A few months ago my writing partner, Andre Vriesman and I, were brought in to do some early concepting on a top-secret project that, in retrospect, we knew little about or were unsure if it would ever happen. But as luck would have it, the project later dubbed (at least internally) “The Big-Ass Phone” actually did happen just two short weeks ago. And looking back over the timeline and the event itself, I’m really proud that we were able to play even a small part in such an awesome and literally huge thing for the Windows Phone, Wexley School for Girls and all the people who were there to enjoy the show. Not to mention all the other talents that came together for everything to go so wonderfully.
I’ve been wanting a new logo for myself for quite sometime, so yesterday I just sat myself down and cranked one out. Bam. There you go.
It’s based off an icon I had been using for myself for a little while that always seemed fitting, but wanted something that was a little more fitting and striking. Obviously the “A” and “W” come from my initials, but the gear always seemed to be a nice representation of my hardworking, Midwestern roots. And the orange, black and white are a nod to my hometown and the school colors back in good ol’ White Bear Lake, MN. One should never forget where you come from.
It’s funny thinking about having to get to know a piece of equipment, but I’ve found myself having to do just that with an old camera of mine. People obviously have quirks and moods, but apparently inanimate objects can too. So a while back some friends and I made a trip over to Harbor Island in the Port of Seattle to do just that with my Toyocaflex TLR.
Being that it’s over a half a century old, it sort of behaves like an old man. The viewfinder is a little dark and cloudy, sometimes the shutter sticks at low speeds and it’s a bit heavy. It also has a bladder-control problem and eats dinner by 5:30pm. But I still love it, and I enjoy learning new things about how it behaves every time I take it out.
Fashion photography isn’t something I’ve done a lot of in the past, but it’s always fun whenever I get the chance. So a few weeks ago when I was asked to do a photoshoot with my good friend, the lovely Miss Laura Haithcock, I had to take her up on it.
Laura operates Birdie Royale Adornments and a corresponding blog of all the cool stuff she makes and thinks. And it was because of all this, she being featured on the Seattle fashion blog, FreshJess, thus needing some nice new photography of three outfits she wanted to showcase. That’s where I came in. So we set out across Queen Anne and Pioneer Square dodging wind, rain and random bits of sunshine to capture said photographs. It all seemed to turn out pretty nicely, too. Although, it definitely helps having a good model to work with like Laura.
She also gave a nice interview on her style, influences and thoughts on the Seattle fashion scene. So be sure to check out all the photos and the end result right here.
Last week our team at Wexley School for Girls launched our very first campaign for Taco Del Mar. We’ve been working super hard over the past few month on this, and it’s extremely rewarding to finally see this stuff out in the real world. And basically, here’s the idea behind it all:
Does Taco Del Mar have the biggest burritos on the planet? Of course. Does Taco Del Mar have the greatest Fish Tacos on earth? Of Course. Does Taco Del Mar make your food exactly like you want it with the most tantalizing ingredients? Of course. Does Taco Del Mar make your food fast? Of course. Is it filling and satisfying? Of course. And when your friend calls and asks, “Hey man, want to go grab some Taco Del Mar?” you’ll love it so much the answer isn’t just a single “Of course.” It’s an emphatic, “¡Of Course! ¡Of Course!”
It’s not often that one of your favorite pieces from a campaign happens to be a billboard, but it’s hard to see the “Cougar Fight” billboard and not smile. It still gets me, even though I’ve looked at it a thousand times. And as we roll out more work in the next few weeks for the campaign I’ll be sure to keep adding in the new stuff. So be on the look out for it. The whole campaign is going to be super fun and stupid in a good way.
Last week I bought a fancy new camera, and this is the first thing I decided to do with it. Although to be honest, I didn’t take the picture of the shark.
Hopefully there’s only more to come.
Ever wish you could have a super-awesome date with super-awesome professional soccer players? Of course you do. You’re only human and the need for love and soccer are part of our basic human necessities. Luckily, there are now things in place to help you with this very thing.
Recently, we launched Make a Date with a Sounder. There you have a chance to get to know the guys of the Seattle Sounders FC , learn their likes and dislikes, and obviously, make a date with a Sounder (along with 36,000 other fans). If all that doesn’t satisfy your basic human needs, I don’t know what will. You’re probably a lost cause and dead inside.
So if you’re in the Seattle area, hopefully you’ll see the full campaign running (billboards, TV, print, charity eBay auctions). I’ll post the rest later, but for now check out everything that’s going on at datewithasounder.com and don’t forget to actually make a date.
