Stuff that inspires, work that provokes, and sometimes just circling the airport
Recently I worked with the County Behavioral Health Directors Association (CBHDA) on a series of fact sheets. Each fact sheet covered a separate issue that is important to CBHDA. I tied these together graphically using similar but different header graphics… each has its own distinct color.
View a full PDF of the fact sheet on homelessness here.
View a full PDF of the fact sheet on behavioral health here.
View a full PDF of the fact sheet on the Mental Health Services Act here.
Please check out the new website I designed for the California Behavioral Health Directors Association (CBHDA). You can view the full website here!
I’m proud to share a spot I worked on with SMUD and Bongo Post for SMUD’s new “Time of Day” rate!
Muck Rack just released their annual journalist survey and there are some pretty dismal results from a public relations professional's perspective. Among them, 53% of U.S.-based journalists do not rely on press releases at all, and just 3% of journalists worldwide said they rely on press releases sent via newswires heavily.
But, encouragingly, 49% of journalists said they would be more likely to pay attention to a press release if it contained an infographic. So on that note, I'm proud to share a recent infographic I produced with Blue Shield of California.
Also, please check out the corresponding fact sheet here, which includes a graphic sidebar.
I'm proud to present a short video I produced with the help of my mom, Imelda Lowe. She tells the story of a watch she bought for my father in 1974.
The video is more of an emotional story, but if you'll allow me to "nerd out" for a while, I'll tell you about some of the things I learned about the watch while researching it for the video. The Tudor Prince Oysterdate is nicknamed the "Jumbo" by collectors because it is similar to the Rolex "Presidential". (The brand Tudor was introduced by Rolex in 1926 to offer quality watches to the "working man".)
The crown with Rolex crown
In 2014, after it had sat in a drawer for a year or so, broken and neglected, I had the watch repaired and replaced the band. I retained the original clasp, which has the Rolex crown logo. The crown (the knob that winds the stem) has an imprint of the Rolex crown, but I learned that this was not always so. Originally, the crown would have had the imprint of the Tudor shield. Apparently it was common practice in the U.S. to replace the crown and stem every time the watch was repaired to retain its water resistance, and they would have replaced it with a Rolex crown. So this must have happened the first time my mom had it repaired.
I couldn't have completed this video without help from my brothers, who tracked down photos, and of course, the participation of my mom. Thank you to all of them.
Well the holidays are over, the ornaments are stowed and the glitter is swept. Cindy Lou Who has gone back to doing whatever the residents of Whoville do in the off-season (herding "roast beast"?) So I thought it the perfect time to give you a behind-the-scenes look at how Jettoe's holiday card came together in 2017.
The final card front (at left) and back (at right)
2017 was a tough year. When concepting the card, I wanted something that had a hopeful, positive message without directly referencing the tough times. So the idea of having candles in front of a San Francisco landmark (imagery which is a big part of the Jettoe brand) seemed right. The painted ladies of Alamo Square are featured heavily in the Jettoe look as Alamo Square Park is close to where I live (and therefore near and dear to my heart) and it's also just an iconic view.
But, knowing that the San Francisco Parks and Recreation Department, not to mention the SFPD, would probably frown on a live fire in a city park (even candles), I decided to pull this together in Photoshop. I took the photo below with my phone.
The raw photo
The sky that day was a little blah, so I combined it with this photo of a sunset I took in Newport Beach earlier in the year.
I knew this would come in handy when I took it but had no idea what I'd use it for. It became the sky in the holiday card when combined with the photo above.
With color correction, cropping, and a slight blur to simulate depth-of-field, the background came together. The candles are from a stock photo. I took special care to ensure that the flames were partially transparent around the edges.
By the way, a big challenge with this card was getting the right sunset/dusk tone without being too dark. I wanted it to look dark enough that the candles would stand out, yet light enough that it wouldn't look muddy and depressing. Right mood: crisp winter evening where candles warm the soul and spirit as the sun slowly sets. Wrong mood: spooky Halloween night with fire that brings to mind the villagers chasing Frankenstein.
I'm proud of the final result. Many of you may have received the card, and if you didn't, I'm sorry I overlooked you. Drop me a line and I will make sure you get one next year.
In September the County Behavioral Health Directors Association of California (CBHDA) sponsored a behavioral health conference in San Diego. I worked with them on the design and production for a 20-page conference program with four different covers, 13 large signs announcing events around the hotel, custom awards, nametags, powerpoint slides, podium signage, and a step and repeat. And on top of that I was one of the conference sponsors! I'm grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this important issue.
The conference program with one of the cover options.
The step and repeat with the Jettoe logo.
View the the conference program here as a PDF.
