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.

Pacifico Adventures on Tap

How does the beer of adventurers and journeymen celebrate its own passage to beer taps all across America? By embarking on an epic west coast road trip in search of adventures.

Along the way, with the help of some very talented artists, those adventures will be used as inspiration to create five special kegs. Using paint, etching and maybe even welding, we’ll turn five ordinary Pacifico kegs into beautiful works of art. One for Phoenix, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle, each one as homage to the amazing city we’re delivering it to.

Follow the team's daily adventures in the RV at the Adventures on Tap blog, and be sure to post your recommendations for their next stop on the Pacifico Clara Facebook page!

Creature Is At SXSW!

Groupies, gamers and film gurus are all converging on Austin, and Creature&'s expert correspondents will be there checking out the industry's latest and greatest. We'll be live Tweeting, Blogging and Facebooking over the next 5 days, so if you're one of the unlucky kids that got left behind this year have no worries, Creature has it covered!

Also (for the first time ever) Creature will be hosting an Interactive Panel! Check out the details on the SXSW schedule. Panelists will include industry leaders Michelle Gass, President of Seattle's Best Coffee; Polly LaBarre, Co-Founder & Editorial Director of MIX; and Jeff Howe who is credited with coining the term “crowdsourcing” in a 2006 Wired magazine article. He is also the author of an acclaimed book by that name, and he has been a contributor to NPR, Wired and other magazines. Panel is at 11:00am, Tuesday the 15th at the Hilton- we'll be in the room with all the awesome people, you can't miss it.

Sherry in Seattle!

One of our most fabulous clients, Sherry Council of America, has made their way to Seattle on the next stop of their East to West coast road trip.

Seattle, the city of Fino and seafood, welcomed the Secret Sherry Society with open arms.

What are their plans whilst in town?

Well, yesterday, August 25th, the Society hosted a Secret Sherry Tasting at Pike and Western Wine Shop, where guests enjoyed an assortment of Sherry wines, coupled with delicious tapas.

Even though the entrance was a secret, folks seemed to find their way in to experience the excitement.

This weekend, the Secret Sherry Society is a sponsor at the International Food Blogger’s Conference happening here in town.

They’ll be gathering at Theo Chocolate on August 28th for a pre-dinner cocktail party for conference attendees.

Salud!

Pack up your mallows, it's Bonfire Sessions time!

The Cave Singers. August 28. A secret location in the woods. If you’re lucky.

This summer, Creature has had the pleasure of creating with JanSport the first ever installment of the Bonfire Sessions, a free concert series celebrating the epic memories that can only be made outdoors.

Here’s how it works: The location of this fantastic concert is kept top secret until you arrive to the show.

The only way to get there? Why, a magical Bonfire Sessions bus, of course! We’ve been hinting clues to the bus stop location throughout the past few weeks, and finally today are announcing the top-secret location – it’s landed in front of Quinn’s in Capitol Hill, on the 1000 block of Pike, between 10th and 11th.

Our bus-stop celebration will happen tomorrow (Thursday), where we'll have hot dogs, music, and fun!

Start lining up early, only the first 100 people in line will get a spot on the bus.

Buses board at 5:30pm and depart at 6:00pm sharp on August 28th. So get your lining-up shoes on.

The lucky handful will arrive to a unique campfire concert with the Cave Singers, beer, mallows, sparklers, singing, stars, barns, lights, darkness, meats and nonmeats, boys and girls, bug bites, magic.

Basically, the perfect evening. See you all there!

Creature + JanSport + Bonnaroo = Amazing

A few of us Creatures had the splendid opportunity of venturing out to Great Stage Parkon, a 700-acre (2.8 km²) farm in Manchester, Tennessee, 60 miles southeast of Nashville.

Why, you ask? Well, for Bonnaroo of course! If you aren’t sure what that is, click here. Ahmazing.

Lucky for us, one of our amazing clients, JanSport, participates as a sponsor every year. This means we get to play, too.

It’s a pretty rad idea:

JanSport invites concert-goers to paint their hearts out on various 15x5 foot canvases,
and, over the course of the year, we turn the painted canvases into limited edition, one-of-a-kind backpacks (proceeds of the backpacks to to Big City Mountaineers).

Awe.Some.

This year was round two. We were excited, and having done it once before, we were ready.

We arrived a few days before the concert so we could set up the tent and get all our goodies ready. We knew to expect heat, and humidity, and mud up to our eyeballs, but when the wall of 300% humidity hit us upon arrival, we were not prepared. IT.WAS.HOT.

But we’re troopers. And we were able to get our tent panels hung, our wooden easel built (thanks to John Haile and Bob Horn) with minimal dehydration.

