You might be saying to yourself, “Self, didn’t Jeremy just redesign his blog a couple of months ago?” The answer to that question would be a resounding YES. I did redesign my blog back in January. But, the problem with that design was twofold. 1) I didn’t think through ancillary content flow very well, and 2) I never really finished the design.

Not finishing my personal projects is a huge problem of mine, and it’s one that I’ll be addressing in my next Pecha Kucha presentation on April 23rd at Alistair Tutton’s new studio. But, I digress.

It might even be worth noting that THIS design is also incomplete. But, where the last incarnation was only about 70% complete, this one is about 90% complete. There are only a couple of small things that I need to add but otherwise I like it as is.

The observant reader might notice that the new design borrows from and acknowledges a couple of older incarnations of this site’s design. I guess there’s just some things about those old designs that were quintessentially me, and I’m bringing ‘em back like they never went out of style.

This redesign is also part of a larger rebranding effort I’ve got going on. At some point, THE COCKTAIL NAPKIN will join this family of sites design-wise, and eventually it will spill over into my portfolio site. This is all in an attempt to cluster these disparate sites together into an easy to digest portal about me. Hopefully it will work.

Enjoy the new design. I know I do. It’s very easy to read.

Unfortunately it’s been about 4 years since I’ve been so deep into After Effects that I’ve even needed to write any sort of expression and my lack of practice left me being not much help.

Before we signed off he said something that really made my day and made me think about my personal branding goal that I discussed a couple of posts ago. He said:

You know, I’ve really looked up to you for inspiration and knowledge throughout the years and some of the ass kickings you gave me on mograph really helped me learn and grow. So, thanks for that.

It would have never dawned on me that my involvement on that motion graphics bulletin board would have that much impact on someone’s career — let alone the possibility of multiple people’s careers. But there it was. I made a difference in someone’s life in a way that I never thought was noticed by others.

I almost said “in a way that I never thought mattered” but stopped and chose my words again. I never thought that. Everything matters. This is a perfect illustration as to why.

I’m going to use this compliment to help shape my personal branding efforts. As I strive to be seen as an expert in my field and an expert collaborator, I need to remember the effect that collaboration has. You never know when it’s going to come back around years later and become part of your brand perception.

This was a particularly exciting chance for me because not only did it give me a chance to potentially see some old friends and catch up, but it was a way for me to give back to the advertising community that gave me my start.

This was also a particularly touchy experience because that same community left me with a little bit of what one of my presentation slides calls “career freezer-burn” (thanks to Brian Brooker for that term).

Career freezer-burn is when you stay at an agency too long and it starts to turn the taste you have for your job a little sour. It’s different from burning out because you still love your career but just maybe not what you’re doing or where you are. The problem with career freezer-burn though is once you do finally decide to find a new job you still have that bad taste lingering and it taints the attitude you have and the work you do for a while.

My career freezer-burn came in the form of the type of advertising that I worked in during my tenure in Oklahoma City. Local car ads (no matter how creative they may be) only get you so far before you just can’t stand to do another. Given that fact, I wanted to be sensitive about not coming off as too bitter (I’m still ridding myself of the last vestiges of freezer burn almost 3 years later) yet I still wanted to honestly address the issue without being specific. I think I tackled the issue pretty well although there were a couple of people in the audience that knew exactly what I meant.

I digress. Didn’t mean to get into the freezer-burn thing that deeply. See what I mean… it sticks with you.

I spent quite a bit of time talking about future trends in advertising and advertising technology. Like any other “crystal ball” discussion, the slides in my deck are just my opinion and I’m sure an interesting conversation could get started revolving around others’ thoughts about what should have been in that section of the presentation.

I had a great time answering questions and talking with the college students in the audience. It always makes me feel good to give back to college students because since I was completely self-taught while I was completing my Philosophy degree I feel like I missed out on a lot of opportunities that I’m glad that these students are taking advantage of.

I’ve embedded the slideshare version of the presentation deck below. I also embedded the introductory video since I really want you to see that. It was quite the hit with the crowd and I’ve had a lot of comments from colleagues at work about it, so I’m thinking it’s pretty good.

This year they asked me to be on the Portfolio Development panel. I thought this was a welcome change — a change that I could bring a unique perspective to. You see, I know jack crap about portfolio development as it is formally taught (although my years in the business have let me catch up). This was explicitly reflected in our panel introductions. After the other two talked about the art schools they attended, I rounded the intros out with:

After going through five majors in college and finally landing on a philosophy major, I decided at the last minute that advertising looked like fun so I faked up a whole bunch of work and the rest is history.

