Why did the wizard go to the hospital?

He had a staff infection

So back in June I sent Ted Leonis (via facebook) and email with some designs for an updated Wizards logo. As he just took on ownership responsibilities, and after redesigning the Capitals branding with great success, I though that he would be thinking of doing the same with the Wizards... to which he prompty replied... "Please dont do this...retract this ASAP". Shame and embarrassment. Lesson learned I guess...

Well the wizards just announced their new look for the 2011-2012 season and while I appreciate the "going back to our roots" effort. I feel it falls short on many levels. You can read all about it here. I think the most disapointing aspect is that they kept the W wizard basketball moon mark. HEre is what I sent Ted....

What did the Blanket say to the Bed?

You're going undercover!

AT&T's new Blanket commercial.... Where have I seen this before?

While it's clever and a cool concept, I wonder how Christo

(Christo and Jeanne-Claude) feels? See photos below video for

just some of their original work.

Oh and BTW, as clever as this commercial is, their coverage is

still horrible. (There s no orange blanket over my house)

Though I am going to hold out until the iphone switches to

multiple carriers and (hopefully) when all the users switch to

Verizon. Maybe then it will free up some of the bandwidth.

Why did the Cat work at Xerox?

He wanted to be a copy cat.

Since we are on the kick of "imitation as the sincerest form of flattery"... Lets look at some recent movie posters. Man I know I have seen these before..cough Saul Bass cough cough..Below are some Originals followed by the im"posters" (wow two bad jokes in one entry!) For another cool tribute to Saul Bass check this out. And that's right, Rochester representing with the Xerox mention (logo not designed by Bass.-Chermayeff & Geismar 1971)

1959

1961

1958

2008

2009

2009

Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.

I will spare you all the "sorry its been so long since my last post.. blah blah blah"

OK so its Election time again, albeit slightly smaller(less popular?) This Tuesday was the primary elections for VA State governor and delegates, and the Obama influence was everywhere. While I think it is a good thing—that Politicians/campaigns see the value in branding and good graphic design— and most did a fairly decent job, Some just blatantly copied (though I know that is the way in the design field,) but I mean come on. Some of these are so bad... OK use Gotham or Trajan, heck use Optima(McCain). Same color palette? Fine. But make it your own. I think one candidate even changed his last name to Hope! Umm, well..probably not, but maybe he just felt that having the last name Hope—he couldn't pass up the opportunity to take political advantage.

AS you can see below,Most aren't too bad, and as a whole the fact that more thought and design are going into them is a step in the right direction...but my favorite OBAMA-fied ones are Omeish(for obv. reasons) McAuliffe, didn't use Gotham (helvetica) but the sun burst in the state and the horizon curve at the bottom are too much, and lastly HOPE. I would love to see some Obama inspired signs from your states towns etc... as you can see below even IKEA got into the race.

I'm surprised no one commissioned Sheppard Fairey to create a portrait for them.

What are the strongest days of the week?

Saturday and Sunday, the rest are "weak" days.

I have been engulfed in corp. america now for a good five years and I have realized that I have totally acquired the office vernacular. Similar to when I moved to virginia—albeit northern Virginia, who if we had our way would secede from virginia (though we were able to flip the state to blue this year). When I came down for school from New York, I thought everyone here moved so slow and spoke even slower with a huge southern twang, yet soon my family and friends were making fun of the way I said words like "green".  Which to them sounded more like "Graaainne". 

Now I find myself subconsciously speaking the corporate language. It just automatically and systematically comes out of me, where I don't even realize I just had a conversation. It comes out most in the small talk, in the kitchen or hallways, and sometimes in the elevator. Though the elevator is a tricky environment. Sometimes if you get on the elevator with someone else you do not speak or even look at that person until one of you gets off and then it is just a "have a good one"... as the doors shut. 

So want confidence to hold a conversation with any corp. employee?  Easy. There are only two things anyone ever really talks about. The weather and the day of the week in relation to Friday. Here is a simple flow chart I created to help you navigate your way through a casual conversation. You will be conversing like a a true corporate teammate in no time.

Where does the bunny strut his stuff?

 At the Hop!

