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Tad Carpenter
65:15 with Tad CarpenterTad Carpenter takes inspiration from his town of Kansas City, MO, and encourages designers to look around them for their own inspiration.
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[MUSIC]
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I love you.
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>> Thank you guys.
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I appreciate it.
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I don't know how I live up to that, whatever that was, but
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I can't thank you guys enough for being here.
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It means the world.
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First and foremost I I can't thank Mike and
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all the guys involved in, in getting this thing put together.
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To be here with all these great folks that are involved,
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I know it means the world to me.
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And I'm truly honored and humbled just to,
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to be here in this amazing theater with very bright lights in my face.
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But it's it's awesome to be here I can't thank you guys enough for all that.
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Kinda going into it I started doing some research just about Columbia in general I,
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you know, probably like you guys I didn't know a whole lot about it.
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So I learned, I tried to, tried to, learn a little more about it and
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what I learned was that, Aflac's from here.
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Which is pretty awesome.
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We all love the duck, right?
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But also the amazing improv comedian, Wayne Brady is from here and
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he was born here which is pretty awesome.
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But above all that, I think what I'm most stoked for
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is all the great public art that our city, this city has.
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>> [APPLAUSE] >> Like I don't think this
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city knows how lucky we have it with all this amazing public art.
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[NOISE] it's top notch you know, I mean, they really erect some good shit so.
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>> [LAUGH] >> So,
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I know a lot of us like to live tweet and I, I encourage you.
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I thought I'd get us started with a few hashtags we should start with.
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Obviously, #creativesouth is a good one we should use.
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It's been a long day, I know I'm hungry, you know, #iDratherbesnacking than
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listening to this asshole talk is probably a good one as well.
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Um,#ithoughthedbealotbetterlooking, that's probably true also.
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#whotheeffiswaynebrady, which is a callback to my previous slide,
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which is probably also accurate.
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And most importantly,
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#canwillgaycomebackandtalkdisneysummore- plz?
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Cuz that's probably gonna be very important here momentarily when I start
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putting you to sleep.
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So, I always like to kinda start off with a quote, and
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it's my favorite quote out there.
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And it's the harder I work,
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[MUSIC] The luckier I get.
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And that's the story of my life.
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And its by Buck Owens, this is really an excuse to play honky tonk with Buck Owens,
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which is my favorite edition.
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But it's true, the harder I work, the luckier I get, and the my career is
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kinda built on that as you start to kinda move through and share some ideas here.
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My studio is Tad Carpenter Creative and
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it's completely equal parts graphic design and illustration.
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I couldn't do graphic design without illustration and
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I sure as shit couldn't do illustration without graphic design.
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But in the core of everything, I like to make, I live to make,
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and I think that's probably why you guys are here too.
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You love to make.
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You wake up everyday wanting to make things and
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that's what we do at our studio.
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We don't discriminate really on what we like to make.
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We like to do all kinds of things from brand identity work.
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We do a lot of restaurants and brand identities.
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This is a diner that we redid in downtown Kansas City.
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We obviously do a lot of logo and and just lockups in general for clients.
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We do a lot of starting to do a lot more apparel and dimensional objects.
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Kidrobot was a client for, for years and we did a lot of dunnies\g and
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apparel for them.
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And then getting out, getting into more dimensional objects like snowboards.
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So this is Zion, which is a Canadian snowboard company.
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And and we've been doing a lot of boards for them over the years.
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Which is totally like one of those, like, bucket lists kind of projects that you do,
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you know?
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We've been doing boards with them.
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And, and I remember getting an email from a guy.
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Just really cool to see how dimensional objects can go into the world and
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do things that you never expected.
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So, you know, doing this project with Zion and I get an email from a guy out of
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Tampa, Florida telling me how much he loves this snow board, you know?
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And I'm like, wow that's awesome.
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There is no snow in Tampa, Florida man.
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Like, why the hell did you buy this snowboard, right.
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And, and I email them that, I'm like, dude, what the, you know?
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And he told me, he's like, no man, I've never snowboarded in my life!
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But I hang it on my wall as an art piece and that's what it is to me.
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And that's cool that we get to create things, throw them out in the world, and
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you don't know what happens with them.
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So, so you know, creating snowboards and stuff, and
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just dimensional objects in general, kind of a cool bucket list kinda project.
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And of course we do a lot of editorial work, spot illustration and
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then now starting to do more and more picture books and
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children's books and true storytelling.
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And and it's, it's one of those things that I always get asked a lot like,
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why did you start doing children's books?
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You know, you do gig posters and brand identities and things like that.
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And for me, if we all think back,
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like, what was that first experience we had with art, or with design?
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And that was probably when you were a kid looking and
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reading a picture book, you know?
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And the fact that I can contribute, even in the smallest way
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to maybe inspiring a kid to wanna be a graphic designer like all of us, or
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an illustrator, or just art in general is a cool thing.
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It's a lot of responsibility to carry but I love that.
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It's a really cool thing.
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To maybe that first kind of, kind of peek inside of our world for
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a new designer hopefully.
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So as Justin mentioned, I'm from Kansas City,
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Missouri, right smack dab in the middle of the Midwest.
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I love the Midwest very very much.
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It shaped the way I think, the way I feel, the way I design.
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There's something very Midwest just about my approach and just the way I work.
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And then all those things in the Midwest really start to shape kind of who I am.
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One of my biggest influences in this life is Mr. George Brett.
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He was an amazing baseball player in the eh, 70s, 80s and 90s.
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And, and, what's cool about George is
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he was never the most athletic guy in the, on the field.
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Yeah, he was handsome as shit.
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I mean, look at this guy.
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>> [LAUGH] >> But, but, you know, news flash.
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He wasn't Bo Jackson, you know?
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He wasn't like, this dude that'd show up and make it work.
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Dude had to bust his tail.
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And there's something innately Midwestern about that, that I'm gonna grit my nails,
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I'm gonna tear it up, because I'm gonna make it work.
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And he would do that he would just tear it up just based on, on want to, and there
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was something very Kansas City about this, something very Midwestern about that.
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And even something very Southern about that, Midwest and
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South have a lot of kind of similar, kind of, you know, kind of core,
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kind of, kind of thoughts in their in their overall process.
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And George Brett was that for me he was my everything, you know?
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He was, he was a, kind of the underdog, and I liked that,
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you know, being from Kansas City even our food is kind of a rough around the edges.
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Kind of like the South, right?
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It's.
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it's not fancy $70 steak, it's a six dollar gas station barbecued meal,
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you know, but it's the best damn thing you'll ever eat, you know?
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One of our, one of our kinda new residents in Kansas City is Anthony Bourdain.
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He comes to our city all the time, specifically for
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the barbecue, why wouldn't he, you know?
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And and he, you know, about a couple of years ago he came out with his top
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ten restaurants you have to eat before you die.
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And of course it's like, you know, eating sushi off some girl's navel in Tokyo,
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you know, but then one of them was Joe's Kansas City Barbecue
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in the back of a gas station in Kansas City.
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You know what I mean?
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And that's who we are.
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That is our shit, you know?
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It's like, it's we, we roll our sleeves up, we get barbecue sauce all over us, and
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we don't care.
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It's the best meal you'll ever have for $8.
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There's value to that.
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I mean shit, Bill liked it too, you know?
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>> [LAUGH] >> So it's like.
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So innately being from Kansas City,
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being from the Mid es, Midwest, we aren't showy people.
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I think we, we act kind, and we, we realize that talent is never enough.
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And I think those are good attributes, good qualities that we can kinda take as
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designers and just as people in general, you know, on, on working with other folks.
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Being from Kansas City there's also a lot of people just recently that have made
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a big statement that are all from Kansas City.
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I mean, shit, you know, Paul Rudd, Jason Sudeikis, Eric Stonestreet I mean,
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shit, even Anchorman's Champ Kind is from Kansas City you, know what I mean?
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Even this asshole is from Kansas City.
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>> [LAUGH] >> But the people I'm more interested in
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talking about is creatively some of the people that are from Kansas City.
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Cuz those are the people that, again, really helped mold and, and, and
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start to, to create like, what I am into and what I like culturally.
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I mean, you got Charlie Parker back in the 30s started to create what we know as
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jazz now in Kansas City.
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Some of my favorite painters, Robert Rauschenberg,
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John Steuart Curry, all attended the Kansas City Art Institute.
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One of my favorite painters of all time is Thomas Hart Benton.
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His studio's still in KC, he taught at the art institute.
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Just an amazing, amazing human being.
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And even more recently someone like Kate Spade sold her first book, or first book,
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her first bag at Halls in Kansas City at a department store and
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then obviously has gone on to create this huge brand.
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And then the man, the myth, the legend himself, Walt Disney,
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is from the state of Missouri.
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He started taking drawing classes at the Kansas City Art Institute.
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He, he, later got a job at the Kansas City Star.
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He was later fired
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from the Kansas City Star because he didn't have enough imagination.
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That worked out well.
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>> [LAUGH] >> And then a, a, and then he a,
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he started his first animation studio in Kansas City, called Laugh-O-Gram Films.
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The rumor is he taught a mouse to eat out of his bare hands at that studio which
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would then go to inspire, you know, something, I don't know what.
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So it's all these amazing things that are coming out of Kansas City and, and I like
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that, I like the people that came from here and their stories and what they have.
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And I think it's important to realize kind of, be you.
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You are, who you are.
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And there's something about that from Kansas City.
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And it's like, you know, and I, I, I promise guys,
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I ain't just gonna talk about Kansas City for 45 minutes, you know.
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But, but, I like, I like where I'm from and
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think that's what I like about coming to these conferences, you know.
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Getting to meet all you guys today, and just like throughout the week,
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it's like, just learning where you're from,
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what's your story, what's unique about where you're from, you know?
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And, and that's what I always like about Kansas City and
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going on these speaking engagements.
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And, and I go around and I would talk to different AOJ chapters or
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universities and everyone,
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well first off, you know, I, I don't know what your impression of Kansas City is.
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Probably nothing, to be honest, which is, you know, probably, that's fine.
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And but like, people would instantly think I was either from San Francisco or, or, or
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maybe Cal, or New York or something like that and I was like, no.
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Kansas City's awesome and this is why.
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And I would kind of talk about it.
