Computerlove™

October 1st, 2006

Sing it loud. Sing it proud.

Another contribution to T-Shirt fashion. There was only a limited run of these unfortunately for PLAY, a sound house in Santa Monica. I think the idea may need to see a second life on a Spreadshirt site. I'll keep you posted. PLAY

August 6th, 2006

Puff Puff, Give Give, Munch Munch

Here's an idea my partner and I have been trying to get through the wood works (non-agency endorsed of course, A.K.A, a side project for our own sub-agency called Spinach Inc.). The line reads "Help reform marijuana laws." NORML saw it, and liked it a lot. Now the question that arises is the legal issue. We want to do this guerrilla style and just put them up. Of course we have to check into the consequences, but for an organization like NORML, it seems like they are going to get heat for anything they do. This campaign is still a possibility for now...

UPDATE: The NORML chapter in Georgia just ran these, and the response was extremely successful. Our assumptions were right that the super big stores would not allow it, but three chains did. Sweet!
Also we made it on Boing Boing. A blog that is fairly tough to get onto, and I have a lot of respect for. Check it. BoingBoing

This brings up an overall bigger discussion in advertising today. It seems like the bigger the agency and clients are, the more paper work and levels of legal questions you have to go through. Any idea we come up with now, is sifted through the lawyer filter of "is there something wrong with this", it becomes such a loaded question because, the answer always comes back with some sort of yes, please change this and this and this. Oh, and our fee for that is 1 billion dollars. It's like presenting work to a client and saying "any changes, you would like to see?" Ummmmmmm. Gee, I have to look like I am doing my job as a client, so I better say something now. It seems like it is the same with these lawyers. They are such anti-champions of creativity. So I open this up for discussion, what legal challenges have you gone through with your creative ideas? And discuss.

July 31st, 2006

SMS e-Gnomicon

"You'll never roam alone" is Travelocity's tagline. The gnome is their icon. You either love or hate him. This e-Gnomicon was a simple no brainer the client should have bought. They loved it, but it just became another one of those "extra" ideas that never sees the light of day because all they really wanted was a print ad at the time.

The original idea, a while back was to partner with Google and SMS Beta, so that when you are traveling you could SMS text Travelocity and get helpful hints signed off by the Roaming Gnome e-Gnomicon. It would have been super easy to at least use as an internal email sign off, but even that did not happen. Does any of this sound familiar? Ah yes, another idea lives on here in purgatory.

July 30th, 2006

SUFFER for fashions sake

The T-Shirt is the current fashion statement to express oneself. From pictures to sayings it's all out there. I admit it, I now own more T-Shirts than anything else. I am a big supporter of Threadless.com. They have figured out how to constantly step it up. So where does fashion go next? Will bow ties be back in full force? It seems like most trendy fashion involves some level of discomfort. You truly have to suffer for fashions sake, ass crack and all. So BRAVO to the T-Shirt, it is comfortable and simple. Suprisingly, you can now get into any trendy major city bar with one, as long as it has a little style.

So here is my contribution to this craze. Black velvet T-shirts, with genuine Tijuana velvet art on them. It takes it to the next level. Ultra-hip kitsch. I am currently researching how to get them made. Any leads to actual velvet T's I can print on, are appreciated. So far I have not had much luck. Maybe I am ahead of my time, or maybe smoking crack. Inside the fashion industry it is all about the next fabric. Where is the light weight wearable black velvet when you need some? (shaking the fist)

What was your first produced ad?

So a while back I posted my first ad I ever did in school, well here is the first one I ever got printed and produced. It was quite a laugh, fresh out of school back in the late 90's and the first assignment I get is to sell a golf glove made from possum hide. WTF? It ended up running in Schwing magazine mainly. It was the equivalent of Thrasher for golf. I think after that, I was hooked. What fun.

What was your first produced piece? Are you brave enough to share?

Russian Mail Order Brides are good for something

Another idea that lives in Purgatory. The client loved it, bought it, unsold it, asked us to adjust it, bought it, then killed it. So here it lives for now.

THE IDEA: At adopt-a-snowbunny.com, snowmobile enthusiasts could choose a snow bunny to rescue from their chilly lives of frozen solitude in Russia to become part of the Polaris Sneak Peek, a countrywide traveling car-show, but with snowmobiles. Via periodic e-mails, adopted snow bunnies would send pictures of themselves on the new models as well as stories about their new lives as part of Sneak Peek, news on when when Sneak Peek will be in their area so they can meet face-to-face and, of course, lots of information about the snowmobile models. There's even a pre-programmed instant messenger-type bot that allows adopters to "talk" to their bunny in "real" time.

June 28th, 2006

Right Hand Red

Above: A quick rough of my next painting I want to work on. It will be the actual size of the Twister board and done in heavy acrylic layered with gobs of paint. This rough doesn't quite show the style. Think Van Gogh Twister.

Maybe it should be called, Right Ear Red?

Thoughts? Too simple? I like simple.

Op: Not another typical wave shot

Talk about a fun ride and challenge. I spent a couple of years working on bringing back Ocean Pacific successfully. Ocean Pacific as a brand in the late 90's was like the hot popular girl that got knocked up her senior year in high school and disappeared. This wasn't a regular advertising assignment, it was fashion advertising with a surf roots twist. Low concept, all image and feeling. Tricky when you came from the school of thought idea is king. I won't get into the main ad campaign to much, but in short, the direction we took at the time was avoiding all the cliche grunge and over distressed type and instead getting modern with the brand. Clean and lots of white space was fresh back then. These posters were a small part of that. They were an attempted campaign for the surf industry pubs. It got killed by the client last minute. So here it lives. Normally all the ads feature the "typical rider on the wave shot" and a logo. This was a more soulful way to imply that feeling, The visual resembled a wave, but was made out of a key ingredient every surfer needs: Wax. The artist who created these was Mike Solomon. He has a show in the East Hamptons right now till Aug. 16th. Contact info: (631) 324-5511. Check it out if you can. Sorry I couldn't find an online link of his work. Consider this the inside hookup. Enjoy. The Op Comeback

June 24th, 2006

Everyone has to start somewhere

We all start somewhere. This was the first ad I ever did way back in school. It's good to study your own progress. It's good to laugh at yourself. Luckily, it was a nice pat on the back to get published in CMYK. A monthly magazine and great tool for students to see what other art schools are up to. Never rest though. Describe or send me your first ad, I'd love to see it. I'll post my first produced ad later. That's another good laugh.
CMYKarchives

June 21st, 2006

And so Purgatory Playground begins...

Once upon a time in a blog not so far away...
David Hermanas Art Director