Copa Crescent

If you ever have a chance to be in Portland for a couple days and you have any taste in music, do yourself a freaking favor and check out Copa Crescent. This quartet of funky fresh fools will let their jazz hip-hop fusion make you groove all night long. Check their homepage at www.copacrescent.com for show dates and other info.

Career Jamming

Equipped with some last minute advice from a mentor of mine, I decided to Jam on up to Portland for the Portland Advertising Federation's "Career Jam" this past weekend. With my resume and a cover letter in hand, I had the chance to participate in some rousing Panel discussions held by members of Portland's finest Ad/ Branding agencies and also dominate a couple rounds of "speed interviews." I learned a lot, interviewed a lot, ate to little, made some valuable connections and listened to the best speech from this freelance copywriter who will remain nameless (not only due to my memory but also because the paper that I jotted his name down on is at the bottom of my bag and I have yet to unpack!). I'm beginning to think this Portland place has a plan for me.

Jeff Soto is an artist

This is a man named Jeff Soto, he does lots of art that will blow you away. This is Jeff standing next to an installation piece he created for a gallery showing somewhere in southern California. Need More? Check out www.potatostamp.com or www.jeffsoto.com .
He works in so many ways and on so many surfaces, and he is one of my favorite artists.

Something Intriguing

This philosophical tid-bit always made me wonder...wrap your head around this one!

Imagine prisoners who have been chained since their chidhood deep inside a cave: not only are their arms and legs unmovable because of chains; their heads are chained in one direction as well so that their gaze is fixed on a wall.

Behind the prisoners is an enormous fire, and between the fire and the prisoners is a raised walkway, along which puppets of various animals, plants, and other things are moved along. The puppets cast shadows on the wall, and the prisoners watch these shadows. When one of the puppet-carriers speaks, an echo against the wall causes the prisoners to believe that the words come from the shadows.

The prisoners engage in what appears to us to be a game: naming the shapes as they come by. This, however, is the only reality that they know, even though they are seeing merely shadows of objects. They are thus conditioned to judge the quality of one another by their skill in quickly naming the shapes and dislike those who play poorly.

Suppose a prisoner is released and compelled to stand up and turn around. At that moment his eyes will be blinded by the sunlight coming into the cave from its entrance, and the shapes passing by will appear less real than their shadows.

The last object he would be able to see is the sun, which, in time, he would learn to see as the object that provides the seasons and the courses of the year, presides over all things in the visible region, and is in some way the cause of all these things that he has seen.

Once enlightened, so to speak, the freed prisoner would not want to return to the cave to free "his fellow bondsmen," but would be compelled to do so. Another problem lies in the other prisoners not wanting to be freed: descending back into the cave would require that the freed prisoner's eyes adjust again, and for a time, he would be one of the ones identifying shapes on the wall. His eyes would be swamped by the darkness, and would take time to become acclimated. Therefore, he would not be able to identify the shapes on the wall as well as the other prisoners, making it seem as if his being taken to the surface completely ruined his eyesight. (The Republic bk. VII, 516b-c; trans. Paul Shorey)

Personal Work

I do not consider myself entirely a creative, but dabbling in what I hope to help to assist in making relevant to a consumer, is something I enjoy. Here's an example of some ideas and mock-ups I executed for a Athletic body composition scanning device that I re-branded with the name "BodyMap." Whether the company uses the name or not is another question...at the time they liked it! (Big learning experience about group work) Some of these potential ads were targeted at personal trainers and the health and fitness markets, others were targeted at investors.

Nikdaum.com Rules

This website was created by a now former employee of Wieden and Kennedy, named Nik. His work is fun, weird, confusing, disturbing and innovative...do yourself a freaking favor and check it out!

CWS - Commercial

This a commercial in some foreign country for CWS-Complete Washroom Solutions. Multiple Innuendos and can you count the stereotypes? Still fascinating work give it a quick look...

GMail Art

Another example of excellent planning out of Saatchi and Saatchi's Moscow office. These guys/gals were using this viral peice to make Russians aware of the Google's new Gmail application. I made the switch...did you?

Fail Harder

This idea made me want to work at an agency with a philosophy that appreciates failure as much as they appreciate success...ultimate failure ultimately leads to success.

Life Changing Experience

My Interactive Media Seminar class made a field trip up to Weiden and Kennedy in Portland a few months ago(It's been a while since an update) and also to another agency, Avenue A Razorfish. Needless to say the trip was full of inspiration and also great insight into how an agency operates on a day-to-day basis. My life was changed and I'm so happy my professor did not leave me behind, when I was late to the bus, becuase I might not now be so excited about making my career in Advertising Account Planning happen! Thanks Prof!












Why was this photo taken of me that morning? I'm not sure maybe I look pensive and smart, I think it's just foolish. (I still don't know when this picture was taken, but at least I know I was in W+K)