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Xbox One Reveal Highlights

The Denver Egotist — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:08:57 +0000

National

Senador Volstead: The Beer That Is Hard to Find

The Denver Egotist — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:01:15 +0000

National

The beer's named after the U.S. Senator who created the constitutional amendment in 1919 to have alcohol banned. To launch this Spanish beer, 92 years later, Cheil came up with the idea to make it difficult for consumers to find in bars, on the brand's website and even wrapped it in a disguised package when people ordered it for home delivery. Nice anti-launch.

#ShitToHit: Saturday – Steadbrook Lifestyle Essentials Shop Grand Opening

The Denver Egotist — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:50:48 +0000

Local

Denver designer Mackey Saturday is opening a new retail shop called Steadbrook in Baker on Broadway this Saturday, May 25th.

"The principle behind Steadbrook is simple; why always go to the coasts for lifestyle and fashion, we can be influencers right at home. Steadbrook is where friends meet, shop a curated offering of clothing + lifestyle goods, enjoy exclusive coffees, and always feel welcome. By offering a variety of brands not normally accessible within the Denver scene, we hope to make these driving ideas and superb quality products more accessible to our community. More than that, we want a place where you can always go to catch up with friends, sit and enjoy conversations with like minded people, and let your creativity and personality thrive."

Kanye Debuts His New Single as Projections on the the Sides of Buildings

The Denver Egotist — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:44:29 +0000

National

Can't say much for the song, but the rollout is pretty epic — which includes a full-scale video and audio projection on buildings in 66 locations around the world. Kanye's site shows when and where the stunts are happening.

Via

The Legend of MRF Man: New Motion Comic from Denver's Vladimir Jones

The Denver Egotist — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:37:58 +0000

Local

Who is MRF Man? Young Jimmy Grimes gains the recycling superpowers to fight his arch nemesis LandPhil for the right to clean up the streets. With the help of Bestway Disposal's materials recovery facility (MRF), he vows to make something new out of everything old. Custom frame-by-frame illustration, dynamic motion graphics and a cinematic score bring The Legend of MRF Man to life.

Abercrombie & Fitch Gets a Brand Readjustment #FitchTheHomeless

The Denver Egotist — Tue, 21 May 2013 22:01:16 +0000

National

7,000,000 views and counting on this video. There's definitely a lesson in being a good corporate citizen here — or suffering the backlash.

Denver's Worst Bike Racks for Theft

The Denver Egotist — Tue, 21 May 2013 21:48:18 +0000

Local

Useful info for you.

Top Bike Theft Locations in Denver
1200 LARIMER ST - 19 bikes - Auraria Campus
1460 LITTLE RAVEN ST - 17 bikes - Parking Garage
1901 E BUCHTEL BLVD - 15 bikes - Light Rail Station
3000 E 1ST AVE- 12 bikes - Cherry Creek Mall
700 14TH ST - 12 bikes - Convention Center
1111 W COLFAX AVE - 11 bikes - Auraria Campus
10 W 14TH AVE - 11 bikes - Denver Public Library
777 N BANNOCK ST - 11 bikes - Denver Health Medical Center
1416 PLATTE ST - 10 bikes - REI
1151 ARAPAHOE ST - 10 - Auraria Campus

Via

Drink Too Much, Throw Up Something Completely Unexpected

The Denver Egotist — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:49:58 +0000

National

The line at the end translates as, “Every time you get drunk, you separate yourself from the things that matter. Like your family.” Eww.

Via

Boulder's Grenadier and Fruit2O Stand Up to “Social Media Over-Sharing

The Denver Egotist — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:10:10 +0000

Local

Grenadier has teamed up with client Fruit2O — the original zero-calorie fruit-flavored water with an appreciation for the lost art of restraint and balance — to stop what they see as a rampant problem in the technology age: “Social Media Over-Sharing.”

The centerpiece of the tongue-in-cheek campaign is the Fruit2O “Dial It Back” Facebook app, which monitors your Facebook activity to create a humorous, infographic dashboard highlighting all the areas that you may want to dial back.

Along with an online petition to urge Facebook to add a permanent Dial It Back button to its interface, the app is shareable, allowing you to gently nudge friends, family, co-workers, anyone who needs to dial it back, and tracks and communicates your progress and “recovery” — or lack thereof — in various areas of your Facebook habits. And, every day you check in, you increase your chances of winning daily prizes and a sweepstakes grand prize: a trip to a place where your cell phone, mercifully, probably won’t work — the Florida Keys.

Save us all and Dial It Back now.

Maker vs Marker

The Denver Egotist — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:55:10 +0000

National

New Editorial: Dear Jr Creative, Earn Your Place. You’ll Be Better For It. >>

The Denver Egotist — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:43:41 +0000

Local

David Snyder, Executive Creative Director at Firstborn, wrote this piece on the benefits of coming up through the ranks the right way in advertising. Read it, you'll dig it.