Just yesterday I was saying to someone that an infographic is only as good as the information it is presenting. No amount of great design or illustration is going to dress up a piece that has no "there, there." That's why I was glad to work with Partnership HealthPlan of California on their county infographics, which pack a lot of great data into two 8.5"x11" pages. We developed infographics for each of their 14 counties, to be distributed at community meetings with members and county leaders.
Recently I worked with SMUD (the Sacramento Municipal Utility District) and Bongo Post & Music to write a TV spot for the new SMUDEnergyStore.com, a site that provides discounts and rebates on energy-related products. SMUD wanted something simple and to-the-point ... and motion graphic animation was a great solution. Check out the spot and the site!
Would you maybe want to give them a report card? I worked recently with the County Behavioral Health Directors Association of California (CBHDA) on a legislative report card... a brochure that grades California legislators on how well they voted on issues of concern to the CBHDA. I'm proud to work on something like this, as I believe that championing mental health issues are super important... well, like everyone says, don't get started on politics... however, I think we can all agree that mental health is something that affects all of us in one way or another.
The cover is below, and please click here to see the full score card as a PDF.
In 2014 I worked with Partnership HealthPlan of California to produce their three-year strategic plan, that would take them through years 2015-2017. This year, I provided layout and design for their new three-year plan, that takes them through the year 2020. The cover is below. View the entire design for the strategic plan here as a PDF.
Recently I worked with Manifest MedEx on a "two-pager" sheet. What's a two-pager? Well, it's kind of like a brochure... but not. Because it's only one 8.5"x11" sheet with info on both sides. So your audience doesn't have to go through the laborious process of opening a brochure. How difficult! :) It's not for everyone (you may have more to say and that's fine), but as a handy, quick summary of information that you'd like to hand out after a meeting, it's perfect.
View both pages as a PDF here.
In July I worked with Blue Shield of California on an infographic for their Narcotics Safety Initiative, which aims to reduce opioid use among Blue Shield members with non-cancer pain. The infographic below accompanied a press release on the initiative’s second year results. As you can see they are on track for meeting their Year 3 goal of reducing opioid use among members with non-cancer pain by 50%.
In light of recent events, I thought it would be appropriate to share this new work for SMUD, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. This TV spot, called "Connected," tested amazingly well with focus groups – out of several concepts that I developed and wrote during the production phase. The spot is currently running in Sacramento and features many beautiful drone shots from Bongo Films. Check it out, and if you live in Sacramento, take advantage of the deal!
Well it’s Flashback Friday and I thought I’d look back to a series of videos we produced for the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District (SMUD). SMUD wanted to urge their customers to sign up for their “Home Performance Program,” which included an assessment of a home’s energy usage and efficiency, and then also recommended ways that energy efficiency could be improved (new windows, improving roof, sealing leaky air ducts, etc.)
We cast Dave Dugan to deliver all of the information. We’d worked with Dave before… he is the voice of one of my favorite radio spots that I wrote for California Bonds called “This Day,” which you can listen to here.
He was a pro, doing take after take of essentially pointing at nothing…we added graphics later that he would be pointing to.
The program was a success, generating over 20,000 visits to the web page, with a 15% conversion rate to initiating an energy audit.
Here’s the introductory video:
Here are the rest of the videos:
Here are supporting campaign materials:
I'm exited to share a series of videos I wrote for Visit Lodi called "Behind the Wine." The videos feature real-life stories from Lodi, emphasizing the area's natural beauty, wine-friendly climate and even friendlier people. For this project I interviewed the participants during filming and then combed through the transcripts to piece together a story that demonstrated that Lodi is more than just wine tasting. Below is my favorite video from the series, but there's more here if you're interested.
Visit Lodi shoot at Oak Farm Vineyards. Special thanks to Bongo Films for the opportunity to be a part of this project and to the beautiful Oak Farm Vineyards for allowing us to shoot there.
To help the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) launch their new "My Energy Tools" section of their website, I wrote a 30-second spot called "Rock Band." The spot was produced by Bongo Films and emphasizes a feature that allows a SMUD customer to track their energy usage hour-by-hour.
Last year I worked with Bongo Films to create a series of videos for Bayer Crop Science, and today I finally get to share with you a version approved for external audiences!
The videos explain the process Bayer uses to develop biological products for crop applications. For my friends who may be concerned, biologicals are not GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms). Rather, they are naturally-occurring lifeforms (mostly bacteria) which are categorized and studied for their potential use. For example, if a certain bacteria were to inhibit a harmful mold that occurs on a crop's root system, and IF this bacteria can be safely developed, applied and produced on a mass scale, then that might be a new product. Such products have been shown to be safer for the environment than their chemical counterparts.
My role in the project was to take the very complicated "brain dump" from the Bayer scientists, sift through it, and distill it into several easy-to-understand video scripts that targeted scientists in other fields. Because the target audience was other scientists, even the external version (which was further simplified) is still pretty complicated... just a warning.
