Between the lines

Today we turn back the hands of time to take a look at this ad I made for Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics. The woman I worked with, a good friend and mentor, passed on last week. Her memorial service was yesterday.

One of the greatest gifts she gave me was that she believed in me, which made it much easier to believe in myself. Everyone needs someone like that.

Thank you. 

Important safety tips!

Time for our annual sneak preview of our Oregon DOT Halloween safety tips!

There are also a couple in video form. Take a look!

Sketchbook: Signs

I've been on the road this past week (hence the late posting). In my travels I came across a sign advertising free stuff at the casino. A little farther down the road there was another sign, advertising for a church. It made me wonder how effective it would be if the church used a similar sales pitch to the one used by the gambling joint...

It's Groundhog Day!

These are a couple of social media ads that we're running today on Facebook and Twitter, and I thought they were kinda cute.

And please, visit TripCheck.com before you travel in Oregon. Know before you go! 

Smaug

Frodo

Gollum

Boromir

Pippin

Something to celebrate

Did you know that tomorrow, March  25, is J.R.R. Tolkien Reading Day? It's an event that encourages reading, particularly reading Tolkien's works.

To commemorate the event, we at the Oregon DOT made these ads/memes to run on our social media accounts.

Here are a few of the finalists.  Check back periodically through the day, I'll put up some more every couple of hours.

Shameless promotion

Notice I didn't say "Shameless SELF promotion," because this isn't selling anything for me personally. It is, however, promoting a good cause!

If you're in the neighborhood (or even within driving distance)*, stop by the high school tomorrow night and enjoy a delicious -- and cheap! -- spaghetti dinner! Proceeds go to the high school education foundation.

I actually do a lot of artwork for the high school. Sometime I'll have to do a special T-shirt week. We've done some pretty good ones. Hmm...and maybe it could include a giveaway... I'll have to think about that.

Anyway, come on down tomorrow night and join us for a fabulous spaghetti feast!

Ciao!

*Within 300 miles or so...you'd have time to get here, eat, and get home before it's really late!

We pause for this message

One last election related cartoon, and then we'll go on to something else.

Should you feel inclined to censor

Almost done with the Good Heavens commentary on the elections.

The source

I'm pretty sure those guys down below have an advertising department. Probably a pretty good one!

Ain't it good to know

Yes, it's a bit of a spinoff from the old commercial from the Church with the tagline, "When families don't listen, children can go to the dogs."

Something completely different

OK, this isn't my usual cartoon. I thought I'd share an ad I illustrated for a company in Provo.



The company contacted me through my blog and asked if I'd be interesting in doing a drawing for them. It's not a product I've used or that I'm familiar with, but hey -- I can't say I have any complaints about it, either!

Product placement

If you haven't heard, filming is underway for the new Hobbit movie. that got me thinking about creative ways movies are financed...
And speaking of product placement (what a smooth segue, yes?)...



My gifted, talented and extremely musical cousin (or cousin-in-law if you want to get technical about it) is one of the creators of "The Lord of the Rings -- A Choral Symphony." She's created a Facebook page to promote it, and would very much like you to like it, too! Go on and give her a "like" on Facebook. Thank you.

This spot for rent

My buddy Gary over at newsphotography: exposed asked me to draw a cartoon for him to use on his blog. Each year he does a summer project. This year he traveled through South Dakota on his way home to Wisconsin (Go, Pack Go!). Somewhere in the hinterlands of South Dakota is Wall Drug, a landmark destination that has more than 165 signs in either direction advertising its location. His assignment: photograph the signs. So, for Gary, here's his cartoon. Check out the signs at newsphotography: exposed!

The payoff

So what was the point of these University Avenue ads? To show that we had fun and were very successful with a cartoon character as "spokesman" for the project. We measured success in a couple of ways: the project came in ahead of schedule, under budget and expanded an additional four blocks; only one business went under during construction (and they were on their way out before we even began) -- in fact, most businesses saw an upturn in sales during construction.

With that success in hand, we were faced with a similar project on Ogden's Washington Boulevard. We showed them samples of what we'd done in Provo with the University Avenue project.

Their reaction?

"We're not like Provo! We don't want a stupid cartoon character!"

With that feedback from the field, we went back to Salt Lake and drew up a communications plan with a different approach. We presented it to the same focus group a little while later, and they loved it. Here's a sample poster from that particular project:

Recognize it at all? You might. It's based on a World War II propaganda poster. From the other side.

And the folks in Ogden loved it!

Added upon

OK, so the kid doesn't change his pose at all in any of these ads. The design matched the T-shirts and A-frame signs we had to keep things consistent. But at least with a cartoon character as your mascot, you can get away with silly headlines and breezy copy in the ads.