2009 WINS!
In the beginning of 2009, Stuart thought it would be a good idea to have a competition between Rick, Cody and himself to see who could get the most designs to be chosen by clients throughout the year.
A fun competition is a great way to bring out our best and provide clients with the absolute best design solutions. The year started out with a win by Rick for his design for the AZ Power Authority Annual Report (the guys accused him of not providing three designs so he would capture the win. I’m not sure if that is true or not he is the boss). Stuart scored a win for a logo design for Upland Companies.
Trailing the pack was Cody. He wasn’t too far behind and was able to catch up with a win for YourWayHomeAZ’s logo. And Stuart’s YourWayHomeAz.com website design was chosen.
As the year progressed, The New Foundation selected Cody’s logo and website designs. Along with that he put another X in the Win Column for his design for the Rossmar & Graham Quarterly Newsletter & Friends of Arizona Highways Photo Workshops brochure. These designs, along with others totaled 19 wins for Cody. If the calculations are correct he did bring in the most wins.
Desert Practice Management selected Stuart’s brochure design. An impressive win by Stuart was his logo design for Hogwash Express, a car wash at Priest and University in Tempe. Stuart rallied and ended the year with 16 wins.
When Rick was able to take spend some time designing (and not having to keep us out of trouble) Manifest West was delighted with the new Website he had designed for them. His year ended with a total of 6 wins.
Chelsea, our summer intern, was able to score a win for her ABIL website design.
Looking back on 2009, there were many fun and interesting projects that we were a part of. Check out our portfolio for a complete list of winners at www.r2az.com.
Editor’s note: Due to the fact that Stuart was in charge of the scoreboard, his totals have been brought in to question. We aren’t sure he recorded the rest of the staff’s wins. For 2010 I will be in charge of the scorecard. Keep checking our website for the tally and see the winning designs.
Happy New Year! We are looking forward to another design filled year.
So much in such a small amount of time
It’s been forever since we’ve posted on our blog - so much has happened - First off I want to thank all of our contest participants and announce the R2 Anthology winner. Congratulations to David Gilbertson for “the funniest” photo, and to Michal Ging for “the most creative”. Each has been awarded a spectacular, professionally guided (by Colorado River Discovery), half-day river float trip for two, down the mighty Colorado River.
Congratulations are also in order for both Maureen Salloom, who took the lead in the category of most photos submitted with her whoppin’ 21 submissions, and Jeff Concors who documented his trip to Kiev, Ukraine to beat out the competition for the category of farthest traveled. Both will receive a miscellaneous summer goody bag that will come in handy for their next vacation.
Secondly this years R2 company dinner was held at L Amore Restorante 3159 East Lincoln Drive, Phoenix, AZ (602) 381-3159 - the food was excellent and the company was even better - here are a few pictures of the event.
Don't let the waiter take the picture - check out my new tackle box and net from the awesome staff
Our lady and the tramp rendition
Catch and release
Thirdly we want to thank Stephanie Kegley Scott for including us in The New Foundation’s 1st Annual Golf Classic, it was a great event (a little cold in the morning but turn out to be a nice day) with great attendance and believe it or not we three guys and Richie from Panoramic Press took third place.
One classy bunch
Well that should wrap it up for now - Happy Holiday’s to all and well Blauugh you next year.
Look how our boys have grown.
I have to say that one of my favorite things to do is to hang with the Suns at the annual Fan Appreciation Party and this year was an exceptionally great time. It was at Crackerjax Family Fun & Sports in Scottsdale with great attractions such as Go-Karts - Batting Cages - Miniature Golf and a Video Arcade. Typically I RSVP for the whole family and in the past my boys would have jumped at any opportunity to hang with their old man and talk to some players, but…… things have changed around our place and from what I can gather in my senile state of mind is I have become a complete and total idiot - otherwise known as a douchebag (funny thing is I’m pretty sure they don’t even know what a douchebag is, or was even used 4) As you might have gathered my boys would rather get their hair cut than be seen with their mom and dad - so like any good parent would do - we left them at home with no food or water… and double dated with our friends Rod and Therese. Rod has taught me everything I know about getting autographs and I believe is the only person on earth with a larger collection Sun’s and Dbacks bobble-head than I. Check out some of our pictures, and who do you think is taller, Stoudemire or me?