Note: Last night the Sounders broke the MLS attendance record with 46,505 wild, screaming fans. I like to think we sold a good share of those tickets. They’ve also added over 30k new fans on Facebook in just four weeks since the campaign has launched.
CLIENT: Seattle Sounders FC | AD: Andy Westbrock | CW: Matt Kappler | CD: Ian Cohen | AGENCY: Wexley School for Girls | DEV: LitFuse
If you can’t read the copy, or don’t feel like turning your head because your neck is actually just for looks, here you go:
“To a magazine, the binding is the most important part. Everything depends on it to hold it together. Kind of like fishing line to a fisherman. Everything you depend on starts and ends with the line that holds it together. This explains why more fisherman choose the most dependable fishing line in the world.”
Anyway, this is an ad I did a while ago at a little agency back in my hometown of Minneapolis, by the name of Kerker, now known as Preston Kelly. At the time they had Pure Fishing as a client, which had a ton of great fishing brands under their umbrella, Stren being one of them. So to a Minnesota boy who had grown up fishing since the age of two, I absolutely loved the prospects of working on all this stuff. And this was an ad I always liked for its simplicity, and the point it made using the media.
As for Preston Kelly, they’ve actually been getting some notoriety lately. They won AdAge’s Midwest Small Agency of the Year award, and have been showing up in the CA Ad Annual and Archive as well. They’ve probably been winning a lot of other things too, but either way, I’m glad to see my friends back at PK doing great stuff.
For a while now, I’ve been against the idea of the fake Photoshop-action apps people use on their mobile phones, but since Instagram has come along, I’ve changed my tune a little. I still feel that photography is slightly cheapened by just selecting from a few predetermined filters with a couple of finger taps (which goes for pretty much all photo apps), but it was the social aspect of Instagram that seemed to make all that okay. Sure you’re still shooting though a crummy camera-phone lens (until the technology catches up), but at least this way everyone is using the same tools on an even playing field. And then you get to share everything amongst one another to see what they choose to do with it. Making it more about having fun and community. Which is not so bad if you look at it for what it is.
Anyway, I hope this doesn’t subtract anything from my film photography, but if you’d like to check out any of my Instagram shots, you can find me @awestbrock, or I’ve gathered a few into a Flickr set.
Also, if you want to read another great take on the rise of Instagram, check out this post done by Mullen’s own, Edward Boches. He has insightful thoughts on pretty much everything under the advertising sun, and he’s a super nice guy to boot. Plus, he’s a fellow road biker, so there’s one more reason to give him a listen.
The city never sleeps. Therefore the chopper team at Channel 9 News never sleeps. Years ago they punched in their time cards, and since then, they’ve never punched out. They are your eye in the sky 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365.25 days a year. Even those days you wish you didn’t know what was going on in the world, they are pumping your brain full of the most up-to-the-second, action-packed news you can handle.
For over three and a half years now, I’ve been living just a few blocks from the world famous Space Needle (if you point the webcam to -45º you can see my apartment just left of center). Everyday I’m lucky enough to see something that symbolizes the great city of Seattle, and also one of the most iconic structures in the entire country.
So with that being said, I thought I’d dig up some Holgas I’ve taken over the recent past of this needle of space, as a reminder to myself to not take this beautiful thing for granted. Because I’m sure I have. My eyes have probably passed over some bit of its 605 feet and not a thought ran through my head about how incredible it is, or how lucky I am to view such a massive piece of art day in and day out. Here’s to being lucky.
A circus without a ringmaster is nothing but chaos. With him, controlled chaos. He makes sure everything runs smoothly, directs the show and keeps uppity lions in check. So when the decision was made to create a full cast of circus characters to go along with Magnus the Strongman, it only made sense to start with the ringmaster.
So without further adieu, please direct your attention to center stage and give a warm round of applause to The Ringmaster, Mr. St. George.
Also, check out Lead • Ink • Pixels here if you want to see the original sketch.
After finding my first roll of mystery film, I’ve been instantly trained to pick up and open every old camera I see while in an antique shop with the hopes of finding another roll. And luckily my persistence paid off and it paid off rather quickly.
Last October while in an antique shop in Portland, I spotted an mid 1950’s Kodak Brownie Hawkeye with a little paper tab sticking out the bottom seam. And what do you know, that little paper tab was attached to a roll of Kodacolor-X 620 film. So after buying a camera I already had for $15, it was all mine.