Dear Jr Creative, Earn Your Place. You’ll Be Better For It.

The Denver Egotist — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:32:43 +0000

Dear Jr Creative,

I’m a firm believer in earning your keep, starting from the bottom, doing the less than desirable well, before moving up.

Prove yourself on what seemingly matters little, and people will notice. I promise.

At the very least, I promise I’ll notice. Because it’s the unorthodox grind of a route I took.

I was a rich kid from the suburbs. I was embarrassed by it. I hated it. It was a 90’s thing.

In High School, and in Gen-X “rebellion” against my white collar family, I worked for the Las Vegas Water District doing underground construction.

I dug ditches and changed water lines during the Vegas Summer for 8 dollars an hour. Not desirable work. And the guys I worked with could smell the rich kid on me. They busted my balls mercilessly for it.

I dug the shit out of those ditches. I loved it. I used my hands. I used heavy machinery and pneumatic tools—I drove a dump truck (which is awesome by the way).

All I wanted was the respect of these old guys changing water lines in the desert. Dudes that worked so fucking hard. For so fucking little. To feed their families; their addictions; their gambling debts.

Eventually, I’d earned a bit of respect.

I worked hard…”for a skinny rich kid.”

One day I mentioned to the crew lead: “Fuck it. I like this. Why not full time?”.

He pulled the truck over to the shoulder of a mountain road, heading North towards Mt. Charleston, looked deep into my face, “Every single one of us would give the world NOT to be here. Stop your blue collar charade. Go to school like you’re supposed to. Get out of this shit.”

So I did.

That was my last of three summers working for the water district.

I went to school for business. Marketing & Advertising to be exact. Which, aside from teaching me some business basics, really just help develop my aptness for bullshit.

Luckily for me, somewhere along the line, I learned a real skill and about this thing called the “Internet.” It was a place I could upload the photos I was taking (and developing in a darkroom, btw). I learned some Photoshop and HTML skills because of it. Eventually, I started freelancing: horrible graphic design and web work. Whatever I could get—fucking rave fliers, man. I just wanted to learn. The beer money was the gravy on top.

My first “real” job out of college was resizing graphics for an eCommerce company. I showed up for the interview on my skateboard, handed the HR lady my resume and said, “I’ll take anything. I know Photoshop. Here’s my book.” I didn’t even know what a “designer” was. But that’s why I was there. And by no means was I a designer; Photoshop monkey…maybe.

Ninety people had been laid off a month prior to me being brought on. I was the first hire after those layoffs and in the eyes of everybody…I was “that guy…”

I was at the bottom of the totem pole. Where I belonged.

The only thing I had going for me was a fear of “sucking.” And for the record, I sucked. (Certainly compared to the kids I see today).

“…good enough to resize graphics” was what I overheard the Creative Director say, just around the corner.

So I resized graphics. I resized the shit out of graphics, learning to code HTML along the way. I unlearned what I learned in business school. And learned…business. I developed site and page concepts for fun. Always showing my boss. Wanting critique. Always trying to get better. People noticed. He noticed. I gained more and more responsibility and more importantly, trust. Never begging for more money. Just wanting to do more work, better work.

To not suck.

Eventually, I took over as Creative Lead. I redesigned both KBToys.com and eToys.com. Enterprise level eCommerce stuff. Real businesses, making real money. I thought the designs were pretty damn good for the early 00’s. Some of the first .com’s to switch to 1024x768. We won some eCom industry awards. It moved product. I thought I was hot shit.

I was far from it.

Fast forward a decade and I’m blown away by the level of talent that’s out there. Kids today come out of school with so much fucking skill it’s crazy. But with all of that skill, in so many, there is equal-to-more parts hubris. An entitled attitude that seems to expect everything for nothing.

Somewhere, along the lines, we (everyone) got sensitive. We started giving trophies for last place. People forgot how to take criticism. We started (and continue) to want to spare people from the realities of what it really takes. Close counts. Thanks for trying. Better luck next time—even worse—Fail Harder.

I hate this phrase more than anything.

“Fail Harder” is a manifesto for the delusional, the lazy—the lotto dreamer.

Celebrating failure is a cop out. Be pissed that you fucked up—when you lose. And know why.

Fail “Smarter” maybe. But failing hard is for losers.

Industry-wise, we covet the idea. Not its realization, it’s viability.

“I want to be an AD. But I don’t write and I don’t design. I’m an idea guy”

“No, no, no, i’m a UX guy. I don’t do wires and I don’t do finished design. I just explore interaction concepts.”

“I want to be a CD. But I don’t like talking with clients.”

