Eight entries in "New York"

Don’t say Athletics never did anything to support the troops.

Tonight (10/24 8pm) MTV will air “A Night for Vets” a concert in NYC as as an event to mobilize support for the Bill of Rights for American Veterans (BRAVE), a petition organized by MTV and several veterans’ organizations.

Athletics’ David Ahuja and Matt Owens completed all of the branding and show packaging for the broadcast. The taping was last night at Nokia Theatre:

A bunch of people that the kids listen to nowadays are performing. You can find out more here:

http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/brave/series.jhtml#bio

Tune in if you get a chance.

We are all excited to learn that NY77: The Coolest Year In Hell has been nominated in the 29th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards for the Outstanding Arts & Culture Programming and Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Graphic Design and Art Direction categories.

In the summer of 2007 Athletics’ David Ahuja worked with Wyeth Hansen and Todd Neale to design and animate this two-part, two-hour documentary for VH1’s Rock Docs series.

You can read the news on AWN here:
http://news.awn.com/index.php?ltype=top&newsitem_no=23969

You can check out a montage on David’s site:
http://www.amoebalabs.com/work_NY77.php

As well as a clip here from the show about the July 1977 Blackout:
http://www.spike.com/video/2881108

This past Saturday Jason, Matt and I had the pleasure of speaking at AIGA/NY’s Smart/Models one-day business conference here in New York. Our presentation, “Creativity and the Collective”, focused on our studio-as-collective business model.

The bulk of our presentation examined the differences between a traditional business structure and our collective model. As we’re so often questioned about the nature of our organization, we wanted to provide examples of how members of the collective form teams on a per-project basis to tackle work involving a variety of a creative disciplines — from graphic design, illustration, print and motion/broadcast/directorial, to web design and development.

To illustrate various points, we prepared a series of infographics designed to be part informative, part humorous, and part inside jokes for both designers and fellow aging hardcore kids/former edgers.

For the design nerds, we reinterpreted the classic 1969 Eames diagram.

(Click to enlarge)

And we were so pleased with the following graphics that we opted to include them in our presentation, despite the risk of having our cleverness lost on portions of the audience.

(Click to enlarge)

(Didn’t catch these? See here and here.)

Some thoughts

45 minutes goes fast; we had to blaze through the last five minutes.

Speaking early in the day is the way to go. With our talk out of the way we were able to relax and enjoy the other speakers.

Apple’s Keynote is a breeze. Give it a look if you’re putting a presentation together. Copy/paste vectors no problem, drag-n-drop Quicktimes, export to PDF, whatever you want. Near-zero learning curve.

TheTimesCenter is an amazing event space. Totally pro-form. The building’s interior nature/garden zone: blockbuster.

Michael Surtees of DesignNotes posted a review of the event, including some photos:

Update: Armin from Under Consideration published a very nice review as well.

Unanswered questions

We did a 45-minute presentation with no Q&A, as the organizers asked that we save questions for the end of day panel discussion. We were able to address some audience questions during the panel, and it was certainly interesting, but given the number of questions we received during the reception, and later via email, it appears that a few attendees left with questions unanswered.

The most common point of confusion regarded distribution of revenue. It seems some misinterpret the term “collective” to indicate a form of communism. Others simply wanted to know how we structured proposals, paid taxes, or formed LLCs.

We're happy to pull back the curtain for those with questions. Just get in touch:

Thanks

We’d like to extend a big thank you to the Smart/Models event committee – Tina Chang, Liz Danzico, Kent Hunter, Bobby C. Martin Jr., and Sam Potts – for the hard work of organizing the event, and for making us a part of it. And, of course, thanks to everyone for coming out on a Saturday.

Matt, Jason and I will be speaking at Smart/Models, a one-day AIGA/NY conference, on Saturday May 17th. In our presentation, Creativity and the Collective, we will be discussing the Athletics business model.

We will be joined by principals from four other unconventional organizations: Jason Fried from 37signals, Joe Duffy and Eric Block from Duffy & Partners, Sylvia Harris from Sylvia Harris, LLC, and Douglas Riccardi from Memo Productions.

For more details:
http://smartmodels.aigany.org

Many small, idiosyncratic organizations make an effort to remain shrouded in mystery in some myth-building effort. Large, publicly-held companies rarely do. But there is one major exception: Apple.

At Apple, nothing is revealed until the last moment possible. Then, once every six months, Steve Jobs strolls out on stage in front of a packed house and delivers a keynote speech revealing various new gadgets. Every time around the tech world is obsessed with what might happen, and then post-event, obsessed with discussions regarding whatever was actually revealed. It makes for fantastic punditry. (I do love that John Gruber.) All consumer electronics companies release new products, but Apple is the only one turning product launches into media events by refusing to discuss, or even hint at what lies ahead.

What I find staggering is how much effort Apple puts into secret-keeping. Apple products require massive numbers of humans — designers, software and hardware engineers, advertising partners, overseas manufacturing partners, documentation-writers, web designers, etc. So many humans and no one is leaking. iPhone, the most highly anticipated product of recent memory, didn’t leak. Clearly the entire company has been organized around this secret-keeping principle, and it’s an integral part of the Apple brand strategy.