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And I would always wish that there was something out there that could kind of
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promote that a little more or g, get that out there just a little bit more.
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So, when I would come back from s,
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speaking engagements, I would talk to my wife.
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And, I said, gosh, I really do wish there was something that kind of highlighted
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some of the things that are going on right now in Kansas City.
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And, and so we started to develop this kind of idea and
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it's called Made In The Middle and it's something we launched a few month ago.
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I guess we launch it in December, and it's totally just a little passion project we
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started, which I, I'll talk about momentarily more.
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But it's, it's a website we developed that showcases all the great people and
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designers and artists and illustrators and fashion designers And
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all kinds of people making really, really cool things in Kansas City.
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And it's purely something we just do because we wanna do it.
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And, and I think there's a lot of really interesting stories and talents.
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And I think it parallels a lot of things that you guys are doing all
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over the country, too.
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They, they have the same struggles, the same success that everyone has.
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And it's cool to see some of the things they're doing.
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We do different featurettes every, every week or so highlighting, this is
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Matthew Huff who does just unreal modern architecture throughout the Midwest.
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I think he does some of the, you know, most beautiful, beautiful stuff out there.
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So we do these great little featurettes.
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Then of course there's swag upon swag upon swag.
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So we have all kind of fun, fun jazz that kind of share as far as that is concerned.
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But again, it's because I, I love where I'm from.
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It's, it's, it's made me who I am and I, and
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I want to kind of continue to promote that.
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And then, and then, ultimately, one of my favorite parts about the site,
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if anybody ever wants to take and look at it, it's it' s we created a timeline.
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And the timeline goes back to when Kansas City was founded in 1838 all the way up
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until today.
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Highlighting like really, really interesting,
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creative moments for our city.
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You know, again, like ca,
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like Walt Disney going to the Kansas City Art Institute as a child.
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The inception of the Kansas Jayhawk mascot and logo countless things.
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Walt Disney getting fired from the Kansas City Star and
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then Hallmark cards getting founded in Kansas City over 100 years ago.
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And that's ultimately what makes Kansas City really special is what this man did,
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JC Hall from Hallmark Cards.
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And Hallmark Cards is a greeting card company.
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And for, I know we're a little bit of a younger audience,
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and greeting card is a piece of paper that folds in half, and
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you write a sentiment in the middle and you mail it.
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Yeah, greeting cards aren't doing so hot anymore, you know.
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But what's special about it is that Hallmark Cards hires artists,
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designers, stylists, photographers from all over the world.
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They moved to Kansas City.
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They see Kansas City.
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They fall in love with Kansas City.
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They don't leave Kansas City.
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And cool things start popping up everywhere.
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It's a special, unique little place.
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And why I'm telling you about Hallmark?
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I've never worked for Hallmark before.
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I've done some freelancing with them over the years but never,
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never really worked for them.
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But why I tell you about him is, in 1975, Hallmark Cards hired this beautiful
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strapping man, who I'm almost wearing the exact same shirt as him.
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In, in 1975 my fa, my father was hired by Hallmark Cards, so
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that's why I live in Kansas City.
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My father was hired then and
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to this day, today, as we speak, he is still an employee of Hallmark Cards.
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He'll be celebrating his 40th anniversary with Hallmark Cards this June
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which is a very rare thing in our world, you know?
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Which is cool, yeah.
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[APPLAUSE] Give it up for pops, man.
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So on top of working for Hallmark for all of those years and, and now,
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he's a creative director of the international division, so
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he really spends most of his time outside of North America.
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But he, he illustrated a lot of books, he did a lot of work.
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Here's some examples of some of his books he's done over the years.
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He done, gosh, nearly probably 40 children's books in his life.
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So, I got to grow up with an illustrator and an author in my house,
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seeing, wow, this is what you do?
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It can be great, and it can also be horrible.
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You know, he was like the art director to me.
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It's like a third grader like trying to do something, you know what I mean?
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But but it was great to be around this all the time.
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And I knew that that was something that I wanted to be a part of.
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You get to experience all these awesome things that he was getting to experience.
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I mean, he got to art direct shoot, shoots with the Muppetts in the, in the 80s, and,
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and you know?
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I don't know why I needed to tell you which one were the Muppetts, and
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which one were my dad, all right?
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Hopefully, that's like, like kind of obvious, you know, but but
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like I got to experience this.
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And my dad, being kind of a, a product of the 1950s,
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all the influences that were my dad's growing up very quickly became mine.
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You know, my father was a huge fan of people like M Sasek and
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Battaglia the Provensens.
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I love the work of the Provensens.
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Tom Eckersley is one of my favorites, and my father's.
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So it's a lot of my dad's influences very quickly came mine.
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Of course, you know, kinda piggybacking off Will and his wife earlier about, about
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Disney, you know Mary Blair is somebody I just absolutely adore, you know.
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And it's like I know like half of this crowd is from Orlando, right?
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So like, you know [APPLAUSE] yeah, right?
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So, so if you go to Disney World and
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you ride, it's a small world when you tone out that awful song, right, and
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just focus on the, the majesty and the beauty that is that ride.
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It is perfect, the way it's designed, everything is so wonderful, you know?
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And as a single man riding it over and over again,
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they will very quickly ask you to leave in a very strange way.
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Like, hey dude.
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No kids, man.
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[NOISE] Hit the bricks.
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This is getting creepy, you know.
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So but again, like these were my dad's influences and
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very quickly became my influences, you know?
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So if you're in the mid-century kind of illustration when I'm not pinning my
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favorite ways to do twisted pony tails on Pinterest there is,
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I do have a Pinterest board.
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It's called Retro Pop, and like literally, all it is is just like,
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it's just mid-century illustration that I like from that kind of era.
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And it's a, it's a fun thing to collect, but but being able to grow up like that
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and have parents that totally supported and encouraged me to be an illustrator and
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a designer, and make things was super, super helpful.
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And, and I can never thank them enough for, for, for allowing that.
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And I, god, I don't know what the hell I would have done if
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I wouldn't have done that.
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I was always around it. It's like, ever since I was young,
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I knew I wanted to be an illustrator or a designer.
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When I was in third grade was really when I first kinda got my first taste for
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like art and commerce.
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And when I was in third grade, which is maybe a year or so after this,
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you, the, you would think this here would be Halloween, but
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this was Tuesday for Tod, [LAUGH].
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Just kinda what I was into.
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I also went through an Alex P Keaton phase.
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The first like three years of my grade school, I wore a bow tie and
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carried a leather brief case.
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I went to a public school, man,
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like that was like not like encouraged a lot but [LAUGH].
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But again when I was in third grade was the first time I really
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put together like art and commerce and like what this meant.
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And there was a contest for
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the Kansas City Chiefs which is our professional football team.
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And, and when I was in third grade, they were really, really horrible so
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not that different than now.
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15:44
And and, and so they were doing this contest.
-
15:46
Said, hey, if you draw season draw a ticket design,
-
15:49
you can then win season tickets for the cheese for a year.
-
15:52
And I was like, oh, that's rad.
-
15:53
I'm gonna try that.
-
15:54
So I tried and somehow I won.
-
15:57
And like, I mean, look at that hand typography, guys.
-
15:59
I mean, like, get out of town, man.
-
16:01
So, so again I entered this and I won.
-
16:03
I was like, wow.
-
16:04
And so I got free season tickets.
-
16:06
They honored me at the 50-yard line of a football game.
-
16:08
And there's like nine people there cause it was horrible.
-
16:09
And and and, and
-
16:11
they sent a football player to my school in a Ferrari to drive me around.
-
16:15
They did this whole assembly.
-
16:16
And then at the end of the assembly,
-
16:18
I was in third grade, a fifth grade girl asked me out.
-
16:21
So [LAUGH] I can pinpoint the day that I fell in love with art and
-
16:26
design, because people will give me things, and I get older women.
-
16:30
So it was like [LAUGH] it was a, it was like a magical day for me and, and design.
-
16:36
Around the same time this was going on as a in,
-
16:39
in third grade I started to hang out with a gentleman named Gordon MacKenzie.
-
16:44
And Gordon is a really, really special person.
-
16:47
He was an amazing guy.
-
16:49
Gordon was one of my dad's best friends.
-
16:50
And, and Go, Gordon worked at Hallmark Cards for years and years.
-
16:53
And his title at Hallmark was was very ambiguous.
-
16:58
He was a creative paradox, that was his title.
-
17:00
Really they didn't know where to put him cuz he was kind of an instigator.
-
17:03
And, but ultimately what Gordon's job was at Hallmark was, hey,
-
17:06
Hallmark is one of those businesses that is over 50% business people, but
-
17:10
then another 50% that is creative people like us.
-
17:14
And how do we let these people work and live together?
-
17:16
How does that work?
-
17:18
So Gordon would try to bridge that gap in tons of ways.
-
17:20
Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.
-
17:23
And and Gordon eventually, would eventually leave Hallmark, and
-
17:26
then go on to write an amazing book, and go on lecture upon lecture.
-
17:30
Very well received in the creative community.
-
17:32
But the book he would write was Orbiting the Giant Hairball.
-
17:35
And I can never recommend that book enough, still to this day.
-
17:37
It is so great for all of us as designers.
-
17:39
It's, it's Orbiting the Giant,
-
17:41
Giant Hairball kind of it's kind of your surviving with grace in, in all of us as
-
17:45
creative people living in a non-creative environment sometimes, you know?
-
17:48
And Gordon was unbelievably inspiring.
-
17:51
This was, I think, my dad and Gordon in a meeting, Gordon prepony tail and, and
-
17:55
goatee.
-
17:56
I don't know why NBC News was there,
-
17:57
my dad with the rocking mustache, it must have been the 70s, right?
-
18:00
So but Gordon, I just remember spending time with him as a kid and
-
18:04
thinking he was just the coolest guy.
-
18:05
I would, I would go to Hallmark all the time as a kid because my parents
-
18:07
couldn't find a babysitter.
-
18:08
So they would just lock me in a conference room a lot of the times, and
-
18:11
just be like, all right, he's not gonna go anywhere, you know?
-
18:13
And and I remember, Gordon would come in and hang out with me.
-
18:15
And, and Gordon had all kinds of really interesting philosophies on design and,
-
18:19
and one of them was everyone has a masterpiece in within them from birth.
