I Still Have a Blog?

So I realize that I haven't posted of my blog for some time, and that is due to a few things.

1) This is a design blog, and over the summer I was busy working for a marketing firm that worked for the theatre industry. It was a great experience and I had an amazing summer, but none of the work that I needed to do was design work.

2) I spent a lot of time out enjoying NYC instead of at my apartment designing. I have never spent so little time in my apartment than this summer, which makes sense I guess. NYC kept me busy with theatre, the park, friends, just loving everything about it.

3) I never just found the time while interning full-time, plain and simple.

Now that I am back at Ithaca for my senior year, there have been a lot of things on my mind that I will be posting about in the near future. But I think the big one is graduation. What to do when it happens? Where to go? I would love to go to portfolio school, as I've talked about in previous posts. And awesome news, I got accepted the Creative Circus down in Atlanta! However, I would love to be able to get a job or paid internship in either NYC, Boston or Chicago for the summer following graduation. There are a number of agencies I would love to work for, so I am hoping that I can find something when it comes closer to graduation.

But in the mean time, I have done some design work. Because there is one agency, Spot Co, that I would love to work for, I am tailoring my portfolio for them because they specialize in theatre advertising. I have designed three new theatre posters, for two different shows. The first show is one of my all time favorite plays titled The Cripple of Inishmaan, by Martin McDonaugh.

The second play that I did a set of posters for was Dying to be Thin, a show about a woman's struggle with bulimia. While the posters are graphic, I think that the represent the shows graphic nature as well. It is not a "shock for shocks sake" design choice. It was done because it was appropriate for the show.

As usual, all opinions are welcome. I am trying to get a job in the industry, so I am just trying to get better. More posts will come about other design work, logo redesigns, portfolio school/job news and NSAC's in the spring!

District 2 NSAC Results

This past weekend, Bento (or the Ithaca Advertising team) went to NYC to participate in the 2nd District of the National Student Advertising Competition. We have been working all semester on this campaign, which is for the Century Council (Anti Binge Drinking). This day of district two, after two teams dropped out, had nine schools competing.



After working together this entire semester, it was such an amazing feeling to present our ideas to this great set of judges. The judge panel included the founder of People, Ideas and Culture, an Exective Creative Director from Publicis, as well as a member of the Ad Council, a woman from Ogilvy and a media guy from another one of the big agencies. When it came time to present our ideas, it went over incredibly well. Than it was time for the Q&A section with the judges.

While the member of the Ad Council had one question, none of the other judges had any questions. They just told us how amazing out campaign was and how refreshing it was to not be any form of scare tactics. While most teams had the full 10 minutes taken up by questions and inquiries, ours lasted approximately a minute and a half.

Than three hours it was time to hear the results...Although not as high as we wanted, we got third. With Pace coming in at second and Syracuse taking the win. I wasn't extremely impressed with either campaign, but whats done is done.

Working as an agency, we did an AMAZING job. A great group of people, a refreshing non-profit client to work with, and so many other things made this class the best I have ever taken. It reminds me why I chose my major and why I want to do what I want to do. If anyone out there reading this wants to see our work, just let me know and I can send it out. At the same time, I received a great amount of contacts while doing this. And hopefully I can transition that into a job once I graduate next summer.

I still want to work for an ad agency as a junior art director once I graduate. So much fun. But I have another ad lab left, and hopefully we put together as good a campaign next year as we do this year. But it will be a new group of people and a new client, so we will see what happens.

Website Style

So February of 2008 I registered www.garinbulger.com and did not use it for the next year. About a week and a half ago I finally signed up for hosting, and have since then, been building my website. Thus, below.

That is what I have so far for the main page. Simple. Very me. Very easy. Any comments?

Why I want to work for a beer client someday

So this spot came out for Heineken a few weeks ago, and I think this spot should have been a Superbowl spot. It had that feeling to it. Short, simple, and outrageously funny. When I get out of school and go to work in the advertising industry, and I really hope to work for a beer client, because how much fun would that be?

