[MUSIC] 0:00 Hey, guys. 0:05 Thanks for coming out, a little early. 0:05 Sorry about the, the switch around. 0:07 Gotta catch a plane. 0:09 So, Badge Hunt. 0:10 I wanna start off before I get into anything much, like, to say thank you to. 0:13 Huge thank you to Mike Jones. 0:18 And Alison McKinney, and all the people who made 0:20 Creative Salt a reality, I mean, I mean come on. 0:23 Like, the, the price compared to, like the How conference or something like that. 0:26 This is crazy. 0:30 I mean, like, give those guys a hand. 0:31 It's fricking awesome. 0:32 [SOUND]. 0:34 No, no it's not thank you anybody, to anybody out there who reads my blog mega 0:39 cool of you that always blows me away when I see how many people clicked on it like 0:44 whew that's nuts man and last but not least Anyone who has no idea who the hell 0:49 I am but they're like, you know, maybe he'll 0:58 be as cool as that last speaker, you know. 1:00 You know I heard that guy Drapplin last 1:03 year, you know, maybe this guy'll be halfway good. 1:04 You know, like, I'll try and make it decent. 1:06 Alright. 1:11 So over the next hour-ish I'm going to be talking about 1:12 my journey and including like all the victories and all like the, 1:17 the pretty rosy pictures and all that but I'm gonna talk 1:21 about the ugly stuff too cause that's what you guys wanna hear. 1:23 You guys don't wanna hear like just like this perfect like, like ,like 1:26 here's my resume like I'm trying out for some job or something like that. 1:29 I'm gonna tell you the whole story and all the messy stuff that happened. 1:32 And I'm gonna show, a whole hell of a lot of pretty pictures. 1:35 So 18 things that sum me up. 1:39 This guy right here, hands down, most important thing in my life. 1:45 Liftin me up in some tough times. 1:50 [NOISE] this, this poster right here is by my buddy Brink Gale. 1:52 Jesus on a bicycle, can't go wrong with that right? 1:56 You know, [LAUGH] designer. 1:58 Born to do this, like totally obsessed. 2:02 Just ask my wife. 2:04 It drives her crazy. 2:05 I can't go shopping with them. 2:07 She's like can you look at this and quit looking at those signs. 2:08 Minneapolis, Minnesota. 2:12 Born and raised. 2:14 Awesome design community like the, the art culture's great. 2:16 There's, there's so many agencies that when I graduate I was 2:20 like there's gonna be like, you know, five shops to work at. 2:22 It's gonna be like, impossible to get a gig. 2:25 And there's like, there's, there's seriously like a 2:26 couple hundred agencies in Minneapolis and super eco, hippie-friendly. 2:29 Lots of bike riders, it's good 2:35 man. 2:39 This is my wife, my inspiration, Maria. 2:39 And next to her there is our boys. 2:43 Best damn things we ever made. 2:46 And conveniently in a Target cart there. 2:48 Buying some pillows apparently. 2:52 And family their the reason why we're still 2:55 in Minnesota hands down just like ,we love it 2:59 there but there's a couple of months out of 3:02 the year where we're like maybe we should move? 3:03 [LAUGH] But but we stay there, we stay there for these people you know, 3:07 we got, we got these two little boys and they love seeing their grandparents. 3:11 I'm, an ACD at Target, I love it. 3:16 The brand, the what makes it special to me, so much is it demands good design. 3:20 And like it's not getting out the door unless it's 3:25 polished and has a good idea and it looks great. 3:27 I love drawing, love drawing since I was about four years old. 3:30 And I always wanted to figure out a way to draw for a living. 3:35 You know, you take those tests. 3:38 You're like, you know, what the heck am I gonna be? 3:39 Am I gonna be a truck driver, or whatever. 3:40 And, and I would always try and scam it, 3:42 you know, like trying to answer all the questions to 3:45 make it, figure out like maybe there's some, some job 3:47 out there where I can, I can drive every day. 3:50 And I can, I can put food on the table. 3:53 And who knew? 3:56 Who knew? 3:56 There was design. 3:57 And I don't know about that back then. 3:58 Social media. 4:02 I love me some social media. 4:03 If you guys know me, you know I like, you probably know me from like my 4:04 blog, my twitters, instagrams, dribbbles, pinterest, [UNKNOWN] and 4:08 all this stuff and it's so great for. 4:13 Like, like dribble for the feedback, the inspiration that you get 4:14 off like you know, Pinterest and [UNKNOWN] and stuff like that. 4:17 The props that you can give you know, to, to awesome people that 4:19 you've never met before on, on your, like blog and lift them up. 4:23 Make them you know, get them out- get the right 4:25 people connected so people are getting jobs, they're making money. 4:27 They're selling posters, whatever. 4:29 And in, in my opinion and like it pushes trends 4:32 so quickly and, and, and it makes the work better. 4:34 And, to me it, I, I think it's the best damn thing that's 4:38 happened to design since, since the 4:41 computer and before that, the printing press. 4:44 music. 4:48 Love me some music. 4:49 Listen to it all the time. 4:50 if, you like, in another life, you know, it, 4:52 it's one of those things you gotta go all in. 4:54 It, it's like design. 4:56 You know if, if you're in it, you gotta be obsessed and just like absorbed in it. 4:57 Another life I'd probably be like, like I'd be a really bad musician [LAUGH]. 5:01 But I work at it. 5:06 healthy, we like eating healthy foods. 5:08 We like green stuff. 5:10 You are what you eat and I always tell people. 5:12 I always joke. 5:14 I'm like. 5:15 Wouldn't it be so nice if in the store 5:16 it said it said regular food and pesticide ridden food? 5:17 And you just got to make your decision that way. 5:22 [LAUGH] I love making stuff with my hands. 5:23 That I love the controlled chaos of it. 5:28 I love getting off the computer. 5:29 And ,and making something that's, that just its not, 5:32 its not perfect but its perfect because its ,its unique. 5:36 ,separates the artist from the robots you know. 5:41 See that fish right there? 5:44 Caught that thing with my bare hands and I'm not kidding. 5:46 I'm not like one of those I forgot what they call them noodling or whatever like. 5:49 Like, you can see I have swimming trunks on and 5:52 stuff like that so it's a long story you can 5:55 take the whole presentation, but that was a big day 5:56 in my life, catching a muskeg in my bare hands. 6:00 Retro video games, love me some retro video games man, like arcade games all 6:04 like Super Nintendo all that good stuff, got a happy place in my heart. 6:08 [SOUND] So, come on guys. 6:12 Like, you, you guys play some ping pong? 6:16 You guys are designers, you got the, like the fooseball player, 6:18 table with the ping pong table, right, at the, at the shop? 6:20 And so at Target every year, we have an annual tournament. 6:23 And it's for United Way. 6:27 And I've taken home the bronze, I've taken 6:28 home the silver, but I've never had the gold. 6:30 [MUSIC] 6:32 I was like limping away from that. 6:39 My buddy ,my buddy David Schwinn made a animated gif for that and 6:43 it ended up on the home page of FOUND which is so stupid. 6:47 And I love me some badges and if you guys don't know what a badge is it's like, it's 6:53 like a type lockup usually in some sort of shape symmetricalish usually symmetrical. 6:57 Everything has it's place. 7:04 It's not you know that tendency of logos and like the rule they are always like 7:05 just dude chill it down to the simplest forms and get rid of all the extra bs. 7:09 Feels like the opposite. 7:13 Its like add the person in. 7:13 You're like bring it in, bring it in make it good. 7:14 You know its inspired like by stuff from the 20s or 50s or from then. 7:16 Why they call them badges I don't know. 7:21 My buddy Nick used to call them that. 7:24 So I call them that now. 7:25 I don't think anybody else does but but we're going to make it a word people. 7:26 So that brings me to badge hunting. 7:32 And, and believe me. 7:34 So badge hunting. 7:35 This is not gonna be the whole thing. 7:36 I know you guys are like, you're like, oh God 7:37 just talk about some Target work, quit talking about badges. 7:39 But, this one won't take the whole time, promise. 7:42 And there will be good Target stuff at the end. 7:43 [SOUND] So how come every designer in America is obsessed with vintage design? 7:45 Because modern day Americans crave craftsmanship 7:51 because everything is made on the 7:54 computer and so many don't take the time to make it with 7:55 their hands or take it off or do something with it, make 8:00 it unique a little bit and you look at this old stuff. 8:02 There's my grandpa on the right side there walking down 8:05 Hennepin avenue in Minneapolis ,that sweet wood sign behind him. 8:07 You got that,look at that Elbert's restaurant sign,I mean come on you know, 8:11 that's custom lettering, custom type, and you know, one of a kind unique sign. 8:15 He brought in a whole bunch of people and made 8:19 this beautiful thing and crafted it, and now they just 8:21 slam it out and be like some vinyl, 'let's make 8:24 600 of these', and it will cost a couple hundred bucks. 