Thursday, June 10^th the festival began. Droves of music and art lovers filled the farm, and soon our tent was a flurry of excitement. JanSport lovers filled the tent ready to paint their hearts out, so their artwork would eventually become a backpack.

We had repeat visits from folks who just couldn’t get enough.

We even had people come back who had painted last year, looking for their art that had been turned into a backpack.

Even in the blistering 98-degree heat and 300% humidity, folks loved to paint!

Not only did we get to share the JanSport love with 75,000 sweaty festival-goers, we also were able to see some amazing acts.

From Kings of Leon, Stevie Wonder (or as we like to call him, the 8th Wonder of the World), Jay-Z (ahmazing!) and Dave Matthews, to Steve Martin, Conan O’Brien, and Aziz Ansari, our nights were filled with music and laughter, good food and good friends.

And sweat. Did I mention how hot it was?

Be sure to check out JanSport’s Reclaimed Art Canvas website to see all the beauty that came from the week.

Inspirational. And hopefully we’ll see you at Bonnaroo 2011!

Secret Society induction party: live art, cocktails and Mike Cina interview

Trade in a secret for a Sherry cocktail. That was the basis for a San Francisco cocktail-party-turned-live-art-event where hundreds of culinary, entertainment, music, design and fashion personalities were inducted into the Secret Sherry Society.

Attendees confessed a secret, got their drink and then watched as their secret was transformed into printed pieces of original art. The art was put on display (about 50 or so pieces) for all the guests to take with them and will be part of an online gallery built this winter. There’s even some rumors of a limited edition collectors book.

Seattle-based Heaters DJ’d the perfect vibe for the night where literally hundreds of secrets were turned in (free delicious Sherry cocktails helped people find their muse). The crowd loved the entire experience and passionately debated the merit of various secrets. Some guests even left with a dozen or more pieces of the artwork.

To create the live art, Creature's own Steve Cullen partnered with Mike Cina, founder of the legendary design firm You Work For Them. After the event the two caught up for a quick chat.

SC: We kinda had some sweaty palms the day beforehand.

MC: For me it was the day before when we "practiced" a bit. Since the live element was not there and we had never done it before, it was hard to know what to expect. I like being prepared and there really was no way to know what to expect. But after getting the first secret, I realized that this was going to be like riding a bike. As soon as I read the first card, I felt more relaxed and ready to have some fun. The rest of the night was very enjoyable.

SC: Ever done anything like this?

MC: I have done some live work before but it is normally controlled and planned out. This was amazing on many different levels and I got a lot of inspiration and insight by designing in the moment. I definitely think we pulled it off. When you consider the amount of time spent on each work (about 5 minutes) and the nature of it all, I think it turned out amazing. People were very thankful to have their secret done visually and I am sure they talked about it a lot to other people. I feel like we really touched people through the work.

SC: What secrets stood out to you?

MC: "The account is empty" was by far the most striking of them all. I mean, how epic is that? There were a lot of love-themed secrets that I had expected to see. Love triangles, etc. There were a couple of other dark ones that I can't really repeat.

SC: A lot of dick jokes too, right? So weird. Anyway. You've been dubbed by design blogs as “the man that never sleeps.” What's the secret to your productivity?

MC: Work smart. I see designers not focusing on "what is at hand" and what the job needs. That is where experience comes in. If you can attack a job with a vision, normally things start to work out at a rapid pace. There are always 20 side projects that I have going on at any given point.

SC: You're starting a new company, a solo adventure, in the middle of the worst economy in 80 years. Seriously?

MC: I have done it before in the last bad economy. Its time again!

SC: What secret do you think design and advertising creatives never seem to learn?

MC: Keep it simple.

SC: What, in graphic design, are you secretly sick of seeing?

MC: Repetitive styles without consideration for the project.

SC: What do you hope to see more of?

MC: Brains and hearts being used.

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(Just a few of the secrets of the evening...)

Wake Up America - Liquid Sunshine is Here

There is a widely held belief that Sierra Mist Ruby Splash is Liquid Sunshine. Just in case anyone has any doubt in this impossible scientific phenomenon, we created the Liquid Sunwashing Facility to make sure it's permanently imprinted on your brain follicles.

It's a multi sensory experience, equipped with music videos about liquid sunshine, rooms completely covered with lemon, lime and ruby grapefruit, the sun itself has a smile. We assure you there is no brain washing happening here. Just a little happy encouragement.

The facility is a hit. Everyone had fun. The question of the evening is always, how to get some liquid sunshine in my next martini glass. Some people are just naughty.

Liquid Sunshine Hits The Road.

The Sunshine Facility hit the road and seems to spread the sunshine across the great USA. It's Liquid Sunshine - It is. It is.