Third Degree: The Photo Shoot

Today we launch the new Third Degree website. Yay! Which means Third Degree can share our most recent work, case studies, thoughts, hopes, dreams, etc...



It also means since we took some new staff photos for the site at David McNeese studio, I can now finally show you all the embarrassing behind the scenes photos. Like this one. Classic.



Has anyone seen a creative (and a copywriter to boot) ever smile so big?



That's more like it.



I tend to get carried away.



This was my favorite shot of the day. Holly our media director looks just like a shampoo commercial. So ethereal, angelic. I call it Holly-Campaign-For-Beauty-Dot-Com.



I call this one, Holly WTF?



Our executive vice president Mickie, had to bring her little boy to the shoot. It was only a matter of time before that situation spiraled.



Speaking of spiraling situations, Roy, our CEO made an impromptu appearance at the studio. So, while Amanda doesn't have a child in her shot... well, you finish that sentence.



Of course, having Roy show up equaled instant hilarity. Or maybe that was just because of the wine he brought with him.



All in all, a memorable day.



As for selective memory, this is when I promised everyone I wouldn't share their embarrassing photos.

Powerwash Equals Mural Makeover

Our client Pioneer, is headquartered in the smalltown hub of Kingfisher, Oklahoma. The town's main street strip still holds the charm of days-gone-by combined with all the signs of a thriving rural community. So when a recent powerwashing of Pioneer's mural resulted in a little more paint removal than dirt removal, on the one hand it could have just passed as well, retro... really retro...



...or the slight mishap could present itself as an opportunity for a fresh coat of paint and a refresh of the Pioneer brand look.



We had just put out a new annual report for Pioneer, a telecommunications company that's been serving western Okahoma for over 50 years.



So we decided to draw some inspiration from the annual report cover as we designed the new mural.



And presto chango! Our muralist did it in like two days. We didn't want it to look too new, so we designed it to look pre-distressed. You know, like when you buy jeans with the holes already in them.



We convinced the Pioneer marketing ladies to trek out to the mural with us for a photo op. It was 104 degrees outside and the bleached out concrete parking lot really reflected a lot of sun during this afternoon shot. I photo-adjusted this one, but it still looks like we're posing for a party pic on the surface of Mars.



I wasn't even allowed in the group picture because my beyond white skin was creating too much glare. Maybe I should take a cue from the brick wall behind me and get a new coat of paint... spray-on-tan style.

When Art Directors Get To Go Outside

They go to the HOW Design Conference! This year Third Degree sent Kathleen and Liz to see what's-what in the world of design at the national conference held in Austin, Texas this year.



Every professional creative person from inhouse designer to big bad agency art director drools to go to HOW. At Third Degree we try to budget for two creatives to get to attend every other year or so.



One thing that helps make it affordable is sharing a hotel room. What the budget does not cover is a hotel bill for trashing the room.



Kathleen and Liz kept me posted on their experience in real time with frequent texts. The first outing upon arrival was an agency tour of a quaint bungalow-style house that was home to Creative Suitcase a local Austin agency. The girls felt right at home.



A particularly inspirational session was one by Kate Bingaman-Burt of obsessiveconsumption.com, a blogger/illustrator/design influencer in her own right, and a big believer in handcrafted design, which is something both Liz and Kathleen feel passionate about, as well.

Craft + Activism = Craftivism by Kate Bingaman-Burt of www.obsessiveconsumption.com



A more serious session was all about staying organized and the importance of actionable steps in an "idea" world. It's not all troubled genius and late night brainstorms. It's actually a lot of being organized, consistent and just responsible with your energy and focused on the right things. Kathleen was a front-rower at this one – the kind that nods at everything the speaker is saying. This was presentation was given by Behance, and was so on the Third Degree train, Kathleen almost jumped up and yelled "testify!"

www.behance.com



Kathleen's notes from Living a Curiously Creative Life breakout session by Von Glitschka.

In fact, having been to HOW myself, I would compare the experience to something probably not unlike a revival. So we just started ending all our texts to and from the conference with "revival! testify! hallelujah!" This doodle-note is one of Kathleen's... hmmm, looks like she is already being inspired by that handcrafted session she attended earlier in the conference.



Now that they are back to the daily grind, we hope that a little of that inspiration lingers.

Liz at the agency tour of fd2s in Austin.



Not that it's ever too dull around here. Case in point: just a week after their return from HOW, and we see what really happens when art directors get to go outside – especially when they get their hands on a client's used outdoor vinyl, coat it with baby oil, stake it to a hill, and.. yes...



... turn it into a slip and slide.


TFCU's Get Going promotion may be over. But that didn't stop some of our more inventive minds from inventing another way to get going (and get grass burns).

Playing With Blocks

How do you get to play with blocks as part of your grownup job?



You work in advertising. That, and you have a client like Cox Communications who lets you use blocks to illustrate how their local stores are better than what their competitor – sounds like A-Gee & Gee – is offering.



The featured medium of this campaign is television, so we gathered together the contents from the bottom of my kids' closet, and shot stills of a little neighborhood scene that we then had animated to create the final commercials.



We also created digital outdoor boards using the same imagery.



Beep, beep!