8:27 Back then they were just like. 8:29 We're doing it. 8:31 We're doing it right and it's gonna take some time. 8:31 It's crap, people. 8:34 So, little cage match showdown right? 8:36 I know you can't read A or B up there because the gray is so dang light. 8:40 But the one on the right or the one on 8:44 the left anybody who like the A raise your hand. 8:47 And everybody who didn't raise their hand, I'm just gonna assume. 8:52 I'm gonna assume you guys really like 8:54 drop shadows and like, warping effects in Photoshop. 8:56 Which is fine. 8:59 It's it's not fine. 9:00 It's, it's not fine. 9:02 Same thing, do we, we don't even have to 9:04 do it right, look at that one on the right. 9:05 Man, that's, that's pretty. 9:07 Little Dairy Queen. 9:10 And then look at this like this Argo corn starch. 9:11 You look at that on the right. 9:13 You're walking down the aisle you're like I'm 9:15 going to get my Argo, Argo corn starch. 9:17 There's no BS on there and then if you really want to pick it 9:19 up and you want to figure out like the dollar all the tiny little details. 9:21 Oh looks like there's 14.3 kilograms of you know, then you can do that. 9:25 But then over there on the right they're screaming at you every which way you know. 9:30 You got the corn starch Argo like 16 ounce stay 9:33 fresh packet recycle, blah blah blah blah and everything is the 9:37 exact same size you, don't even know what to look at 9:40 and everything has a gradient and everything has a different color. 9:43 So let's talk about hunting, I like going to. 9:47 To gorgeous places like this. 9:50 [LAUGH] Look at that. 9:52 That's hot, right? 9:54 [LAUGH] Sexy shops like this. 9:55 [LAUGH] With gr-, with great treasure brox box logos that look like the store. 9:58 And then, then finding some good stuff in there. 10:04 Stuff like, stuff like this. 10:06 I love that stuff, man. 10:08 Look at those illustrations. 10:10 I could just like sit there and obsess and 10:11 like talk for like ten minutes about each of these. 10:12 Look at all those little loops man and the nice thing is like the stuff from 10:14 back then not only is it being made by hand but like look at this stuff. 10:20 Its just too colored. 10:24 Like they have the restriction. 10:25 It wasn't just because they wanted to be two colored. 10:26 It's because, that's what the budget was, man. 10:28 And you had to figure out how to make it work. 10:30 And there's so much personality, I mean, look at that. 10:33 It's a knockout! 10:35 Right? 10:37 That's great. 10:37 And, and drink as if you didn't know you're supposed to drink the damn thing. 10:38 Come on. 10:41 [LAUGH] Eagle's heads. 10:42 We like those, right? 10:45 What designer doesn't want to put eagle's head onto everything. 10:46 And look at this. 10:49 You know, so much stuff is made with templates now. 10:51 You got like a, you go to like Wal-Mart or something, you walk 10:53 into that garbage store, I don't know if you guys like that store. 10:57 I don't like that store. 11:04 And you're shopping at Wal-Mart, and they have the. 11:05 Like with the Sam Clubs packaging it's all like templated out. 11:08 And they make one skew and then make 11:11 18,000 different of these same exact skews right? 11:13 They all look the same. 11:15 But you look at this thing. 11:16 Look, every single piece of type has its own place. 11:17 It's made custom for this washboard. 11:20 Look at that number 185, how it's balanced on both sides. 11:22 You just like, you're just like, yes. 11:24 That's good. 11:27 And this, this. 11:29 And talk about extra words. 11:30 Look at that, that trademark down there. 11:32 Trademark and new label registered in U.S. Patent Office. 11:33 Imitators will be prosecuted. 11:37 And, it's as big as the logo. 11:39 [LAUGH] And, and, look on both sides of it. 11:41 Like if you look at that one on the right, it has the word mark right there. 11:44 Right on the other side, it says trademark already. 11:47 But it's it's thrown on there and nice and big and 11:49 loud and proud and nobody's going to mess with that brand. 11:52 You got more eagles, we got ,we got lard packaging that I 'll wear on a t-shirt I 11:55 love this stuff and then look at that it's 12:03 like instructions on how to change out some quarters. 12:05 But it's so nice looking, man. 12:09 I'd put that in my living room. 12:11 So let's get down to it, brass tacks, you guys. 12:13 So the beginning. 12:17 I'm gonna sum up, I'm gonna sum up man, 30 years in one slide. 12:18 So, it's gonna go really fast. 12:21 Born in Minneapolis, my parents are Mark and Lois Peters, awesome. 12:25 My sister a total overachieving bad ass 4.0s all 12:29 the way through you know, I always, I always looked 12:33 up to her as a driving force like man 12:37 I gotta keep up with this awesome sister of mine. 12:38 She like runs a news station in Sioux Falls, so good 12:41 they encouraged my love of drawing and I was 12:45 so obsessed with drawing in school that You know 12:47 effected my grades I'd like skip science class and 12:50 go to drawing class and sit and draw all day. 12:52 Which, probably was not a good idea. 12:54 But, But who knew? 12:56 Who knew? 12:57 That one day I'd get to draw for a living and I was actually working on my career. 12:58 Yes. 13:02 So I made it to college. 13:04 The College of Visual Arts in St. Paul. 13:06 I made it there on probation. 13:07 And put my head down never looked back and I 13:10 started out my career working at three small design shops. 13:13 A little place called Nicho about 30 people, Uno which was 13:18 three people and Industrial which started at seven by the time 13:21 I left there it was about 20 and then Industrial got 13:24 bought out by another agency, so like all these little design firms. 13:27 Did a ton of design right. 13:30 And, kinda like a wholeness craft, figured out, 13:32 you know, how to make something look really pretty. 13:35 But then I, I took a, a risk and took a gig at BBDO Minneapolis. 13:37 And BBDO, like worldwide is the most awarded ad agency in the world. 13:43 And they're an ad shop. 13:47 Like they make. 13:49 Like, bring me your, bring me your problem, I'm gonna give you three 13:50 print ads and a TV spot every time baby, and maybe some gorilla. 13:53 [LAUGH] And they aren't always like, necessarily like this but I 13:58 mean that like, that was like kind of the tendency, and. 14:01 I knew, I had done like some print work in 14:06 the past, like print ad advertising but it's usually like part 14:08 of like some giant system like you did the logo 14:11 and the brochure and the catalog and make sure you, make 14:13 sure you throw in you know some print ads why 14:18 not, and it was just like you'd lay them out and 14:21 it would be like six word headline you know send it 14:23 off to the writer the day before it had to get. 14:25 sent to the client ,like hey I need 18 characters here you know, fill 14:27 in the blanks, hopefully it looks good,um, but this was the first time I 14:31 was working on site with writers basically like get locked in a room for 14:36 like a week fill the walls with sharpie marker sketches and best idea wins. 14:41 And I need to learn how to, I need to learn how to do that. 14:47 You know, I didn't go to school for advertising 14:50 and I never made a broadcast by my life. 14:53 And so I bought some books on, I scammed them into 14:56 giving me the job, I am like ,yeah I can do 15:00 this no problem right, and I didn't know what I was 15:01 doing so I bought some books and I got the job and. 15:04 And, learned out on the job and it was, it was really fun. 15:08 And, made some ads for Spam, freakin spam guys, alright, awesome. 15:11 And a Spam it's a pretty cool brand actually 15:20 cuz it's not afraid to make fun of itself. 15:22 And so for this stuff the goal of it. 15:24 Was to say basically a Spam burger hamburger wasn't the only kind 15:28 of way to have Spam, right, you could also have it with 15:33 your mac and cheese and your, your eggs, and, you know, how 15:36 about a Spam LT, so the, the tomato's getting pretty pumped there. 15:38 And so I made this next spot, it's you know, it's part of the same campaign. 15:43 Made it with like with a house out of Portland. 15:47 Egg. 15:48 [SOUND] Egg. 15:50 >> Here. 15:56 >> Egg. 15:58 >> Here. 16:00 >> Egg. 16:02 >> Here. 16:03 [MUSIC] 16:05 [MUSIC] 16:10 >> Wake up your eggs, with great tasting Spam. 16:15 >> More fun ideas at spam.com. 16:17 >> So like super fun. 16:21 I remember when we pitched that, I'm like, there's no way this is happening. 16:22 And they bought it, I'm like, there's no way 16:25 this is actually gonna get produced, and then like the. 16:27 To this day, I'm still kind of shocked we were ever able to make that. 16:29 [LAUGH], so Jennie-0 turkey is like one of the largest campaigns I worked on there. 16:33 More meat, yeah, cuz people like meat. 16:39 Right? 16:41 Come on now. 16:41 And the whole idea was to make people make the 16:44 switch from like beef or pork or chicken to turkey. 16:47 And because it's, it's it's slightly healthier, right, a little less fat. 16:50 And so we we took this old, fast food place, that 16:54 was in LA and we converted it to a, a, Jennie-o turkey 16:59 store, and decided to test the public to see if, if they 17:03 like turkey burgers instead cuz they are so much healthier, and delicious. 