This (kinda blurry) photo of our guitars is just such a thing. The front Taylor is Ron’s. The other is Jeff’s. As of today, we’re the only two in the office who (attempt) to play. But we hope to change that.

There seems to be a connection between creative professionals and music. Almost everyone in the creative biz is passionate about music and high percentage seem to play guitar, piano, clarinet or something. At a very minimum, they have a larger-than-healthy iTunes collection. Is just us or do you think we’re onto something?

This time around that includes the way we are handling sponsorships. In addition to getting their logo featured and other online love, IB|05 sponsors will also be able to create their own :30 second video. It can be silly, pro, campy, dumb, loose, tight, whatever. It’s not a new idea. Ignite Portland has been doing it for a couple years.

Learn more about it (and how you can get involved) here.

Minimalist Famous Album Covers

And, while you’ve probably seen it, it’s worth sharing if you haven’t…

Guy Getting Totally Stoked Over a Double Rainbow:

Jin comes our way via Boise State University and the Stewart Gallery in Boise. Welcome aboard, Jin. We’re glad you are here.

• inventing a new brand of organic fertilizer (including the positioning strategy & packaging).
• developing multiple brand identities.
• theming an international B2B conference.
• creating a brand strategy for one of Idaho’s brightest economic drivers.
• promoting a new tool that brings a common language (that we invented) to an established industry.
• and that’s just the stuff we can talk about…

STEP 1: a name. They already had that, so we move to…

STEP 2: a logo. This is the result. Pretty cool.

Look for more details on this company in the near future. In the meantime, if you have no idea what stand up paddle boarding is, check this out.

Machined aluminum toy cars.

Innertube lamps, belts and more.

Beautiful axes. As in chop chop.

We love to re-energize brands.  It’s one of the reasons we do what we do.  It runs deeper than updating a logo and marketing collateral.  Sometimes you just have to smack the mustache and sideburns off tradition to dramatically shift public perception and company culture to succeed.

At first I was skeptical about the new face of Old Spice when it first launched earlier in the year. Talk a about a tall order.  Re-energize a brand that you associate with your Dad’s Tom Selleck phase? It would take more than just changing the overpowering pungent formula. This nostalgic musky broth hasn’t been relevant for 25 years and was graying much like its loyalists.  Until now.

In a world of CGI it’s ironic that Portland’s Wieden + Kennedy’s latest installment wins with some old school, tightly choreographed, “how’d they do that?”  With over 47 million “upload views” on YouTube, much of the world is wondering the same thing.  It’s become more than a snarky beer commercial campaign.  It’s resulted in sales. According to ACNielsen Corp, Old Spice has surpassed Gillette Co.’s Right Guard to become the nation’s leading deodorant and antiperspirant for men.

Old Spice is relevant again. It just took a good open hand slap.

Now the hardwork begins.

What you see here are some of the output from that session. For several days, Ron and Jeff lived–quite literally–surrounded by it. By mulling these inputs, other secondary research and our own experience in the industry, we’ve been working to crack the code.

The point of sharing this is to point out that often the processes of uncovering key insights is not tidy, linear or unambiguous. But so what?! Marketing’s messy. People are messy. Life’s messy. Rock on.