Plaid™

Sprint: official PlaidNation sponsor

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Fri, 29 May 2009 00:51:00 +0000

We'll be streaming more content than ever on this year's tour and it will all be made possible by Sprint!

Five laptops, three webcams, a video camera, SLR camera and other tools all recording, streaming and uploading interviews, videos, blog posts and other content. More action than the internet has ever seen, all broadcast from a car. It's all possible with Sprint's Mobile Broadband!

"The Plaid Nation tour is the perfect event to showcase what's possible with a Sprint Mobile Broadband connection on our 3G network. Whether downloading pictures or music, staying connected to social networking sites, streaming video, or simply staying in-touch with friends and family during the tour, we are really excited that Sprint will be a part of the journey and to help Plaid stay connected from Detroit to New Orleans." says Rich Pesce, at Sprint.

Thanks, Rich! We'll be lighting up the internet from Detroit all of the way to New Orleans. Through cornfields, mountain ranges and the St. Louis arch - it's a Plaid internet juggernaut barreling down the highway at 65MPH. Watch it all live in just 52 days!

PlaidNation vehicle graphics finalized!

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Tue, 12 May 2009 00:28:00 +0000

Matt Hunsberger just completed design work on the vehicle graphics for the 2009 Plaid tour. Ford Motors is a tour sponsor, and has lined us up with a sweet Ford Flex. Matt decided to take that one step further, and created the hottest looking Ford Flex to ever hit the highways.

Look for the Plaid Flex in a city near you this summer, or watch all of the action live at PlaidNation. See more views of the design on the official tour blog.

Plaid pitches Current TV.

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 22:15:00 +0000

Current TV needs a new agency. Rather than go through the antiquated agency review process, they tweeted their review, in the world's first ever TwitteRFP. Naturally, plenty of agencies quickly dusted off their Twitter accounts and began pitching away. Plaid got straight to showing Current some hot ideas. Because Plaid invented social media.

Ford Motors: putting Plaid on wheels.

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:58:00 +0000

This year's Plaid tour will be bigger and better than ever before. Starting with the Plaid ride. Thanks to the Ford Motor Company, we'll be riding in a sweet Ford Flex from Detroit to New Orleans!

Ford Motors has agreed to become the official vehicle sponsor for the PlaidNation tour. That means comfy seating. Ford Sync technology. Built in GPS. And countless other luxuries that the Plaid crew don't typically deserve.

While in Austin attending the SXSW Conference, Ford's own Scott Monty took Dave and Darryl on a nice test drive, while previewing some of the car's awesome features. We're already dreaming up super hot vehicle graphics, and thinking this will be the most Awesome Plaid ride, ever.

Plaid takes over the Denver Egotist

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:58:00 +0000

This is big.

We're taking over. Like a gaggle of pirates and ninjas banding together for the creative workers of America, we've taken over the Denver Egotist.

In fact, we believe that the takeover will be so easy that we'd like to take it one step further: We're taking over Denver, too.

As of today, we declare that we are now the hottest creative agency in Denver. We've prepared a video message that alerts the Denver population of this development. We'll post it on the Denver Egotist first thing this morning.

Check the Egotist (soon known as the Danbury Egotist) all day for our fresh content.

(Keep in mind that if you're reading this in the AM on Eastern time, that people in Denver are lazy. They sleep two hours later than we do. We can't actually take over until they drag their lazy asses out of bed and get into their offices.)

Denver residents: We'll need to change your town's name to Danbury. And our Mayor will likely need to take charge, too. We have a feeling that you're really going to like this. Welcome to the PlaidNation.

** This may only be a 24 hour takeover, as we don't really have offices in Denver and would probably find it difficult to breath their weak air on a regular basis.

Plaid 2009 summer tour route announced

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:09:00 +0000

It's on! The third annual PlaidNation tour cuts through the U.S. this summer! We'll be kicking the tour off in Detroit, hitting Milwaukee, Chicago, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Kansas City, Branson, Memphis, Jackson and New Orleans.

Look for details and loads of other surprises soon on the official Plaid tour site, PlaidNation.com!

We're heading to SXSW!

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 21:02:00 +0000

Darryl and David will be attending SXSW this year. That means five days of learning, getting inspired, meeting amazing people, and drinking Lone Star beer.

