Odds & Ends
A few of my favorite one-offs, oddities and whatnots
A Client Roast
I’ve worked with several law clients over the years, and I’ve never met an attorney who wasn’t addicted to caffeine. As we launched the new BrownWinick Law brand, I partnered with an AD to create these custom coffee bags for the attorneys to enjoy with their clients.
A Gingerbread World-Record
To help the Iowa Finance Authority celebrate a record-setting year, our team orchestrated an official, certified Guinness Book of World Records event. We managed to get more than 400 people to build gingerbread houses—all in the same place, all at the same time.
No joke, this was the most exhausting thing I’ve ever done. But at least I didn’t have to dress up as a gingerbread-person for a 5AM newscast. My coworker wasn't so lucky.
Victor E.
When we rebranded The Labs (a gym), we wanted to give kids an opportunity to engage with the new brand. Behold: Victor E. His name is a nod to the brand’s tagline (Chase Your Victory). As an octopus, Victor is able to use all of the aquatic and dry-land equipment at The Labs. Isn’t he fabulous?
For the record, this is 100% real. We really did work with a costume manufacturer to bring Victor to life. During swimming events at The Labs, he waddles out of the locker room, greets the kids and shows-off his detachable dumbells. Most of the kids like him. A few are stricken with terror, but most like him.
A One-Act Play
As we prepared for the IMRIS brand launch event, my boss was kind enough to volunteer me and an AD to create a one-act play. It turns out, writing, directing and choreographing a play (even a 3-minute play) is really hard. I spent more than a few late nights wrangling with the dialogue of Frick and Frack, the play’s central characters. During rehearsals, the ballerina kept colliding with everyone else on stage, and the violinist seemed to be slightly out of tune. It could have been a disaster.
The end result was surprisingly good! Although, next time, I probably won’t try to incorporate a live chalk-drawing, a dance number, a sex joke, a choir and a rapid-fire dialogue into the same bit. It’s a lot for 3 minutes.
An Elusive Spirit
I included this one in Odds & Ends because the brand never actually launched, probably due to production issues (or something like that). To create Helen Morgan, our team did a deep dive into prohibition-era torch-singing culture. We were all excited about it. For weeks, the office was filled with lovesick, drunken crooning.
The research was fascinating, the product was good and the label was beautiful—and yet, it never took off. Here’s hoping it someday comes to fruition and I get to experience The Spirit Within. In the meantime, I’ll tide myself over with my torch-singer Spotify playlist.