17:07 [MUSIC] 17:11 Here's a question. 17:13 Is the world hungry for a better 17:15 burger? 17:19 We wanted to find out. 17:19 So on September 2nd, we took over a restaurant for just one day. 17:21 After some minor redecorating, we made lunch for the neighbors. 17:26 1000s of turkey burgers. 17:31 On us. 17:32 See at Jennie-O we believe people deserve a 17:34 burger that's as lean as it is delicious. 17:37 >> This feels light its really flavorable. 17:42 >> Its really good. 17:45 >> Wasn't sure what it would be like? 17:46 These are great! 17:48 [MUSIC] 17:49 >> He loves the turkey burgers. 17:51 >> I'm very surprised, this is very good. 17:52 >> I'm a hamburger guy they really changed my mind. 17:54 >> One of the best burgers I've had in a while. 17:58 >> Looks like the world is hungry for a better burger. 18:02 Make the switch. 18:05 Look 18:06 for Jennie-O at a store near you. 18:08 [MUSIC]. 18:10 >> See I got to work a gigantic badge into that thing. 18:11 [LAUGH] And it was huge. 18:16 So working at bb, like this great slide I have up right now. 18:18 Working at BBDO. 18:23 Ad agencies, many work a lot of hours. 18:24 I was working you know 60, 65 hour weeks on that. 18:26 Like, design that whole store in a couple of weeks. 18:29 It's just really, really intense. 18:31 And then, back up a couple, couple of months before that September 5th, 2009, 18:33 right before that, right before that Jeenie-O 18:39 shoot, it was my wife's 26th birthday. 18:43 We were having friends and family over. 18:46 Eating good food. 18:48 You know? 18:49 And, you know? 18:50 The kids are playing in the yard. 18:50 And we're possibly, possibly expecting our own. 18:52 You know? 18:54 And. 18:54 And we were gonna take the test the next day cuz like, 18:55 scientifically it wouldn't have been accurate 18:59 whatsoever, taking it at that point. 19:00 But I still like, didn't care. 19:02 I was like Marie, gotta take the test. 19:03 I was like bugging her all day long, really wanted to find 19:05 out if, you know, cuz we'd never had any kids at that point. 19:08 I mean, she's only 26 man. 19:10 And and it. 19:12 So any how that night you know, we had most of our friends over. 19:15 and, and when after they're taking off, and it was 19:23 just a couple of us left it was just awesome. 19:25 Another couple hanging out under the stars, you know. 19:26 I have a fire like you know, in one of 19:29 those like bought at Target like fire pits that you have. 19:31 And 19:35 this is getting pretty late, and a couple of two gentlemen, 19:38 jackets, gloves, and bandannas, entered the yard and demanded our money. 19:42 You know, these days I don't care cash on me, I carry plastic, who the heck does. 19:47 Everyone has Square Readers or whatever. 19:53 And my wife put up an argument with these guys. 19:54 And one of the gentlemen put a gun to her head. 19:57 And, it like it's her, it was her birthday, 20:01 I mean, and there's other stuff too, but it 20:04 was like, basically it was like her birthday, a 20:07 guy's putting a gun to her head, she's probably pregnant. 20:10 And it's late and it just, it, 20:15 it was, it was a bad combination of things, and 20:19 I overreacted and I attacked the guy closest to me. 20:21 And just not knowing what to do. 20:24 And so this is, this is a blog post my wife made up on my blog next day, 20:27 it says I know you usually visit Allen's blog 20:31 for beautiful design inspiration, but today Allen needs your help. 20:34 Early this morning my husband Allen was a victim of a shooting, 20:37 and is in need of your prayers, please keep him in your thoughts. 20:39 The bullet damaged my liver and damaged my appendix, both my large and 20:45 small intestine and my gall bladder, and the worst part two main arteries. 20:49 If you see like, like how it's over the on the left side, the bullet went 20:53 between two ribs and it's, it's still in 20:57 me, it's right here I can actually feel it. 20:58 I was opened up for two days while they stapled and sewed me back up. 21:01 And afterwards, the, the doctors told me it 21:05 was a complete miracle I was still alive. 21:08 They said if the bullet had hit a rib, that 21:10 it would have splintered and I'd be dead for sure. 21:12 They said if a, and it went between two of them. 21:15 They said if a, if I hadn't been working out and been really healthy, I 21:19 would have bled to death for sure cuz I lost half the blood in my body. 21:23 And, and then on top of that the fact that I 21:27 you know, I was shot and I turned, and I like, I 21:29 chased these guys out of the yard screaming at them just 21:32 like, just to keep them away from, from my friends and family. 21:36 And, and it was, it was like a while before like 21:40 it came back collapsed and they had to call the, the ambulance, 21:42 but the fact that they didn't turn around and shoot me, 21:45 its like they must have been, that the gun must have jammed. 21:48 They never found the, the bullet casing or anything like 21:51 that, so, it's like how many can, how many things can 21:55 happen all, all at the same time before it's like you 21:58 know, that's not just, that's not just like a normal thing. 22:01 That's God's doing, you know? 22:05 Woah, look at 22:09 that video of the painted room. 22:12 And who's over in the triangle? 22:16 Who's in the triangle in the video the painted room? 22:18 I know who that is. 22:21 And who's in her belly? 22:24 Now that's Mathew >> Mathew 22:25 >> We just found out today. 22:27 >> My painted belly [LAUGH]. 22:28 >> We found out that your belly is a boy. 22:30 I 22:32 love you Bran. 22:35 You know, I know he wanted me to be around to, to raise my children. 22:38 And, this experience it changed the way I, I think about everything. 22:41 And it helped me realize how fragile life is, and how important faith is to me. 22:47 So, while I was recovering my buddy Charles Yole, 22:53 right, he runs this poster show called R Crank. 22:56 Which is awesome, it's all about posters that are about bikes. 22:59 And, he asked me to be in it after I'd been bugging him for like three years. 23:04 And, this is the poster I made, you know, not 23:09 knowing if we're gonna have a boy or a girl yet. 23:11 And on the bottom left it says dedicated to our baby 23:13 to be, with a little, little couple of bikes thinking [UNKNOWN]. 23:16 And then on May 29th 2010, my son Matthew was born. 23:21 And a complete and total designer fashion and made a 23:26 55 word badge, with tons of bonus words in there man. 23:29 Top and bottom man its just a lot of stuff extra, and I was a letter pressed 23:33 my buddy Kent at Nomadic Press in St. Paul, and that guys a craftsman. 23:39 Beautiful job. 23:44 So, back to Jennie-O. 23:46 I don't know if you guys noticed in the spot, but if you look on the, on the left 23:50 side there is my wife and that's my son 23:53 Matthew were in, were in the dang spot all right. 23:54 I was actually working so many hours at the time that the idea of vacation, just 23:58 cuz they hadn't seen me that much, was to bring the family and production with me. 24:02 Which is, is kinda wild, you know, and 24:06 it's not that cool, especially after the whole shooting. 24:08 And then I got a call from these guys, right on the shoot. 24:10 And they're like, they offered me better projects, more 24:15 of a focus on good design, and work life balance. 24:18 I mean like 40 hour which, in this industry is 24:21 that like, like, who the hell has that, that's crazy. 24:24 And, it's been amazing, man. 24:28 So this first project I'm taking, we, we can, 24:32 we got to the Target work guys, we made it. 24:34 You're like, thank goodness man. 24:36 It's like let's, let's get to that bulls eye stuff. 24:39 So my [LAUGH] this first project I'm gonna show 24:41 you is it's basically the core branding for Target. 24:44 And it's one of the first projects that I got to work on 24:48 when I was at Target and it's like the holy grail of Target projects. 24:50 Like I grew up I grew up seeing, oh I meant to click, oops, seeing stuff like 24:53 this created by PMH out of Minneapolis, and it's just gorgeous stuff, right? 24:59 And you always like, I remember seeing that and 25:05 being like damn, that's how you do it right, 25:10 you know, red, white, and round, really simple the 25:12 guest, it's not selling the products, it's selling the brand. 25:13 And they use it in a situation where you gotta see Target at a glance. 25:17 They're not selling anything specifically, it needs to be generic. 25:22 And, basically, the, the, the kind of 25:26 creative brief is, you know, show bullseyes, 25:28 red and white, and show the guest, and, like, do it in a unique way. 25:30 And PMH had done it like, God, they've been doing 25:33 it for, like, 12, 15 years, or something like that. 25:36 And they've done it every iteration you could possibly think of, right? 25:38 And so, me and a bunch of the, it was the 25:41 first time that our in-house group had ever done it whatsoever. 