-
18:23
And I'm such a believer in that, you know?
-
18:25
We all run across people that are like, oh, I can't draw or I can't do this,
-
18:28
you know, and and Gordon, Gordon called BS on that all the time.
-
18:31
So Gordon would go to speak to schools all the time, specifically like grade schools,
-
18:34
he would go to kindergarten and ask, hey,
-
18:36
out of all of you, how many of you guys like to draw?
-
18:38
Every one of them, you know.
-
18:39
Double hands up.
-
18:40
Like, yes, I love to draw, you know?
-
18:42
Then you go to third grade and, you know, how many of you guys like to draw?
-
18:45
And you know, it's like maybe about half that many, you know, kind of.
-
18:47
Then you go to sixth grade and there'd be the, the two of us in
-
18:50
the background kind of, I like to, I like to doodle on occasion, you know?
-
18:53
You're kinda looking around.
-
18:54
As we get older, we very quickly start to compare ourselves to others.
-
18:58
You know, oh, god, that guy's really good.
-
18:59
I could never do that.
-
19:00
I'd better do something else.
-
19:01
But, you know, and the comparison is, it's bad.
-
19:04
You don't need to do that, you know?
-
19:05
You are you, and you should make what you make.
-
19:07
Because if you don't make it, no one is, no one, no one's gonna make it for you.
-
19:11
And I like that idea.
-
19:12
I like that philosophy behind that, you know?
-
19:14
And, and Gordon just was a really inspiring guy with messages like that.
-
19:18
He was a big proponent for risk, you know, kind of walking out on thin ice and
-
19:22
wondering if it can support you.
-
19:24
Every few years, you have to take a risk.
-
19:25
Things could get vanilla very, very quickly.
-
19:28
And I like that idea of reminding ourselves how important risk was.
-
19:31
Everyone of you here has taken a risk, you know?
-
19:33
News flash, every one of you parents wanted you to be a doctor or a lawyer.
-
19:36
You know what I mean?
-
19:38
Sucks, right?
-
19:38
Oh, my god, my, my daughters gonna be a designer.
-
19:41
I don't even know what the fuck that is, oh my god, you know?
-
19:43
[LAUGH] You took a risk, you're here, you know, you have to continue to take risks.
-
19:50
Here's a huge component of a play.
-
19:52
Play is so important.
-
19:54
What we do is play, you know?
-
19:56
We, we get to do this.
-
19:57
And, and for me play is a lot of different things, you know?
-
20:00
It's just reminding myself how important drawing is As, you know,
-
20:03
just keeping sketchbooks and, and little Post-It notes just to doodle and have fun.
-
20:08
You know, cut type and make weird faces, you know.
-
20:12
Whatever play is, remind yourself to do that.
-
20:15
I think it's important for us to kind of continue to remember.
-
20:18
Be passionate about something,
-
20:19
how can something that you're passionate about be something you can play with.
-
20:22
And mine happened to be, oh the Kansas City Royals.
-
20:25
Sorry, it's more Kansas City talk but it's the Royals.
-
20:28
I, I can't be excited enough about the fact that we went to the World Series,
-
20:32
pardon me, we went to the playoffs for the first time in 30 freaking years last year!
-
20:36
I was, I was four years old the last time we were in the playoffs, you know!
-
20:41
Oh, that's us clenching to go to the World Series, but I was ver, I love the Royals.
-
20:46
I freaking love the Royals.
-
20:47
I went to a lot of 100 last seasons like it was amazing.
-
20:50
So I have a good friend in the industry Erik Marinovich who runs
-
20:54
Friend of Type which a lot of you guys probably know.
-
20:56
And I had Erik come visit the university I teach at, and it was during the playoffs.
-
21:01
So Erik saw how unbelievably passionate I was cuz I dragged him to go watch games
-
21:05
with me for night after night.
-
21:07
And it so happens that when the Royals clinched to go to the World Series, so
-
21:10
did the Giants and the Giants is one of Eric's favorite teams.
-
21:13
So, then Erik contacted me and was like,
-
21:15
Dad, we should totally do something on Friends are Tight, man.
-
21:17
I'll make a piece.
-
21:18
You make a piece.
-
21:19
You know, for the whole World Series and I was like, oh, yeah, yeah.
-
21:21
That sounds horrible man like I gotta do something every day for
-
21:25
like during the World Series?
-
21:26
I was like, I can't do that you know, I was like that's too much work and and
-
21:30
he was like well we'll just do one piece each, I was like oh that's great,
-
21:32
that's perfect.
-
21:32
And then the next day he tweets out that we're gonna do a piece for every
-
21:35
game of the World Series and I was just like, Eric you threw me under the bus,
-
21:38
he's like yup, you're in now man and I was like oh my god,
-
21:40
so again this was two friends that were like you know, what let's just have fun.
-
21:45
This is why we got into this, you know?
-
21:47
Let's just have fun making design, you know?
-
21:49
So again we did that on, on Friends of Type which Eric runs.
-
21:53
You know, I would do a piece for game one and then he would do a piece for game one.
-
21:56
And then these are some of the pieces I did.
-
21:58
I wouldn't wanna put Eric's up there because they're too good.
-
22:00
But like, you know, these are some of the pieces that I did just again, for fun.
-
22:03
There was no client involved.
-
22:05
There's nobody telling us what to do.
-
22:06
We only had a few hours to make them.
-
22:09
But you had fun and you reminded yourself why you do this, you know?
-
22:13
And I think that's really important to do on occasion is,
-
22:15
remind yourself how lucky we are to do this.
-
22:18
In the end of the day, like I said, we get to do this.
-
22:22
Like that's important to remember.
-
22:23
I'm sure we all have, my best friend in the world is a truck driver.
-
22:27
He drives a beer delivery truck, you know.
-
22:29
He loves his job.
-
22:30
It's an awesome job.
-
22:30
Like, we get a lot of free beer, you know.
-
22:32
Like, it's great, he loves it.
-
22:33
>> [LAUGH] >> But does he get to come to Georgia and
-
22:36
talk to 400 of his favorite friends about, like, beer delivery routes or some shit.
-
22:40
I don't know, you know.
-
22:42
No, he doesn't get to do that, we get to do that.
-
22:44
You know, we get to come here and talk about design and
-
22:46
things we're passionate about, and we get to be apart of.
-
22:48
I think that's really special that we, we get to do this.
-
22:52
My practice is broken up kind of in three parts, really two.
-
22:57
My own studio, a, as we briefly mentioned.
-
22:59
Do a lot of posters, which really is kind of under my studio.
-
23:01
And then I teach at the University of Kansas, [INAUDIBLE].
-
23:05
An-, and teaching I think a lot of people when you think
-
23:07
of the University of Kansas, you probably think of basketball or
-
23:11
to be honest again you might not think anything at all.
-
23:13
That, that, you know, [INAUDIBLE] But yes, you probably think of basketball.
-
23:17
You might think of T-Robb throwing it down.
-
23:19
You might think of James Naismith,
-
23:21
that's the dude that invented the game of basketball.
-
23:23
Yeah, he was our first coach.
-
23:25
The rules of basketball to live in our arena.
-
23:27
You know what I mean?
-
23:27
Like, that's pretty rad.
-
23:29
You know, you could think of Paul Pearce, the truth, and maybe Mario in the shot.
-
23:32
No way? No?
-
23:33
Anyone? Anyone?
-
23:33
Anyone?
-
23:34
What about Andrew Wiggy Wiggy Wiggy Wiggins?
-
23:36
First round draft pick last year in, in the NBA.
-
23:38
I don't know.
-
23:39
It could be that.
-
23:40
But oh whoops, that's his first dunk as a Kansas Jayhawk.
-
23:42
My fault.
-
23:42
>> [LAUGH] >> But I love Kansas Jayhawks.
-
23:45
Unfortunately, our basketball seasons normally end like this,
-
23:48
unfortunately most of the time.
-
23:50
Which they did again this year.
-
23:52
But ironically enough I've never once seen one of those guys on campus.
-
23:56
These are the students that I teach every day at the University of Kansas.
-
24:00
>> [LAUGH] >> They're very, very dedicated,
-
24:03
talented designers of the future.
-
24:06
That I'm very delighted to teach.
-
24:09
Teaching's one of those things that I never in a million years
-
24:11
thought I would do.
-
24:12
I never in a mill, million years thought I should do.
-
24:15
But, I started to do it.
-
24:17
And, then I feel in love with it.
-
24:18
And now I'm afraid I could, I, I don't know how to survive without it.
-
24:22
It's one of those, kind of, part of my practices that it's like, I'm so
-
24:24
inspired to see what students are doing and
-
24:27
to see how exited they get about what I’m excited about which is design.
-
24:30
That it is, it’s a very selfish thing because I love it.um because I love it and
-
24:35
it’s hard and it’s a lot of sacrifice.
-
24:36
And you work full time like we all do.
-
24:38
To then try to teach when you have the time.
-
24:41
But it is, it is so rewarding,
-
24:42
it makes you such a better designer to then also do that.
-
24:46
Mitch and I also design a lot of posters.
-
24:48
Me and a buddy of mine started a screen printing studio, oh gosh, in 2006.
-
24:53
And we kinda started that way and
-
24:55
I started designing a lot of posters ever since.
-
24:57
I don't, I'm not really involved with the screen printing shop anymore.
-
24:59
He just runs the print shop full time.
-
25:01
But I design a ton of posters still.
-
25:04
And work with tons of different musicians.
-
25:06
And it's, it's, it's a truly, truly fun thing.
-
25:09
It's design at its core.
-
25:11
But it, in the essence,
-
25:12
still the most important thing, especially when you're designing a poster is concept.
-
25:16
Concept is king when it comes to designing posters.
-
25:19
And whatever that concept is, it can be the smallest of concepts, but
-
25:23
anything when you're designing a poster.
-
25:25
I mean, if you go to the far, far right in the middle that's a,
-
25:27
a flight of the Concord poster.
-
25:29
And anybody's a friend [INAUDIBLE] or
-
25:30
fraud of the Concord, you see that poster and you know when I'm down to my socks.
-
25:34
It's business time, you know what I mean?
-
25:36
>> [LAUGH] >> So it's like, whatever that concept is,
-
25:39
it needs to be present, it needs to be out in the forefront.