We'll be tweeting, blogging, vlogging and photo posting just about everything that happens at SXSW. We'll even share our notes from all of the panels that we attend. If you're going - look us up. If you can't - here's all of the links you'll need to share the experience:

Twitter:
Minute by minute updates, posts, happenings and adventures will be posted on Twitter. 140 characters at a time.
Darryl's Twitter page
David's Twitter page

Tumblr
This is a fantastic blogging tool that we've completely fallen in love with. Things that can't be summed up in 140 characters on Twitter will be posted on our individual Tumblr pages. Look for photos, videos, notes from the speaker panels and whatever else might happen.
Darryl's Tumblr page
David's Tumblr page

BrandFlakes SXSW Edition
We'll post at least one update daily here. Think of this as the big picture overview of our adventures, without all of the clutter.
BrandFlakesForBreakfast SXSW Edition

Schedules
Going to SXSW and want to hook up with us? Check out our schedule with the most awesome social media scheduling tool, SCHED.
Darryl's Schedule
David's Schedule

We're hiring: dream job!

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:25:00 +0000

It's true.
The greatest agency in all of the land is looking for the greatest Project Manager/Producer/Master-controller-of-the-universe.

We're not big on titles, but some agencies might call this a Project Manager. Or Office Manager. Or Producer. We like to call it the glue that holds us together.

You'll be working with our creative team, working with our clients and working with our partners to be sure we deliver spectacular creative on time, on budget and with everyone smiling.

What it's all about:
Manage all aspects of projects for a super fantastic creative firm.
Interact with (mostly cool) clients, (totally cool) creatives and (awesome) partners from around the country.
Get stuff done.
Get stuff done on time.
Get stuff done on budget.

You totally rock because:
You're a great communicator, with fantastic people skills, and organization/planning skills that would make our heads explode. You might even have previous agency experience, or interactive experience. You likely have an understanding of the production process relative to a design and brand firm. And you'd be even more awesome if you're already on Facebook or Twitter.

Work at the best agency ever created by humans.
+ Open office, open books. No politics. For real.
+ Really fun, collaborative and energetic work environment.
+ Half day Fridays in the summertime, planning trips to fun places, and an office Segway.
+ 100% paid health benefits, 401(k) plan, and super aggressive profit sharing.

(Must be willing to work in our CT office, located in the grayest state in the union, where it's cold during the winter and the skies are usually not always sunny. But everything else rocks.)

Send your details to darryl AT thinkplaid DOT com, with "greatest job in the world" in the subject line.

Friday Flakes seven weeks strong and growing

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:28:00 +0000

Yeah, we're kind of surprised, too. We've been shooting and posting a weekly edition of Friday Flakes for seven episodes. No letters of complaint. People haven't un-friended us on Facebook, out of embarrassment.

Just maybe, this is a habit that we could keep! Check BrandFlakes every friday, or subscribe over at Vimeo.

Introducing Friday Flakes

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 17:38:00 +0000

We've just launched Friday Flakes - the first ever podcast from the creators of BrandFlakesForBreakfast!

This is a ten minute-ish weekly show, featuring two Plaid employees talking about the industry, cool stuff we've noticed and life at Plaid. Look for new episodes each and every Friday. FridayFlakes: The ultimate in low-fi video technology!

Reuters: Plaid is the most awesome agency ever!

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 14:46:00 +0000

Billboard Magazine and Reuters wrote a really nice piece on the promotion that we produced with legendary band Umphrey's McGee.

Technically, they didn't mention Plaid in the article, and instead focused on what's important - Umphrey's, and how this site has revolutionized the music sales process. But if they did mention Plaid, they would have said that this is clearly the work of the greatest agency in all of the land, and that the world should pause for a second to reflect on this greatness. (Pretty sure that's how it would have went.)

Plaid's holiday gift guide: where to find the cool stuff.

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 22:58:00 +0000

Now in it's third year, the Brand Flakes For Breakfast Gift Guide has become a holiday tradition more popular than the tree at Rockefeller Center.

Check out the BrandFlakes gift guide for cool, creative and fun gift ideas for your friends, family and coworkers. We'll dig through the bowels of the internet to find the coolest stuff ever, so that you can sit on you butt and shop from the comforts of your computer.

With new posts nearly every day, you'll be buried in sweet holiday goodness. Need even more? Dig through the old posts from the 2007 and 2008 BrandFlakes Gift Guides.