25:43 And 25:46 I got to thrown on it I was super excited and, pitch a 25:48 whole bunch of directions but the, the one they loved was this one. 25:51 And I remember putting it on the wall I pinned it up there 25:56 and got this little tiny dude just hanging on top of a, a 25:58 big crop bullseye, where you can only see just like, just enough that 26:02 they can tell it's a bullseye, but it starts to turn to abstract shapes. 26:06 I remember pinning it up there and my bu, my buddy Aaron Lander 26:09 who's also an amazing designer, check out his work if you don't know him. 26:12 He's looking, he's like, Dude, I wanna be that guy. 26:16 >> [LAUGH]. 26:19 >> I wanna be sitting there basking in the sun on 26:20 top of that bullseye, it seems like a really good place. 26:23 >> [LAUGH]. 26:26 >> And apparently so did all the, all the people in Target and it got produced. 26:28 Which is one of those, another one of those things 26:32 that is like, if this gets sold I'm gonna be happiest 26:35 man on this earth and, and they got produced, and, and 26:37 so it was designed with the rule of fives in mind. 26:41 I don't know if you guys know about that but basically it's 26:43 a good poster should work at 50 feet, five feet and five inches. 26:46 And so this one you're driving past and, it was 26:52 like, it was in the credit brief specifically, so make 26:54 sure it looks good if you drive past a Target 26:56 on the freeware so that they can tell its target. 26:57 So at a glance, from the ta, on the left one there you're like yeah I 27:00 get it's a bullseye, get up five theatre 27:03 way you're like, hey there's a person on it. 27:04 And they're rocking out on a 27:06 guitar, that's, that's weird, that's kinda awesome. 27:07 And then you get up super close and you're like man, look at that awesome shot. 27:10 They must have spent a ton of money on that photo shoot. 27:13 Looks good, good color pops, right? 27:16 And so these are on the exterior of most of our stores, 27:19 and headquarters, and then, and a few unique locations within the cities. 27:21 They'd have like these custom ones. 27:28 And them in some of 'em, the custom ones would lend himself to doing something 27:31 really unique for the media placement like this 27:34 one, where it looks like they're biking down. 27:36 You go on an escalator and there's people biking down the hill 27:38 at the same time, it's kind of fun or, I like this one. 27:40 And I think it looks the guy's climbing the wall and its life sized too 27:42 and at first glance you're like woah, is 27:45 there some dude climbing the wall right there? 27:46 And then you're like hold its that damn Allen Peters scamming me again. 27:49 >> [LAUGH]. 27:53 >> [LAUGH] So we made like 60 varieties of these shots. 27:55 And here's some behind the scenes, so ten days, 44 shots, 86 28:00 models, and five dogs, and dogs man, dogs are crazy to shoot. 28:03 Like you need, you need to bring some bonus dogs just in case cuz, it's 28:08 not like you go like hey, do this and the dog's gonna do it right away. 28:12 So we created these custom convex and concave ramps. 28:16 So cuz, like, at first glance you're like, sch, 28:20 easy right, just throw some person on a bullseye, 28:22 and man how easy is that gonna be to 28:24 shoot that like, you're gonna be clipping him out anyways. 28:26 But of course you know, how overly complicated, you 28:28 know, I'm like, we're gonna need these custom ramps 28:30 made so their feet are at the right angles 28:32 and the gravity is, is just right, you know. 28:34 So it looks like they're actually standing on the bullseye. 28:36 And 86 miles required a heck of lot of clothing and a ton of 28:40 pre planning you know, like casting all 28:44 those people, getting all the right clothes 28:45 sourcing all the right props, getting everything 28:47 the right color and making sure the 28:49 colors look together, shooting four people at once, making sure it's a nice palette. 28:50 You shooting four bikes together make sure the colors look right together. 28:54 You know, hey I'm shooting a, a shot for a, Hawaiian Target 28:58 store and I think I need a old woody with real wood sides. 29:02 Why wouldn't you, right? 29:05 It's awesome, pogo sticks, nerds on the left, models on the right, and so the best 29:07 part like this one, like this is my 29:13 favourite one that this one through and through. 29:15 Like head's been on the R ball right, so its dumb and awesome at 29:19 the same time, but the best part about this, about shooting as spinners like I 29:22 can be in New York and getting to audition, the best break dancers in 29:27 all of New York and I know they're not called a head spinner but like. 29:31 What else you gonna call him, right? 29:34 So, this guy comes in right? 29:37 And, and he does his thing and he's doing his head-spins and all this. 29:38 And we're like, oh, my gosh, I can't believe you're doing that. 29:41 Like this is great and like, you're so good at it. 29:45 And he's like, he's like, yeah, I just, you know I got 29:47 second place in this, you know whatever kind of competition they have. 29:49 I don't even know what it's called. 29:53 Breakdown, breakout or you know whatever. 29:55 And we're like, well what the heck did the guy in first place do to win? 29:57 He's like, he's like, so check this, he's doing a head spin and 30:01 mid head spin he unzips his coat, takes it off and throws it. 30:06 Like, you got to be kidding me, that's like, that's crazy right? 30:11 And this is the next dude who comes in, check this out. 30:15 [BLANK_AUDIO]. 30:21 >> Whew. 30:26 >> Wow. 30:28 >> Shoot. 30:29 Oh my God. 30:30 >> Holy snikes. 30:33 >> Oh my God. 30:36 He's doing it, he did it [LAUGH] amazing, well done. 30:37 >> [LAUGH] That's the best line in the whole presentation right there, right? 30:45 It just it, that tops it all, so I mean, it's downhill from here, guys. 30:51 Now they flew us back out to shoot a holiday version of it. 30:56 So just to keep it simple, shot the people on a white bullseye so it looked 30:59 like snow with, like, a little bit of 31:04 texture and then, just basically reversed out the colors. 31:05 Surely [UNKNOWN] lived in L.A. live where they shoot they do the Grammy's in 31:08 L.A. and then then look at that like, gigantic one, I like doing posters man. 31:13 It's cool to see a poster that's like whatever, how many 31:18 stories that is Tal, what is it like 20 or something? 31:20 I was like, 31:22 whoa, my next project I did at Target was For summer, 2012 and the tagline was have 31:25 a big Honkin' summer, which is kinda like 31:32 saying the F word, but okay at Target, right? 31:36 And the way we paid it off was, these big icons 31:40 of summer, so in this case eight foot diameter beach balls. 31:44 And you kinda tell the scale here. 31:49 I mean it's kinda hard to tell. 31:50 I might of snuck one home [LAUGH]. 31:53 [SOUND]. 31:56 [LAUGH]. 32:00 >> You did a flip off. 32:02 >> I did that the first time and, my wife's like don't ever do that again! 32:04 I'm like [SOUND] listen, listen I know, I know, but could 32:09 you shoot a video of me doing it one more time? 32:13 It'll be the last time, I promise, and my buddy Kevin's wife, 32:15 on Instagram just goes, I see a skull fracture waiting to happen. 32:20 Which it probably was, I mean, I survived a shooting, and then I'm like. 32:23 Well lets go, lets go almost kill ourselves on a giant beach ball. 32:26 Here are a few other in store examples of that stuff, so it 32:31 works really good have the big honking summer you have these big icons. 32:33 You know usually you walk into Target and it's like, 32:37 happy summer extravaganza whatever you know over the front door. 32:38 Are, but to switch it up kind of mixed it up cuz research shows that. 32:42 Mom or Target audience or whatever she 32:47 wasn't she wasn't really noticing that anymore. 32:48 So we threw these giant scoop balls over the checkout lanes 32:52 and then on the doors kind of hit them right like they've 32:56 never done anything like spiritful, so its like these interactive doors 32:59 that you walk through and you're like hey it splits open right? 33:03 That's fun you're like, oh like, I like that, right? 33:07 Croquet. 33:09 And it goes through. 33:10 But here's the thing about this one. 33:11 Pretty cool in concept. 33:13 Looks really cool. 33:14 But I can tell it was installed. 33:16 It goes, the ball goes almost through. 33:18 And like, then it's like [SOUND] Get it come back. 33:20 [LAUGH]. 33:23 I was like almost. 33:26 Like maybe next time. 33:28 And so these are like they're so big. 33:31 You see that scene down the middle man took like. 33:33 They just don't even make anything that 33:35 could print maybe mama sauce could print it. 33:37 Print it that big, I don't know, so sun glasses. 33:40 Gigantic wieners. 33:45 And so you're like OK this is working good in store. 33:47 Become [UNKNOWN] but you throw it onto an eight and a half by eleven ad right? 33:50 Like how does it seem big anymore? 33:54 Its just a regular sized hot dog and so the solution we 33:55 came up with was to throw them in these little shopping carts. 33:59 So you're like hey you know slip in right through the store you know so it 34:02 kind of like without saying it says Target 34:05 has everything you need for an awesome summer. 