St. Patrick's Day.

After 27 years celebrating with our clients and vendors, this year Eire decided to bring the party in-house and just enjoy some time with one another, corned beef sandwiches, and Kyle's latest favorite cocktail (something with salted caramel vodka). Of course, one thing led to another, and a troop of us headed across the street to top ourselves off with some green beer (or pints of Harp), Irish music, and continued good times. We managed to document the event with a group shot of the final six revelers. Sláinte!

Film: Finding Vivian Maier

 

Last week I had the opportunity to go see the documentary film, Finding Vivian Maier, about a street photographer who spent the majority of her life in and around Chicago.

Vivian's story and artwork are unique because she was virtually unknown until a box of her negatives was purchased, after her death, by Chicago resident John Maloof for a book-writing project. Not quite suited for his needs, they were set aside until he eventually began scanning the negatives and created a blog posting the images. Maier's work is stunning.

The more he investigated this artist, the more he learned about her whereabouts, career as a nanny on Chicago's North Shore, and most importantly, her pursuit of photography. Literally thousands of negatives were uncovered in a storage unit, along with other memorabilia that filled the space floor to ceiling, wall to wall. There were also boxes filled with undeveloped rolls of film.

The film follows the pursuit of Maloof to uncover what he could about Vivian Maier. What unfolds is a series of interesting interviews, interspersed with image after image of Chicago and New York streets and residents, self portraits and even short "home movies" of herself and the children she helped raise. But regardless of all the clues left behind, you're still stuck asking questions and wishing there were more details. Vivian Maier was fascinating.

Without wanting to give too much away, I'll just say it's been over a week since I saw this documentary, and I find myself thinking about it daily. Wondering about this strange, complicated woman and going back again and again to look at her beautiful, tortured, stark and emotional images. If you have any interest in Chicago, photography, and eccentric artists, this is a must-see film.

*All images from website.

BizBash Social Media Workshop

On Wednesday we went to BizBash IdeaFest in Chicago and participated in a workshop organized by @IanSohn from Ogilvy & Mather on Social Media for Event Marketing. Ian’s presentation was Event-specific, but his ideas could also be implemented into any marketing plan. We discussed the importance of including social media – not as a tag-a-long after-thought to the overall effort – but having it's own agenda and specific purpose. Social media can be looked at as a way to ignite an entire campaign, promotion or event. It stretches the reach to include a larger audience… including virtual attendees, consumers, etc. through "word of mouth". These were my favorite take-aways:

PRE (Event, Campaign, Promotion)

– Establish a calendar – then tear it up

This point really resonated with me. I think it's great to have a plan but it takes away the essence of the vehicle to know what you're going to say ahead of time. We don't need to tweet just to tweet – it's better to be moved to. It can be what makes your tweet ring true – that something you saw or heard or experienced is something worth sharing. Basically, have a plan but be prepared that you probably won't follow it.

DURING

– 80/20 rule: Don't be boring

I like having rules to follow and this 80/20 breakdown is a great rule of thumb. 80% of your content should be relevant information, what's happening, what's engaging you, what you're interested in (and seeing and doing and hearing). Save the other 20% for self or brand promotion. Also, the best content is serendipitous – not planned!

POST

– Generate an Impact Report: How many tweets, re-tweets, favorites, shares, comments, likes, uploads etc.

To me, one of the best things about social media is the ability to track activity. Simply by including a #hashtag, we can search for content and record the results. How many people are interacting with Eire Direct? Our clients? Our creative??? What are they saying? These answers are so easy to collect – they are right there at your fingertips.

The main thing, you need a plan. It can and should be simple. It should allow people to exercise their own creativity and experience – but with a little added direction and forethought. Social media efforts can be everyone's job, or no one's job – so be clear about your objective and assign responsibilities accordingly.

Pumpkin Brownies

With the shorter days and cooler weather, I find myself staying indoors more and wanting to cook comfort food and bake things that fill the house with wonderful scents. A couple years ago I discovered this recipe for Pumpkin Brownies on Eating Is Art blog, and they have become a crowd favorite – perfect for this time of year!

Pumpkin Mixture
1/2 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup pumpkin puree

Dry Ingredients
1 cup unbleached white flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2-1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (the only way to go!)
1 bag chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan and dust with flour. With an electric mixer, or in your stand mixer, cream together the butter and brown sugar until light and well blended. Beat in the egg. Add the vanilla and the pumpkin puree and continue to beat until thoroughly mixed. Sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, ginger, and nutmeg and stir them into the pumpkin mixture to form a smooth batter. Fold in the chocolate chips by hand.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool for about 15 minutes before cutting into squares.

