behind the scenes

Well known artist, skater and writer Michael Sieben has just finished teaming up with adidas to release a fun video/interactive site to promote his latest additions to their “Original” collection. He was originally approached by adidas to only design one shoe, however shortly after starting this task both sides realized the potential for more than just a shoe design and a creative partnership was born. Two shoes, a shirt, a hoody and three magical creatures later and you have the mini-film that was shot bringing to life the characters that Sieben features in his designs. The film can be found on the special micro-site that was created for this project - www.adidas.com/michaelsieben

Here’s what the two Sieben-designed adidas Superskates look like (he created both a high and low-top version):

<

<

It was directed by Eric Noren for Juice Design with Jess Weinstein & Sara Clarkin as producers. Matt Uhry was the Director of Photography, Dan Wolfe was the editor and the music composition was by Johnnyrandom.

The mini-movie shows us Sieben accompanied by a few of his cartoon creations embarking on a treasure hunt that takes them all throughout the San Francisco Bay area.
“Behind The Scenes” footage of the making of this movie-clip can be found below:

Read the rest of this entry »

This is a re-post of something I caught over on the adfreak blog, apparently the NY office of Avenue A/Razorfish has recently implemented a new method aimed at getting their employees to start submitting their timesheets in a more “timely” fashion: They’re showing “offenders photos” with a message indicating what crime that employee has comitted.

In the example above, the text reads:

“I haven’t done my timesheets in 3 weeks.”

The adfreak posts then goes on to say that according to an agency rep, this new tactic of public display is paying off with an increase in diligence for timesheet submissions. Hmm… I wonder if they bothered to check and see just how many current employees have also showed a newly-found diligence in updating their resumes/portfolios? Do they realize these “offenders” are their employees? I wonder how long it’ll take until one of their programmers switches the photos/messages out with explicit photos of top-level agency execs (perhaps from last years’ company Xmas Party)? Or better yet, how long until someone realizes that this might give off the wrong impression to their clients about the agency’s ability to manage their own employees.

I can’t imagine this tactic being something that would look appealing to anyone seeking employment there, that is… unless you happen to be looking for a job in accounting, in which case you’d probably love the thought of being able to ridicule those bastard creatives who think they’re just so cool in their black tshirts and hipster hair-do’s… “accountants are all nerds” my ass! You’ll show them who has the real ultimate power!

This morning WPP announced that the new agency they have been trying to build as part of their agreement with Dell, originally called Project Da Vinci, now has an official title………..

They’re calling it: (cue the drumroll)

Enfatico.

From the press release:

“As a next generation agency with a diverse mix of marketing services and talent – all uniquely orchestrated to drive value for Dell and future clients – we believe Enfatico effectively captures what makes us distinct,” commented agency CEO Torrence Boone.

Well Mr. Boone, you’ve got one thing right… that name definitely makes you “distinct.” Way to come up with a name that sounds even worse than the original Project Da Vinci idea. It just reaks of a group of creatives that either gave up on the choosing a name and let the stoned intern have a shot at it, or you guys take yourselves waaaaaay too seriously.

good luck with that.