Disturbed by Direct Mail

Here's the story: my dad served in the Navy in WWII. Over the years, he lost his 2 medals. Luckily, there are online stores that sell veterans replacement medals. I ordered the ones my dad had and thought nothing more of it.

Until I realized that the company I bought from sold my name all over the place.

And for the most part, I just toss the mail and think nothing of it.

But then I got this "certificate" in the mail:

Direct from the American Legion: a certificate for my war-time service to the United States.

Say what? I've never served in any branch of the military in either peace time or war time.

I must say that I'm ashamed of the American Legion for not double checking who they are sending this "invitations" to. I think it's disrespectful to all those fine men and women who have served.

Since the American Legion did not take the time (or money) to set more specific criteria, they risk alienating folks who otherwise think highly of their organization. And by sending out false certificates that dishonor our veterans, they are going to damage their reputation and right quick.

I know that it does cost more to set criteria and that the AL probably doesn't have a lot of extra money to spread around. Surely there is a solution: send less but more qualified mail, maybe see if the database company would donate by giving a discount for an upgraded service, etc. Anything would be better than sending out bad direct mail like this.

For all of those out there who have really served our country in peace or war, thank you and may you have a good Veteran's Day today.

Another Ad Gone Bad

I spied this nice ad for the new Ford Taurus in National Geo recently. I was truly impressed with the new body style, so I decided to read the ad. Well, that was my bad. Should've just left well enough alone... :P

The text at the top of the ad extols how the new Taurus is "The most innovative car in America.**"

Huh? What's with the "**" there? Let's take a look-see..

Down below, in the fine print, the "**" indicates that "feature" is "** Optional."

So The Ford Taurus' innovation is optional? riiiight.

I don't know who's the genius behind this kind of moronic fine print (my guess is lawyers), but really, if your tagline is "optional", I think I'm going to exercise my option to buy somewhere else, where they back up what they say instead of "clarifying" it out of existence.

When Ads Go Bad

A buddy at work received a mailer from Time Warner Cable's business service. I couldn't help but notice their main image:

Uh, say what? Using your EYEBALL logo as a bullseye? What genius came up with this one?! What are they trying to say here: using TWC will making you want to poke your eyes out?

Major FAIL here, Time Warner, I hope that whomever came up with this one got sent back to design school...

Doodle Swap Round 3

I participated in the third round of The Doodle Swap Project. Again, the theme was open, and while that sounds great to have the freedom to do whatever I want, it is a bit intimidating. I thought about a couple of different directions before deciding to do an idea that had been bouncing around my head. I've been thinking of these silly two-word rhymes all summer and this was the perfect chance to illustrate a few.

I sketched out the images and inked them with my awesome Faber-Castell Pitt Pens (ah, I LOVE these pens!). This time I broke out my Dr. Martin's watercolors that had been gathering dust on my shelf. I had a blast! I had forgotten how much fun and how easy it was to work with these colors. Now I need to do more watercolors...

Below are a few of my Doodle Swap cards, or you can see the entire set on Flickr.

You can view all of the doodles for round three on The Doodle Swap Flickr page.

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Cool Mug Menu!

My friends and I went out to Red Robin the other day for dinner. We are all addicted to their tasty onion rings (oh, and their burgers too. :P Once seated, I spied their ultra-cool new drinks menu that is in the shape of a mug. Very clever, great job to the folks who designed this! Simple, clean & crisp design with great product shots and graphics. Check it out:

Cheezy Trek T-Shirt Offer

The people at Cheez-It crack me up. They have a nice Trek related t-shirt reward on their recent packaging. It's a pretty cool lookin' shirt:

This is the part that cracks me up:

Now, I know that the new Star Trek has a broader appeal; however, I'm fairly confident that most "regular" folks won't be wearing this t-shirt to any social or sporting occasion...

Theory Thursday: Urban Farming

National Geographic had an interesting article in a recent issue talking about how some urban centers are transforming their rooftops into green rooftops and the positive environmental impact this might have. You can read the article here.

While reading this article, a thought occurred to me regarding farming and how I had also recently read that we might not be able to grow enough food if the world population keep growing at its current rate. And with all the recent issues with food-borne illnesses, how eating local might become more important now. But where would we get enough farmland to tackle these issues? I have a theory: Urban Farming.

I don't know about you, but in my town I have quite a few developed areas (shopping centers and the like) that have been abandoned for one reason or another. Why not reclaim this land and turn it back into farms? This would do 3 things: 1) employ people and 2) green up otherwise wasted and ugly space, and 3) would also allow more folks to eat locally grown food.

Is this solution perfect? Probably not, but it's a start and I think it would be beneficial to everyone while helping Mother Earth out a bit too.

Cool Ink Initiative Prints Help Raise Money for Good Cause!

My buddy Keith from the HOW Design Forum makes hand screened prints for a good cause over at The Ink Initiative had a sale in early July on his limited edition, hand screened prints. The best part? The money from the sale of the prints goes to help out a great cause:

"The concept is simple: Each year we will choose one non-profit organization. We then will design and hand print posters to sell and donate the proceeds from each poster sold to the chosen non-profit organization. No money from sales will be used for personal profit." (quoted from The Ink Initiative website)

I couldn't resist these cool prints and a sale, so I picked up a set of "Outer Space" and "Shutupsicle"...

Sweet! The package has arrived!

And here are the fantastic prints! Hand screened, hand signed and numbered, limited editions.

Thanks to Keith & Jen, excellent work!

Reply to the "Death" of Print

Recently at the Visual Ambassdor they had a post entitled The Death of Print.

Take a second to read the article (it's short, I'll wait....)

Back? Oh good. I just can't see how the death of print a) equals a devaluation of art nor b) equals the death of "real journalism" as the author states. Art is more prolific on the web that has ever been before. There are dozens (and dozens) of sites for artists to not only display their work, but sell it too. No longer is the artist bound by an agent or gallery that takes a percentage of their profits. Most museums are online, some even display parts of their collection online. So please tell me how this is killing art?

The author's second point is that hard investigative journalism is dying alongside print. What? We're entering the age of power to the little people: everyone now has a voice to call out the evil misdeeds of weasel corporations and it will be seen, heard and Facebooked or Retweeted to the entire world in minutes. Compare this to printed newspapers where it would take days (or even longer) for news to spread. This is bad how?

I understand that a big change like the death of print might be scary to a journalist who will need to adapt to this new reality and maybe have to learn some new skills. But if this truly is the death of print (how long has this been promised now, like 10 years?), then I say bring it on, things are getting better not only for artists but for the average person and that's a good thing.