Enjoy!

Around Here

Just a few of the projects we've worked on at Eire lately:

Architectural Contest Poster.

Angels Grace Hospice website.

Valpac, Valassis and Money Mailer inserts.

Full-court POP.

The Right Combination

 

One of the most enjoyable aspects of being a designer is having the opportunity to create and work with different color palettes. The majority of our clients have style guides, with specific primary, secondary, and sometimes tertiary color schemes used in different combinations to reinforce their brand.

Occasionally we will have the welcome challenge of having to generate a color palette or scheme for a new branding or collateral project. I love working with color and I especially love finding different color combinations that compliant each other and might also be visually surprising when their unique relationship works.

Years ago I came across a website that created color palettes from an image uploaded to the system. I thought it was so cool to see what colors and accents the generator picked out of any given image. Whether you're designing marketing creative, or just trying to pick out some new accent pillows for your living room, playing around with a palette generator might be a unique and fun way to get some inspiration.

When I did a search to see if I could find the site again, I noticed there are many sites doing this now. There's also a website that will take the color codes from a palette generator and turn them into commercial paint color codes!

I used Color Explorer to create mine, but click here for a list of palette generators. Have fun exploring!

Watch It - My Life as a Turkey

I was so happy a friend of mine recommended I check out "My Life as a Turkey" on PBS, I've decided to recommend it to you. It's the story of Joe Hutto and his experience imprinting and raising a family of wild turkeys in a forest in Florida. Not only is the story touching and entertaining, the cinematography is incredible, and the animals and landscape are beautiful.

As Joe describes his journey:

“Had I known what was in store—the difficult nature of the study and the time I was about to invest—I would have been hard pressed to justify such an intense involvement. But, fortunately, I naively allowed myself to blunder into a two-year commitment that was at once exhausting, often overwhelming, enlightening, and one of the most inspiring and satisfying experiences of my life.”

–Joe Hutto, Illumination in the Flatwoods

It's only an hour, and you can watch the entire episode online. Catch it while you still can!

Eire on Vacation.

Here's Eire enjoying a little fun in the sun. Even when we're on vacation, we end up taking a bit of work along with us.

CrossFit Anyone?

If you happened to see the last Cloverleaf, you may have read about Marcia being chosen as "Athlete of the Month" at our gym, Atlas CrossFit. Have you ever heard of CrossFit?

A friend of mine who lives in Portland had shared a bit with me about his experience with this up-and-coming "sport", but I had no idea what I was getting myself into... At the end of October, 2009, I noticed a sign, mentioned it to Katy, and before I knew what was happening she'd gotten a bunch of us here at the office to go for a free introductory class. I hadn't been to a gym in years, and besides swimming occasionally, exercise wasn't really a part of my routine.

After that first day, I could barely make it up and down stairs for the next week, let alone walk down the 6 steps to exit the building that night. Many of us felt the same way, and it's actually a phenomenon I have heard almost all new people at the gym describe after their first few classes. But for some reason, I was motivated by Katy to continue going back. We made it through our Basic Training sessions, and then started to attend group classes regularly.

CrossFit is described as, "Constantly varied, high-intensity, functional movement." Every day the workout is different – and a surprise. Our classes are an hour long, with a group warm-up, strength or skill work, and then the workout itself, which usually last between 15 and 30 minutes. Short, but fast and intense. Besides a rower, there are no machines. Most exercises and combinations of exercises use your own body weight (think air squats, push-ups, burpees) and free weights (like dumbells, barbells, kettlebells), and there is always a strong emphasis on form – proper execution makes it "easier" to lift heavier weights.

So, I've been CrossFitting now for a little over a year and a half (with a couple hiatuses) and I have to say I still love it. It's really hard, and I often question why I am torturing myself doing it, but I'm never bored. Never. It's difficult to drag myself there, but I always feel better, even great, afterwards. And as much as I complain about it, I love being sore/stiff. I also really love being able to track my progress and see myself getting stronger and faster.

I encourage you to give CrossFit a try if you are looking for a new motivation to exercise or to simply to mix up your routine. About a year ago we got Marcia to start the classes, and not only did she get hooked, she was recognized with our gym's top honor!

If I've peaked your curiosity, here are a few links to check out. You can also email me if you have questions!

CrossFit main website
Every Second Counts (amazing documentary – including a short trailer – of CrossFit Games)
Hillary's CrossFit (my own blog recording my progress)
My Gym's Vimeo (Workouts and interviews by Athletes of the Month)