-
25:42
That's important.
-
25:43
It's easy to make something pretty, but we're not cake decorators, right?
-
25:46
So adding that concept it very important.
-
25:50
And in my studio, again I talk about risk.
-
25:53
Risk is important and, and my studio is definitely involved in that now.
-
25:56
For a long, long time it was really just kind of, kinda me.
-
26:00
Like, trying to balance it all and figure it out.
-
26:02
And, and more recently we're starting to expand, and we're starting to grow, and
-
26:05
we're kinda trying to figure that out.
-
26:07
Just right now as we speak my wife, who I, I really out kicked my coverage with her.
-
26:12
But my wife is coming on full time, so
-
26:15
we're in transition of that over the next couple months.
-
26:17
And then we have four really amazing interns that work with us.
-
26:20
So, we have at least two people with us everyday in some regard.
-
26:23
So it's really, really amazing collaborative
-
26:26
collective of people that we have starting to work as a team.
-
26:29
My wife, as I mentioned.
-
26:30
Mentioned is one of the most amazing designers I know.
-
26:33
I'm so lucky to have her in a lot of different ways [LAUGH] but
-
26:36
she's such a talented art director and designer.
-
26:39
And the fact that's she's coming on full time now is so exciting, and
-
26:42
I'm just, I'm excited to what's, what's next for us.
-
26:44
She's been an art director at, Willoughby Design Group,
-
26:46
which maybe a lot of you have heard of.
-
26:48
The Ann Willoughby is a very well-received designer.
-
26:51
She actually is, owns the the longest woman-ran design firm in the country.
-
26:56
Which is out of Kansas City.
-
26:58
And my, my wife, is kind of in charge their, their largest,
-
27:02
one of their largest accounts which is Panera Bread.
-
27:04
So for the last several years my wife,
-
27:06
kinda runs the Panera account which means she's designing all of their in store,
-
27:10
she's art directing all of their photo shoots.
-
27:11
And she’s doing, especially our favorite part about it on it that,
-
27:14
she would work on is their holiday campaign.
-
27:17
So she would always design all their cups and their bags and
-
27:19
all their in store which I think is just always top notch.
-
27:21
I am always blown away with what she works on.
-
27:23
Which I’m, I’m just kinda bragging about my wife now, this is what this has become.
-
27:27
>> [LAUGH] >> But again our studio for years and
-
27:29
years was a loft in downtown Kansas city.
-
27:32
We loved it there.
-
27:33
It was fantastic, but then we kinda got this idea to take a risk.
-
27:37
And we thought, "Hey let's try something different.
-
27:38
Let's sell this loft that we loved, and buy a crackhouse."
-
27:42
>> [LAUGH]
-
27:45
[LAUGH]
-
27:47
>> Every designers dream, right?
-
27:48
[LAUGH] >> So, we bought a crack house and
-
27:52
we tore it down, and we started working with a friend of ours who's an architect
-
27:56
to design us a live work space in some way,.
-
27:58
So we got renderings we started working through it and these are some of
-
28:02
the renderings of the space where we'll be moving and we are now,
-
28:05
we're in, you can kinda see the bottom concrete level is our office space,
-
28:09
walk out space for clients and our staff, and we'll live the two floors above that
-
28:15
and so then we started constructing this project and.
-
28:17
What I learned very,
-
28:18
very quickly in doing a construction project like this as designers is
-
28:23
as designers, we very much have champagne taste with beer wallets, you know?
-
28:27
And so that is very hard thing to grasp but we do.
-
28:30
And so we started designing this space and it was a dream project.
-
28:33
And, and one day I posted just a little photo here on the left about that project
-
28:37
and somebody posted on Instagram.
-
28:41
Did you seriously design your house to have a huge C for carpenter?
-
28:45
If so, thumbs up emoticon!
-
28:47
>> [LAUGH] >> Wow.
-
28:52
So, again, we haven't had it professionally shot, but
-
28:54
you can start to see kind of how it's coming together now.
-
28:57
We're really excited about the space and future possibilities, kind of,
-
29:01
of that space, you know?
-
29:02
It's gonna be a, a fun ride, I think, for sure.
-
29:05
At the end of the day, kind of getting into projects, too.
-
29:08
It, it is, it's story telling.
-
29:09
I'm like what we do is story telling.
-
29:10
Yes, with children's' books, that's a very literal interpretation of it, right.
-
29:13
But, just as any kind of design project we do, it's story telling.
-
29:16
And, several years ago, I started a project, with, where Georgia.
-
29:20
There was, there was a new idea for a burger restaurant in Atlanta.
-
29:25
And they didn't have a name.
-
29:25
They didn't have anything.
-
29:27
And they came to me with, this idea to try to start selling burgers in a better way,
-
29:32
and that would be trying to get all of the beef and
-
29:35
their produce and everything from that region, from that area.
-
29:38
And so we started to, started to talk and started to figure this out.
-
29:41
And, and for us, when any branding project starts,
-
29:44
the first thing we do is some basic research and strategy.
-
29:47
And we start a lot with, we do these kind of creative charettes and these
-
29:50
little strategies [INAUDIBLE], where we get to know their, their brand attributes,
-
29:53
and their positioning, and their voice, and all these things.
-
29:56
So we can design to that.
-
29:57
And then, in the, and then, as we move forward, if there's discrepancy, or
-
30:00
they have questions, we can always go back to exactly what they wrote and they said,
-
30:04
which really helps things.
-
30:05
So again, we start with strategy.
-
30:07
For me, everything always starts with pencil and paper.
-
30:10
Like I just have to work that way.
-
30:11
Like I have to write and draw.
-
30:13
So, for me, I start just doodling logo ideas and mark ideas and start to explore.
-
30:18
I start to move onto the computer a little bit.
-
30:20
These are just basic logo ideas like none of these even made it to the client.
-
30:24
These were just ideas that fell on the cutting room floor.
-
30:27
Why I thought it'd be a good idea to show a cow face in the logo lock up.
-
30:31
No one wants to see the face of the thing they're getting ready to consume, man.
-
30:34
>> [LAUGH] >> What, like, oh,
-
30:36
this burger's delicious.
-
30:38
Thanks!
-
30:38
Skippy, Bessie, whatever, you know, like yeah.
-
30:41
Your butt's delicious, I don't know.
-
30:42
You know, it's like, yeah, it's like, no one needs that, you know, but
-
30:45
you have to make those things.
-
30:46
You have to get them out of your system, you know?
-
30:48
So for us and
-
30:49
kinda what we do a lot of times is then we share brand concept boards, you know?
-
30:53
And those normally have several boards, but one concept we shared was this.
-
30:57
And, and this was one basic concept and
-
30:59
they were very responsive to the kind of illustrative nature for a specific reason.
-
31:03
Another concept we shared was this.
-
31:05
It was a little, a little, probably almost feel like too much of a coffee shop or
-
31:08
something you know?
-
31:09
That was a concept that never went anywhere.
-
31:11
This was all about like being layered and it was very textural.
-
31:14
Another idea that they really responded to the mark.
-
31:17
This one was just a little more graphic.
-
31:19
Kind of simple iconic based direction.
-
31:21
And in the end, what we really responded to with this particular brand,
-
31:24
was these two basic kind of ideas.
-
31:26
We loved this illustrative, kind of whimsy.
-
31:29
And we loved this kind of word bubble, which is almost a call to action.
-
31:32
Yeah! Burger, you know?
-
31:34
It fit.
-
31:34
It made sense.
-
31:36
So our brand,
-
31:36
our kind of logo lockup became this, with our main logo being the word bubble mark.
-
31:41
But then it had to be kinetic, it had to work on lots of platforms.
-
31:43
Right? So it worked horizontally.
-
31:45
It worked stacked with the tag.
-
31:47
We have a mascot it works with and
-
31:49
then the tagline we came up which is keeping it real.
-
31:51
It makes sense to our consumer but
-
31:53
it also makes sense to exactly what you are consuming.
-
31:56
You are consuming real food from your state, from your area.
-
32:00
It made sense.
-
32:01
So our brand became very illustrative you know?
-
32:03
And, and the reason and the idea behind that was when I started to visit
-
32:07
the space before we went in there, there's a lot of negative wall space everywhere.
-
32:11
And there's also an opportunity where we need to educate the consumer a little bit,
-
32:15
just about like why am I spending $14 on my meal,
-
32:18
when I can go to Wendy's across the street for $3, you know?
-
32:21
So we thought maybe this illustration was a way to kind of educate the consumer
-
32:24
a little bit.
-
32:25
So if you kind of look at the brand,
-
32:27
if you've ever been there, there's lots of like wall art in very specific places.
-
32:31
And a lot of the, you've been to the, you've been to the burger, yeah?
-
32:34
You've been to the YB?
-
32:35
Cool. That's awesome.
-
32:36
And so, and they're, yeah, I can't.
-
32:39
So there, there, there's going to be others opening, I am told.
-
32:41
I don't know what I'm not supposed to say or should so.
-
32:44
But yeah! So it's like, really exciting!
-
32:45
But, but we were very specific on where we wanted the art to be.
-
32:48
Like, let's put it where they're waiting in line because then they can
-
32:51
read this and it can just be little messages about what they're consuming.
-
32:54
But we thought that would be really helpful, so
-
32:56
you can kinda see how, how that brand came together which is really awesome.
-
33:00
And, and for me, when creating a brand identity.
-
33:04
The value of a successful brand.
-
33:05
I, I don't think it's found in like pixels and paper.
-
33:08
But it's really found in how that brand is brought into your life.
-
33:12
Like, how do people interact with that brand?
-
33:14
And that's what's really, really exciting about Yeah Burger.
-
33:17
You'll see throughout this little montage, or some of the other photographs I took,
-
33:21
everybody goes to Yeah Burger and they stand under the Yeah Burger sign.
-
33:24
And pretend like they're yelling yeah burger, right?
-
33:26
It's become this like crazy Instagram-able moment and I would like to sit here and
-
33:30
tell you that that was my plan from the get go.
-
33:32
Oh yeah.
-
33:32
What, what girl.
-
33:33
You know, but no.
-
33:34
Like it became this and that's awesome.
-
33:36
It became this great thing that people interact with and bring into their life.