Kathleen was the lead creative on this campaign, which is running here in Oklahoma starting this week. Since Cox is the local cable provider (in addition to providing telephone and high speed internet service) they get lots and lots of play on the tube, (i.e. television... I don't think TVs actually have "tubes" inside them anymore?)



I actually wanted to name this post Playing With (Sounds Like Begos), but we're trying to avoid getting in legal grey area. If you'll notice on the final animated commercials, all the distinctive circular pegs are Photoshopped off the tops of the "blocks" to give them a more generic appearance.



But, lets just say, I am nuts about Begos! I love to build fancy Bego houses and stuff from scratch (this is the front of a bodega style market I brought from home), but then it makes my five year old feel bad: "mom, why isn't my Bego house good like yours?" So I may have to start playing with Begos in private (or in this case, at work) so he doesn't get a complex. It may be too late – especially if I keep calling them Begos.

Facetime With Bucky

BuckTheNorm.com is back with a new contest. TFCU is asking young people to submit their own photo of Bucky over the summer, and the best one chosen gets to be Bucky's facebook profile pic, and the winning entrant gets a free digital camera.



We've worked so much on buck the norm around here, and had gotten so used to calling the "spokesthumb" of the campaign, Bucky, that we thought it might be a good idea to formally introduce him to the buck the norm audience as well. So we decided to do a video about him.

First step, get his face right. We'd gotten a little rusty drawing the perfect Bucky face, so we had to practice... a lot.



Fortunately we had a lot of volunteers around the agency (if you consider forcing people to let us draw faces on their thumbs with permanent marker volunteering).



Finally, it was perfect. Good match, don't you think? This is actually my thumb, which plays Bucky Number One in the video.



Daniel has more experience starring in buck the norm videos.

His thumb is Bucky Number Two.

(That sounds kind of gross...if you're five years old I suppose... but I have one of those, too... so I went there.)



We decided that my desk area had the most natural light, so we set up our little makeshift studio there: easels, foam core, poster board, and dangerously hot desk lamps and shop lights rigged up at precarious angles.

We were too lazy to move my desk. Or clean it.



Brett was our official stage hand-slash-camera man. He's about to go union.



We actually had a guest star Bucky. Here I am holding her hand up so it shows up in the frame.



And here I am going all stage mom on her. Her real mom, Kriste, our media buyer, is in the background. She's about to come throw me down. I'm pretty sure she could take me.




But at the end of the day it was worth it.

Presenting our handmade video.

Who Says Print Is Dead?

I walk into our agency "diner" the other day and there's Jentry our media buyer finding a creative use for newspaper.



She was decoupaging newspaper onto our exposed warehouse pipes (with, I should add, "The Office" Season 1 DVD blaring in the background.)



Papering the pipes was a design element she concepted as part of our diner remodel that we did ourselves. But she hadn't had a chance to complete it yet.



As a media buyer, it's Jentry's job to really be strategic about the mediums we take advantage of. Hmmm... is this a commentary on the state of newspaper as a media avenue?



Nope. It's just a creative way to make the most of what we've got.



Michael Scott approves.

Get Going With Your Scootery Self

My coworkers love it when I shoot pictures of them really closeup on the way places, like in airplanes, or cars. When I say love it, I mean hate it, because it freaks them out a little, and they sort of retract their heads away from the camera that's suddenly right in their face, which gives them a frozen smiled "why-are-you-doing-this-to-me?" expression.



But that doesn't mean I've quit doing it. Account coordinator, Hallie, is looking slightly frozen but very summery as she drives us to an equally summery promotional event, the Get Going radio remote and registration at TFCU (that's what the flyer's about that I'm sticking in her face, as well as my camera).



It's a sunny blue-sky day and one of the outdoor boards promoting the event is located right by the branch we're going to, so it's a good photo opportunity. Although the drivers who have to slow down because I'm standing in the middle of the street to take the perfect shot are perhaps a little annoyed.



But I had to get a good angle, because I'm really thrilled with how the scooter rear-view mirror extensions turned out. The outdoor company used real metal bars which look great when the sun hits them as you drive by.



The scooter is the big draw of this promotion. This is the second summer Tinker Federal Credit Union has done the Get Going promotion where they give away a pair of Buddy Scooters plus a $100 gas card. It's wrapped around an auto loan push including boat loans, RV loans, motorcycle loans... you know, all the ways you get going.



There were lots of people signing up, and the radio station that was hosting the remote had pizza, music, and other extra activities going on. Most of the TFCU branches are able to display a real scooter provided by Atomic Brown Scooter Shop.

They had a sign taped on the scooter that said "please don't sit on the scooter." Yeah, we were really great example-setters on that one.



The Get Going promotion was pretty successful for TFCU last year, so this year we tried some additional mediums. Like the outdoor with extensions, in-branch standees, and these cool floor clings placed in the entry ways and near teller areas.



They also used Get Going themed "It's On Us Cards," which TFCU often uses to reach non-members in close proximity to the branches at coffee shops or Sonic drive-thrus, surprising customers by having prepaid for their drinks.



Plus, they commissioned some whimsical window paintings for their front doors. These remind me of the ones Allegiance Credit Union did a few months ago that were surprisingly easy, inexpensive, and effective. For a fun or humorous promotion, it fits right in and especially lets current members know there's something new going on.