Photo enhanced
Actual Size
Me and Leandro after a game of 21
Jrich and Trich
FYI -Robin Lopez is standing on a box
We’re Sorry For Going M.I.A.
So it appears we haven’t made a blog post in over a month! We want to apologize for our slacking! With our good buddy and designer extraordinaire Cody getting married and going on his Honeymoon, we were a tad busy! But he’s back and we’ll be back to writing soon. We promise!
Right Brain Left Brain
I was working with my Father-in-Law (who was a professor of Math at Arizona State University) He needed a couple of slides for a speaking engagement. To me they were pretty simple to create in Illustrator - create a new document - select the rectangle tool - hold down the options key - plug in the dimensions - repeat - Horizontal Align Left - Center on the Page a - Voilà. When he was describing the theory and methodology behind these two simple rectangles and their relevance to time and space and the infinite series of intersecting lines my eyes must have glazed over and rolled back in my head. Now to be fair to this genius of a man this is the guy that tutored me in collage algebra which some how I managed to get thru with a passing grade (D).
When I saw this it made me think of Al. Good luck in Europe big guy and look both ways before you cross the street.
Freaky Advertising
I’m not a “tv ad guy” and I’ll admit I’m not truly hip to the whole marketing and psychology of tv marketing. But, these Palm Pre ads that are currently ruining my day… I just don’t get them.
Can’t you just imagine that meeting for the creative. A bunch of advertising creatives sitting around in their blue jeans and funny t-shirts around 7 empty boxes of pizza at 9 o’clock at night before the big client presentation.
Boss dude: “So what we need is an ad campaign for this new Palm Pre that is memorable and stands out from our competition”
Ad guy one: “So why don’t we do a commercial about how are product makes your life easier, saves you time and money”
Dumb ad guy: “No dude, that’s stupid. I’ve got the perfect idea for this multi-million dollar campaign! Let’s go find some creepy looking albino chick and pull her hair back so tight she looks like she could be a stand-in for the movie Alien. Then, let’s go get the cheapest, most brutal green screen guy in the world, and place her on a background that is devoid of realism and looks like it was painted by Bob Ross’ grandson. She can talk really softly over some stock music we buy from SterotypicalHorrorMovieMusic.com and incoherently babble about reincarnation, or walking in the park, or chopping up bodies in the bathtub. And at the end for the payoff she can hold up our stupid, worthless phone, and it will look great in comparison to the horrible 20 seconds they just experienced!”
Boss dude: “Gold. How soon can I have it!”
I just can’t imagine it went down any other way. Or at least I refuse to believe it did.
Of course they should have just gone all the way and done it properly…like this:
Teetering on the Dangerous Line
Read a very interesting post this morning by way of the design blog Brand New in regards to the new identity of The Cornell Lab of Ornithology which was designed by Pentagram partner (and rockstar designer) Michael Beruit. The design is fine, whatever. The point of contention comes from the fact that the icon is basically copied from the artwork of artist Charley Harper an artist that Beruit admits to admiring.
It’s a very interesting question, exactly at what point is something in the design and art world considered trademark and artwork infringement? Google “logos that look the same” and you’ll come up with 100s of hits but what about logos that look like illustrations? It’s more than anything an interesting philosophical and legal question that, as more and more work gets produced, we may see more and more.
Surname - Nicknames…
Just to set the story straight we are R2 Graphic Design & Advertising Inc. dba R Squared. You can call us r2 for short but don’t call us r2 squared - that’s just redundant and wrong. Most people figure the R2 stands for Rick Richardson - but just to complicate things my real name is Barton Deane Richardson, where the Rick come from I will never know, other than to avoid confusion at family gatherings (Grandfather - Uncle and then me - all Barton - Bart or Bartie.) Anyways this has very little to do with anything other than I thought it a good lead in to my next Blaugh.
Heat Index: Today’s sports nicknames stink - by Doug Haller - Jul. 15, 2009 - AZ Republic
You know, with all the new media out there, you’d think the nickname business would be experiencing a renaissance of sorts. Sadly, pitifully, that’s not the case.