-
33:40
And that's what a successful brand does.
-
33:43
You know it's like I'd never read this tweet that someone, that someone sent me.
-
33:46
Hey, I went to a place tonight that based solely on their logo and design,
-
33:49
the Yeah Burger in the ATL.
-
33:51
Oh, and my burger had bacon [UNKNOWN] on it.
-
33:52
What? Yeah.
-
33:53
Bacon jam.
-
33:54
So, again, >> [LAUGH]
-
33:55
>> This girl is driving down the street,
-
33:57
and sees our brand and says I want to go to there.
-
34:00
>> [LAUGH] >> And if that's not enough to show you
-
34:03
the value of what we do I don't know what is, you know?
-
34:07
So, I always like that.
-
34:09
Yeah, I every restaurant I work on is totally different, you know.
-
34:12
This went is very, very smooth.
-
34:14
It just clicked, it clicked, it clicked.
-
34:15
But not all of them do.
-
34:16
And so, for us, it can start as easy as you know, so I have this restaurant idea.
-
34:21
And again, this is also in Atlanta.
-
34:22
I don't live in Atlanta.
-
34:23
But I do a lot of work in Atlanta, somehow.
-
34:24
I don't know how this works out.
-
34:26
But again, someone said, hey I have this idea for a restaurant.
-
34:29
And all they had, all I knew was it was gonna be Southern Style Fried Chicken.
-
34:34
That was it, like that's it.
-
34:35
We don't got a name.
-
34:35
We don't got nothing you know, wow okay.
-
34:37
So we went through strategy the brand concept.
-
34:40
We went through all this stuff and then at the end he just was like you know,
-
34:43
I think I just want like a little logo.
-
34:45
I can just start plopping and dropping on everything and calling it a day you know?
-
34:50
And I was just like oh my gosh man, I was just like oh my gosh I did all this work,
-
34:56
we did all this stuff and then you just want the idea.
-
35:00
He just wanted this little idea to start plopping and dropping.
-
35:04
And so, I just remember leaving that meeting, feeling just like so defeated.
-
35:09
just such a kick in the crotch, you know?
-
35:11
You're just like, oh my gosh, you know, what had just happened?
-
35:14
And I remember driving away just not knowing what to do.
-
35:16
But I turned my car around and I went back to the meeting.
-
35:19
And I just started like right back into my dog and pony show.
-
35:22
You know, just like, this is what you should do.
-
35:23
You're missing an opportunity for this, this, this.
-
35:25
And I don't know if he was just ready for me to shut up or what happened.
-
35:29
But he looked at me, he said,
-
35:29
Tad I trust you let's go with what you recommend, done.
-
35:33
And my first thought was where the hell were you like ten minutes ago bro.
-
35:36
Like I just went through all this you know, but
-
35:39
I think he saw how passionate I was about his business.
-
35:42
And I think that's what he thought.
-
35:43
So then we created this brand and it's this fried chicken restaurant in Atlanta
-
35:46
called Chick-a-Biddy it's farm fresh chicken inside, it's, man, chicken and
-
35:50
waffles like, almost as good as that Bridge place last night,
-
35:53
that party we were at, you know?
-
35:54
So amazing chicken waffles and we created, I created all these like,
-
35:58
little hand painted iconography that would then be used in a lot of different
-
36:01
applications and a lot of different things.
-
36:04
Menus and, and, and all the tray liners.
-
36:08
Really fun signage interior and exterior.
-
36:11
Then we had a lot of fun just with the interior space also.
-
36:14
It’s a really really fun project and
-
36:16
again almost really ever happened if I didn't take a little bit of initiative.
-
36:21
And say you know what, I think you’re making a mistake here.
-
36:23
A really, really fun project.
-
36:24
And so its like doing that project I learned ya know you have to fight for
-
36:28
what you believe, you know fight for it.
-
36:30
But you need to be kind and be honest.
-
36:32
I think that’s important for and try not to ever let it get unfun.
-
36:36
I know that's hard with deadlines and this and that, but
-
36:40
try not to ever let it get unfun.
-
36:44
I've also worked with Adobe quite a bit, I know there's some people from Adobe
-
36:47
here actually, so, I'll be on my best p’s and q’s here for a moment.
-
36:51
But no.
-
36:52
I got to do some work with Adobe.
-
36:53
And it was really amazing that I remember the day I got a call from Adobe.
-
36:57
And I was like whoa, like how, how, I mean getting a call from adobe is like getting
-
37:01
a call from like a pencil, Ya know what I mean.
-
37:03
You’re like whoa I use you every day to like make shit like hello pencil,
-
37:08
this is amazing like [LAUGH] >> This is awesome, you know?
-
37:11
>> [APPLAUSE] >> And, and, and I remember when they
-
37:14
called, my first thought was like, how the hell do you know who I am, man?
-
37:18
And my second thought was, I sure as shit hope you're not calling me cuz I'm using
-
37:21
pirated software from when I was in college.
-
37:22
>> [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] Luckily, that was not the case.
-
37:26
So, at the time, this has been about a year and a half or so ago,
-
37:29
they were pretty quick.
-
37:30
It was to launch CS6.
-
37:32
And our CS6, 5 or whatever it was at the time.
-
37:35
What was cool was they were like hey it's not out yet.
-
37:38
We want to give you a prerelease of Adobe Illustrator and
-
37:41
we want you to create a piece.
-
37:42
And it was specifically, because it was when they were launching their new pattern
-
37:45
tool, I'm sure a lot of you guys use their pattern tool, it's fantastic.
-
37:47
It's a fantastic addition they've added and they were like hey we want you to use
-
37:51
the pattern tool, somehow include that in your work.
-
37:53
Come up with a piece, whatever you have in mind, let's take a look at some ideas and
-
37:57
go from there.
-
37:58
And then we're going to document all the steps that you do, and
-
38:00
it's going to be included for
-
38:01
every single person in the world that buys a WCS6 will get a document.
-
38:06
He meant showing all of your steps to create your shit.
-
38:08
Now they're just like, whoa, oh, my God.
-
38:10
Mind blown, you know?
-
38:11
I was like, okay, well, all right.
-
38:12
So, yeah, so we did.
-
38:13
We created this, piece and they documented all of the steps which is cool.
-
38:16
And this was just kind of the piece I created on the left.
-
38:18
And for those of you that have been using Illustrator longer than some of
-
38:21
us you might remember the original packaging for Adobe Illustrator.
-
38:24
And it was, it was Botticelli's Venus painting.
-
38:27
So this was like con, my interpretation of Botticelli's Venus painting,
-
38:30
is what it is.
-
38:31
>> [LAUGH] >> So.
-
38:32
So if you look at it, there's lots of little patterns.
-
38:33
So we pulled those patterns out with the pattern tool.
-
38:35
We made bags.
-
38:36
Because we use those at trade shows and
-
38:38
all kinds of stuff to promote their project.
-
38:39
And it's just been this wonderful, seamless relationship.
-
38:42
Even more recently, Adobe and I have been doing a lot of work with a lot of their
-
38:46
learn tools where, again, I'm creating these kind of like hero header
-
38:49
images showcasing a lot of the new content that they have online.
-
38:52
So I've just been creating a bunch of a bunch of work for that as well.
-
38:56
Which is like really fun, it's just great stuff.
-
38:59
And like, working with Adobe, and
-
39:00
I'm not kissing ass because I think Adobe people are here, love you Adobe.
-
39:03
>> [LAUGH] >> Like, that has nothing to do with it,
-
39:05
but they are, it's one of those clients that's just seamless.
-
39:08
But, you know, sometimes, not all clients are that easy.
-
39:13
And, several years ago I partnered with an agency out of Dallas and
-
39:17
it was to work with on a project with Dr Pepper.
-
39:20
Dr. Pepper owns Snapple and they are like we need this new idea for Snapple.
-
39:24
We have this idea of this half and half concept where it's half tea half flavor.
-
39:28
I was like rad, that's cool.
-
39:29
Let me throw some ideas in there and I did and they liked them and
-
39:33
it was full steam ahead and so we started creating these half and
-
39:36
half Snapple concepts that were going to be half flavor monster, half tea monster.
-
39:42
So every one depending on the flavor would kind of switch out and they loved it.
-
39:46
It went to print,
-
39:47
I started getting samples I started wetting my pants with excitement.
-
39:50
I was gonna be able to go to a 711 and buy, like, a bottle that I designed.
-
39:53
I'm like, oh my god, this is awesome!
-
39:54
You know?
-
39:55
So we got all these samples and I was super jazzed and so
-
39:58
excited about all this stuff that was coming in with Snapple.
-
40:01
I'm like, dude like this is gonna be so cool.
-
40:03
And then last minute, I mean I [INAUDIBLE].
-
40:06
It was like last minute that we get a call from a,
-
40:08
from a higher up and Somebody got kind of a little cold feet.
-
40:12
We don't know if this is the right demographic.
-
40:13
We're pulling it.
-
40:14
We're gonna go with something else.
-
40:16
>> Oh.
-
40:17
>> So it's like, okay.
-
40:18
>> [LAUGH] >> I get it.
-
40:19
You know?
-
40:19
It happens to all of us.
-
40:21
You know. It happens to all of us.
-
40:22
[LAUGH] [APPLAUSE].
-
40:26
But, but what you have to,
-
40:27
what you take away from it is that you have to learn to let go, you know.
-
40:31
You learn to let go.
-
40:34
[LAUGH]. Oh it's not that bad.
-
40:36
You've all seen worse shit than, you've been at my table today there's
-
40:40
worse shit than that at my table over there, but no, it's not that bad.
-
40:43
But again it's, it's a little expected.
-
40:44
And you're like damn, and we almost, we almost snack one by, guys.
-
40:47
You know, we almost did it.
-
40:48
And so we ended up here or they ended up there.
-
40:50
I don't know. I had nothing to do with that, but, but
-
40:52
again, you learn to let go.
-
40:53
Something new comes along.
-
40:54
Something new happens and that's great.
-
40:56
We kinda started off my presentation probably four hours ago
-
40:59
talking about passion projects, you know.
-
41:01
And I think passion projects are super, super important.
-
41:05
To me a passion project is very, very simple.
-
41:07
It's inventing something you love,
-
41:09
writing something you'd read, make something you'd buy.
