Many of our clients don’t know that years ago I studied animation under legendary animator Chuck Jones (thanks to the extraordinary efforts of professor David Weinkauf). In fact, my first 16mm animations were done using the same equipment used by the team Warner Brothers (Tex Avery, Friz Freeling, etc) back in the golden age of animation.

Mr. Jones was the creator of classic characters like the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote. He also collaborated with Dr. Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss), producing and directing animated film adaptations of the Seuss’ children’s books Horton Hears a Who and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I, on the other hand, have managed to sink into obscurity in corporate-middle-management during the first five years of this century.

Working with Bauer Graphics has allowed me to rectify some of this ‘not-living-up-to-my-fullest-potential’ shame and has given me the chance to get back in touch with my past. We have been fortunate enough to have clients who continually need flash and computer animation and we’ve been fortunate enough to find and groom many animators in the classics.

This year, 2009, is the 60th anniversary of the first appearance of these two iconic characters; Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote. This year also marks my 15th year anniversary of not using my animation degree to it’s fullest potential.

FINALLY! Who knew success was just a pair of ACME glasses away.

Therefore, I will start to make amends by making this week all about sharing animations that you may have missed. Think of it as “Full O’ Shame Film Festival” for the viewers of this blog.

Enjoy!

This week, John Hodgman spoke at the White House Radio & TV Correspondent’s dinner and he, in my opinion, was simply brilliant. He spoke with intelligence, understanding and with an attitude of “you either get what I am saying or you don’t.”

John manages to bring up Revenge of the Nerds, Dune, Superman, Lord of the Rings and Star Trek (to name a few) in front of the President of the United States. From a nerd-core standpoint, one would be absolutely giddy with the fact the President is understanding what John is saying. But it is the way John wraps this speech up which is the most stunning. I don’t want to ruin it for all of you so please just watch it (and yes, it loses its impact if you zip straight to the end missing the crux of the speech).

I have watched this video countless times already, but what is most alarming to me each time through was the cluelessness and lack of comprehension from the press. It was like John was speaking in (or “to”) a vacuum and when the camera turns to the audience, the look on the faces of the press is of complete disinterest or confusion (see image below)

“Does anyone know where the food is? We were promised food.”

In this video, it would appear the press corps have actually no interest in what John Hodgman is saying and that is a shame. The reaction John gets is almost equal to one of his counterparts a few years ago (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSE_saVX_2A). If you can’t grasp the concepts that are being presented here, or if you cannot remain engaged in what one of the more exciting presenters at the event are saying, shouldn’t you be somewhere else? I have always been to that when it comes to meetings or presentations, you should never be the smartest person in the room. That is because if you aren’t able to learn anything, why in the world would you waste your time attending?

I really think that the best news out there is coming from the likes of satirists like The Onion and The Daily Show these days and that is probably because I am, at my core, a nerd. Watch this speech and know that why we might not always agree, I have been, and always shall be your friend.

Live long and prosper

Many of you may know that behind my well respected socialite, philanthropist and multinational-conglomerate-owner facade that I am an avid video game player and games industry advocate. Back in the 90’s I opened a retail location called ‘Temple of Pong’ where I proselytized gaming and worked to enlighten people as to the benefits of play across all age groups. Think of it as a Church of Elvis for kids born in the 70’s and 80’s.

While I am ten years removed from the machinations of ’shtick-retail operations’ but I still carry with me the burning fire of games evangelism.

Now that I’ve established my video game experience and qualifications, let mr present to you a first look at Fumito Ueda and Team ICO’s upcoming title.

For many of you BG Lounge readers, I know that video games are a little left of your radar. The question posed in the title of this post has been around for more than a decade and generally flares up around the time of the big video game convention known as E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo). Since we all are involved with designs, art, technology and the business of pretty pictures I thought I’d give everyone a barometer as to where games have evolved outside of the Halo/Gears of War/Wii consumer games market.

To me, it is nothing more than stunning and I have difficulty looking at this video without becoming teary eyed. I mean, this is what quantified an adventure game just a few short years ago:

Adventure – Atari 2600 (1978)

Final Fantasy – Nintendo (NES 1989)

Tomb Raider – Saturn (1996)

Ico – PlayStation 2 (PS2 2001)

Shadow of the Collossus – PlayStation 2 (PS2 2005)

The last two titles, “Ico” and “Shadow of the Collosus,” are from the same company that is behind the game “Trico” you have just seen in the video above. Fumito Ueda and Team ICO are brilliant artists and storytellers. It is my opinion that their work should be shown to all students of design alongside those of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst and other contemporary 20th century artists.

Even the The Journal of Education, Community and Values agrees.

I had a saying when I ran my Temple of Pong operation that, “Enlightenment is just 13.8 volts away.” That promise is still true today. If any of our clients/artists/vendors are looking to understand games a little more deeply or if you wish to be shown more examples of some stellar game artistry and design, please do not hesitate to call or email me.

When I was sitting at my desk as a middle manager, my boss came by with a printout of this speech.