I mention Apple because we are fascinated by specialness in brands, particularly the myth-building qualities. Apple’s secret-keeping is a perfect example.

Months ago we considered penning an article for the blog detailing the inner-workings of a functioning design collective, specifically the business model. After all, we are operating outside the bounds of a traditional corporate entity; it might be an interesting read. Ultimately, we decided, No, we don’t need to share such information, at least not on the blog. Once distilled down to words on a screen, it didn’t seem so interesting. If anyone really wanted to know, we figured they could get in touch and we could have a conversation.

Turns out this is exactly what happened. This past Thursday we were treated to lunch by our new friends Renda Morton, Andy Pressman and Holly Gressley. All three are talented designers and currently sharing studio space in Dumbo. They wanted to chat with us as they are considering forming a collective. They stopped by and we shared our thoughts on the subject.

The take-away here is less is more, and sometimes lunch.

If you’re in NYC, check out this week’s Village Voice. Wes illustrated the cover story, and the cover:

That’s Wes about to be run over by a bus. It’s not the first time he’s worked himself into a cover.

We have been working with Cartel, the Atlanta pop-rock band on Epic Records, for some time now. Projects include everything from music videos and album packaging to the band’s official website. Most recently we completed work on album packaging for the band’s upcoming self-titled release, the follow up to 2006’s Chroma. What made this project unusual was that Cartel was the featured artist for Dr. Pepper’s “Band In A Bubble”, a corporate-sponsored four-part MTV mini-series that aired over May and June.

The crackpot concept:

Construct a giant “bubble” structure on Pier 54 in Manhattan, put Cartel in the bubble for 22 days (they don’t get to leave), film their every move as they record their album, broadcast every moment 24-7 on the web, and cut the footage down for four episodes on MTV, including a finale concert episode.

Pre-bubble

While we knew we were doing the packaging, I don’t think we found out about the bubble until February. We like crackpot schemes, so we were happy to go along. Further, as individuals invested in pre-internet punk rock and hardcore, we are continually fascinated by the MySpace generation and the no-apologies, seventh-wave emo rock culture.

There was a lot of pre-bubble hype (see here and here), with plenty of haters. Things were really heating up—people around town were talking about the show, and there was a general bubble fever enjoyed by anyone that gets excited about the music business or teen culture.

And to up the ante, Cartel’s management informed us that they wanted us to make an appearance on the show and go inside the bubble. Apparently the design of the album’s packaging was important enough to warrant a “bit” in the show. We would go inside the bubble, present our designs, and chat about it all on camera. Ridiculous!

Visits to the bubble

We went to the bubble twice. First, we went in to go over photos with the band and discuss the design. Some photos from that one…

Heading down with Cartel’s manager

Pre-interview outside of bubble (interviewing Chris Black)

Then, a week later, Jason, Wes and I went back to present the initial design concepts. We presented the comps, made some jokes, and got out of there. And we had to do a little post-interview on the way out.

Inside the bubble

Final design

Despite the storm of insanity surrounding the record, the band had plans for a more mature and considered record. With the record being self-titled, the band wanted a simple, iconic graphic for the cover.

The band chose the “peachtree” direction, which we then expanded upon to create the final album artwork.

Of course, someone leaked the cover within days of final approval. We really enjoyed the discussion on Absolute Punk.

Best Quote:

i didint mind the atrwork on the last one it wasnt too special but i re4ally dont like this.
its cool to rep the home town and all but this just is awfull. i see this in a store and it makes me not want it. and the bad thing is i ususally just dont really care about the artwork very much but i see this and it makes me not want it.

Conclusion

After all the hubbub of visiting the bubble, putting on fancy wireless mics, being interviewed on camera, etc., we never made the cut for the show. I’m afraid design comps just aren’t exciting enough for reality TV. So, we got to experience the bubble first-hand, without any national embarrassment. Not so bad.

The finale concert went well…

The record

We recently got an advance copy of the album. Rather than go into an in-depth review, I’ll just say that the record goes beyond our expectations. We expected the rockers and air-tight singles, but we were surprised by many of the tracks that expand on Cartel’s usual repertoire of pop rock tunery. Terms like “blues hammer”, “Miami sound machine”, “Pearl Jam”, and “hot-doggin vocals” were used to describe various tracks. The record is set to be released August 21, 2007.

Some links

http://www.cartelrocks.com
http://www.drpepperbubble.com

TIGER IN A TROPICAL STORM
Featuring Richard Colman, Matt Leines, Taylor McKimens and more

Opening reception: Thursday July 12, 2007. 6-11PM
Exhibition dates: Thursday July 12 – Sunday August 5, 2007

Riviera Gallery, located in the thriving arts community of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, announces today the exhibition Tiger in a Tropical Storm which will open Thursday, July 12, 2007. The gallery is located at 103 Metropolitan Ave. The show will remain on view through Saturday, August 4, 2007. The gallery will host an opening reception on July 12 from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.

More info:
http://seeyouattheriviera.com