-
41:12
Simple.
-
41:13
And for me those passion projects really started with like very true story telling.
-
41:17
For me, it started in the, in the Isles of Greece, you know its all go there.
-
41:21
Together, you know?
-
41:22
And and, and so my wife and I got married about six years ago.
-
41:26
And, we were really lucky to go to Greece for our honeymoon.
-
41:29
You guys should look into it, they're kinda having some financial trouble.
-
41:32
You can kinda get there kinda cheap, so you know.
-
41:33
>> [LAUGH] >> You know.
-
41:35
Help them out.
-
41:35
Buy some Greek yogurt or something.
-
41:36
So so again, we got to go to Greece.
-
41:39
And my wife loves the fact that I don't really take some days off.
-
41:42
So like, we're on our honeymoon.
-
41:43
I have my sketchbook.
-
41:44
I have some notes with me.
-
41:46
And she's just like, Dude, we're laying on a beach in Greece.
-
41:48
Can you not like, you know, chill?
-
41:49
But, but I remember and anyone here that's married
-
41:52
can remember how unbelievably fun it is to plan a wedding, you know?
-
41:56
>> [LAUGH].
-
41:57
>> Oh, seating charts and cake tastings and uncles and aunts and
-
42:00
don't sit next to Uncle Drunk.
-
42:01
You know, he's a, you know, whatever.
-
42:03
>> [LAUGH] >> So it's like, it's a nightmare.
-
42:05
So you spend an entire year planning one day of a party.
-
42:08
You know, my.
-
42:09
[INAUDIBLE] probably knows a little something about that.
-
42:12
Right? So you know it's like,
-
42:13
you just plan that one all year for one day.
-
42:15
And then poof it's over and then here we are on the isles of Greece,
-
42:19
in the, in the beaches of Greece.
-
42:20
I just remember looking to my wife and I'm like wow we planned this wedding for
-
42:23
a whole year and then now, here we are, me and you babe the next 50 years.
-
42:27
Here we go, you know, and it's like,
-
42:29
you it's like a little bit of it it's like, it's over, like the weddings over.
-
42:32
You know, it's sad.
-
42:33
And I remember looking at her and
-
42:35
being like I bet this is how Santa Claus feels every year, you know?
-
42:37
You know, I bet, dude, home boy plans a party all year long and it comes and goes.
-
42:41
December 26th comes, I bet dude's so bummed out at the end of,
-
42:45
on December 26th.
-
42:46
I like that idea.
-
42:46
That's kinda funny.
-
42:47
I kinda like this.
-
42:48
So, while I was in Greece, I just started sketching and doodling some basic ideas.
-
42:52
I was like, man, he's the holliest jolliest dude around.
-
42:54
That bad had a bad day.every once in a while, you know?
-
42:57
I liked that idea.
-
42:58
So.
-
42:59
Again I came back to the states and I was like, you know,
-
43:02
I'd done some work in publishing like I've done some illustrations and
-
43:05
a lot of book jackets and stuff like that.
-
43:06
I was like well I'll just float this concept to couple people and
-
43:09
see what they think.
-
43:10
And, well, it became this-
-
43:12
[MUSIC]
-
43:40
>> [LAUGH] >> [NOISE] [NOISE]
-
43:43
>> [MUSIC]
-
44:04
So no one asked me to make this book, you know?
-
44:06
But we turned [INAUDIBLE] around this publisher and
-
44:09
some people were [INAUDIBLE].
-
44:10
They were like, yeah let's do this, you know?
-
44:13
Like wow, oh my gosh.
-
44:14
Like, a book I made, and idea I had is gonna be [INAUDIBLE] and PS,
-
44:17
this song's going to be stuck in your head for like a month man, and I, I apologize.
-
44:20
Oh it's going to be in there forever.
-
44:23
So we made this idea.
-
44:25
So we made this book.
-
44:26
And it came out several years ago.
-
44:28
It's called Sad Santa,
-
44:29
and it's about the saddest day of the year which is December 26th.
-
44:32
And again, no one asked me to do this, I did it on my own, and I got it sold.
-
44:37
And it was an amazing experience.
-
44:39
And and, out of that all kinds of fun things happened, like we got to go on
-
44:42
a book tour, and like we were in New York and got to do an event at Macy's.
-
44:48
On Thansgiv-, like the day before Thanksgiving.
-
44:50
So, like, it was literally at Macy's, it was me, the Rockettes, you know,
-
44:54
like the Rockettes, you know, me,
-
44:56
the Rockettes, and all the characters from the Macy's day parade, like, all them.
-
45:00
At Macey's, like doing this event,
-
45:02
like somebody's out like doesn't fit at all,you know.
-
45:04
But we got to do this and
-
45:05
this would have never happened if I wouldn't of taken that initiative.
-
45:09
Around the same time I had a couple of other ideas and, and
-
45:12
one was this series of called I say You say.
-
45:14
It's all about like interactive.
-
45:16
Reading and learning through repetition and flaps and and so again the same kind
-
45:21
of idea like I was like guys, just a random idea, I'm gonna float it by
-
45:25
a couple publishers let's just see what they think and then it became this.
-
45:30
>> [NOISE] [MUSIC] Wake up.
-
45:32
[NOISE] Quack quack quack quack quack >> I say
-
45:38
>> Animals.
-
45:39
>> You say.
-
45:40
>> Baa, baa, baa.
-
45:41
[MUSIC]
-
45:43
>> Holy smokes.
-
45:44
>> [MUSIC]
-
45:48
[INAUDIBLE]
-
45:50
[MUSIC]
-
45:51
[INAUDIBLE]
-
45:57
[MUSIC]
-
46:19
So again, it wasn't really something that anyone asked me to do, but we did it, and
-
46:23
we made this book.
-
46:25
And in it, in it, we came out with the first two which is opposites and
-
46:28
animal sounds.
-
46:29
And it was an amazing experience to create all these fun things that again,
-
46:32
no one asked me to do but we did them.
-
46:34
And then we came out with two more, colors and feelings.
-
46:36
And like, so just like that like it wasn't a client that came to me to do it.
-
46:39
It was a passion project that I needed to get out of my system.
-
46:42
And then now we have a four book series that's out and living in the world and
-
46:45
families and kids and adults are, are, are enjoying it and experiencing it.
-
46:49
And then those books inevitably then lead to more books.
-
46:52
And so these are some other books I've worked on, a little more recently.
-
46:56
One, one of my favourites of them is Zoom!
-
46:58
Zoom!, which just came out last year.
-
47:01
My favourite part of designing books is actually the in pages.
-
47:03
I love designing in pages, they're so
-
47:05
much fun to create, it's just a really really neat thing to be a part of.
-
47:10
Hopefully maybe a young designer, just a kid's life.
-
47:12
I think all of us remember reading a book with that adult in our life and
-
47:15
that's a special thing.
-
47:17
It's really fun and I'm.
-
47:19
So, like, no, like, crazy live tweeting for a minute.
-
47:21
Like, I don't think I'm supposed to show this.
-
47:22
But, I have a new four book series coming out this year and it's called.
-
47:26
It's called Who's That, and it's another flat book.
-
47:29
And it's going to be, the first two coming out are, Who's that Barnyard Friends and
-
47:34
Who's That On the Go.
-
47:35
And in October Who's That Arctic Animals and
-
47:37
Who's That When I Grow Up are coming out.
-
47:39
So again, like Things just continue to grow.
-
47:41
Thanks for taking a bunch of pictures, man.
-
47:43
I'm just kidding, you can.
-
47:44
I was just joking around.
-
47:45
But so it, it's cool to see like how these things start to come around from these
-
47:50
projects cuz in the end, especially when it comes to passion projects
-
47:54
if you're passionate about it, so are others, you know?
-
47:56
And you should get it out there,
-
47:58
and that's kind of how gig posters are, too, you know?
-
48:00
It's like they're not passion projects, like you're getting paid from a client,
-
48:03
but you know, newsflash, a lot of music and musicians don't have huge budgets.
-
48:07
So, it's like, a lot of times, those budgets are pretty small.
-
48:09
But those projects lead to other projects.
-
48:12
You know, me doing a lot of gig posters led to, you know,
-
48:14
several years ago, I got to do a full tour for John Mayer.
-
48:18
That was, gosh, 36 cities, 36 different posters for John.
-
48:24
Again it was an amazing project.
-
48:26
Like quick, quick quick, you know.
-
48:27
Say what you will about John.
-
48:28
He's said some weird stuff over the years you know what I mean,
-
48:31
but dude is super easy to work with and when I say he's super easy to work with.
-
48:35
His management is super easy to work with.
-
48:37
John didn't call me up on the phone once.
-
48:39
What's that all about.
-
48:40
You know little things like again about concept
-
48:43
like this yellow poster with the house.
-
48:45
Like John had a request.
-
48:46
Hey man, this is my home town.
-
48:48
My nana's gonna be there.
-
48:49
Can you just make sure it's not like some weird like bleeding devil or
-
48:52
anything like that?
-
48:52
So I was like cool.
-
48:53
So like that's a drawing of John's house,
-
48:56
like where he grew up in Connecticut, you know?
-
48:58
So like, trying to make sure those concepts are there, and, and
-
49:01
doing posters led to more work.
-
49:02
You know, doing campaign as a Ray-Ban.
-
49:04
We did a never, I did a never hide campaign with Ray-Ban
-
49:07
where they sent these ugly sunglasses to me there.
-
49:10
And then wanted them back in return so
-
49:12
I was like wait, like we were supposed to use that as inspiration for the, for
-
49:16
the poster for the advertisement and that piece we created ended up everywhere like
-
49:21
in every magazine you can think of, the centre image here
-
49:25
my dad texted to me one day he was in Beijing one morning I guess.
-
49:29
That Hallmark Beijing or something, I don't know, and literally was walking to
-
49:33
work and said, dude, I am walking to work in down town Beijing and
-
49:37
I walked into a ten foot tall example of your work at like a sun glass hut or
-
49:41
something, you know.
-
49:42
He'd be like, how cool is that that our work,
-
49:44
it's all the way on the other side of the world?
-
49:45
Like, that is so cool.
-
49:46
And then like cool things that you, or crazy that happened.
-
49:49
I was like a huge Dexter fan.