Plaid. It's the hottest color for the holiday season!

Meet Chris.

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 12:52:00 +0000

Chris, the newest member of Plaid has been made official. All of our employees get realized as bobble heads. Because bobble heads never sleep, never run out of energy and don't eat much.

Now that Chris' bobble head is here, we'll have it photographed and featured on the meet the staff page. And then a seed from the Chris-bobble will sprout, grow a pod and eventually take over the real Chris. It's the natural order of things. We're all better now, as Plaid products. Welcome, Chris...

Plaid featured in HOW Magazine

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:49:00 +0000

The September issue of HOW is covered in Plaid. First, our 2007 Plaid Summer Tour won a "Merit" award for self promotion. If that wasn't enough, they featured a two page spread on the tour as a unique self promotional tool. (Matt models the cover above)

The story isn't live on the HOW site yet, but we've scanned a copy for you to see. Read the first page of the spread here, and the second page here. We think that you should buy all of the copies at your local newstand and tell the cashier at Borders that Plaid ROCKS!

Funny side story: We told HOW that one of the clients we were introduced to on tour was the genius team at crayon. They assumed we meant CRAYOLA, and printed that we landed them as a client. I wonder if the marketing team at Crayola is reading HOW and thinking, who's Plaid???

Thanks HOW!!

Best of the Plaid tour.

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 00:32:00 +0000

Missed all the daily wrap up videos from the Plaid summer tour? No worries. Enjoy this compilation of the best moments from PlaidNation 2008. We're already counting down the days till 2009!

Plaid summer tour: experience every moment.

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 01:38:00 +0000

Phew. Another year on the road has screamed past faster than a Plaid van at 85MPH.

If you haven't had a chance to check in, or missed some key moments, now's a great time to catch up on the most glorious tour ever to hit the highways. PlaidNation 2008.

See all of the daily wrap up videos here. It's the next best thing to being there.

See the interviews and extra footage here. The interviews with Robert Scoble, Biz Stone and Cathy Brooks (coming later this week) are extra remarkable.

Read the Twitter stream. If you're new to Twitter (or just bored at work), this is a great way to see it's value. An entire tour has been documented (and archived) moment by moment, as it was happening. Reading the stream is like re-living the tour.

Watch the 11:40 shows. These vidcasts were recorded live at 11:40, wherever the van happened to be at that moment. You'll see additional discussion about what happened on tour, with extra detail brought to the show by the people on the tour. The most popular episode: Plaid gets kicked out of a popular celebrity cemetery in Hollywood, California.

Check out the Flickr photo stream. Better than your Aunt Lucie's vacation to the Galapagos Islands, you'll see other workplaces, cool locations and Plaid employees mostly avoiding trouble.

We've put all of this and more together for you, on the tour dashboard at PlaidNation.com

Thanks to everyone who wrote about it, talked about it, or became a part of it. We're already in planning mode for next year's tour, and have some incredible surprises. Just wait until 2009!

Plaid tour kicking off week two!

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 02:11:00 +0000

If you're not already glued to your computer watching every detail, be sure to check in on the second annual Plaid Summer Tour - now in its second week, on the west coast. This week Plaid will be spending time in San Francisco, San Louis Obispo, Los Angeles, San Diego and Las Vegas.

We'll be meeting brands, creative people and interesting characters along the way. Watch it all live on the van cams, video, Twitter stream and more - all on the tour's dashboard at PlaidNation.com

Plaid tour just days away

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:11:00 +0000

Our second annual Plaid summer tour is just days away from kicking into high gear! Be sure to bookmark the tour dashboard and watch the tour live all day, every day starting July 21!

Tell your boss that you're not being unproductive - but that you're busy researching how to put the latest social media tools into action. And then get back to watching the live webcams, as the Plaid van gets pulled over by the California Highway Patrol. Or whatever the crew might be up to.

Sara on CNN!

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:56:00 +0000

Our coworker Sara was featured on CNN today! She's a girl of a million stories - so we're not surprised. She's featured in a piece about tattoos and the workplace. (Plaid is obviously the kind of joint that appreciates good body ink.)

We're fully expecting Anderson Cooper to show up at the front door any day now, asking for Sara. If Larry King understood what a tattoo was, or could stay awake long enough, we're sure he'd be interviewing her too. Donny Deutsch is soooo jealous that he missed this story. Nice job Sara!!!