In my opinion that this speech should be prescribed alongside medications and therapists as a cure for depression.

If you know someone who can use this, here is the link to the .PDF file that I was given almost five years ago.

“Stay hungry, stay foolish. I wish that for all of you.”

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”

— Plato

Welcome to the re-launch of the BG Lounge; a collection of news, tips, tricks, thoughts, ideas, offers and incentives to share some of our observations and bring a bit more of a voice to Bauer Graphics.

For many of you, this might be old news, but for our new readers, It is our sincerest hope that you can find some usefulness in our ranting.

ENJOY!

To all clients I cancelled meetings with on Friday and Monday,

My apologies for the short notice in canceling meetings at the end, and at the start, of the week. I was unexpectedly hit with an unknown sickness which causes me to sound like this:

Now, I know that most of you are wondering why a super-human-picture-of-health, like myself, is coming down with an illness like this. The cold and flu season should be months behind us and the transition to warmer weather brings afternoons filled with the sun’s warmth and vodka lemonades. Both have been known to destroy almost any known virus. So, why me and why now?

A quick look at twitter brought me these results:

image courtesy of XKCD

So, it is possible that I have the flu. I highly doubt it is the swine flu as, according to the twitter post above, I didn’t eat pork all week. It would be more likely that I have Chicken Flu or Moo Flu, but since I haven’t seen these two on a running ticker on CNN, I’m guessing that neither of those illnesses exist yet. That is too bad because we have a great campaign built around “The Voodoo you do for Moo Flu.”

Until that project lands in our lap, let me provide our Lounge readers a bit of a PSA regarding the recent Swine Flu epidemic. The CDC has posted some basic information on the swine flu on their site. Some items you’ll be interested to know is that you’re very unlikely to get it from pork products.

That will be great news for this lovable little scamp

Some basic (if obvious) public health advice: wash your hands often, and stay at home if you’re not feeling well. My apologies if I cancel more meetings this week, but I do it because I want all of our clients to remain happy and healthy. All clients with meetings cancelled this week will be compensated with extra drinks and/or deserts in our next meeting.

Stay healthy ;)

Foreword: Bauer Graphics was recently asked by Oregon Creative Industries to design the OCI logo. We are honored to have the opportunity to help grow the creative landscape here in our beautiful state of Oregon.

As Oregon celebrates its 150th birthday this year, we are reminded just how far we have come. This little west coast state has broken all of the molds set by stereotypes of the past, and has expanded its reputation from that of downtrodden loggers & beaver trapping brawny that occupied the minds of ignorant Americans for years prior.

It isn’t much of a surprise to most native Oregonians, let alone those at the front lines of creativity that Oregon has got it going on! We have climbed the ranks, and earned our stripes as one of the world’s most talented, innovative, culturally-diverse, liberal, sustainable & above all CREATIVE states.

Oregon has a long tradition of creative-ness. We have managed to shimmy our way into the spotlight as a top-tier town with a knack for turning heads with our innovative beat brought through some of the top companies in the world. Perhaps you’ve heard of a small company called Nike? How about Columbia Sportswear? Or one of the thousands of other creative firms that call Oregon home.

One organization that understands the magnitude of originality that the region offers is Oregon Creative Industries (OCI). A labor of love from networking mavericks, Steve Gehlen & Tad Lukasik, OCI was born in August 2008, from a discussion at Cre8Camp Portland in July. The desire is to unify the entire Oregon creative community, and hopefully brand Oregon as a creative metropolis.

Creative Industries is defined as a set of interlocking industry sectors that focus on creating unique property, content or design that previously did not exist. In 2008, Oregon employed approximately 60,000 people in the creative industries. This number includes not only arts-related industries, but also the software industry.

The main vision behind OCI is to provide a backbone that provides networking, promotion and advocacy to a variety of creative industries-related organizations–both structured and unstructured–in order to increase business opportunities and revenue for the community.

In December 2008, The Oregonian described OCI as more than an organization, but rather a movement. Bauer Graphics believes that this hunch couldn’t have been more accurate. This new insignia, we believe, will serve as a proclamation to just how incredibly inter-dependendent the entire creative industry can be, as well as always has been.

We have all, at one time or another, purchased a bottle of Suave shampoo. If you aren’t a fan of Suave, I’m guessing that you’ve purchased some equally inexpensive, econo-sized bottle of hair cleaning product. It struck me this morning as I opened up a new bottle of Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific in the shower that our shampoo usage mirrors the workflow during these economic times.

How so? Well, if you have a minute to read you can smell my floral-smelling brain in action.

When I (and I consider myself an ‘everyman’) open a new bottle of shampoo, that overly-full bottle just begs me to give my scalp a good washing. Because of that, I pour out an over-sized portion of shampoo into my hand. Sure, I can blame it on the bottle being too full or my zealousness on wanting to be cleaner than clean, but the fact of the matter is, I pour enough in my hand to wash an army of baboons. Why? Because, I CAN! I have a full bottle so why wouldn’t I splurge on my cleanliness?