-
49:50
I don't know if anybody else watched Dexter and liked Dexter.
-
49:52
>> [NOISE] >> Rad, right.
-
49:53
So I'm watching it one season, as we all are on on pins and needles, right?
-
49:57
If you look way down here, dad found a clue on the wall but
-
49:59
if you scroll way down to the end of it my poster was on Dexter.
-
50:03
So that's like, like life, life long dream checked, right?
-
50:06
>> [LAUGH] But, like, you never know like, what's gonna happen and then like,
-
50:09
Ray-Ban called me like, hey, we're gonna make a commercial of your piece.
-
50:13
And I was like, Oh, that's awesome.
-
50:14
That's cool. Do you need me to, like,
-
50:15
do some animation for it, what do you want?
-
50:17
Oh, no, no, no, we're gonna do live action and it's already done,
-
50:19
we just wanted to show you.
-
50:20
And I'm like, really?
-
50:20
All right, that's kind of cool, I guess, you know.
-
50:24
They made this live action version of my campaign, even down
-
50:29
to like the inside of the guy's ear is blue and stuff, like, kind of odd right?
-
50:33
You know, but like that's awesome, that's cool, let's do it, you know, so, it's so
-
50:38
unexpected on what we do.
-
50:39
And then one of the last projects I'll show you guys is,
-
50:42
is I got to do a whole, whole campaign for Conan O'Brien.
-
50:45
And this was a year or two ago when he, he kinda made his transition to TBS and
-
50:49
the whole LA thing was happening, a, and they were doing a summer concert series.
-
50:53
And I mean, it's Conan O'Brien.
-
50:56
It's Coco, man, like I'll do anything for you, you know?
-
50:59
And, you know, outside of the fact that their team doesn't have the best taste in
-
51:03
musicians, it was really, really awesome to create this whole series of posters.
-
51:07
And it's kind of like this designer in me, I wanted them to work kinetically.
-
51:10
And I wanted them to work as a system.
-
51:11
So if you kind of go down the line of them,
-
51:13
they actually all connect in some way.
-
51:16
And obviously the pallet connects them, too.
-
51:17
But there's all, there's, there's concept in all of them.
-
51:20
And there's a little bit of Conan in all of them, and
-
51:21
there's a little bit of the musicians.
-
51:23
So, you know, you have Ke$ha on the far left,
-
51:24
I can't believe I'm talking about Ke$ha at a design conference.
-
51:27
But, we have Ke$ha on the far left, but you can see there's like,
-
51:29
there's a disco ball, there's spilled pills in the background.
-
51:33
>> Conan's in his Ford Taurus holding it, you have the, have the pier and
-
51:36
the boat crossing over to Edward Sharpe, where we have a home, we have a desert,
-
51:41
which are both songs of his.
-
51:42
We have the Hollywood sign which goes over to KT Tunstall where you have a b,
-
51:46
a big black horse and a cherry tree, comes over to Pitbull.
-
51:49
We have a pitbull, a, a, and that's kind of a given right?
-
51:52
But you got to do this, I got to work with Conan who is amazing and again,
-
51:55
it was a great job, it was a great team to work with.
-
51:58
But then, when the project was completed, what came in the mail,
-
52:00
I would have done the project for that, you know.
-
52:03
Conan sent me a signed poster and
-
52:04
it said, To Tad, you are a talented man, love Conan.
-
52:07
To Tad, this is not what my hand looks like.
-
52:09
[LAUGH] >> It
-
52:15
doesn't get any better than that, like we get to do this!
-
52:18
So to kind of recap, embrace the power of play.
-
52:27
You know, your job today might not be, you know, doing the cabbage patch for
-
52:31
the whole office or something.
-
52:32
But you know what, your job might need you to do the cabbage patch and
-
52:35
have some fun today you know?
-
52:36
Do that, embrace that,
-
52:37
it's important to remember, remember to, to have a little fun at what we do.
-
52:42
Go out and take risks, it's important!
-
52:44
Things can get vanilla and stale really fast, you know, remem,
-
52:47
remind yourself, take risks.
-
52:50
Love what you do!
-
52:50
That's the bottom line of anything and everything, man.
-
52:53
We, we unfortunately are not this spinning rock long enough, and
-
52:55
if you're doing something you don't like, switch, man.
-
52:58
It's not a big deal.
-
52:59
Do something you love and it sounds like most of you guys are all doing something
-
53:02
you love, which is important.
-
53:03
That's why you're here, right?
-
53:05
Passion projects are good.
-
53:06
Passion projects are good, make sure you do them.
-
53:08
It's important.
-
53:09
It fuels you.
-
53:10
It'll make you a better designer.
-
53:12
Exercise.
-
53:13
That has nothing to do with graphic design at all.
-
53:15
It's just good life advice, man.
-
53:16
>> [LAUGH] >> We sit for like 15 hours a day, man,
-
53:19
like, we're going to get that flat butt syndrome thing that I keep reading about.
-
53:22
I'm really worried about that, you know.
-
53:23
So, it's like, like get out there, walk around the block, you know, do something,
-
53:26
you know, it's important.
-
53:28
And, at the end of the day, like Buck Owens told us at the very start, you know,
-
53:32
go out there and the harder you work, the luckier you're gonna get.
-
53:36
I'm a firm believer in that, man.
-
53:38
Go out there and get lucky.
-
53:39
So I can't think you guys enough.
-
53:42
I'll shut up now.
-
53:44
Thank you guys so, so much for having me speak at your conference.
-
53:48
>> [APPLAUSE] >> So
-
53:58
I know we're like, nine hours late is what I'm told.
-
54:05
So joke's on you, you're gonna go outside, it's 3am actually.
-
54:08
>> [LAUGH] >> So
-
54:10
if y'all want to do a couple questions, we can do a couple questions.
-
54:14
I got some posters up here if you all are into screen printed paper,
-
54:17
we got some posters here.
-
54:20
We got a little book, we got some letter pressed greeting cards.
-
54:24
If anybody has a question, you're welcome to any of this stuff, it's yours.
-
54:29
We can, we can, we can hang out a little bit.
-
54:31
I cannot see shit up here man, let’s get real.
-
54:35
Yeah, you right there.
-
54:36
[BLANK_AUDIO]
-
54:42
Oh I don’t.
-
54:43
At all. >> [LAUGH]
-
54:44
>> Yeah well I mean,
-
54:45
I'm actually a pretty organized guy.
-
54:48
Now my wife hops on my computer and it's like a nightmare to her.
-
54:52
She's like what is all this that's going on?
-
54:54
You know, I mean, to be honest, a big part of my wife becoming, not only my,
-
54:58
my life partner, but now becoming my business partner full time,
-
55:02
is, it has a lot to do with organization.
-
55:04
Because it's like I, I got to a point where I can't keep burning the candle
-
55:08
at both ends like I'm doing.
-
55:10
I need someone to come on with me, you know, full time, and
-
55:12
who can I trust more than her, you know?
-
55:14
And so that has a lot to do with organization.
-
55:16
And for me, I'm very diligent about organizing all of my files,
-
55:20
in I label everything very specifically.
-
55:24
I created a system for me, like, if you don't work in my office,
-
55:27
it would make no sense to you probably, but like, we have a, we have a system.
-
55:31
That's important for everyone, like create a system for yourself and
-
55:33
follow it, and, and, and do it but ultimately, at the end of the day,
-
55:37
also remind yourself you cannot do everything.
-
55:40
Like as much as we all think we can, you can't.
-
55:42
Surround yourself with good people, you know, if that's,
-
55:45
I mean, you don't have to have a wife that's a really fantastic designer also.
-
55:50
But, is it, is it someone that you trust?
-
55:52
It comes down to trust, you know, it's, it's a weird industry we're all in,
-
55:55
that it's, it's it's design, right, it's our business.
-
55:58
But like, this is more than business, you know what I mean?
-
56:00
Like this is what we would all be doing for fun tonight.
-
56:02
You know what I mean?
-
56:03
Like, shit, it's Saturday night, I'm gonna throw a movie in and draw, you know, or
-
56:05
I'm going to work on this.
-
56:06
This is what we do.
-
56:07
So, it's important to us, so the people that you surround yourself with,
-
56:10
that's the most important thing ever.
-
56:12
You know? Like, find good people and
-
56:14
the more people you have helping you, the more organized you're going to be.
-
56:16
Why? Because you have more time
-
56:17
to do this and that.
-
56:18
It's when we get busy, we start just throwing shit all over the place and not,
-
56:21
you know, it, it's, it's find a way to give yourself more time, you know?
-
56:26
And it's like, nothing pisses me off more than, like, I, I'm not worried about
-
56:29
billing, you're late on that, or the, the bill, the budget's not quite enough.
-
56:32
Whatever. Money is money, you know.
-
56:34
It sucks we have to deal with it.
-
56:35
We focus on it, I get it.
-
56:36
You know?
-
56:37
But someone once told me, there always gonna be more money.
-
56:39
Like, there's always gonna be something out there.
-
56:41
But if you, pardon my French, you fuck with my time?
-
56:44
Now then I get pissed off.
-
56:45
You know what I mean?
-
56:46
Like, it, cause, unfortunately, we're never gonna get any more of it, you know?
-
56:49
Like, that's all we got, you know?
-
56:50
So it's like, any way that you can manage your time the best, that's, that,
-
56:53
that's the most important thing y'all have.
-
56:55
You know? And I think that's important to remember.
-
56:57
I'm sorry I'm so long winded.
-
56:58
Like, I don't even know if I answered your question, man.
-
57:01
So if you want any of this stuff,
-
57:02
please, I don't think I can throw it at you from there so
-
57:04
feel free if you want to come down and grab something you're welcome to, man.
-
57:07
How about right here, someone from Orlando, right?
-
57:09
>> Woo!
-
57:10
>> Geez!
-
57:12
>> So my question is for the Conan series.
-
57:13
Did you do all, like as one, since they all had like, the same elements.
-
57:19
>> Mm-hm.
-
57:19
>> Did you design them like this one huge layout?
-
57:22
>> I didn't design it in one huge layout, but we did design them all at once.
-
57:25
So, I mean, just like anything, I shared sketches first with them and
-
57:28
we had variations.
-
57:29
Like hey this is one kind of concept we can do where it is like
-
57:31
this big long scene.