Easter is upon us, and we have already gone through our first couple bags of jelly beans.  Fruit flavor of course. There is nothing worse than grabbing a handful of jelly beans and throwing them in your mouth and find out they are spiced! Honestly, who still buys those? I can only think of two types of people: Your great Aunt Ethel who is still using the same bowl of jelly beans from the Harding Administration and people who mistakenly grab the wrong bag at grocery store.

Anyways, I noticed a funny thing. Is it just me or whenever you get to the end of a bag of jelly beans there always seems to be the same three flavors left. Black Licorice (obviously if not only for the reason that it is not a fruit-see above) White, and Purple (and sometimes the occasional green.)  I think the purple stick around so long because in the right light they can appear to be black. I understand that different people like different flavors, and that maybe in some houses, there is someone who loves black licorice, but I have found this fairly consistent from household to household, Easter to Easter. 

Here is my personal ranking

1. Orange(orange)

2. Yellow(lemon)

3. Green(lime)

4. Purple(grape)

5. Red(cherry)

6. Pink(Strawberry?)

7. White(???) -according to Brach's website its Pineapple! Who knew?

8. black(licorice)

What are your favorites? Happy Easter chirp chirp.

What do you call a cow with a twitch?

Beef Jerky. (no correlation with my post just liked the joke.)

So where was I ?  Oh yeah getting ready for bed, about three blocks from the Capital the night before the inauguration. I will be the first to admit that my cousin and I could/should have gotten up a little earlier, but both being fathers of two year olds–we couldn't pass on the opportunity to sleep in for a little bit. We layered up again and headed out on our bikes around 8A.M. 

What happened for the next 6 hours was something I will never forget. It was like a giant block party. The streets closed to cars several block surrounding the mall, and bus loads of people being dropped off at every corner. My cousin needed to get some coffee so as he wove his way through the people who were inside just to get warm and made his way to the actual customers, I decided to see if I could sell some of the t-shirts I had made. Not being the best salesman—I couldn't pull myself to shout and get in peoples faces. But this was the great thing about the crowd there, everyone was in a great mood and taking it all in, so I just stood there on the corner holding up my shirt... and before my cousin had made it out of the coffee shop I had one left. Now I only brought about 10 down with me. When I made them I wasn't planning on selling them. So I only made about 15 for friends and family. In hind site I should have made several(100's?) more. I got really positive comments and reactions from the shirts (see below -if anyone is interested I would definitely be p for ordering more— let me know.)

Being on bike might have been the smartest/best decsion I have made in a long time (I dont make them too often) We were able to cover so much ground in such little time. Starting at the capital we headed to the White House, where there was a free bike valet. We really had no issues from anyone being on bikes until—of course—we got to the bike valet. There, the national guard were barking out orders on where to stand and not stand with our bikes. Turns out the bike valet had over 200 bikes parked that day.  So as we stood there at the bike valet we had to make a decision drop the bikes and hoof it or stay on the bikes and see how close we could get. 

We thought we would take our chances. And it paid off. We were able to take our bikes on the lawn and got as close as the Smithsonian Castle, but decided to head further back and park ourselves near one of the jumbo-trons where we had space to breathe. The screens and sound were great. People were energized.. Just the sight of Obama brought on a wave a cheers. As they announced the presidents as they entered, it was interesting to hear the reactions... The 39th President... Big Applause. The 41st president... akward silence with a few polite claps. The 42nd President... thunderous applause. The 43 president...do I have to say?  While the majority of people were more polite than i had thought they would be— there were definitely boos and shouts of arrest him!.... 

Then the moment had arrived, 2 million people cheering, screaming, applauding the next president of the United States. It was then I realized that we were now packed in shoulder to shoulder.  The jumbo-tron that was once clear as day in front of us was barely visible, blocked now by bodies, so we had to crane our next and stand on our tiptoes(ok that was just me the short one)

The ceremony was amazing_ not even gonna try to descirbe it just some brief observances. 

Aretha: (no matter what youthought of her hat) was moving, tears? yes.

The swearing in: I have never have image in being in a crowd so large and truly be able to hear a pin drop.

The atmosphere: euphoric and very patriotic.

Getting out of the city was a breeze too, jumped on 66—yes that right 66—no cars just pedestrians and a few of us on bikes going right down the middle of the highway. The fun of the trip stopped right about there, for as I alluded to earlier the trip home was mostly uphill. I was feeling the burn.

Made it home in time to watch the parade and rest my legs.

No matter where you were, this was a truly remarkable day.