But it was a great opportunity to learn about a subject I didn't know much about before starting the process. And it was great to meet and interact with Bayer's brilliant scientists and to tour their world-class research and development facility in West Sacramento.
So this week we received an envelope full of those coupon “flyers” that usually seem to be for upscale items like maid services or meal delivery companies. Included in the stack of same-size, well-designed coupon/ads was one promoting Kuvée, a wine delivery service with a twist. Kuvée’s offering utilizes a “smart bottle,” which looks like an iPhone screen built into a wine bottle. The wireless-connected smart bottle allows you to learn about the wine you are drinking, and even order new wines directly from the bottle.
Well, I can’t decide if this is the coolest thing ever or exactly what’s wrong with our continuing, headlong (descent? ascent? let’s say “journey”) towards all things tech-related. Do we really need a touch screen on our wine bottle? I know many book readers, myself included, who scoffed when the Kindle was introduced, but I now happily download e-books. They’re sometimes cheaper than buying the paper versions, and (I justify to the part of me that actually enjoys holding a real book), better for the environment. Is this where wine buying is headed?
To find out, I watched the introductory video at kuvee.com. The host, a dapper-bearded-hipster gentleman, starts off by throwing down the gauntlet. “As good as wine is when you open a bottle, it only tastes that way for about a day,” he says with an expression that can only be described as a cross between a wink-like twinkle and a smirk. Whaaat? In addition to that maybe-flawed premise, Kuvée seems to be staking their market positioning on two other tenets: one, sometimes a couple may not want to share the same bottle of wine, and two, your friends are really going to dig this cool bottle.
In our household, other than the random red that just didn’t cut it, wine is generally consumed before it ever has a chance to “go bad.” Although I do agree with the idea that maybe you might want a red while your significant other prefers a white. That makes sense. But the video also heavily implies that this system is a great way to impress a bunch of friends at a fancy dinner party, who will be so busy admiring the smart bottle that they may not finish a whole bottle of wine. Really? Not my group of friends. My group of friends drink wine like a yapping bunch of glass-clinking wolves. I barely have a chance to get the cork out before I toss it to the pack and hope for the best.
In the video, a smart-looking (but obviously headed toward a bitter divorce) couple’s group of friends are much better behaved. But their friend who drinks rosé is depicted as being as off kilter and unwelcome as a glass of cabernet with an ice cube floating in it. His friends act as if it's generally accepted that we all have to watch our backs around those rosé drinkers. Mr. Rosé's performance leaves you wondering if there is a back story, like maybe "rosé" is code for that one time they all agreed to never mention again.
Overall the quirkiness of this video tows the line between ridiculous and brilliant – sort of like the product itself.
I’m not sure this thing will take off but I do like that the individual wine bottles (that you plug into the smart bottle cover) are made out of light, recyclable aluminum or plastic. And if I ever find myself at a dinner party where the hosts serve wine in a smart bottle, I will do my best to oooh and awww all over it. And watch my back around the rosé drinkers.
The smart bottle's touch screen shows you how many glasses remain.
Mr. Rosé looks a bit demented.
Welcome to Kuvée from Karl Johnson on Vimeo.
Colorful stencils on sidewalk gas access covers – (graffiti?) Artist unknown.
The debate about what constitutes art vs. graffiti is probably as old as graffiti itself. I was talking to my friend Joey about it the other day and he said what probably delineates it for him is intention. If someone intends to spread joy, inspiration, etc., then it’s art. If they intend to harm, deface, threaten, then it’s graffiti. I agree with that.
What's an Eclair Bandersnatch?
Well, however you define it, the City of San Francisco probably defines it differently. To them it’s pretty black and white, or maybe I should say concrete gray and white. Anything that’s not supposed to be on the sidewalk gets a coat of concrete gray paint. This is very welcome when it’s an obvious tag, but less welcome when it’s really a piece of art, as some of the layered, complicated stencil art that appears around the neighborhood is.
The ladybug, covered
Stencils can be created safely at home, allowing these masterpieces to be quickly layed down. Most are only on the sidewalk, not buildings or private property (although some building owners commission them.) Many actually cover unwanted graffiti. I know some may not agree with me, but as someone who walks a lot in the city, I enjoy seeing them.
The artist Eclair Bandersnatch has a distinctive style and often comments on current events. If you live in San Francisco, you most likely have seen Jeremy Novy’s koi fish swimming on street sidewalks. SF Gate reports there are now 2,000 koi throughout the city. And about a month ago, a beautiful three-layered (red, black, white) stencil of a ladybug appeared on our street. I meant to shoot it but it was covered before I could get to it.
I think the bottom line is it doesn’t matter if it’s art or not, what matters is how it makes you feel when you see it. And who can’t help but smile a little at Snoopy?
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