. As other people of the agency get involved with Pacifico, it’s great to see how they put their spin on Super 8 and push the possibilities with that simple format.

I of course continue to collect random films to add to my personal 8mm and Super 8 film collection. On a recent trip to Antwerp, (Thanks Tom Shane) I found a group of 8 mm films in an antique store. One is labeled Tangiers 1962 and looks to be about 40 minutes worth of footage. I haven’t watched them yet, but you never know what you’re going to get. I’m guessing camels will be involved. If they are good, I may post a little compilation.

At the same time, here at Creature we are busily preparing for our best and most ambitious Super 8 shoot for Pacifico in Mexico. More on that when it’s done.   

Jim

Pitching Nike with Space Vikings

About a month or so ago we were invited to pitch for Nike's action sports division (nike6.0, NikeSB, and Nike Snowboarding) We went up against the venerable Wieden+Kennedy as well as 72 and Sunny, and Nemo. Good company for sure. We went crazy for this obviously. With an Olympic just do it spot and tons of digital engagement ideas, the stakes were big for sure. Action sports are leading youth culture right now and Nike is right to try and find a way to do it right. So they brought us in to challenge convention, and we certainly did that. The example you see here was the weirdest one of the five ideas we proposed, but we loved it and it went over well. Remember the crazy concept albums of the 70's? We wanted to modernize it and we called it Galactnarok. This thing was fantastic and transcendent of sports. Full of hidden gems, cool collaborations, and of course space viking judges. Well, sadly, the story ends with us not getting the business. But the work we pitched made us proud. So I wanted to share a little of it here.

Creature's new campaign for Bing: THE EGOS

The Egos

See the video at: www.creatureseattle.com/entertheegos.com

Bing Pong - The Egos | Adland

Creature's very own Mr. Larkin...

Interview with Kiss My Black Ads

See more illustrations at scribbledoodled.com

Cholula and Tapatio. Competitors or…lovers?

I’m a fan of Mexican food. And of course, the hot sauce that often accompanies it. So, it shouldn’t be a surprise that I keep a few bottles of the stuff around. Most often my favorites Tapatio and Cholula are stocked. I really have no preference one way or the other. Both are delicious. However, both are competing for our valuable taco space. In a sense, these are the two giants of the Mexican hot sauce wars.

A couple years ago however I made an interesting discovery. With Bart’s recent random Tapatio gift pack shipment to the agency, it’s been on my mind. I opened up my pantry to find Tapatio and Cholula staring at each other. You could see it in their eyes. I had exposed a dark secret of the hot sauce world. It seems to me as if Cholula and Tapatio are lovers. Put them next to each other and you can see it in their ridiculous stares. That is the only excuse I can muster up for why Mr. Tapitio looks so ridiculous. Either that or he’s a chronic mouth breather. I personally would like to believe the former. So, the good news is we need not take sides in this so-called Mexican hot sauce war. And both I might add go well with a cold Pacifico.