The point is that being self-taught obviously caused me to craft a portfolio/demo reel that was not conventional but was ultimately successful. My introduction always gets a laugh when I speak to students and generally when I have the whole time to myself I qualify that statement with the fact that had I realized earlier that advertising was the industry for me I would have certainly taken the right classes for it instead of just teaching myself. However, at Career Day I only get ten minutes. In the interest of time I left that qualifier off and went into my content, which dealt specifically with demo reels and the importance of having an online portfolio to supplement (or in some cases replace) your physical book.

I think that my flippant introduction mixed with the fact that I de-emphasized the importance of a traditional portfolio made an enemy out of one my fellow panelists (an owner of a design boutique).

When Q&A time came around, the questions overwhelmingly involved interactive portfolios. Most specifically, “How do you create a good one if you’re not interactively inclined?” I mentioned Indexhibit and perhaps some books one might pick up that covers basic web design. However, about 5 questions into the interactive line, my “adversary” barged in at the end and said that “not enough people were asking questions about the physical portfolio book, and that’s what’s important, so let’s talk about that.”

A question came about rules of thumb using copyrighted music came up, which is a topic I’ve had a lot of experience debating over the years. Adversary quickly suggested to “just find a stock sound to use” and while I agree that stock music is a safe bet, I have suggested over the years that if you have the means for you or a talented friend to compose original music for the reel, all the better. I mentioned that I have composed the music for most all of my reels, and was met with “well, that’s fine for you but most people won’t do that.” Had I not been absolutely floored by how catty this woman was being toward me I would have mentioned that anyone with a Mac can throw together some loops in GarageBand and make something good.

I definitely hit a nerve there. For her and her design business, I won’t deny that the physical portfolio book is very important. But for agency types, I also truly believe that an online portfolio has possibly surpassed a traditional portfolio especially for purposes of securing an interview.

What do you think? Am I full of crap when it comes to demo reels and interactive portfolios? Let me know in the comments.

Ultimately, I had fun and I think I really helped a lot of students during the panel, but I don’t think it’s the place for me next year… or is it?

The campaign should be pretty interesting and entertaining to many because it delves into a side of Pete and TJ that is never seen during the course of the regular Sonic commercials. And of course, since it’s tied closely to The Hills, you can be sure that drama is the newest thing on Sonic’s menu.

I designed the site, the Facebook fan page and created the graphics for the television spots.

Today I am proud to say that our campaign was chosen as part of Creativity Magazine’s weekly podcast, Creativity Top 5!

Check out the campaign. I’m sure it will leave some lingering questions in your mind over the next few weeks that you’ll have to tune in to have answered.

To mark the fact that I have indeed begun to think about changes to this blog, I have stripped my old design and have replaced it with the Hemingway theme for WordPress. It’s a nice design, and quite honestly somewhat in line with where I wanted to go visually with the next incarnation of the site.

So, we’ll stick with Hemingway for a while. When you see the site design change again, you’ll know that I have a new plan for what this site means to me.

On that route, however, is something else entirely. Right in the middle of a notoriously congested area during morning rush is an outdoor board that simply reads:

Why R U Here? Major Roadwork Until 2011.

I’m very surprised about the tone of the board. To me, the board comes across so crass it might as well say “FU4B-ING HERE“. I’m actually a little surprised that MoDOT signed off on that message. Yes, I understand that you’d like people to try to find an alternate route so that the corridor is less congested and safer during the construction period, but come on. There are better ways to word the message. The gas pump toppers certainly aren’t that crass. Why does the outdoor campaign have to be that way?

I don’t think you can use a quick read at 70 MPH as an adequate excuse. Most of the time the traffic that flows by that board only goes by at 20-30 MPH (or less) during rush hours.

What do you think? Is the message effective, or does it just come off assy?

UPDATE: It looks like The Pitch had something to say on the subject.

Some might remember my post from last year, We Have Beens And Bread which introduced you to C&B through the short entitled No Santa Today. Paul created Crumby Presents this year, but we were so busy with the Bad Gift Emporium, I forgot to tell you about it.

Good to see this fresh bit of creative find some more traction. It’s also nice to see Present Magazine, a new online magazine about Kansas City food, music, arts, and culture.

The work really speaks for itself, so go forth and enjoy.

I’ve used the site on a few pieces over the past couple of days and the results so far have been much better than the Live Trace feature built into Adobe Illustrator.

The image above is a quick sketch I did and ran it through the software. Pretty good.