Sold out in the UK

The Sony Bravia sold out in Britain, and this commericial was downloaded from the website over 20,000 just 2 months after the spot aired. It is amazing.



Try downloading it in high-res, because this spot will blow your mind.

A Different Take of Advertising

FRUIT CHEWS

CHARACTERS
JASON. A young art director, working at an advertising agency in the big city.
CHASE. A young copywriter, has been partners with Jason since portfolio school. He is a bit sarcastic and speaks extremely quickly.

THE SCENE
The curtain rises on the open floor of a highrise office building in New York City. Unlike typical building floors, there are no cubicles or squared off working areas. There are big tables with storyboards and art supplies thrown randomly on them. The walls are covered in framed advertisments, with a modern look to the entire room. The room continues off stage right and there is a door to an office on the back of stage left. Jason is sitting in a chair around the table looking up at Chase who is standing next to him.

SCENE ONE
JASON
This idea sucks. It sucks bad. I mean, wow, this is bad. If we should this horrible idea to the client, we will be laughed out of the presentation.

CHASE
No! It doesn’t! Come on Jason. This is a great idea! Fruit rollers, the fruitiest snack a kid can have!


JASON
The fruitiest snack?!

CHASE
Yeah! I love fruit. Fruit is great. Strawberries. Blueberries. Blackberries. Boysenberries. What’s wrong with fruit?!

JASON
Dammit, Chase!

CHASE
More of a meat guy, huh?

JASON
...I do enjoy a good steak now and than.

CHASE
Of course you do! Who doesn’t enjoy a good steak?

JASON
With some mashed pot- Chase, we need to focus!

CHASE
Right, right. Of course. So I still don’t see what’s wrong with the line we have now.

JASON
It’s horrible! What do you think people are going to think of when they see that?

CHASE
That it is an extremely fruity snack. We’ve been over this.

JASON
No! That it’s a gay snack! No one will eat it if they think it’s a gay snack!

CHASE
It is not a gay snack! It is a fruit snack for children. Kids like fruit, right? I loved fruit as a kid. I loved baseball too. Ooo, maybe we should give the fruit snacks a baseball theme!

JASON
We cannot give these a baseball theme! The product is already out, we just need to make the line a little less suggestive!

CHASE
(Getting more and more excited)
Ok, how about the best snacks under the stars. Moon! Sun! Galaxy!

JASON
Stop refrencing the snacks to outer space!! Chase, I would say you are off today, but that would be a massive understatement. You ideas are SHIT. Not even fair smelling, rich person shit, but the driving through the meadow with the windows down and smell the cows shit!!



CHASE
You are an interesting guy Jason. But we need to focus, try to think.

JASON
What the hell is the matter with you!!

CHASE
Woah, getting a little angry there? You are just being no help to this line re-write.

(beat)

JASON
I don’t know how to deal with you! All we need to do is re-write this line! Just do it! Got milk! Where’s the beef! Think Different! Come on. These are all great lines and we need to create something that doesn't carry an air of a gay fruit snack with it!

(beat)

CHASE
Melts in your mouth, not in your hand?

JASON
(Enraged)
M&Ms!!!




CHASE
(Laughing)
No, I’m just fucking with you. Why don’t we take the line, berrytastic, and build the campaign around it. Sort of the the Drinkability campaign for Bud Light, but for kids.

JASON
I...actually like that. A lot. WHY DID IT TAKE YOU SO LONG TO SAY THAT!

CHASE
We’ve been partners how long?

JASON
7 years-

CHASE
-7 years, and when do I ever give it away for free?

Worst Mascot Ever

I loved Tony the Tiger. Love Frosted Flakes. I do love Cheetos, but I will never buy them again because of the creepiest character ever created. Why???

Superbowl Ads (Long Past Due)

So I realize that the Superbowl was a full week ago, which is the single biggest ad day of the year, and I had yet to comment on it. Besides the ads, it was a GREAT game, besides the fact that the Cards lost. I really thought they had it at the end with that 7o yard Fitz sprint.

