Let your passions move you. Don’t be defined by what you aren’t; be defined by what your vision of the future will be. Don’t be afraid to think big. Think. There’s a bigger ocean. Your only limitation is your confidence in your compass.

In the last few years I’ve been listening to a debate about what the future of advertising isn’t. I sometime find it ironic that an industry that should be creative has such a difficult time articulating a vision.

As I look back and I consider what inspired me. What stands out to me is that the people I recall first are the ones that were the smartest, kindest, and the most thoughtful about their profession. They never stopped studying, teaching, exploring. Their lives were defined by their passion and they shared their passion every hour of every day with those that were willing to learn.

Inspired by a life of work,

Saul Bass www.designmuseum.org/design/saul-bass
Burne Hogarth www.bpib.com/hogarth.htm
Jack Unruh www.jackunruh.com/real.html
Stan Richards www.adcglobal.org/archive/hof/1999
Milton Glaser http://hillmancurtis.com/hc_web/film_video/source/milton.php
Woody Pirtile http://www.pirtledesign.com/index.htm
Eric Madsen http://emadsen.com
Matt Mahurin http://www.tlchicken.com/view_story.php?ARTid=3345
and http://www.about-tracy-chapman.net/videos.htm

People I love to watch:

Joe Duffy www.duffy.com/duffy/index.aspx
Alan Colvin http://designcue.com
Woody Pirtle http://www.designerid.com/video.php
Pentagram http://hillmancurtis.com/hc_web/film_video/source/pent.php
Russel Davis http://youtube.com/watch?v=6F1T9RDBY3I
IDEO http://ideo.com

Miscellaneous thoughts;

Stanford Design www.fastcompany.com/fast50_08/index.html
Ted www.ted.com
Art Center www.artcenter.edu
One Club www.oneclub.org
Cannes www.canneslions.com
Second Story http://secondstory.com
Communication Arts http://commarts.com

Welcome to As The Platform Fills, a weekly series reporting on the latest sightings, observances, and events taking place right here — outside our office — in downtown Minneapolis overlooking the Nicollet Mall Light Rail Platform. The lives we observe are complex. The dramas we record are real. Things get weird. Stay tuned each week for more real platform action.

#79: Orange Liquid, 50th Street / Minnehaha Falls Station, 8:13 AM

Mysterious. As I approached the ticket kiosk one cloudy morning — my GoTo card out and ready to swipe, wind whipping my freshly blow-dried hair into a nasty tangle — a white shape to my lower left caught my eye. I looked down. It was a white, Styrofoam cup — not your usual 12 oz size, but a bit larger, perhaps 16 oz. It sat there, perfectly centered at the base of a steel support beam, containing a small amount of an unknown orange liquid.

:: continue reading this ocean post ::

Ivy Kaminsky has joined Azul 7 as account executive. Ms. Kaminsky will be responsible for day-to-day management of client projects and ongoing campaigns. With a background in both the corporate and nonprofit sectors, she has 12 years of marketing experience working with clients in a wide variety of business sectors including travel, financial services, health care and technology.

“Ivy’s addition to our staff extends our ability to provide the smart, personable service that Azul 7 promises its clients”, said Lisa Helminiak, co-founder and principal of Azul 7. “It also reflects our growth trajectory of hiring an employee for each month that we’ve been in business since we began in December 2006.”

Ivy’s Bio:

As an account executive, Ivy Kaminsky is responsible for the day-to-day communications of client engagements. She acts as a link between clients and the Azul 7 staff to coordinate all the details of every project. Ivy works closely with her clients ensuring that work is completed on time and within budget.

Prior to joining Azul 7, Ivy worked in a wide variety of industries including financial, pharmaceutics, legal, technology and the non-profit sector. Her previous work history includes Carlson Marketing Group, where she focused on the execution of on-site operations for incentive programs, special events and business meetings. She has also worked as a merchandise buyer, traffic coordinator (project manager) and an event and travel coordinator.

(click the image to start the presentation. Quicktime is required. You can download Quicktime here)

This presentation was given to IABC on Thursday, May 8 2008. It was a great opportunity for us to talk with those in attendance about Search Engine Optimization, Paid Search Advertising, and how these strategies integrate with overall marketing strategies.

You can also download the presentation in Powerpoint or PDF format.

When people hear the word comics, they usually think of the Sunday “funnies” or the Garfield comic books that are out there. Comics are sometimes considered a “lesser” art due to it’s comedic take. No doubt that a lot of comics are on the funny side but there is also a lot of work out there that takes a serious look at life. Then there is the underground Comix movement, which can go in any direction.According to Wikipedia:Comics (via Latin, from the Greek “Κωμικ-ός”, kōmikos, of or pertaining to “comedy”, from kōmos “revel”.^[1]) is a graphic medium in which words and images are utilised in order to convey a narrative. Comics can contain little or no words, and consist of one or more images, which may either illustrate or counterpoint^[2] the text to affect greater depth. [sic]Underground comics (or comix) are small press or self-published comic books that began to appear in the US in the late 1960s. The comix community was centered in San Francisco, but also included important artists and publishers in New York, Chicago and Austin, Texas. Prominent artists associated with this movement include Vaughn Bode, Robert Crumb, Kim Deitch, Jim Franklin, David Geiser, Justin Green, Roberta Gregory, Rick Griffin, Bill Griffith, Rory Hayes, Greg Irons, Jack Jackson, Jay Kinney, Denis Kitchen,Jay Lynch, Victor Moscoso,Dan O’Neill, Ted Richards, Trina Robbins, Spain Rodriguez, Gilbert Shelton, Art Spiegelman, Foolbert Sturgeon, Robert Williams, Skip Williamson and S. Clay Wilson. Please take the time to check out these entries in wikipedia and see where they take you. My husband, Daniel J. Olson, has had a life long interest in comics. He started going to Shinder’s as a kid and started collecting these tiny books full of color and dialog. He then went to work for Shinder’s off and on for 10 years. In parallel, during high school, I too found the Tank Girl comics and movie (my favorite, by the way). I also had the graphic novels Maus I & II by Art Spiegelman due to my deep interest in WWII and the Holocaust. Once we were dating the craze of turning comics into movies became popular again. I learned who his favorite super hero’s and comic characters were and those he did not like. Spiderman yes, Punisher no. He was also interested in graphic novels such as Blankets by Craig Thompson and Maus I & II. During my MFA studies in Arizona, Dan started drawing again. He hooked up with my fellow colleague, Liz Young, to create comics for her MFA thesis show. This lit a fire under his ass and he has been drawing nearly every day. Since Liz’s MFA show, he has started a website/blog, bewilderedkid.com, where he places a weekly web comic that he writes, draws, inks and colors. Upon moving back to St. Paul, MN, he joined The International Cartoonist Conspiracy group and has been a part of every show and attends the Minneapolis monthly jam. He even was part of starting the St. Paul monthly jam. He even has roped me into helping him write stories for one of his characters, Super Maxi Pad Girl. We hope to have a couple of more stories out in time for Fall Con along with some other surprises. OK, so this blog is pretty much me bragging about my husband and the work he has been doing but I also want to plug the Conspiracies newest show…Lutefisk Sushi, featuring Kevin Cannon from Big Time Attic. The opening reception is Friday, May 2 from 7 PM to 10 PM. and the show runs from May 1 - 31 at Altered Esthetics Gallery. If you can’t make the reception you should check out the show!