The problem is, being that it was color film that hasn’t been made since 1974, the chemicalsto process this film also haven’t been made for over 30 years. So after some detective work, I found I could send the film to a select few labs in the country that specialize in antique film and freeze these old chemicals to develop everything in large batches. The place I settled on and got the best vibe from was called Film Rescue International all the way out in Fortuna, ND. Also, I learned that whatever you do, don’t send your film here.
And as luck would have it, Film Rescue happened to have a batch deadline coming up. So Iquickly mailed in the mystery film, waited a few weeks, then they called and said they would start the processing in four weeks. After that it was another four weeks to see what developed. Then they emailed me back with thumbnails of whatever they could find on the film, and luckily there actually was something to see. So after months of waiting, I finally got my first glimpse of what has been locked away in the back of that forgotten camera for over thirty some odd years.
Unfortunately, the wait wasn’t over just yet. It wasn’t until another three weeks that I finally received a nicely packaged package with the results from a find made way back in October. But it was well worth it. The waiting, the money (definitely the most expensive roll of film I’ve ever developed) and the anticipation of not knowing was all worth it. Here are the results to the left.
Now all kinds of other questions can arise. Who the hell are these people and where are they? Why didn’t they develop this film themselves? Where did that guy learn that steely-eyed stare and does he still have those sideburns? Are they even still alive? We may never know.
It’s always fascinating to think that these images were burned into light-sensitive photographic film all those years ago, then sat forgotten about in the back of a camera which was soon forgotten about, and one day left the hands of the original owners and wound up in an antique shop. Then how I managed to stumble upon it is beyond me. But I feel pretty lucky.
Also, I should thank Film Rescue International for the wonderful job they did on turning that old roll of film into something. And note the reason these photos are in black and white as opposed to their original color has to do with their age. After sitting around for roughly 37 years in some unknown place, the color just doesn’t hold up in the negatives like one would hope. Good thing they still look pretty cool in B&W.
Have you ever worked with leather before? A little over a year ago I got my first chance to do so while making some brand books for Redhook Ale. If you haven’t done any leather work before you should, because it’s pretty cool. And slightly weird. Especially when you think about the fact you’re using the skin of a formally alive animal for something other than it was originally intended.
The best thing about making these was being able to get away from the computer and having a chance to work with your hands. Tangible stuff. Stuff you can feel. Every cover piece was cut out by hand, as was every bit of the type. That’s a heck of a lot more rewarding than just printing everything off and binding it with a piece of plastic.
This thing would probably make a great back-scratcher. Or at least some sort of cat toy.
For those of you who don’t live in the same state as your family, the sight you see above is just as much apart of the Holidays as are pine trees growing in your living room, your cat eating the plastic bows off your Kwanzaa presents and even a spinning dreidel. And since my family is mostly all back in the mighty Minnesota, this was my view from seat 39F on Delta flight 2714. Luckily, it’s all worth it to trade a few hours sitting in the cramped seat of a 737 for some time with your grandma. Happy Holidays.
The fate of most doodles is that of certain death. Whether it be to the recycling bin or lost in the depths of an old notebook, doodles are usually drawn and forgotten.
Well, I can’t stand to watch this continue any longer. I’ve decided to dust off my old Tumblr and give these little guys a place to live for the rest of eternity (or until the internet gets too large and collapses in on itself). So I now present to you, Lead • Ink • Pixels – an ever growing collection of random sketches, doodles and whatever else may fall from the tip of my writing instrument.
So go check it out. It’s not very full right now, but give it time and I assure you it will be.
WARNING – MATURE CONTENT: You may not know this, but I’ve been known to surprise a friend or two on the toilet with camera in hand. In this first edition, we feature Mr. Lucas P. Will. If you haven’t already closed your browser and restarted your machine, you will notice Lucas was not shy about being on the porcelain stage. When in fact he actually posed for this photo-op after I busted in the door. And as we can see, he has no reason to be shy.
Unfortunately, this mature content warning is placed well below the photo, so it may not have done much good. I’ll have to consult our legal department and reevaluate the situation. I hope this hasn’t caused any distress to sensitive eyes.
While visiting Cannon Beach, OR over the summer, I took these three shots of Haystack Rock, then somehow forgot about them. And being that you only get twelve images out of a single roll of 120 film, you’d think that would be pretty hard to do. Well I did, so now I’m trying to right my wrong and give these photos some recognition. Enjoy!
In my book, anything that’s described as a monolith is pretty cool. And anything that appeared in the movie The Goonies, is also pretty cool. Therefore, Haystack Rock is pretty cool. Take that Arthur Fonzarelli.