How bad is it? Amaré Stoudemire decided not long ago that he wanted a new, fresher nickname. The Suns forward decided on Sun Tzu, and you can bet the Suns are just giddy over the marketing aspects of such a moniker.
Let’s face it: Today’s nicknames stink. Somehow we’ve gone from Magic, Sweetness and Charlie Hustle to Black Mamba, The Big Shaqtus and The Machine. It shows an amazing lack of creativity that should insult fans everywhere.
Seeking answers, The Heat Index contacted Louis Phillips, an essayist from New York City who long ago co-authored “The Complete Book of Sports
Nicknames.” How powerful can a nickname be? Phillips is convinced that former Red Sox pitcher Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd would not have played 10 seasons without such a colorful nickname. In other words, Boyd’s name trumped his game, which probably is true.
Several reasons that have contributed to this dying art. “First, the shift from print media to television,” he wrote. “Nicknames in print have staying power. TV nicknames have a ‘made-up, spur-of-the-moment’ fleeting essence.
“Also the shift away from reading literature affected the quality of sports writing in America. The great sportswriters such as Ring Lardner, Grantland Rice and Red Barber were literary men, and they wrote well. It takes imagination to come up with a nickname such as ‘The Four Horsemen.’ ”
Phillips also mentioned political correctness and free agency. But we’re convinced great nicknames have declined simply because no guidelines exist to help those involved.
In that regard, we’re here to help:
Rule 1: No player is allowed to give himself a nickname or is authorized to change an existing nickname. Henceforth, this shall be known as the Stoudemire Rule.
Rule 2: Initials do not a nickname make. Therefore, TO does not suffice for Terrell Owens, just as LB, as popular as it is in the Valley, doesn’t work for Leandro Barbosa. Come on, do you think Barack Obama answers to BO inside the White House? Not a chance.
Rule 3: Syllables do not a nickname make. This eliminates BoMel, TMac, ManRam, DWade, ARod, CoJack, JRich, JUp, JKidd, JRoll and JWill.
Rule 4: Baseball’s tendency to attach a “y” or “ie” to a surname makes a clubhouse intimate, but it should not be viewed as an acceptable form of nicknaming. This no doubt will send shockwaves throughout the industry. Just look at the Diamondbacks, a team with Byrnsie, Webby, Lopey, Gutie, Schoeney, Quallsy and Gibby.
You’d think Chad Tracy would be thrilled since his surname actually ends in “y,” but no. In Tracy’s case the “y” is inexplicably dropped, and he’s known simply as Trace. Makes no sense.
Rule 5: Nicknames must be memorable; another reason Stoudemire’s Sun Tzu will flop. The Heat Index has been writing these rules for an hour now and has had to look up Sun Tzu every time. Keep it simple, along the lines of Air Jordan, Dr. J and Bear Bryant.
Rule 6: Rhyming is encouraged. Stan the Man, Wilt the Stilt, The Italian Stallion, Mean Joe Greene, The Round Mound of Rebound. These have staying power because they are easily remembered.
Rule 7: On the same note, alliteration is your friend. Pistol Pete, Hammerin’ Hank, Joltin’ Joe and The Splendid Splinter all roll off the tongue.
Rule 8: Nicknames must have little problem fitting into daily conversation. Example: How many times have you heard a co-worker ask, ‘Hey, did anyone see The Machine last night? That guy is awesome!” But once upon a time, it wasn’t uncommon to hear that The Iceman lit up the Knicks or that The Wizard of Oz made an amazing play at short.
By the way, to emphasize our point: Were you even aware that “The Machine” is the nickname for baseball’s best player, Albert Pujols?
How to Sell to Clients
Now this guy is the way to sell to clients. Tell them their stuff is crap, very nice. The best part is that you know this guy totally believes what he’s telling us, and the fact that he’s so proud of his laminated resume/children’s book/business card.
The New Foundation’s New Foundation
Check out our friend The New Foundation’s new website in their goal in furthering their efforts to continue making positive improvements in the community. Of course we love it because it was done by yours truly, R Squared!
Check it out and see the great things they have to offer!
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