34:08 Got these nice pops of color. 34:10 I worked for this dude, Luis Fitch, at Uno. 34:11 And he, he told me, he was like, I sell a color to people who are scared of color. 34:14 If they had it their way everything would be black and white and gray. 34:19 And he's like, I like yellows and cyans 34:24 and magentas, and just bright pops of color. 34:27 And it just kind of stuck with me. 34:29 I like bright colors to. 34:30 And I. 34:31 I keep that on a lot of my work. 34:33 So we're making this stuff, we're concepting, broadcast 34:34 and like making this gigantic campaign and then our 34:38 account partner, they call em BCMs, was like 34:41 hey, listen you know, we have an accounting error. 34:44 We realize we only have half the money we thought we were gonna have. 34:47 So we made a deal with REDcard and we got a great REDcard on a whole bunch of stuff. 34:50 And, I know you guys are like, red card, but I'm telling you. 34:55 Red card is something to be excited about. 34:59 It's 5% off, today. 35:01 >> [LAUGH] >> And every day. 35:02 It's not just a one time thing, guys. 35:04 So I encourage you to, to all. 35:06 Get red cut. 35:10 [LAUGH] so it works pretty good right? 35:11 Big old giant savings in that shopping cart. 35:15 We got to these little ten second cinema spots. 35:18 [NOISE]. 35:20 Plus free shipping online. 35:30 So that's a deal, man. 35:31 So for the broadcast we're trying like, how can we show the whole summer line. 35:34 Line of clothing, and like products and stuff 35:41 like that, and show it in one minute? 35:43 And so we had this idea of doing, you know like these old like 50's beach tents. 35:47 Almost make it like a clown car type thing. 35:52 Where it's just like, things it's like, everything you need for summer 35:54 just keeps barrelling out of this thing like it has a bottomless. 35:57 Like just stuff is like coming out, and coming out, and coming out, right? 36:00 So here's how that turned out. 36:03 >> [MUSIC]. 36:05 >> I, I don't know if you guys noticed, there's 36:35 a great deal on a red card in the back. 36:37 >> [LAUGH]. 36:39 >> So these two words, you're not used 36:40 to seeing them together, right, Target Zamboni, you're like. 36:41 I actually down here you guys are probably like what the hell is a Zamboni? 36:44 So, just in case, just in case for some reason 36:48 there's anybody in here who has no idea what a 36:50 Zamboni is, these things come out on the ice during 36:52 the different periods in hockey and they clean the ice off. 36:55 Get all the blade scrapes and stuff off and 36:58 make it look pretty again, and usually there's one 36:59 functional one that's like really cleaning the ice and 37:01 there's like two or three other ones that like. 37:03 You know, sponsored ones that just come out there 37:06 and drive around so that people are hanging out in 37:08 between periods drinking their beers or whatever and be like 37:10 hey, that's a good idea, should have some Bud Light. 37:12 So Target has one now, and Target has this really cool one. 37:16 That on the top that green part kinda sticking up over the top, is a 37:20 booth like you'd have in a restaurant and those are stairs coming up the back. 37:23 So you can win you can text then and you 37:26 can win a chance in between periods to go ride 37:29 on this thing and see like the player's perspective looking 37:32 up you're like that's kind of different and neat right? 37:34 I've like never heard of anything like this. 37:37 So like hey can you reskin it? 37:39 Can you come up with some sort of vinyl graphics for the outside? 37:40 And me and John Bah and Andy Teeman were 37:43 just sitting down there concepting a ton of ideas out. 37:47 And like one of the first ones it was like I, I had this 37:50 pretty good idea but like, like you know keep doing more, keep doing more. 37:53 I was like trying to like you know, beat it and get a better 37:56 one, and get better one, and we had just this huge pile of 'em. 37:58 And, and when I started comping them up, I mocked up 38:01 that first one and I was like whoah, that's so dumb, right? 38:04 Like look at those tiny people in a big basket. 38:09 How funny would that be? 38:12 And, and I showed it around and they're just like, 38:13 they're like that's it, we, we gotta make this thing, right. 38:16 >> [LAUGH]. 38:19 >> And, and the next thing is it hits the brief perfectly. 38:20 It was basically like from the nose bleeds can you tell it's recognizably Target? 38:23 I mean look at those other ones, it's hard to tell like because logos get so small. 38:27 But that Target one, the, the cool thing 38:30 about Target is, really simple beautiful bullseye right? 38:32 But also the, the basket, the cart, the dog, all those 38:36 things are so iconic, they almost like become logos in themselves. 38:40 So, it's like having a gigantic logo on, in the middle of the, the rink there. 38:44 And they, they liked it so much, even though we only pitched 38:49 one, they liked it so much they like threw us extra money. 38:51 We had to make the thing 3D. 38:54 3D molded, which was super cool. 38:56 And then painted at a high gloss, red, 186 PMS. 38:58 And then, and then bring it in and shoot it like a Porsche. 39:08 And here is, here it is in an actual game. 39:13 That's another one of those where its like a constant they like 39:16 came up with the idea, and there like that's never going to happen. 39:19 If that actually happens it becomes a reality I'm 39:21 gonna like just be like my mind's going to 39:23 be blown, and just sitting there watching it drive 39:25 around in a game and they drive like super slow. 39:27 They're like [NOISE] [CROSSTALK] I just I had 39:28 just like smiling year to year, target design month. 39:32 So, I was brought in this project a few weeks 39:37 ago at the launch, and, they had the campaign like, 39:40 like prior to my involvement, wasn't very practical, I needed 39:43 a new approach, because it just like didn't make sense. 39:46 It made sense for like one speaker but, they were 39:49 having all these different speakers and different types, and so 39:51 they're just like, and the art director is like, I 39:54 got too much stuff going on, they threw me on it. 39:56 And, but they already sold it through the CML, like all the way up. 39:58 And the entire like 30,000 people, like 40:01 downtown Minneapolis is sick, it's like nuts. 40:04 Maybe it's like 18,000, maybe I'm totally 40:06 exaggerating, but it, it's a lot of people. 40:08 It's, it's more than I can count on my hands. 40:10 And so, they threw me on it. 40:13 Me and my buddy, Adam Hoganson. 40:17 We came up with this idea of, basically, the, the main talk was about failures 40:20 and, like, not being afraid to fail so you can get to the, the final goal. 40:27 You know, like, just like not being afraid 40:30 to get your hands dirty and just completely, 40:32 like, beat your head into the ground over and over and over and over and over again. 40:34 And so idea like to steal down like you've seen 40:39 it a billion times before with a light bulb right? 40:42 So like how can you do that in a new and unique 40:45 way and so failure to succeed we've got these crushed light bulbs. 40:46 This is the sketches the lunch you know like that we 40:51 sold through and kind of like out of China I guess. 40:54 Lets just go make it. 40:56 Hopefully it looks something some what like your sketches and the 40:58 cool thing about working at Target is they have tons of resources. 41:02 I mean its a big company. 41:06 So like all the type 3D type we have multiple 3D printers over 41:08 in our like prototyping department where we make products and stuff like that. 41:11 The letters were painted by our prop department. 41:15 Got to shot it all. 41:17 We have a photo, a big full photo studio, that's right next to, 41:18 to our studio, where they shoot all the dot com stuff, I mean, if 41:22 we have something we have to shoot, we can work with them, get 41:26 a shot really quickly for really cheap with out having to go to like. 41:28 Like, we do, we still shoot like a lot 41:31 of big campaigns, we shoot all that in different studios 41:33 all over the country, a lot of them in 41:36 New York and L.A., based off of where talent is. 41:37 But, but if you just like, I'm shoot some 41:40 type, busing some lightbulbs, you shoot next door right. 41:43 And, and this whole thing is like no budget, right? 41:47 All the styling is done by myself and Adam Holgensinges. 41:51 You know, getting a little bloody or whatever. 41:54 You know, trying to wear some gloves. 41:55 Be safe. 41:57 Eyewear, right? 41:58 Gotta print those eye balls and then running simultaneously with this 41:59 in a show called the curative and it was all target employees that 42:06 made art on the side in addition to like their business rules and they 42:10 just did it for fun and were like kid like really unique talents 42:14 and stuff like that and so this is going to be during design month. 42:16 So we kept it kind of consistent, by throwing this paint. 42:20 I got nerded out, you know got my Willy Wonka oompa-loompa outfit on there. 