“My new Web 3.0 business concept doesn’t have a revenue model—it’s like Instagram but with animated gifs of kittens.”

Ideation in a clientless vacuum; devoid the realities of real life (inside an agency or any company for that matter). Feasibility. Budgets. Client bureaucracies. The fact is that big ideas take time to sell. They die. They have to be reborn. And that it’s your role to breath the life back in. But only if you really give a shit.

The “idea” is the tip of a gigantic, shit stained iceberg of work. And if you aren’t ready for what it takes, or worse, you think “that it’s someone else’s job” to push your idea from ether to reality—reconsider your profession.

My advice is simple: don’t be the entitled kid. The kid who over indexes in ambition but lacks any real passion—any real drive other than a new title at a new agency.

Be the kid who wants to learn even when he doesn’t have to—the designer who wants to learn to write, to code, to understand business because it makes the design better.

Don’t be an industry douche. They call themselves ninjas or gurus…even evangelists. They’re the ones who will tell you, to your face, that they are smarter than the other guy. They’re the ones who have stopped reading by now.

Don’t be the kid who hops around. Don’t be the kid, who, when given the chance, will opt for the bare minimum. Who scoffs at perspective. The kid who will jeopardize the team to spare his fragile ego. The kid, who, when faced with a situation that gets difficult, says “I’m too good for this kind of work. I deserve better.”

Nobody deserves shit. Until you do. And even then, never admit it.

I’m now the old guy. I get it…

I’m not saying you need to go out and work construction. But it’s good to know where you don’t want to be. And understand why.

I know I don’t want to resize graphics anymore. Why? Well…because it sucks.

But I’ll still dig the shit out of a ditch.

- Dave

I should note, that my teen “rebellion” against my Father was laughably ironic. My dad was blue collar. A cowboy who changed tires on big rigs before finishing college and becoming who he is today.

Behind my teen angst, unbeknownst to me all that time, I was trying to be just like him.

What a silly little rich kid.

David Snyder is Executive Creative Director at Firstborn. Living in Brooklyn. He likes progressive thought, design and technology. He eats and libates well. This editorial original posted on Medium.

Denver Illustrator Justin Renteria for The Chronicle of Higher Education

The Denver Egotist — Mon, 20 May 2013 18:44:46 +0000

Local

This nice conceptual piece from Justin Renteria augments an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education. In it, the author suggests that having enemies — and even creating new ones where none exist — is part of our human biology. Early humans evolved by fending off hostile animals, as well as hostile bands of fellow humans. We battled "others" to protect our tribesmen and resources, and we battled them to steal and secure their resources. Today, we have a pronounced ability to make enemies. An almost genetic need to have one, even if only to swell our patriotic pride.

Laser Projection Mapping on Soap Bubbles

The Denver Egotist — Mon, 20 May 2013 18:24:17 +0000

National

Every club in the country: "Please take our money."

Via

Photographer Benjamin Rasmussen Shoots Colorado's Budding Marijuana Industry for The Guardian

The Denver Egotist — Mon, 20 May 2013 18:12:10 +0000

Local

That first little beauty is from the “Gumbo” strain — for sale at the Denver Relief marijuana dispensary. Benjamin Rasmussen shot it, along with many more, for The Guardian Weekend Magazine. The story ran this weekend and is here if you want to read about Colorado's green rush.

Urban Ears DJ App Creates a Poster You Can Scratch Like a Real Record

The Denver Egotist — Mon, 20 May 2013 17:57:09 +0000

National

The illustration is engraved with ridges that produce sound as they're scratched with your fingernail. The piece was created for Slussen — a mobile DJ mixing system app for iPhone. Agency: Uncle Grey.

New Site and Updated Portfolio from Denver's Think To Make

The Denver Egotist — Mon, 20 May 2013 16:54:24 +0000

Local

Think To Make is the design, art direction and photography of freelancer Ryan Lee — and from the looks of it, he's been busy. The new work showcases projects ranging from branding, UI design and packaging to product and lifestyle photography. Take a look and see if he might be a goof fit for what you have cooking.

Domino's Uses Pizza-Smelling Thermal Ink on Rented DVDs as Media

The Denver Egotist — Mon, 20 May 2013 15:31:41 +0000

National

How they came up with this, we'll never know. Agency: Artplan, Sao Paulo.