-
57:32
I used, even had an idea where there was like, like weird dye cuts and like,
-
57:36
you know, there's like just some weird ideas I threw out there.
-
57:39
But I designed them all at once.
-
57:40
And I designed them individually.
-
57:42
I think they, like all individual arts boards or something, you know?
-
57:45
But no, they were all, all at one time.
-
57:47
They all printed.
-
57:48
They're all individual posters but they all kind of printed at one time.
-
57:51
They shipped at one time.
-
57:52
And then so,
-
57:53
everybody that went to the show at TBS all got one of those posters there.
-
57:57
And then what's the coolest about that project for me too, is like,
-
58:00
if any of you guys ever watch Conan and they show the bands in the green room,
-
58:03
they have the whole series hanging in the green room.
-
58:05
So any time the band is warming up or the musician is like in there doing coke or
-
58:09
whatever they do in their green room, they get to stare at my posters,
-
58:12
you know what I mean?
-
58:13
So like, that's like so cool.
-
58:14
And a, and like, all, they're always Instagramming like, little like,
-
58:18
music things that they do on the team Coco Instagram feed,
-
58:20
and it's always like my posters behind them and it just like dude, it melts me.
-
58:24
I'm just like wow because Conan to me is just like as good as it gets, you know?
-
58:28
Like dude is, like, he's a genius, he's so clever and smart.
-
58:31
So again I probably didn't answer your question at all so yeah, yeah, yeah,
-
58:35
feel free if you want any of this jazz right here.
-
58:37
Yeah, please take something yeah, let's go with right there.
-
58:40
>> [BLANK_AUDIO]
-
58:44
>> Yeah, of course.
-
58:45
There's lots of stuff gosh.
-
58:49
There's, like, types of, I mean, gosh, I don't know.
-
58:54
I, I love, I mean when it comes down to it, I love creating brand identities.
-
58:57
I think that's like my, my favorite type of work.
-
59:00
Because it's, it's everything.
-
59:01
Like it's, it's, it's everything.
-
59:02
You can think of interior space, you can think obviously of creating,
-
59:05
creating an identity and logo, and marketing logo system.
-
59:07
But like, it's everything.
-
59:09
I hope just to continue to create identities and, and things like that.
-
59:12
I hope to stat creating, I always want to do a good balance of,
-
59:15
like, large ones with, I love startups.
-
59:18
Startups are my favorite.
-
59:19
Like, yeah, there's, a lot of times not the budget there, but
-
59:21
sometimes there's a lot of, like, really cool freedom that you can do.
-
59:24
I hope to continue to do those.
-
59:26
I would love to, I mean, I don't know why I think this,
-
59:28
but I've always, I like sports, like I grew up, like, randomly, like,
-
59:32
I was, I played football my whole life and I was also the art kid.
-
59:36
So like I would come to my weird keg parties with my football friends and
-
59:39
bring all my g, friends with green hair, you know.
-
59:41
And be like, hey, you guys are gonna love these guys,
-
59:43
we’re all going to hang out, you know?
-
59:44
And, I love sports, and it’s like,
-
59:46
I think it would be fun to start designing, you know, within that realm.
-
59:51
And more specifically, I would love, I mean,
-
59:52
I think all of us would love to like brand a team or something like that,
-
59:54
which I don't think that's really feasible.
-
59:55
But like, I don't know, I feel very lucky.
-
1:00:00
To do a lot of the work that I like.
-
1:00:02
And it's I love the balance and that's why we all probably got into what we did,
-
1:00:06
is that you can wear a different hat over and over again many times in a week.
-
1:00:09
And, it's like, do a children's book, then I'm working on, like,
-
1:00:12
we're branding an international freight shipping company right now like it's
-
1:00:16
very different you know.
-
1:00:17
Then we're also working on a children's book.
-
1:00:19
And then we're doing a campaign for Macy's right now, and then we're,
-
1:00:23
we're doing some stuff with Target right now.
-
1:00:24
We're doing something, so it's like it's so different, all the time.
-
1:00:27
And like that variety is so awesome, you know.
-
1:00:29
That's really, really cool.
-
1:00:30
So yeah, I think sports could be cool.
-
1:00:31
I think, I mean I've never done work, I don't do a ton of work in apparel.
-
1:00:35
I think doing work with Nike or something people like that could be cool.
-
1:00:38
And I've talked to them a few times but it was never the right fit and, yeah,
-
1:00:41
I think there's a lot of things like that.
-
1:00:43
Feel free to come up, come up when you're done.
-
1:00:46
We'll take, I don't know what, they don't pay attention.
-
1:00:47
I think they take a nap back there.
-
1:00:49
Let's do, let's do another back there.
-
1:00:52
>> [INAUDIBLE]
-
1:01:08
>> Mm-hm.
-
1:01:10
>> [INAUDIBLE] >> Yeah I don't know.
-
1:01:18
That's a really hard question because you're right.
-
1:01:20
Cuz I remember being young, well, I actually like to think I'm still young,
-
1:01:23
but I'm not am I?
-
1:01:24
Oh, God. But anyway, no,
-
1:01:25
I remember like being a student and always being like, oh, man,
-
1:01:27
when I am gonna find my style, or whatever, you know?
-
1:01:29
And I don't know if I believe in that really, you know?
-
1:01:34
First and foremost above anything I'm a designer.
-
1:01:36
That's what I am, I am a designer.
-
1:01:38
As a designer we have to be able to be very versatile.
-
1:01:41
The best designers are the most versatile, in my eyes.
-
1:01:44
Should be able to do a lot of different things.
-
1:01:47
To me that's the way I kind of approach graphic design.
-
1:01:49
If I'm doing a poster for Jenny Lewis it's going to have a very specific sensibility
-
1:01:53
but, if I'm doing a children's book, that's not the same sensibility.
-
1:01:57
You know?
-
1:01:57
I should be able to try something else.
-
1:01:59
And, I don't think I should be pigeonholed to a specific style.
-
1:02:03
So I mean my recommendation would be explore a lot of different things.
-
1:02:07
Through making more, you are going to find your own voice a little bit.
-
1:02:11
And that's how I feel.
-
1:02:11
Like, even though it might be a poster for
-
1:02:13
Radiohead and then it might be Yeah Burger or something.
-
1:02:17
I still feel like you can kind of tell they maybe came from my hand a little bit.
-
1:02:20
And I think just through making, continually making, you find yourself.
-
1:02:24
And I feel like that would be my recommendation to anybody like
-
1:02:26
trying to find that style, if you want to call it, is just keep making things.
-
1:02:30
Because you're eventually going to find what feels right to you,
-
1:02:32
what is authentic to you.
-
1:02:35
And a lot of you saw where I came from with, like, my dad and being around
-
1:02:38
Hallmark, and it's like all these little bit of whimsy is probably what and
-
1:02:41
why I respond to things that are a little more whimsical sometimes, you know.
-
1:02:45
But that still doesn't mean that I don't want to try other things.
-
1:02:47
Like, I'll be totally honest, I daydream about something all the time and
-
1:02:50
it's that I want to create an alter-ego that I don't tell any of you guys about.
-
1:02:54
And like, just some weird name.
-
1:02:55
You know, you're like whoa, have you seen this new illustrator from Poland?
-
1:02:58
But it's gonna be me.
-
1:03:00
And it's gonna be, like, the darkest shit you have ever seen in your life.
-
1:03:04
>> [LAUGH] [APPLAUSE] >> Just wait for it.
-
1:03:07
It's gonna happen.
-
1:03:09
So, like, it would just be cool, it'd be fun.
-
1:03:11
Let's do one more, and we'll, we'll, let's go get a beer, guys.
-
1:03:14
Like, it's party time, right, like, let's do this.
-
1:03:17
Let's, let's go right here.
-
1:03:19
Ya sure.
-
1:03:20
I'm sorry guys, you can come see me over there, I'm gonna go to my booth,
-
1:03:22
we can hang out and talk there, I promise.
-
1:03:24
>> [INAUDIBLE]
-
1:03:35
>> I mean it's a little bit of both and,
-
1:03:36
and anybody whose written a book understands that the book
-
1:03:39
couldn't be successful without a really successful, editor.
-
1:03:42
So every publishing company I work with, you're assigned an editor.
-
1:03:45
And so I, I'm not gonna lie.
-
1:03:47
I'm not like a great writer.
-
1:03:49
Like, that's not my, my strength.
-
1:03:52
But I also I think I'm fairly good at ideas and concepts.
-
1:03:57
So I can get ideas and concepts through, but
-
1:03:59
then they can help me with grammar, and story, and, and all that.
-
1:04:03
And the editor makes you really sound a lot better than you are and
-
1:04:06
so I always am very, very thankful for the editors that I work with.
-
1:04:09
I also run every book by my wife like I mean,
-
1:04:12
like all married men should I run everything I do by my wife.
-
1:04:15
>> [LAUGH] >> And
-
1:04:16
my books ain't the no exception to that, anybody that follows me on Twitter
-
1:04:19
they know I can't spell and punctuate worth shit.
-
1:04:22
So my, my story, my writings, are very, very reflective of that.
-
1:04:25
And so she's great about just helping me get those things to a good place.
-
1:04:28
And what's good and what's not.
-
1:04:30
There's no one on earth that, that is more real with me than my wife.
-
1:04:33
Like, just straight up, like, no that cat, that's a stupid idea.
-
1:04:35
You should not waste time on that and I'm like awesome.
-
1:04:38
Cool, that's great but she'll also tell me what is.
-
1:04:41
So I rely a lot on her and then the editors I work with,
-
1:04:44
which they make your work really come alive and that's important.
-
1:04:47
Like I said earlier, you can't do everything yourself.
-
1:04:49
It's surrounding yourself with people that are positive and that you trust you know.
-
1:04:55
Again, guys I know, like I said, it's 4 a.m now and we, we're 19 hours late.
-
1:05:00
[LAUGH] But like, I cannot, I'm so honored for everyone who reached out to me to
-
1:05:04
bring me here and I'm so honored that you guys are all still here hanging out.
-
1:05:07
It's a crazy honor to be with you guys and I can't thank you enough for having me.
-
1:05:11
Let's go have a good time tonight, you all.
-
1:05:12
>> [APPLAUSE]
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