Don't Fake It. Make It.

Usually I am a supporter of the typical turn of this phrase "fake it 'til you make it," but since the handcrafted design movement has found a following here at Third Degree, we've been making a real effort to include more handmade elements into our work.



Like the cut paper components of our Cosmetic Surgery Affiliates campaign.



Or the handwritten note style for this teen targeted sub-brand for Pioneer Communications that we've just started to develop.

We made the intern do the hand lettering for this one. We figured since he was technically still in school, it made him the perfect candidate.



These wooden hands had been residing on my living room shelf as treasured objects, until we posed and shot them inhouse with our little digital camera to create an big conceptual theme for a new higher education initiative. (Still pending launch, so I can't give away the actual client or show the finished creative).



We even edited a new variation of the TFCU "we get it" branding campaign, using the transparencies from the original shoot, for a behind the scenes cut-out, paste-up feel. With hands included, of course.



What's funny, is when you get used to making the "unfinished" into a purposeful finished product, it starts to become second nature.



Case in point. Last week I buy a fancy oversized wedding card for our designer Brett from the entire agency. It had one of those envelopes that plays music when you open it. I tested the flap like the little sticker on it told me too, heard the wedding march play in it's little electric fuzzy way, and said "that'll work." I didn't actually bother to look inside the envelope. So when I got back to the office to find out there was no actual card inside... no sweat.



We just recruited the intern, gave him a Sharpie...



... and created a handmade card that will probably have a lot more meaning in the long run.