After the initial new-bottle sensation wears off a few showers later, I decrease from a Lake Erie sized pool of shampoo. Gradually I reduce to a Silver Dollar dollop, then to a quarter-sized squeeze and then all the way down to the recommended dime sized drop of shampoo. By that time the bottle is now about 3/4 empty and I have a solid week or two of showers in this way.

But then, I realize that the end is near and that my bottle of shampoo is about to be drained empty. The first shower I’ll try to ignore the fact and just tip the bottle upside-down while I wash until there is enough in the cap to perform the task of washing a Homer Simpson comb over.

The next shower is the first real panic moment when I realize that I haven’t gone to the store for more shampoo and I have nothing left in the bottle but hope and the remnants of a scent that tell me how good that stuff was when I had it. “WHY? Why wasn’t I more frugal when I had more?” I question myself. I flash back to when I had a full bottle and imagine my past-self just squeezing the whole thing down the drain while laughing maniacally at my present self. Lightning strikes and I am back in the present filling the bottle of shampoo with the hot water from the shower and shaking the bottle to get one more treatment before I have to go get more shampoo at the store.

The next time in the shower, I pick up the shampoo bottle and have a nano-second of contentment thinking that I have gone to the store already and purchased a full bottle of shampoo. However, that glee is quickly replaced by shame as I search through my memory rolodex to see that there was no trip to the store since my last shower. The sobering reality is that there is now ice-cold, faint-scented water in the bottle and I will need to use this or nothing else to primp my dome today. I release the sting of frozen fireants upon my bald spot as I pour the bottle directly on my head. There is no sense of pouring it into my hand as I know their is no lather to work up and that any other transfer of this 97% water mixture than direct contact will result in me loosing precious clean molecules.

The next shower, I steal my wife’s shampoo for curly hair and wind up walking around like Art Garfunkel all day.

As stated earlier in this article, I marveled that my shampoo usage mirrors the workflow during these economic times. When a client gets their new budgets for the quarter or the year, they are rife with new work, briefs and proposals for us to bid on. It is like PM’s and AE’s just came from Costco (Sam’s Club for you East Coasters) with a palette of Paul Mitchell Tea Tree Special and a hankerin’ to do some hair washin’.

Soon after though, the work still needs done, but the budget is like a 1/4 filled shampoo bottle. No matter how much we ask, plead or beg, you can only think that shampoo down so many times until it is just ice-cold water. Asking clients to ration is never an answer as shampoo can always spill (budgets cut), be used by guests (supervisor uses budget for boondoggle) or just be left at the gym (layoffs).

So what do you do to ensure that you have enough shampoo to remain clean all year round? Well, my dad always told me never ask a bald guy where he gets his hair cut…my guess is the same goes for washing too.

“How do Howie do that hair washin’?”

Well, if I extend this metaphor out to its conclusion I would say this is how I’ve resolved my shampoo problem in recent weeks. I have put shampoo on my list every time I go to the store. If I need a loaf of bread, stick of butter and a container of milk, I always add shampoo to the list. That way I am always cognizant of my shampoo level each time I go in the shower.

Same is true with budgets. Every new project should be considered like a trip to the store and your budget is the shampoo. If you are in a meeting that adds new projects, scope or timeline, make sure your budget is compensated. Did IT come up with a new plan of simplifying something for your department you didn’t need simplified? Well, better make sure that budget is compensated for training. It is better to have your budget full and a shower full of shampoo than to have to pour that ice-cold water on your head and miss a marketing opportunity.

Now if you will excuse me, I need to squeeze the last remaining angstrom of toothpaste out of the tube so I can brush my teeth. I’ll save that for my next lecture entitled, “Tootpaste and stretching budgets: Maximizing minty freshness all quarter long.”

We did it! And by ‘we’ I am referring to Nike, Nikassi, Paramount and Bauer Graphics. In two weeks time we were all able to work together to put together a silent auction to support Big Brothers Big Sisters.

The day went smoother than silk. Nikassi beer was there with a keg of their finest and more than 30 auctions were available and getting populated fast. Bauer Graphics provided the food, posters and bid sheets for the auction. Our friend Danielle from Paramount stepped in at the last minute to help out with the printing.

Tony the T-man coordinated and emceed the entire event and handled everything exceptionally down to the last minutes of each auction. DJ Brad Mos-en-beats was on hand to put together a genius list of music that included one of our fave-raves; the Beastie Boys. New father Dr. G.C. Davies was on hand and on “Nikassi tap detail” throughout the event. Everything and everyone on Nike’s end was simply stellar.

Our own resident designer J. Yeager was on hand to auction off his ‘blank stare at a white wall’ mannequin skills. Unfortunately, we did not have a bid sheet printed up for him so he stood perfectly still for three hours for no reason whatsoever.

All jokes aside, the auction raised a lot of money for a good cause. More importantly, the event raised a tremendous amount of spirit and good feelings. We can’t wait till the next opportunity to help out with another worthy cause.