42:24 And so fun. 42:31 Just like you work on something for a little while, and you're on 42:33 the computer or whatever, and then just to take it and make it real. 42:36 And get your hands dirty, and splatter paint, and just make a huge mess. 42:38 Look at that big heaping pile of paint. 42:43 Look at right there, it looks so gross, your like oh. 42:45 I don't know about this project, dude. 42:47 But we shot it, we shot it along the way. 42:49 We got, we got the good stuff in there, right? 42:51 And so here's some of the finals. 42:54 It's like fun seeing the way that that type wraps around that, that light bulb. 42:55 And, you know, the randomness of the crushed glass. 42:58 The stuff you can't get if you did, made it on the machine, right? 43:01 You guys would be amazed how, how difficult 43:04 it is kerning type with crushed glass between it. 43:06 [LAUGH] And so here's, here's that whole part of the campaign with the posters. 43:10 And with every low budget campaign, you gotta have some buttons in there. 43:17 Come on, guys. 43:20 You guys know about buttons. 43:21 That's like the, the solution to every student campaign. 43:22 And then we made buttons. 43:26 Got some bust some bulbs notebooks. 43:29 I actually wrote the headline for like, like, 43:30 I'm finally getting halfway decent at writing, you 43:33 know, like, even though I skipped all those 43:35 classes in high school, it's starting to come. 43:36 Got some CMYK pencils. 43:40 Why not? 43:42 And then here's how the curative stuff turned out. 43:43 Like a nice like splatter paint and its kind of 43:45 fun and you can see my shadow on the way. 43:47 That's kind of fun. 43:50 Just seeing like the way that paints like bulging. 43:52 I was like [NOISE]. 43:54 Its kind of neat and they also have some store fronts and Target's the one 43:55 thing about it is retail and you don't ever get to do store windows man. 44:00 I gotta love me some store windows out. 44:03 I always wanted to do some and so I did some 3D type to 44:05 match it but then we also did these same thing you know low budget right? 44:07 So we have a prop department and we save everything from 44:12 every photo shoot every commercial we've ever done and they have 44:14 like you know like the last scene of Indiana Jones and 44:17 the last or not the Last Crusade excuse me the first one. 44:19 Raiders of the Lost Arc where they have like the, it's like 44:23 almost like Home Depot and it's just like goes on forever [NOISE]. 44:25 Like down to the end of time, and 44:28 it's just like everything like, all color coded. 44:31 You need a TV, they're like what make and model, you know. 44:34 And so the, the way this worked out is they have video work. 44:37 They had Fine art and there was fashion on the shelf, so we just tried to 44:41 kind of define it and distill it down 44:44 and make [UNKNOWN], manage the rest of the campaign. 44:46 Pour some paint over the top of it. 44:49 It's 44:50 pretty fun stuff. 44:52 So I mean, you guys know, I love me some, 44:54 some social media, but I already talked about that right? 44:56 So I got the work on, Canada Social. 44:59 That was like, one of the <span 45:02 class="" pre="th ">projects</span> at Target last year. 45:03 Worked on it for about, you now, five or six months. 45:05 And it's nice because there's no defined roles, like no, nobody does it right. 45:08 These people do it pretty good but, it's still you know, 45:12 there's not like books on it, like here's how to do it. 45:16 At least the ones that are like, that make any sense. 45:18 And so this first campaign, I'm gonna tell you a little story. 45:21 Now, this spot I'm gonna show you I didn't do this 45:23 it was done by [INAUDIBLE] agency but it's part of the story. 45:26 So, just open it. 45:31 [MUSIC] 45:33 [MUSIC] 45:36 That's like pretty right. 45:37 Let me, let me. 45:39 And then the music for that, like 45:43 remixing 45:48 that Mr. 45:53 Rogers song. 45:59 It's such a good idea, I love that. 46:07 So that just launched. 46:08 We're just going into Canada. 46:10 It's just starting to open up stores in a few different cities. 46:11 And a lot of the talk was, all 46:13 these stores, since they were like, launching these soft 46:16 launches, where they only have like, half the products, 46:18 there's a lot of negative talk in social media. 46:20 So that had just launched. 46:23 And then, at the same time, I just [INAUDIBLE], this blog post on I don't 46:24 know if you guys know about Lab Partners 46:28 out of San Francisco but they're amazing illustrators. 46:29 Ryan Mace and his wife Sarah. 46:32 And Ryan had done this once for, for Jet Blue. 46:34 It was for a pitch through Goodbee. 46:37 They never got produce but he'd post it on his 46:40 blog and it was just like, whoa, when I saw them. 46:42 Just like it hit me with a ton of bricks. 46:44 I was just like this is so good like like and you don't see that you see 46:46 that kind of stuff where you see it and 46:51 you're like I will never do something that good. 46:52 [LAUGH] Like ever but I want to some day 46:54 and so I'm taking a shower the next day 46:59 and of course I like being an obsessed designer. 47:01 I'm thinking about posters and Target while I'm showering. 47:03 And, [LAUGH] And I was like let's combine these things you know. 47:08 Let's figure out a way to put it together. 47:12 So six A.M. I had a shower idea. 47:13 12 P.M. over, over my lunch break at 47:15 like, between other projects and stuff built a deck. 47:18 I already had a meeting with the, the social team at, at, 2:30. 47:20 Pitched it, in addition to the other 47:24 stuff, that we were you know, talking about. 47:26 And. 47:28 Got approval in the meeting. 47:29 They got 4 pm, they got the budget approved. 47:30 It's like no brief what so ever. 47:33 And 10 am the next morning I was on the phone with lab partners. 47:34 Just a dream come true. 47:38 I was like this is crazy, this is crazy. 47:39 And so social media but you know, you don't want to yell at somebody 47:42 like it just made a travel poster and posted it up and like hey. 47:45 Come on over it's Target in Vancouver you 47:49 know people are just people they blow it off 47:51 but what you gotta do is treat that 47:54 conversation, some sort of engagement, something that makes them, 47:55 make the owner feel ownable to him or give him something and so in this case the 47:58 way it kind of worked it was like a 48:04 guessing game kind of like a reverse where's waldo. 48:05 So. 48:07 When we're, we're launching in Winnipeg. 48:08 And the situation. 48:09 And, this one, it went up in the morning like bright and early. 48:11 And it's like, where's bullseye now? 48:13 And then around noon, say, asked the same kinda question. 48:15 But it reveals a little bit more of the image it pulls up. 48:18 And people are making their guesses. 48:20 Some people are guessing right, who are like from there know like the. 48:21 Like details to that specific iconic bridge and a lot of people were just like 48:24 guessing their cities and it was great to 48:28 see the conversation change from these negative negative 48:30 things to people like be getting pumped up like yeah start coming to my city 48:33 and then at the end of the day I look at that thing come on now. 48:38 So good so good man. 48:43 Ryan Neice man such a talent. 48:43 And, I'll show you a few of like, the finals. 48:46 So Calgary, howdy Calgary. 48:48 Calgary's like a cow town. 48:50 Charlottetown. 48:51 Edmonton. 48:54 Mm. 48:56 Fredericton. 48:57 Halifax. 49:00 Ottawa. 49:01 Quebec City. 49:03 Anybody here from Saskatoon? 49:08 So Saskatoon then no offense if like for some reason 49:10 this is online somewhere and somebody's like I'm from Saskatoon. 49:13 There's nothing iconic about Saskatoon and so my my writer partner and 49:17 I are doing tons of research trying to find some iconic geographical. 49:22 Something or other and just like not finding 49:26 anything and they're like God there's this bridge but 49:29 its pretty, pretty plain and when, when I 49:32 was you know I was talking about fishing earlier 49:35 when I was, when I was a little kid growing up and even in college my dad 49:37 and I would always go fishing every year and it was always an important time to me. 49:40 Spending that time with him and getting a chance to get away. 49:45 And we'd one of the unique things was seeing 49:47 the, about going up further north seeing the Northern Lights. 49:51 And I, I've been thinking about that cuz we're working on Canada. 49:55 And it was always makes me think of fishing. 49:57 And I was like, what about Northern Lights? 50:00 And then, I love the way it turned out. 50:02 St. John's. 50:04 Pirate ships. 50:06 Come on now. 50:07 People like pirate ships. 50:08 Then you guys already saw that one. 50:09 So they really liked it right. 50:11 They're like that's, that's good stuff man like, like keep, keep coming. 50:12 You know, we love that there was no brief and 50:16 like you guys just like hit it out of the park. 50:18 Like we want more of this come on give us 50:20 more ideas, we'll give you more money just, give me something. 50:22 And so. 50:26 Came up with this idea. 50:27 So like OK so both eyes travelling around all these different cities and stuff like 50:28 that right but now he's like he's settling in you know he's new to this city. 50:31 Like what should he do? 50:36 What should he do for the weekend right? 