The Furnace: Firehouse's Blog (About Advertising and Other Shenanigans) » Design

If you happen to be in Keller….

Tripp — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 17:36:35 +0000

This is the first of several new outdoor boards for Baylor Health Care System’s Grapevine, TX location. The idea with these 3D boards is to call attention to their wide range of expertise. Each board will highlight a different discipline in a way that breaks out of the usual “smiling patient + positive quote about outcome + logo” formula you usually see in the healthcare industry. Props to @silvercuellar3, @whcgonzo and @Zaaaaack for the nice work.

Interstate Batteries Unveils New NASCAR Look

Tripp — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 14:51:01 +0000

Interstate Batteries took the wraps off their newly redesigned NASCAR last week during a press conference at Joe Gibbs Racing. Unlike most car designs, whose design parameters seem to be about how many decals you can stick all over it, this new Interstate car takes a more conceptual approach. Designed by Firehouse’s very own Everett Wilder, the hood shows what appears to be a giant Interstate battery bursting through. And while this Toyota would appear to be a hybrid due to the “battery,” trust us, this ain’t no grocery getting Prius. The new car will be driven by Kyle Busch and make its racing debut on March 5, 2011, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Can’t wait to see it on the track.

Giving creative team room to sprout

Diane — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 15:52:32 +0000

Ain’t it great when a client gives creative folks a little space to do what they do best?

Check out how Sierra Mist decided to “go green”.

Over 3,000 plants were put into individual fabric pockets and hung on vertical frames. The board did not have a water source so a watering reservoir and pump system were built to pump water and food to the plants at pre-programmed times. Did you catch that? They had to FEED the outdoor board.

As a person with a keen appreciation for the production process, I am floored by the details of the execution, and jealous of the team that got to make it happen.

So let’s all raise a watering can to Goodby, Silverstein & Partners for a cool idea, and send a huge shout-out to Sierra Mist for letting that great idea come to life. LITERALLY.

Look great for the holidays, or any day for that matter!

Tagg — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 20:22:48 +0000

So today a few members of the Interstate team went over to the Interstate All Battery Center to do some outrageous decorating for the upcoming holiday season. We set up a tree, cleaned the windows, plugged in the lights, hung green bulbs, sprayed fake snow, hung more green bulbs, sprayed more fake snow and made the store look very festive. We even set up a jar of green peppermint candies and gave the employees green “Santa” hats. As I was cleaning the windows, a bright and shiny Firehouse truth dawned on me. That is that Firehouse will do anything to help our clients look great, even if helping them look great means taking a few hours to decorate a store for the holidays.

What other types of “anything to look great” has Firehouse done for their client family? How about this, Firehouse took a simple request for three low-budget, low-production sales driving ideas for a frozen snack line, and delivered five even lower budget, smaller production ideas that would cheaply blow sales out of the proverbial water. Or how about when Firehouse got wind of a client’s internal issue over the visual of a branded NASCAR car, and then, in a pinch, delivered what is potentially the coolest, wildest, product centered, “Johnny on the spot messaging,” and “even people that don’t watch NASCAR would love this,” car design you’ve ever seen. That’s right, it’s amazing. Just last month Firehouse took a Mexican lucha-libre fight in Corpus Christi and flipped it for our client, Stripes. People left the venue, not even remembering who the luchadores were, but chanting “Stripes!” and sporting their red and white Stripes branded luchador face-paint.

So because of this little treasure of information that hit me while washing the ABC windows, I decided to take a step of my own, and washed the windshield on the car of an All Battery Center customer, courtesy of Interstate; because we’ll do anything to make our clients look great.

So if you’re looking for some branding or local store marketing or design or pretty much anything that’s beyond the average and above the norm, look no further than Firehouse. We’ll make you look great.

I’m in a book

Silver — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:42:26 +0000

If there’s one thing you can’t peg down in our great universe, it’s our relentless creativity. It is seemingly everywhere in our lives. Crafting the very face of humanity since the dawn of time. It gives us reasons to celebrate living and brings us unlimited fulfillment. Music, art, literature, pop culture. It’s in the very DNA of communication, entertainment, and marketing. How did they come up with that idea? Where did that idea even come from? What inspired that? What is the process that led to that? Those are the very questions that lead to Deborah Morrison, PhD & W. Glenn Griffin PhD, to write a book profiling the inner workings of the minds of creatives in advertising.

The Creative Process Illustrated is a must have compendium of some of the highest profile names to ever work in the business. Davis Kennedy, Hal Curtis, Kevin Roddy, just to name a few. Oh, and also, yours truly.

Answering the questions:
What was the method these creatives took when approaching an assignment?
What do we do when we try to solve a problem for a client?
Frankly, I was honored to be asked to participate in the experiment, and since every creative is as unique as their processes, I was looking forward to reading about the methods of my colleagues. It’s fascinating stuff. The answers range from ultra-complex to simple to whimsily brilliant. It’s a truly inspiring book and I can say with full confidence that it’s a good idea to check it out.

-Silver

Just had to share this

Tripp — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:28:28 +0000

Amazing use of projection technology to transform a building into practically a living object. Kudo’s to Urbanscreen the company who pulled this off.

Information overload?

Kim — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:51:23 +0000

If you’re like me, you enjoy getting information about what’s happening in the world, but gathering it together can be a black hole, especially when you’re interested in a global perspective. Enter Newsmap.

Beyond a useful tool, it’s a great visual aggregator; we can learn a lot from this and others like it.

It’s an easy thing to add to your routine, because, well, it’s easy. Enjoy.

1,000+ book covers

Zack — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:06:57 +0000

If you’ve never taken a look at The Book Cover Archive, I highly recommend it. The site does an excellent job of pulling together cover designs of all sorts of styles — it didn’t take me long to bookmark this.