AIGA Studio Tours

Creature is excited to be a part of the AIGA Studio Tour! Doors open tonight at 5:30pm for a chance to see what is behind our doors, and to tour our studio. If that is not incentive enough, we will be serving hot dogs and beer!

Tickets can be purchased here, http://www.aigaseattle-studiotours.com/.

Private screening party for The Time Being film

Last Friday evening, Creature partnered with our neighbors at the Northwest Film Forum for a private screening of The Time Being. The night kicked off sensibly with pizza and multiple glasses of wine at our office.  

In attendance was a winning battalion of film enthusiasts, including local independent filmmaker Johan Liedgren and James Keblas, director of Seattle’s Office of Film + Music.

The guest of honor was the producer of the film, Richard Gladstein, a Hollywood force of nature and longtime friend of the agency. His impressive production credits include Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, and The Bourne Identity.

He generously allowed us to show the film, exhibited enviable mingling skills, and gave an entertaining post-screening Q&A. Gladstein’s biggest excitement around the project was the opportunity to work with up-and-coming director Nenad Cicin-Sain, a Tahitian pearl farmer turned filmmaker.

The Time Being tells the story of a struggling painter named Daniel (Wes Bentley), trying to balance being a dad with his artistic dedication. He makes black-and-white paintings that rarely find a buyer, but everything changes when he meets an eccentric millionaire (Frank Langella). The reclusive, aging benefactor lives in a creepy mansion and tasks Daniel with a string of bizarre commissions. Their relationship depicts the struggle of being devoted to an artistic craft, yet living in a world of family commitments and as Destiny’s Child once said, “Bills bills bills.”

The Time Being circles larger themes of the all-consuming nature of art and its toll on the artist. The dying millionaire gives the audience a perspective on whether creativity might be worth the struggle.

As any film focused on visual art should be, it’s an aesthetic marvel. The Time Being is beautifully shot and features original oil paintings by Stephen Wright and Eric Zener throughout the film. 

Be sure to check it out as it hits theatres and festival circuits later this year. Our investigative research shows it pairs well with wine and creative friends.

Hamomi

By Bekah Grim

Last month, the Window Shop team asked Creature to suggest nonprofits we’d like to support with the donations. Initially, my mind went to the far away and exotic (rural orphanage in India? refugee relief by Oxfam?) — it reflects how we often think about humanitarian aid as something removed and distant. Yet, we have an amazing nonprofit using office space right here at Creature: Hamomi Children’s Centre. If Oprah gets to have “a-ha!” moments, this was our “duh” moment. We have enthusiastically selected Hamomi to receive all proceeds from the gift shop experiment.

Hamomi provides comprehensive care to orphaned and vulnerable children in the slums of Nairobi. “Comprehensive” means providing primary and secondary education to 140 students, along with medical care, meals, higher education scholarships, and even micro loans to help graduating students start their own small businesses.

I love the philosophy of the founder Raphael Etenyi, who wrote, “These are not children who face one simple problem, so we do not offer one simple solution.” Hamomi understands these children need more than a deposit of algebra textbooks. Students also need a place to do their homework, accessible medical care to stay healthy, mentoring relationships with teachers, and options for what happens after graduation. It’s an incredibly well-considered and sustainable approach to empowering students toward a better future.

We were drawn to the organization for their grassroots creativity and efficiency. Hamomi is headquartered in a two-desk operation, right next to our design studio. It’s managed by dedicated, unpaid volunteers. Susie Marks, executive director, nannies full-time in addition to running the organization and spending part of the year in Africa. Their scrappiness and ingenuity means funding goes directly to Nairobi, not administrative overhead. The feeding program costs just 14 cents per meal and the medical program is $1.60 per month for each child. On Hamomi’s website, they have a transparent breakdown of their budget and costs. All of this to say, a small donation goes a long way.

We’re jazzed about Hamomi and the work they do. We’d love for you to buy our weird trinkets to benefit their cause, or you can donate directly to them.

Blue Duck

Blue Duck, by Nick Bruskewitz and Troy Burrows.
Here's a little insight into their process.

“I drew the duck blue because I’ve never seen a blue duck before … and to be honest with you, I wanted to see a blue duck.” 

So Nick and I were talking about what to do for windows. Somehow we got on the subject of Billy Madison. There’s this scene where Billy is on his journey from k-12 to prove to his dad he deserves to run Madison Hotels. During crafts time when Miss Lippy approaches, he’s drawing a blue duck. 

So we were like what could be our blue duck? Then we were quiet for a while. Until Nick said: “I’ve always wanted to see what a bunch of electronics would look like painted the same color.” I said: “Cool.” Seemed like a blue duck. 

Overall, what does this idea say? Is it an idea? Not sure. But it looks nice and it takes all these old electronics that didn’t have much to live for and gives them a second act. And we saw what they looked like painted. Maybe the idea is: they’re a reminder to go make blue ducks. 

-Troy

Shatter Sessions

To celebrate the Museum of Glass’ 10 year anniversary and new branding we wanted to throw an event that showcased glass in a new way. Instead of displaying glass formed into art we wanted to display the destruction of glass as an art form.

We decided to organize a concert where bands and audience members could shatter glass with sound waves. We designed and created what we called “Shatter Boxes” where people could attempt to shatter wine glasses by manipulating the sound waves inside the box with controls mounted on the outside. A larger Shatterbox was available for the audience to interact with and a smaller Shatterbox was on stage for the bands attempting to shatter glass with their sound. Toward the end of each band’s set, the audience would crowd around the box to watch the wine glass begin to vibrate and come to life before being destroyed.

To promote the event we had mobile demonstrations of the Shatterbox in action, along with posters and a TV spot (shot at 5,000 frames per second) where we witness the convincing and eerily beautiful results of sound waves violently shattering glass.

Shatter Sessions TV from Creature on Vimeo.