I don’t enter a lot of contest but this one was short, sweet and offered a free $10 iTunes gift card just for entering. Below is my silly entry. Go to the site and vote for me and your other favorites and maybe I’ll win the grand prize. The first 1000 entries receive the free iTunes card and it looks like there is still plenty of time to enter and win. Join the Fun!

http://24-7designheaven.com/button/landing.php

We had a client call up and have us design three signs for him to take to the Jazz Game tonight. It was really random but gave me a chance to do something I have always wanted to do – design a stupid sign for a Jazz Game – and get paid for it! I did this quick caricature of Tracy McGrady for one of the signs. It would only come out if the Jazz win so hopefully they win and we all get some ESPN facetime – Go Jazz!

UPDATE: A photo of our signs was taken by an AP photographer and posted on ESPN.com

http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/photos?photoId=1928595&gameId=280502026

These quotes are from Brian Walker, CEO of Herman Miller a company often looked up to for their visionary commitment to innovation in design:

They are unique in that they outsource a lot of their creative development, his response to why:

“The drive for us is our commitment to new ideas and solutions. Our external network ensures that we are always taking a fresh look at problems faced by our customers without subjecting it to our own filters. This approach has it’s challenges but it often leads to the best ideas and breakthroughs.”

He also gave these words of advice when outsourcing creative:

“What we’ve learned is to have a willingness to follow and give ourselves over to these designers – not loose ourselves, but be open to following them to places that we may question in the beginning…We try to follow them without judging them too quickly.”

His definition of success:

“It’s easy on some ways to come up with great designs that have no commercial value, but to have great design that solves real problems and creates commercial value, that’s where genius comes in.”

“Solving problems is where our design work begins.”

@ISSUE magazine, Vol 12, no. 1 p. 2

We have the opportunity again this year to work with the Davis Arts Council. We are currently concepting the look and feel for the upcoming summer season. Below is a concept I developed for them. It was a lot of fun to do. After a very hectic week of deadlines it was nice to take a few hours and just have fun creatively.

I found this quote this week at a time when I really needed it’s message:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

— Teddy Roosevelt

I wish I had more time to write my commentary on this subject but it’s late and I don’t. I did want to remember this link when the times comes to throw my thoughts into the ring. Thanks to Erik DeWall for sending me the link.

http://enthree.com/files/random/web2logos/

FORTHGEAR has had a banner year in trade show and large format product design and production. We have a tremendous vendor relationship which gives us a lot of confidence to be able to sell, design and priduce some pretty great trade show products. The booth below is one we designed and produced this past fall. It includes the first custom table we have designed.

the holidays are in full swing. With it comes the annual FORTHGEAR holiday gift. We are knee deep in putting together this years concept. As usual we have bitten off more than we can chew in a lot of ways. Below is a preview of what our clients have to look forward to. Yes, it is an Elvis Snowman!

Here is the third poster in the series I have been desiging for Davis Lanes.

As my family can attest, I am a huge fan of mini-golf. It started as a boy back on family vacations to Bear Lake when all I wanted to do was play mini-golf. Ocassionally I will stumble upon fun products that, if I was made of money, I might enjoy purchasing. Sometimes I even think to myself “why didn’t I think of that?” MyMiniGolf is one of those types of products. I was sent this link by a coworker and probably wouldn’t have posted about it until I ran accross a fun comic book style page that is part of their About Us Section. Click on the Making Of MyMiniGolf and you will see the process, insperation and sweat (literally) that went into their product. I found it inspiring as someone who has a lot of ideas but never the bit of crazy nievete you sometimes need to take a product all the way to market. I commend them for their journey and appreciate the fun way they chose to share the journey with us!