Two New Giclée Prints from Denver Illustrator Shannon Bonatakis

The Denver Egotist — Mon, 20 May 2013 15:21:02 +0000

Local

"In Like, My Humble Opinion"
Limited Edition Giclée Print
Edition of 35, 11" x 14", Signed and Numbered
Buy It

"When You Were Young You Were The King Of Carrot Flowers"
Limited Edition Giclée Print
Edition of 35, 16" x 20", Signed and Numbered
Buy It

Coke Brings India and Pakistan Together Through a Vending Machine

The Denver Egotist — Mon, 20 May 2013 15:06:45 +0000

National

Coca-Cola's "Small World Machines" provide a live communications portal between people in India and Pakistan and show "that what unites us is stronger than what sets us apart." People in India and Pakistan could complete a task, like touching hands, drawing peace, love and happiness symbols together, and would then be rewarded with a Coke.

We want to believe stuff like this really is breaking down barriers. The way this video is cut certainly makes you believe that the stunt resulted in a Hollywood ending. It makes you feel good, but is this the real world we live in? Hope so. Agency: Leo Burnett, Sydney.

New Belgium Pairs Well With People in New Campaign from Denver's Cultivator

The Denver Egotist — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:49:20 +0000

Local

In its first TV advertising in eight years (and second ever), New Belgium Brewing sums up its brand values in its new tag, “Pairs well with people.” The line refers both to the employee-owned, environmentally proactive brewer and, in accompanying online videos, to its flagship brew, Fat Tire Ale. The campaign is the first television by Cultivator Advertising & Design for this client, and will run May 18 through Labor Day.

The :30 spot aims to convey how the brewery “pairs well with people.” It was filmed on site and the entire cast are New Belgium employees. In four accompanying online :15s, the theme switches from the brewer to how its beer “pairs well with people.” Bar patrons (again, New Belgium employees) demonstrate “how to: make yourself more attractive; friend someone, unfriend them; make up; expand your social network.” Surprisingly (or not), a bottle or glass of Fat Tire is all it takes.

The TV will run in 12 DMAs coast to coast, on all major networks, during primetime and late night, mainly live sports, comedy and original programming. The online videos will appear on HULU, YouTube, Facebook and via paid search.

Credits:
CD/AD: Monte Mead
CD/CW: Tim Abare
AD: Rich Rodgers
CW: Jen Reis

21 New Jobs This Week, 78 Total

The Denver Egotist — Sun, 19 May 2013 20:07:47 +0000

Local

21 new full-time, freelance and internship jobs posted this week, with 78 total on the list. Log in as a member to see the latest. Post your jobs here to tap into the best local talent.

— — —

[Full-Time] Junior Copywriter - Craftsy/Sympoz Inc., Denver

[Internship] Internship - Top Shelf Mixers, Great Denver

[Full-Time] Principal Engineer - GoSpotCheck, Denver

[Full-Time] Entry Level Marketing Assistant - SOL Lingerie, Denver

[Internship] Motion Design and Editorial Internship - SimpleBox, Denver

[Internship] Design Intern - Pure Brand Communications, Denver

[Full-Time] Senior Account Manager / Brand Guru / Marketing Wizard - Moxie Sozo, Boulder

[Freelance] Front-End Developer - FIREANT STUDIO, Denver

[Full-Time] Web Programmer & SEO - Law Father, Denver

[Freelance] Temporary Project Manager/Assistant Estimator - The Integer Group, Lakewood

[Freelance] Freelance Photo Editor - 5280 Publishing Inc., Denver

[Freelance] Expression Engine Developer - arrae Creative, Remote/Denver

[Full-Time] Production Artist - EPS-Doublet, Denver

[Internship] Sales and Marketing Intern - MyHubApp, Denver

[Freelance] Freelance Photoshop Expert - LYNNEL Art to Form, Denver

[Full-Time] SKILLED iOS DEVELOPER - MyHub, Denver

[Freelance] Interaction Designer - FIREANT STUDIO, Denver

[Freelance] Freelance UI developer - Placeways, Boulder

[Full-Time] SEM Account Manager - Metric Theory, Denver

[Freelance] Copy Writer - Art and Business One, Denver

[Internship] Internship - Journalist, Author, and Adjunct Professor, Denver

No More Unsighlty Cracks, Well, Except for One

The Denver Egotist — Fri, 17 May 2013 20:11:42 +0000

National

Via

Game of Thrones Houses Envisioned as Real, Modern-Day Brands

The Denver Egotist — Fri, 17 May 2013 20:01:24 +0000

National

Shutterstock, the stock photography site, has imagined what the different Game of Thrones houses would be like if they existed as common-day brands. Each visualization uses photos from Shutterstock's site. Although kind of an odd idea, it's a good one to draw attention — and draw people back — to a site that's just another repository of staged photos.

Via

Let's Keep Pushing the Design of Colorado.com

The Denver Egotist — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:17:39 +0000

Local

We really want the website people hit after seeing the beautiful Colorado advertising that Karsh has done to resemble it in every way. The newly refreshed Colorado.com isn't really delivering. It wouldn't take much design nuance to get it there, though.