50:36 So we did these little questions that would go out maybe geo targeted 50:38 like specifically to like this one would go out to Montreal and it says. 50:41 Hey what are some fun things to do outside this summer. 50:44 It's the dogs talking. 50:46 He's like oh, you know I wanna get and out 50:47 get around you know, spend the weekend having some fun. 50:48 I'm a dog I don't wanna sit inside the whole time. 50:50 And so, tons of comments come rolling in. 50:54 We pick a couple of them and illustrate them. 50:57 So in this case he spent the weekend going the Mont Royal checking out the sights. 50:59 Or like in also their smoked meat bagels are a big dang deal and 51:04 it's, it's really unique to their region and it's a very special thing so. 51:09 Like from here you're probably like, smoked meat bagels? 51:14 What the heck? 51:16 But to them they're just like, they're probably like, Target 51:17 knows me, I'm going to go get a Red card. 51:20 >> [LAUGH]. 51:22 Maybe. 51:26 That's like my dream. 51:27 So like look at all these man. 51:28 And we did' em for all over the whole country. 51:30 Grand Prix and this one's in French, I 51:33 can't even pronounce it, air shows, Oxford Express, Agrifare. 51:37 Sunsets by a seafront in Romaski, watching the oceanic. 51:44 That's like they're special team, that's like their number one players the numbers. 51:47 So it would be going very specifically, they'd just be like yeah. 51:51 And look at that whale, that thing's pretty right? 51:56 I love working with a good illustrator. 51:59 Like I love to illustrate myself. 52:01 But, hey. 52:02 If I can hire somebody that's way the hell better than me, let's do it. 52:03 So, speaking of that. 52:09 Hiring some talented people that specialize at something. 52:11 You guys might know about Daniel Evans. 52:14 I don't know if you've ever heard of this girl. 52:15 She was up here like a couple of hours ago, alright? 52:16 So at Target Canada. 52:22 And social media. 52:23 This is one in social media still. 52:24 [UNKNOWN] having a hard time letting people know that 52:25 they had more than like designer partnerships and home products. 52:29 And so like hey we got grocery stuff too right? 52:35 So like. 52:38 When we're in this meeting, we're talking about it, and 52:41 it wasn't like a kick off, or anything, it just came 52:43 up at like the end of the meeting, they're kind 52:45 of listing off some of the problems they're having in Canada. 52:47 And I came across this girls' work, Daniel Evans, and I was like 52:50 bing, like, that would be perfect right, she makes headlines out of food. 52:55 And I sent it to my writer partner, I'm like. 53:01 Like, I'm like, this is awesome! 53:03 And, and, I'm like, should we do this? 53:05 And sent me back ten headlines like, like, done. 53:07 Like, there was no question about it. 53:09 He was already like, working on the project. 53:11 And so we, we pitched it and it got approved. 53:14 They loved, and they loved it so much. 53:16 One of the VPs was like, like this is so cool. 53:19 Like how does she do that? 53:22 Like does she just like like how long does it take her to make? 53:24 Like I want to know more about this you know 53:26 and she's like our target market and it's, it's, it's perfect. 53:28 You're like lets do a documentary and we don't have a ton of money but here's the 53:33 story Peters like you can amp I've never done a documentary before man, come on. 53:39 I'm a I'm a designer. 53:45 I went to I skipped like half the classes in 53:46 high school and so I get to know Danielle really well. 53:48 Ask her a ton of questions and find out about like her process and one of the 53:52 really unique things about what she does is 53:56 she said she was always a perfectionist growing up. 53:58 Had a hard time finding an ending to a project and With this, 54:01 once she was all done with it, she could like eat it, right. 54:07 She was like: make some food or something. 54:10 Make some coffee in this case, right. 54:12 And, so, it didn't matter. 54:16 If she made a mistake she could just you know, clear it off. 54:18 And so, here, I'll show you. 54:24 I want to show you this little this little video it's 54:25 not super long and when I say documentary your like oh jeez 54:27 this is going to be like half an hour right it's like 54:29 a minute and a half and it's good it's Daniel Levitz come 54:32 on. 54:39 >> I love crafting something and making it friendly 54:39 and warm and really just imbuing life into this. 54:42 My name is Danielle Evans and I'm a letterer. 54:46 I decided to start lettering because I realized good 54:50 design used a multi sensory experience to convey messages. 54:53 When I throw something down on the cutting board it piles up and 54:58 I see the [UNKNOWN] curve in it and so I just start moving. 55:01 I feel like the medium is really pushing what direction I'm moving in. 55:05 I'm just sort of being subservient to it. 55:10 Having it all over the place, getting it on my clothes. 55:13 I mean, it's fun to just get into 55:15 something, with your hands, and make something beautiful happen. 55:18 There's 55:21 something really exciting about working really hard on 55:24 something, and then just obliterating it at the end. 55:27 It's so much fun. 55:29 Whatever you've done, it's not permanent. 55:32 You can constantly make something better and you have 55:35 the ability to try new things and be an individual. 55:38 I've deeply enjoyed partnering with Target. 55:42 It's been a great journey. 55:44 And perfection's cool. 55:45 It's hand-made. 55:48 Target's an old man. 55:58 Fifty year anniversary. 55:59 But it's kind of like it's such a modern brand. 56:01 How do you do that. 56:03 How do you take the old and the new and bring them together. 56:04 And so a few of the concepts I had for 56:07 this thing, this one it's like the old and the new. 56:09 It's like what is the old card and the new card. 56:11 Let's mash up together. 56:13 That old pill bottle. 56:15 The new pill bottle. 56:16 Pitched a couple other ideas. 56:17 This one on the left, taking like this old beautiful, beautiful 56:19 packaging and ads and stuff like that all, all hand-done type, 56:22 and, and getting, find all those archives, scanning them in, you 56:26 know, updating the colors, getting like, some nice primary pop colors. 56:29 You know from the times but then shooting brand new high fashion stuff hard 56:32 shadow against it like Missoni in [UNKNOWN] 56:37 London and then that stuff on the right 56:40 like the first couple years target was around there was no budget to to shoot 56:42 photography so they did all illustration back 56:46 then and like all their circ like the. 56:48 The board circular. 56:51 I had no idea what that was, till I worked at Target. 56:52 But it's like the, the weekly ad or whatever that you get in the paper. 56:54 All those were like hand drawn. 56:57 And so like taking a bunch of 56:59 these beautiful old illustrations, and then they're 57:00 like black and white, and adding a ton of color to 'em, and half tones. 57:03 Adding these big bull's eyes in there like 57:06 Roy Lichtenstein like pop art kinda feel to it. 57:09 And the direction they went with was. 57:12 Was this one shot that was really fun just like 57:14 in that old new mashup and look at that T man. 57:15 Like see how it overlaps a little bit with the how it's. 57:19 [SOUND] man, love me some custom type right? 57:22 It's gorgeous. 57:26 And so. 57:27 Here I'll show you this is the campaigning context so you 57:27 kind of know what initially what it was it was these on. 57:30 These, like, street-window graphics on the headquarters and they wrap the whole 57:34 way around, there are, like, 15 of them or something like that. 57:39 And with all of them, it's another one of 57:42 those fun projects where it's not like, you have to 57:44 have this specific outfit on the person because we're trying 57:46 to sell this pair of shorts or something like that. 57:49 They're just like, pick whatever you want. 57:51 And so I got to make nice pops of color. 57:54 If I wanted to shift something in post, be like hey, 57:56 I want that to be a magenta purse, wasn't a big deal. 57:57 Look at that thing, anniversary sale man, that type's hot. 57:59 And that old Target logo, look its in a badge. 58:04 Come one, right? 58:07 I like that, just. 58:07 Have a jamborees, June Jamborees and value sales and << 58:11 Look at that hair tie, look at that very nice, cool. 58:14 So they're looking at that and they're like hey we're having this big party 58:17 with all these celebs in New York, could you do some invites for us? 58:22 And of course if you're sending something to Mariah Carey or something 58:25 you can't some little card you have to do it up right. 58:28 Letter press coasters, bricks that are sandblasted 58:33 and engraved from the first store of Target 58:37 were like ever made you know, like I think I gotta have that stuff, right? 58:39 Mariah Carey mentioning going to something that doesn't have a brick with it [LAUGH] 58:42 Same colors, nice fonts and stuff who 58:48 doesn't like some feature bold [UNKNOWN] does. 58:51 I do, 58:54 too. 58:56 And get some nice overprinting right there. 