We're hiring - a Designer!

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 21:55:00 +0000

Plaid - the greatest agency in all of the land is looking for a new designer! Creative Genius! Lover of the internet! Person who gets paid to make things on a Mac! (We're not much on titles.)

Stuff you'll do:
Work on the most awesome projects and create the most wonderous designs.
Work with really cool clients, and one or two less-than-cool clients
Collaborate with the most talented bunch of creatives ever to grace the earth

Stuff you have:
+ At least 2 years design experience
+ Kick ass portfolio, with especially strong interactive work (you don't have to be a coder)
+ Good grasp on the latest internet tools
+ Good energy. Fun to be with.
+ Awesome sense of humor.

Stuff that would be awesome, but not required:
+ You have a Facebook profile, and/or participate in social media
+ You don't like Celine Dion, as an artist.
+ You enjoy doing stupid things and documenting them on a company blog. (Like Steph, who just ate 10 Pixie Stix at once, in the photo above)

Work at the best agency ever created by humans.
Open office, open books. No politics. For real.
Really fun, collaborative and energetic work environment.
Half day Fridays in the summertime, planning trips to fun places, and an office Segway.
100% paid health benefits, 401(k) plan, and super aggressive profit sharing.

Send resume and a link to some of your work, to darryl AT thinkplaid DOT com, with "designer" in the subject line. (If you've sent a resume in the last 3 months - you're already in consideration. Feel free to confirm that we have it on file.)

Meet David. (the intern)

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Thu, 29 May 2008 19:03:00 +0000

We've been remiss in introducing you to our latest new member of Plaid. David (the intern). You probably already know that there's another David in our office, who's been here way longer than David (the intern). So, we've had David (the intern) change his name. Whenever you refer to him, you'll need to add "the intern" to the end of his name. We're sending him to the DMV to change it on his driver's license, too.

David (the intern) will be with us for the first half of the summer, where he'll be washing employee cars, sharpening pencils, and removing gum from the bottom of sneakers. Important stuff that the rock stars of Plaid don't have time to do themselves.

We believe that the light bulb above his head isn't actually part of our lighting system - but an indication that David (the intern) just had a brilliant idea. Once he's done uncrumpling the paper in recycling, we'll give him some time to realize that brilliance.

Sara gets bobbled.

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Fri, 23 May 2008 12:41:00 +0000

Sara's bobble head arrived. We think it looks awesome. Now it's off to be photographed, and get star treatment, before being featured on our Meet the Staff page.

Moments later, her new business cards walked in the door. (With the help of a delivery boy.) She's got the most awesome title on her card: Duchess of Awesome. Sweet.

The only PC that we'll allow in our office.

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:05:00 +0000

We just received our agency's first eeePC. Unboxing video above. Pretty cool.

dream job open at Plaid

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:57:00 +0000

Plaid, the greatest agency in all of the land, is hiring a Project Manager. Producer. Cattle herder. Whateveryoucallit.

Stuff you'll do:
Manage all aspects of projects for design and branding firm.
Interact with (mostly cool) clients, (totally cool) creatives and (awesome) partners from around the country.
Get stuff done.
Get stuff done on time.
Get stuff done on budget.

Stuff you have:
Previous agency experience preferred, interactive experience a bonus. Great communicator, fantastic people skills, and organization/planning skills that will make us look awesome. Understanding of the production process relative to a design and brand firm.

Stuff that would be awesome, but not required:
+ You have a Facebook profile, and participate in social media
+ You've heard of the Beastie Boys
+ Previous experience with Basecamp or other project management software
+ You like conducting experiments like "what does a Segway sound like when riding over bubblewrap?" (answer above)

Work at the best agency ever created by humans.
Open office, open books. No politics. For real.
Really fun, collaborative and energetic work environment.
Half day Fridays in the summertime, planning trips to fun places, and an office Segway.
100% paid health benefits, 401(k) plan, and super aggressive profit sharing.

Send resume to darryl AT thinkplaid DOT com, with "producer" in the subject line.

Sarah Lacy Loves Plaid.

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 07:36:00 +0000

Maybe you've heard a little something about Sarah. Or her interview with Mark Zuckerberg. We caught up with her at a party while at SXSW, and asked her the most important question of all....does she love Plaid?