Back to what really matters, the ads. So looking at the entire game, there were some truly great and truly horrible commercials. Cash for Gold? No place in the Superbowl. Alec Baldwin and Hulu made an impressive entry into the ad world, giving the online TV site a personality and a face.



Another commercial that did creative a lot of buzz, but didn't really deliver with the actual ad was the Miller High Life commercial. About two or so weeks before the game, a commercial for High Life came out with a warehouse worker talking about how all he would need is 1 second during the game to create a great commercial. But after watching the entire game, I did not see the ad until the very end of the fourth quarter. But at the same time, I was thinking about it during the entire game and I just happened to be drinking High Life during the game.



I loved the Bud Light and the Doritos commercials. The Drinkability commercial where the board meeting is going on and the worker suggest not buying But Light and is subsequently thrown out of the window had me in tears I was laughing so hard. And the Doritos commercial where the magic crystal ball is being thrown around did the same thing to me. I think these commercials were the funniest, but the Doritos did not work to create or improve on the image of the brand. Drinkability is an amazing positioning campaign.





I hope Hulu creates more spots on their current positioning. I loved it. Superbowl 43, mild success. I hope I get the chance one day to creative a Superbowl spot.

Back For a New Semester

So I am back again with a new round of classes. This semester I will be participating in Ad Lab, our senior advertising lab. As a class we participate in AAF's National Student Advertising Competition, which draws 120+ teams every year. Ithaca always does really well, its difficult because we are in District 2 which is the toughest District in the country with schools such as Syracuse, NYC, Baruch and approximately 20 other schools in the area.

This year, the client is The Century Council, which are the distilleries against drinking. Ridiculous, I know. And with a smaller client, its a smaller budget of only $10m. But it should be a great semester, as I am in the creative dept and I want to be the Creative Director next year.

So all we have really worked on this far in the creative dept was choosing our agency name, and I think we settled on "Bento", which is a Japanese lunch that includes everything in it. So the idea we are going with is we are bringing everything together. I have a few ideas for the logo, and I'm pretty sure we are just going to go with a text treatment or custom font.

Here's what I have so far.

This will the first post of many for this semester. So enjoy, and as usual, any critiques are welcome.

Yet More Stuff From Brand Design

This final seemed like it was never ending, but I think I got a lot of good material from it. Part of the final was having to design an alternative project, anything I wanted, for the brand. So I decided to design a dive map, because it seemed like a logical direction to go. So here it is, comments are welcome.


Here is another random thing I had to design.

Annual Report Cover

Underwater Business Card

Ok, so for part of my final for my brand design course, we had to redesign the business cards we originally did for our companies. I decided to take a completely different approach with this set, as you can easily tell if you check out my original one done.

The first one shown is the front, with the second being the back. I decided to take a distinctly underwater feel with these, and I really like how they turned out. I feel like they definitely convey what the brand is all about. A vast change from my first set.

History is Happening

I firmly believe that when purchasing cable you should be able to decide what channels you get, and just pay per channel. If I had the option, I would purchase
1) NBC
2) Food Network
3) History Channel
4) Discovery Channel
5) ESPN

When the History Channel first started, it should have been called either the WWII Channel or the Nazi Network. All it aired were documentaries about the Nazi Party in WWII. Extremely entertaining, but a little limited in scope. But in the last few years, the History Channel has released a great number of shows that go all of over the place in terms of how long ago the events happened. So this campaign is my attempt to draw attention that the History Channel is not just airing WWII things, but that history is happening now and you can now check it out on the History Channel.

Wetsuit Design

For our final project for Brand Design, we have been assigned to create an annual report and an alternative design project for our brand. My brand, Atlantis Diving, a custom dive shop, has been a lot of fun to work with this semester. And for the final project I have decided to create the staff wetsuits for our company. My first venture into fashion design.

At this point, I actually would love to be able to design my own wetsuit.

Ford Has Finally Found a Voice

For years I really have not been able to tell the difference between Ford, Chevy, and Dodge trucks besides the logos on the front of the trucks. But at this point, with cable readily available while home for Thanksgiving break, a new campaign for Ford F-150's have rolled out and I am floored.

