Our Bulletin Is Anything But Bored

Someone once told us they felt like they already knew the people at Third Degree just by visiting our web site. It's true, we do post a lot of pictures of ourselves. Sometimes in costumes. We tweet. We blog. We post our key-lime-throwdown and our frying-an-egg-on-the-sidewalk results on Facebook. But there's also a good old fashioned way to get a peek into our agency culture.



Our break room (we call it the diner) bulletin board.



Fight On storyboard and diner sign we made as prop for end of video.

Sometimes it reminds of our favorite projects.



Tin cans for our Inside Voice video. Liz's idea day one-sheet about handcrafted elements in design.

We like to give props to our handmade props.

Idea day show-n-share, favorite outdoor boards.

Our office coordinator Misty handmade this billboard replica for idea day. I personally think it's better than the original.



Sometimes it's a place to find inspiration.



This is like a multi-tasking creative's version of a kitten hanging from a tree poster.

This looks like a harmless calendar. That's because we finally started covering up what's on the top half (which is not covered up at all).

Sometimes it just keeps us on schedule.



Like our idea day schedule.



Which is no laughing matter. We're hungry people. Now what's your freakin' idea!?



It's a place of thanks.

Our clients are nice. And have good manners. Like, they probably don't say freakin' as much as we do.

Roy's daughter Kendall's artistic contribution. Third Degree creative director 2030.

Our kids are nice, too. And, they probably do say freakin' as much as we do. Because we're bad influences that way. But at least the creativity is rubbing off. And the boastfulness. But, hey... what are bulletin boards for?

Paint By Numbers

I'm in Atlanta visiting our friends at Delta Community Credit Union. Great restaurants, good company... plus, I got to see one of their new number-themed commercials we just finished up for them on my TV at the hotel this morning!



I never get to see their commercials "for real" because, well, duh, I live in Oklahoma City, and it never seems quite real until you see one of your spots during Project Runway or Top Chef, or in this case, the news. Which I only ever seem to watch when I'm in hotels or airports.



Me. In my PJs. Watching the news (just because there aren't any reality shows on TV at 6:00 in the morning).



Director: David Stepp / Animator: Steve Jones / Audio: Lucky Dog / Photography: Simon Hurst

These TV spots were all about Ten Reasons to Switch in 2010 to Delta Community. These spots turned out so cool. We wanted to bring these numbers to life to create a memorable and optimistic new membership campaign for Delta Community for the new year (a fuzzy number five dog, a number three sonogram)...



Plus, it was as about as close as I could get to living out my lifelong dream to work for Sesame Street or Jim Henson. I mean, our big orange fuzzy number five was definitely muppet-worthy.



This is Doug. He's the bad ass who constructed all these props for us back at his shop at Eaton Quade. He doesn't even flinch when we say, "can you make a giant number eight shrubbery for us?" Which is good, because then his cigar might fall out of the corner of his mouth. We think he should have a reality show about his shop, like American Chopper.



American Chopper with giant Fruit Loop colored numbers everywhere, that is!



Actually color was a big deal when planning for this shoot. Kathleen was the master mind of all things fuzzy, paint sample chippy, paper leafy, etc...



Tons of planning went in to creating the props and the perfect color palette, from deciding to paint the studio "Decisive Yellow" as was named on the swatch, to buying lots of coordinating wardrobe for all the talent. And, of course, Kathleen also stood in as the model for the test shots.



I know Delta Community is excited to kick off the new campaign.



And I was excited to take home the fuzzy five (just for one night) to show my number one five-year old.

Vegging Out This Christmas

'Tis the season...



... to get stuffed.

This year we took our general agency love of food, combined with my love of fake food (and my personal collection of hand sewn stuffed vegetables I picked up at a yard sale years ago) and constructed a handcrafted Third Degree holiday card for 2009.

For a retrospective of past Third Degree holiday cards (some more controversy-sparking than others) click here.



We were going to arrange real Christmas lights around the fabric beets and tomatoes and carrots, but were struck by inspiration to hand make those, too, out of yarn and tissue paper. Kathleen photo directed the eggplant. They can be such divas.



Next on the merry-making agenda? Packaging up our homemade salsa for everyone. Unlike our crafty little Christmas lights, we did not technically make the salsa with our own hands. We have a salsa lady for that. What? Don't you have a salsa lady? We highly recommend it.



But we did make like little elves all assembly line style during our Monday agency lunch to get our salsa all packaged, labeled and topped with bows.



For extra inspiration we made sure to have a classic Christmas movie playing in the background.

Christmas Vacation? No.
Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer? Nope.
Charlie Brown Chrismas? Uh. uh.

Love Actually. Actually.



Because choosing to address all our Christmas posts by hand (no laser printed labels for us, no way!) takes a little Hugh Grant, a lot of holiday cheer, and probably not as much vegging out as the title of this post might suggest.

My Mustache Muse

Thanks Kathleen and Daniel for guest blogging for me. I just got back from a week long trip to New York City.



I was there for half business and half fun.



The fun part was seeing my brother who lives in Brooklyn. This is us being touristy on one of those red double-decker buses. But my brother, Donny, is never inconspicuous. It's the handlebar mustache.


photo by Laure Leber

Donny is actually the master of ceremonies at the Coney Island Sideshow By The Seashore. He does straightjacket escapes, breaths fire, juggles chainsaws, but he's best known for being "The Human Blockhead" which is hammering a six inch nail into his nose. There's even a Coney Island Lager beer label named after him.




He was featured in Rebel Ink this month, a popular tattoo magazine. I get it in the mail with my Good Housekeeping. Not really, he showed it to me in the hotel when we got into the city. Then I showed him how I used his story for a credit union presentation we gave earlier that day.



That was the business part of my trip. We gave a presentation to a group of credit union marketers. One of their questions to us, was "how do we break through?" So I drew inspiration from Donny's money-maker (that's what he calls it.) Basically making the point that his mustache gives him his confidence, his unique mark... his swagger. I called upon the group of executives at the table to stake their claim, shout out their difference from the banks, and embrace their own credit union swagger vs. insecurity.



We even made them these really cool framed plaques...





...with removable mustaches that they could try on if they needed reminding of their swagger.



Of course, per our usual goofiness, we had fun with them around the office before I packed them up for my trip.



What's kind of funny, is when we were investigating what style of mustache we wanted to create for the presentation, we found this site MoustacheMe.com.



It encourages people to download mustache templates, or order stickers...



...and adhere them to advertisements. This is their wall where people submit the ads they've defaced. I know, as an advertiser I think I should be offended, but hey, at least people are interacting with the brand. And of all the Disney Princesses, only Ariel could pull off that 'stache.

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.