Obviously, this video has been seen my almost everyone in the world—and rightfully so. It executes such a fresh, fun, and unique way to telling a story. I’ve been wanting to tip my hat to it’s excellence since Super Bowl Sunday, and since I was on the subject of storytelling, I decided now was the time to pay homage to one of the best I’ve seen recently.

Also, It’s fun for me to compare their execution of a similar design brief that we received when working on the Typophile Film Festival opening credits a few years back: show a life using only typography. Our approach was dramatically different, but I think people connected with it because of good storytelling, once again. Leave it to Google, though, to tell the story SO much more simple than anyone else. Anyways, probably not too new to most readers, but I thought I’d post this here because I actually don’t think it’s ever made it onto this site.

When I’m looking for new people to work with, this is criteria #1 that I’m looking for: If I can find the essence of their story—and if that story is one that resonates with me—it’s a story I can bring passion and beauty and clarity to its telling. This is what I want for my life, and my career.

70 Million by Hold Your Horses ! from L’Ogre on Vimeo.

This is a really fun video with an impressive mass of fun allusions to famous pieces in art history. Sadly enough, I can hardly remember what the song is like because I was so taken by the visuals.

I 100% feel this.

There have been jobs where my employer has said something along the lines of “Just knock this one out quick—we don’t need it to look great—but it will make a huge difference in (fill in the blank).” Or they’ve said things like, “Don’t you think it’s cool that thousands of people are seeing your work?” in reference to a job that I was given a day to just hash out. And, I’ve tried with huge amounts of failure to explain that reward does very little—if anything—for me. If only I had seen this video before…

I don’t see myself as a decorator. I don’t just make things look pretty. And I’m not just a “computer guy” who knows Photoshop and so obviously I can design a web-banner right quick… I want to tell stories and I want to cause a change for my clients as well as the people that interact with my work. But, in the end, if the things I am producing are not beautiful, they do little to satiate my appetite for design.

Great designers—which I am striving to become—combine aesthetics with intelligence that can touch someone’s soul and encourage them to do something. And hopefully more than just buy sugar water or an expensive new car.

I’d say a good 5 years ago my good friend Bardhi Haliti tried to get me into Joanna Newsom. She’s this crazy woodland sprite with a squeaky soprano (I tried to find what was higher than soprano, but couldn’t get a clear answer from Google and Wikipedia) that plays the harp. The harp! It wasn’t hard to see her indie cred, but I had a hard time actually getting into her music.

And then in 2006 she released “Ys” and I kinda thought: that’s a little pretentious… an album name that’s not even a word… but all I did, I’m sure, was display my own ignorance. The album was critically acclaimed as one of the best of the year. I didn’t give it much of a chance.

And then, on a total whim, I go to npr.org today—not to listen or read any stories, but just to look at their playlist functionality for site that I’m working on. I’m haphazardly clicking on any story that has a [+] icon next to it, and I happened to add two stories about Joanna Newsom to my playlist. And, for once—even though my original intention did not include actually listening to anything—I gave her a shot.

And, sadly and predictably enough, she blew me away.

(also surprising to me, because I thought she was creature from the middle ages, she happens to be quite beautiful… definitely giving indie-darlings, Jenny Lewis and Zoe Deschanel, a run for their money)

Anyways, she released a new album, “Have One on Me” on Tuesday and it’s really good. Granted, it is much more accessible than her previous two, but in just one listen today (it’s 2+ hours long) I was blown away. Check it out on NPR—they’re streaming it for free right now.

Check it out:

1st: The Generations Project

This is a documentary series that digs into a new individual’s heritage each episode. They’re really interesting and really well-made. My friend, Micah Dahl Anderson, scored the series and that, as well, is incredible. You can watch the latest episode on their website or right below; and you can watch clips on their facebook page.

2nd: KBYU 11

Back when I was in school, KBYU (Channel 11) came to our class to help them with their impending rebrand. Sam Gray kinda stole the show with his simple, strong mark of the state of Utah with an 11 knocked out of the right block of the state. That mark turned into a multi-year gig up there as one of the main creative directors. The work and site are not yet live, so just keep a look-out on Channel 11. Good things coming.

3rd: Classical 89

In addition to channel 11, Sam also spearheaded the rebrand of the Classical 89 brand, shown above, which—par for the course when it comes to Sam’s work—is absolutely solid. I’m seriously in love with the grid and organization of that homepage…

4th: Beehive Stories

Last night, I went to the premier of Beehive Stories—a collection of short documentaries showcasing each of the 29 counties in Utah State through real-life, human, individual stories.

These are really nice short stories definitely worth checking out. And, another friend of mine, Travis Pitcher, was heavily involved in the making of this series, directing one piece, filming two others, scoring one and also composing the main title sequence… jack of all trades.

Brad Barber was the mastermind behind this whole production… These start showing on television today, I believe.

These are, like I said, just the things that I’ve seen—and I know there’s plenty more out there that I haven’t heard about. A lot of really talented people are working on this—beyond the few mentioned above—so keep an eye out… It’s not the BYU Broadcasting that we’ve known in past years anymore.

The shoe above is called “6 Rings” because the shoe design is a composite of the six different shoes MJ wore during his 6 championship years. They then did a series of releases where the same mold was stylized with details pertinent to each of the teams the Bulls beat to win those championships. The ones I got, of course, are designed with the Seattle SuperSonics in mind. You can see (barely) the Space Needle jutting out from behind the strap and the glove graphic for Gary Payton—nicknamed “The Glove” for his stifling defense. These came out the first year the Sonics no longer existed as a team in Seattle. I picked them up as a relic, of sorts, to keep their story alive in my life.

The shoes below are a re-release of the Jordan XIIs, stylized to accentuate out the Japanese Rising sun that originally inspired the design. I love the simplicity and cleanliness of the design and the way that it allows the strap and the “23” on the back to pop. Played in these last week and my shot was falling at an abnormally high percentage… Gotta be the shoes, right?

In February, I was contacted by a company here in Provo called InsideSales.com. They create software (dialer type software and crazy efficiency-boosting applications) for sales people that kind of help change and redefine the paradigm of what sales is and how it is done. While not the job I would have sought out on my own—in-house was never really my thing—their story and product was really compelling and I felt that there was a lot of potential to do some great design work and help grow the company.

We’re about 9 months into this experiment and we’re starting to see some of the fruits of our labors blossom and hit the public. I figured this would be an appropriate time to show a bit more of the brand than what I have in the past. So here are a few more finished pieces to take a look at. I’d love to hear any feedback, as it’s a very foreign design style to me.

Main homepage… We did a photoshoot with Jonathan Canlas a couple months ago and the banner here features an amazingly talented Rhyan Atrice, from Urban Talent up in Salt Lake.

This is a report engine application (sitting within the black frame) designed a few months back. I’m pretty pleased with the outcome, considering the incredible amount of data that needs to be displayed and the constraints of html programming.

I have a few more pieces I’ll show after the jump.

The photos below are not incredible because I didn’t have appropriate lighting in my house tonight. And the upload warped the colors all weird, but you should be able to get the gist.

We designed the digipack and insert book, CD face, vinyl sleeve, and vinyl face labels. I do say “we” because I want to recognize Joshua’s continual help and direction—as well as his second set of eyes at 4 in the morning before sending off to press. Also, credit to Weston Colton for the photography—much more impressive in real life/real color. Hopefully I can get some pictures soon that do the piece more justice. In the meantime, check out the music (iTunes link again…) because it really is something special. Write home about it, even. I know I did.