This great graphic style paired with the voice of Dennis Leary is amazing in my opinion. At this point I would never buy a truck, but if I did, I would go for a F-150. The way the type flows with the graphic treatment to it is so eye catching.

And honestly, the more you see the ads, the more you notice the little things that make you laugh when you see the spots. I don't know what agency handles the Ford brand, and I'm even more stunned that Ford has any money to advertise when they have no money to run their company. But that goes to show you, hard to sell a product without advertising for it. My industry will always be needed.

Bravo Apple

Last weekend the FIT hosted the annual AWNY Student Conference in NYC. During the main part of the conference, students attended certain workshops that interested them in all the different areas of advertising. One of the workshops I went to was about interactive advertising and one of the things that stood out in my mind was when she said that interactive is no longer about banner ads and landing paged, its more. But for my brand design course, we are now at interactive and can you guess what we are doing? Banner ad and landing page. Fun. But here is a fantastic banner ad, and of course, Chiat/Day doing work for Apple.

Web Design, Attempt #1

For my brand design class we had to create a home page for our company. My company sells high end, custom SCUBA dive trips across the world. This is what I came up with after a many critiques and just as many drafts. Comments are welcome.

Another path for design...

So today in my branding class Hayes Roth came to lecture and have lunch with a select few of us. Mr. Roth is the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) of Landor Associates, which is the largest branding company in the world. He showed us case studies on Smirnoff, BP and and the second largest bank in Brazil. It was amazing some of the work that was put out by Landor. They updated the logo from British Petroleum from an old, green shield to a modern and exciting logo.

So the idea that going into branding would allow a design student to not only design advertisements solely, but everything a company has to offer is extremely appealing to me. I am by no means turning my back on advertising, I still want to go work at an ad agency and be an art director, it is just very cool to see new options open up in the commercial design area. On the advertising note, I saw a very cool campaign. It's a campaign to encourage voting turnout, and I think is very creative.

Wiki Ads, how to learn anything about anything

So I decided to work on a campaign for Wikipedia because I owe so much to it, and its fantastic free information. Honestly, half of the time I'm using Wikipedia is because I am playing a game my friends and I like to call "Five Clicks to Jesus". This is when you start by clicking the 'Random Article' button, and you now have 5 clicks to get the Jesus Christ page. I have never once not been able to accomplish this feet, it is a very addicting game.

Random Article:
Andrey Mizurov: A Kazakhstani professional road bicycle racer born in 1973.
January 20, 1973: President Richard Nixon was inaugurated.
His Democratic challenger was John F. Kennedy, and the race remained close for the duration.
John F. Kennedy was officially a Roman Catholic.
The Catholic Church defines its mission as spreading the message of Jesus Christ.

No matter where you start, you can always do it. And honestly, I feel like this translates into a good campaign that shows the dexterity and versatility of Wikipedia. Any and all comments are welcome.

Proud to be a Bomber

So at last nights Obama rally at around 12:30, a camera was passed up to the highest point on the quad and you can see us all singing the National Anthem. At around second 12 or so, you can see me, my girlfriend Jenn and my friend Connor on the bottom right of the screen. I am wearing the brown jacket. This is pretty cool and I am very proud to be an Ithaca Bomber right now.

President Elect Obama

Last night, after a two year campaign, Barack Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States. My friends and I watched election coverage from around 1pm until Obama gave his speech at Grant Park in Chicago. We just witnessed history from so many different angles, and I couldn't be happier. After donating time, money and effort, Obama was elected. And not on a platform of fighting or fear, but hope, change and challenging the status quo. I just want to say congratulations to President Obama, I am far more hopeful for the next four years than I had previously been, and congratulations to everyone who fought and voted for him and this election. Like he said in his speech, this was our victory and we will not forget this.

As soon as Obama's victory had been announced, students poured into the Ithaca College quad. Out of a campus of 6,500 students, where only 4,000 or so live on campus, I would say about 2,000 rushed to the middle of the campus and marched accros campus screaming and shouting. I have never been happier to be an Ithaca College student, or a college student in general.