My team won an award!

Last night, my design team won an award from the annual AIGA Minnesota Design show for a piece I conceptualized, the Weber Shandwick Calendar (also known as the Weber Shandwick Minneapolis 2008 Holiday Card). The winners from the juried show were considered some of the “most exceptional creative in the upper Midwest.” I feel very excited that a concept I came up with won an award as well as thrilled that the amazing design work of my team was recognized. The team includes Teri Firkins (our design director), Angie Koehn, Rachael Lybeck, Gerardo Obieta and Leslie Sorum. I feel this was a great showcase of all of their talents. I'm very proud of this piece. The piece will be on display at the Weisman Art Museum through this Sunday, March 22.

Here are the designs for those of you not in Minneapolis.

I've always loved a good competition

I've always loved a good competition. So, it's not surprising that the new Nike ad for Nike Plus strongly appeals to me. The commercial is part of the Men vs. Women virtual running campaign. The race, which started March 13 and ends on April 20, will add up all the kilometers run by men and women across the globe to see who’s the winner, men or women. You can join the virtual running race at www.nikeplus.com, something I'm strongly considering. The ad features Eva Longoria, her husband, NBA player Tony Parker, tennis ace Rodger Federer, Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, long distance runner Paula Radcliffe, hip hop dancer Sofia Boutella and Liverpool striker Fernando Torres (a favorite of mine).



What's interesting is the each celebrity's own point of view on the Men vs. Women rivalry. "Women are generally better organized and more consistent," said marathon world record holder, Paula Radcliffe. "You might see the guys start off a bit faster and probably running at a quicker pace, but they're fair weather runners. If the rain or snow comes in, the guys are going to bottle out!"

Inter Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic countered with, "Men are better competitors. We're more powerful and, mentally, we're tougher ..."

The champion will be determined by winning two of the three categories: total kilometers, average kilometers per runner and the most kilometers run by an individual in a 24-hour period. Throughout the competition, participants will be encouraged to create individual consequences and rewards against their friends and partners, based on the overall gender winner.

The Men vs. Women campaign was created by 72andSunny. The TV ad was directed by Tim Godsall and the music track is Gnarls Barkley's "Run (I am a Natural Disaster)." 72andSunny is also responsible for other creative elements such as print, out-of-home, online films and retail. AKQA created the digital aspects of the campaign.

Baseball Cards You Can Really Play With

My friend, Gerardo Obieta, pointed out this really cool video. Topps Baseball Cards used 3D animation to create baseball cards you can play with. This is another great way 3D animation and augmented reality is used to enhance a product. Any baseball card where the player can actually play his position is much cooler than the traditional card. I can't wait to see what other uses of augmented reality appear in the next few years.

GE's Smart Grid Shows Grow Interactive's Innovation

GE's Smart Grid microsite is innovative and inspiring. The purpose of the site is to illustrate how GE is transforming the aging grid infrastructure into an efficient, high-performance, energy-saving asset. Not an easy message to get across. But, I think GE does a good job of coming across as cutting edge. The forward thinking website clearly illustrates GE's forward thinking approach to energy. Using flash animation, voiceovers and 3-D renderings as well as interactive gadgets for the user to "make the power grid more efficient," the site makes the information about what a smart grid is and what it does easily digestible.

Probably my favorite part of the entire site is the Smart Grid Augmented Reality. The Smart Grid Augmented Reality makes great use of FLARToolKit and PV3D to create a digital hologram of Smart Grid technology in your hands.

Basically, you print out the Augmented Reality digital hologram, hold it up to your web cam and you have a 3-D universe. Below is a video by OgilvyPR illustrating how the hologram works. It's pretty incredible.



GE's site was designed by Grow Interactive, an award-winning design studio from Norfolk, Virginia. Looking through the company's website, I'm amazed by much of their work. It is exciting and innovative and definitely a great place to get interactive inspiration.

The Arts - Food for Thought

I ran into these PSAs a few days ago for Americans for the Arts. Personally, I think they are brilliant. The PSAs are entertaining and engaging. Each ad resembles a typical food commercial but helps make famous artists into household names. Below are the "Raisin Brahm" and "Van go-gurt" ads. Every time I watch them, I laugh out loud! Sure, they are blatantly mocking Raisin Bran and most yogurt commercials. But, that's what makes them amazing. The PSAs are directed by Marcus McCollum and filmed by Crossroads Films.

Soccer as Inspiration

Today I got an email from a friend of a friend in Washington, DC. He's working for Street Soccer USA. Street Soccer USA (SSUSA) creates grassroots soccer programs around the US to help the homeless and impoverished realize their dreams and goals. They have teams in numerous US cities, including Minneapolis. The program is an offshoot of HELP USA, a national not-for-profit organization with a mission to empower the homeless and others in need to become and remain self-reliant.

In addition, SSUSA is the official US partner of the Homeless World Cup. And, it looks like I will be going to DC for the Homeless USA Cup:
"As the official US partner of the Homeless World Cup, each year SSUSA host the Homeless USA Cup, where inner city street soccer teams and social service agencies compete for the US Cup. In addition the homeless have the opportunity to be selected to represent the US National Team that represents the US at the Homeless World Cup tournament."

They have a blog with news from each team and their preparation for the Homeless USA Cup.

As a soccer fan and a person interested in human rights, this program sounds really cool! I'm looking forward to becoming involved in the organization.

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the role of the communications professional

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the role of the communications professional. Obviously, the main purpose of a communicator is to communicate — about products, clients, whatever we are selling at that point. While we are capable of "selling" whatever product or message we are asked to by our clients or companies, should we? Or, should we really try to only "sell" those ideas, products, etc. that we truly believe in?

I have worked many areas of the communications field for the last eight years and the one thing that has remained consistent is my need to feel a sense of purpose in whatever my client or company is promoting. In some cases, it has been easy to find. For example, any of my work that addresses complex global issues, especially human rights, resonates with me on a very deep level. Of course, that makes a lot of sense since I chose to get a Master's degree in International Relations with a human rights focus.

On the other hand, I definitely have had clients where I didn't connect to their message or product. In some cases, I didn't even agree with what they were doing on an ethical level. In those situations, it has not been easy to find the purpose in the work. However, I have been lucky because it was the great teams, both on the client side and within my company, that turned the situation from a negative into something that was more positive. Sure, I didn't like the basic message, the product or the policies of the client, but I believed in the team members and wanted them to succeed. I wonder how I would have handled it had that not been the case.