58:57 It's nice, man. 58:59 I love, love me some letter press. 59:01 Kind of pneumatic press. 59:02 Again, love that guy. 59:04 And it's like, that guy, cat man, it's like just him. 59:05 Nobody else works for him. 59:09 So, like, you know you're getting the specialist on it every single time. 59:10 And you're like why would you have, you 59:14 know, these beer coasters for an anniversary party? 59:16 I'm like, no. 59:18 Guys they're champagne coasters obviously. 59:19 You've got Alicia Keys there, Shawn White just 59:24 kicking out some letter press stuff on the left. 59:27 Fun project. 59:30 So. 59:32 Kinda wrap this up. 59:33 I got a few freelance stories, short, shorties. 59:34 But while I'm working at [UNKNOWN] and while I was working at 59:37 Target I got to work on some fun stuff at this site And 59:40 it's basically like when my kids got to bed and it'd be something 59:42 I wanted to do and was really passionate about and really excited about. 59:45 So, that can mean anything from a client project to. 59:49 You know. 59:51 We have another beautiful baby, baby Luke. 59:53 Born on September 10th. 59:56 And of course ,had to make another like 5 billion work Mexican 68 Olympics inspired 59:58 birth announcement, right, custom typography which took like three weeks. 1:00:04 [LAUGH] But it was fun right? 1:00:10 And so I got a call from these guys, they 1:00:14 are like, hey we are working on this perfect issue. 1:00:16 Birth announcement [INAUDIBLE] with all the type, 1:00:20 and it's all about perfection in sports. 1:00:22 Can you give us some ideas for it? 1:00:24 I was like, what about a trophy? 1:00:27 What about a flexing cartoon arm, lifting weights? 1:00:30 Or inspired by this one, with that little R with its foot kicking up? 1:00:34 What about this, oh my god cause this has got to work right? 1:00:38 It has a similar type. 1:00:40 It has, has all these different sports integrated. 1:00:41 I'm like that's gotta be perfect. 1:00:44 That's what they want right? 1:00:46 Nope. 1:00:48 They don't want any of that. 1:00:49 They don't. 1:00:50 They were like, they were like, none of that but like 1:00:51 the creative doctors like I had this brilliant idea I love the. 1:00:55 I love the type you made for this and we've got an issue 1:00:58 coming out called the music issue and it reminds me of a vinyl 1:01:02 record like could you do a custom font for that and experiment with 1:01:06 like making the Os perfect circles and make it look more like a record. 1:01:10 And he was expecting one. 1:01:15 And I sent back seven variations right? 1:01:17 Cuz, you know, I could, I'm like, I'm like I'm not gonna fail again. 1:01:20 Like this is ESPN. 1:01:23 Come on guys, gotta, can't mess this thing up. 1:01:24 And, they picked two of them. 1:01:27 And they're like we're gonna pay you double. 1:01:29 And I'm like, yes. 1:01:31 I'm like that's awesome. 1:01:33 This is how it turned out. 1:01:35 Pretty fun stuff. 1:01:38 Making fonts. 1:01:39 They're like, hey we need a big question mark with more lines in it. 1:01:43 Can you do that? 1:01:45 We'll pay you more money. 1:01:46 I said yes. 1:01:49 Yes I can. 1:01:49 >> [LAUGH] 1:01:50 >> And then, then got the issue with Dr Dre and. 1:01:51 Lebron with my font, and I was like, what? 1:01:55 That's awesome. 1:01:59 Look, that's pretty cool. 1:02:01 There's that big question mark. 1:02:03 There's what we used on all the initial caps and headlines, man it was cool, and 1:02:05 seeing my name in there made me super happy, and got a call from these guys. 1:02:09 And this is this is actually when I was working the Jenny Opra 1:02:15 project working 65 hour weeks and stuff like that and Maria was pregnant 1:02:18 and I was like oh, I shouldn't do this but it's Nike man 1:02:23 and so like it's like coming home late taking care of my stuff. 1:02:28 And then get the work on it and it's, the nice thing was it 1:02:33 was like three days to like, we needed this thing in like three freaking days 1:02:35 and they basically gave me to feel like t-shirt graphics and the more you do, 1:02:39 the better chance you have to make more money because we'll pay you per graphic. 1:02:43 And I was like, [SOUND] I'll give you like 20. 1:02:47 [LAUGH]. 1:02:50 Right? 1:02:51 Cuz I don't need to sleep. 1:02:52 And so he sent this, these, this inspiration. 1:02:54 I was like, I like badges. 1:02:57 They got badges on these things, right? 1:02:59 So make some badges. 1:03:01 And so this is what I kicked on those three nights. 1:03:03 And 1:03:04 I'll keep these nice and brief. 1:03:07 Now that you guys don't want to [UNKNOWN] 1:03:10 logos cause he doesn't want to look at logos. 1:03:12 Griffins with six, 6.0 tails. 1:03:14 But I 1:03:16 know, I know time is tight and you guys are important so I'll go 1:03:19 fast. 1:03:26 X logos who doesn't like an x logo? 1:03:26 Come on. 1:03:28 Right? 1:03:29 [BLANK_AUDIO]. 1:03:29 I like that one. 1:03:34 This one is a fun little ligature. 1:03:39 And this next one is one of those where 1:03:40 you get down with it, and you're like, yes. 1:03:42 Nailed it. 1:03:45 [LAUGH] And you're just like, you're like happy for like a week afterwards. 1:03:47 You're just kinda like prancing around, just like yeah. 1:03:51 Such a good mood. 1:03:54 [LAUGH] And this is the last thing. 1:03:55 We're almost there, boy, boys and girls, almost there. 1:03:59 Artcrank. 1:04:03 You guys like Artcrank? 1:04:04 I told you about it. 1:04:05 It's about bicycles, it's a poster show. 1:04:06 He's got a couple of these things and a couple more badges. 1:04:08 And it's about started in Minneapolis and Minneapolis is the biggest it gets. 1:04:12 And if you look at the bottom left there, this thing gets packed. 1:04:16 And the bottom right there they got food trucks. 1:04:19 It's almost as cool as creative self let's put it that way. 1:04:21 It's a big damn deal in Minneapolis, look at all those bikes in the top right. 1:04:24 We like to bike in Minneapolis. 1:04:28 And this guy started it, Charles Youel. 1:04:30 Inspiration in the [INAUDIBLE], really great guy. 1:04:32 And he's pretty dedicated guy, based off the 1:04:34 Artcrank tattoo he got on his arm in 2010. 1:04:37 I'm totally into it. 1:04:39 And so in I'll show you just a couple of these. 1:04:42 2012. 1:04:47 I've been working on this target stuff 1:04:47 really clean like simple pop art type things 1:04:48 and I was like I want to make some badges cause I like badges right? 1:04:50 And so I came up with this idea with my background 1:04:54 application I was like I was like what if its a 1:04:57 bunch of Minneapolis bike gangs that don't exist but its all 1:05:00 these different neighborhoods and and it came up with all these like. 1:05:03 And the fun thing about making make 1:05:08 believe logos that aren't real whatsoever is 1:05:10 you're like, I got an idea to make a lion's head with like a 1:05:12 bike crank and then you come up with the name afterwards and you're like 1:05:15 make sure it's the right amount of 1:05:18 characters and fits in perfectly, you know? 1:05:19 And if you're like it doesn't you're like, ask 1:05:21 a writer friend or look in a thesaurus and 1:05:23 you're like can you get me a you know 1:05:24 a six character I need to balance this thing out. 1:05:25 Can't usually do that at work, so that's nice man. 1:05:29 Calhoun Coasters, Fixie Fellas, we got the Blaisdell Buzzsaw Boys, [LAUGH] 1:05:33 and that fun little KNK thing. 1:05:41 Snakes, how many times do I get to design snake head logos at Target? 1:05:45 Not that much, so. 1:05:49 Thank goodness for bike gangs. 1:05:51 [LAUGH] 1:05:52 And so my buddy Kevin helped me print this thing. 1:05:55 And it's always tricky with over printing. 1:05:58 You don't know what you're gonna get. 1:06:00 And, he had a whole bunch of blue premix and a 1:06:01 red mix, and he threw 'em together one night for me. 1:06:04 I work with this dude, Kevin Hayes, amazing geek guy. 1:06:06 Lovely Minneapolis, look him up. 1:06:08 And he he brought in like full samples. 1:06:10 Like here's what it's gonna look like, with all these different colors. 1:06:14 And it was so helpful. 1:06:16 That's him on the bottom right. 1:06:18 A lot of people, they see that pic, that photo, and they're like, 1:06:20 when they see me in person, they're like, where are your arm tattoos? 1:06:22 I'm like, that's Kevin, that's not me. 1:06:25 I did go though, I like helped print. 1:06:26 I just am not, I don't have this stuff myself. 1:06:28 So here's how that poster turned out. 1:06:30 So Minneapolis right? 1:06:32 You know, you know Minneapso, it's like twin cities so this here 1:06:34 I've been working on one for Saint Paul, and it's, it's in process. 1:06:38 I don't know if that's the right colors. 1:06:41 Still working on it. 1:06:42 So, this is it guys, grand finale, 2013 dun dun dun. 1:06:44 This is last year. 1:06:48 So I like to bike in the summer, hm. 1:06:51 You flip the poster over. 1:06:53 Bus in the winter. 1:06:55 Alright I'm done. 1:06:55 >> [LAUGH]. 1:06:58 >> Thank you guys. 1:06:59 [SOUND] You made it through 300 slides. 1:07:00