Archives: Inspiration

A couple months ago, I was introduced to Emerald City Trapeze (www.emeraldcitytrapeze.com) through a Seattle Twitter fundraising event, called Twestival (http://seattletwestival.com/). Global Twestival 2010 and Concern Worldwide (www.concern.net) partnered to hold several fundraising events around the world on one day: March 25, 2010. A few hundred people joined the Seattle-based event for this good cause.

The worldwide event raised over $400,000 for Worldwide Concern's education programs. Over the next year, Concern will impact over 27,000 students and 82 schools in poor communities in countries like Haiti, Burundi, Malawi and Liberia. Plans are underway to renovate or build new classrooms and schools, to supply students with much needed equipment, to train over 250 teachers/headmasters, and to increase enrollment of girls in schools. Furthermore, Concern will open and support new Child Friendly Spaces in Haiti, safe transitional places where kids can learn and play.

The event not only raised money to support these initiatives, but also introduced the Seattle crowd to trapeze! Emerald City Trapeze opened earlier this year, and was a great host for the event. Attendees had the opportunity to take a swing on the trapeze and see what it was all about. I, of course, had to give it a try, which only sparked my interest in taking an actual class down the road! What would it be like to learn how to fly?

After much discussion with friends, we booked a group class in May and spent 2 hours learning not only to fly 40 feet in the air, but to do a knee-hold, flip back, and most exciting of all...do a catch with another instructor (that is, if you scored the "cow bell," AKA acceptable performance).

It's hard to describe one’s emotions during the 2-hour class. After beginning with utter fear, you are filled with adrenaline, excitement, and nervousness each time you make the tall climb up to the platform. You begin to wonder why you are doing this, but several turns and pep talks later, you realize it’s all worth it. You challenge yourself, cheer-on friends, and walk away with a new experience.

Check it out!

Last month, thanks to our clients at Seattle Design Center, I had the opportunity to attend Eye on Design 2010 at Seattle Design Center featuring David Bromstad. I'm admitting now that as someone who does not regularly watch HGTV, I was not too familiar with that name (I just vaguely remembered him as the guy with the big arms in a sleeveless shirt). But once I was at the event, it didn't take long for me to become a huge fan of this inspirational, fun, high-energy design star.

It was fantastic to see the Seattle Design Center atrium filled with over 800 excited guests, ranging from trade professionals to inspired do-it-yourselfers. And when everyone stood up to welcome David Bromstad (even before he got on stage), with the Black Eyed Peas "I Gotta Feeling" playing in the background, it was hard to not get caught up in the excitement of seeing him in person.

Eye on Design 2010 at Seattle Design Center from Audrey on Vimeo.

As HGTV's first Design Star winner and host of Color Splash, David's presentation covered everything from his childhood stories of his loving dad who just wanted him to find a job with insurance benefits, to sharing a design tip that every home should have a fabulous, bold rug (if only I could find a rug that doesn't shed!).

As a designer of a different sort, I was most inspired by David's stories of perseverance and hard work as an artist who followed his passion and never feared trying new things.

SDC also partnered with Rise 'n Shine for the event, a local non-profit that supports children and teens affected by HIV/AIDS. Two custom canvases painted live by David Bromstad were donated for an upcoming Rise 'n Shine auction.

What was really cool about this event is that it was about more than just the event itself. It was a great opportunity for the local community to come together to support and find inspiration from each other during these not-so-thrilling economic times.

And here is David being his lovable self, getting photos taken with his fans after his presentation.

You can check out more photos of David Bromstad and the rest of Eye on Design event here.

All questions of the relative merits and legality of graffiti aside, if you are in any way associated with or interested in art, you must see Banksy's "Exit Through The Gift Shop". If you recognize the name Banksy, you are already sold. If you don't, you're about to discover something wonderful. I'd even suggest getting familiar with his work before seeing the film so that you can appreciate his commentary as coming from a talented, thoughtful - and above all else - ridiculously creative source. The movie is by Banksy, not about him, although he and his work do appear in the film - as well as many other notable artists including Shepard Fairey, Space Invader, Flower Guy and others.

I believe this is playing in Seattle for only another week at the Harvard Exit Theatre, just around the corner from our office as it just so happens (Company outing? I'd happily watch it again). Don't miss it!

Update:
I realized that the preview to this film might be just a smidge misleading. It could appear that the focus is "taggers" - destructive punks who just want to deface property or get their name up on a wall. Instead, this film is about some pretty innovative artists with real talent who use the streets and public places as their canvases. Many of the artists featured in this film are published and hold gallery exhibitions. But all of them started on the street, guerrilla style. While that may make their choice of canvas no less destructive than a common tagger, at least they are - if only in their own minds - contributing something of value to the community. I happen to agree with them. Many do not. I might change my mind when it happens on my fence.

If you don't know by now, I am a huge, huge fan of UNIQLO. This casual fashion retailer based in Japan, but located all over the world, lives and breathes branding and marketing that is fresh, engaging, fun and just simply brilliant.

Here is another example of how UNIQLO continues to stay ahead of the game when it comes to engaging customers with their interactive campaigns. We've all seen various forms of Twitter being used to create word clouds and trend charts when typing in a key word. UNIQLO decided to take the personalization a step further by creating UTweet, which is a fun "tweet show" music video that features all the tweets with the key word you typed in and profile pics of the tweeters.

This intro is a perfect set-up to the "UT All Stars", which is their new collection of graphic tees of famous cartoon characters.

There is no real information to gain here like the other tools in terms of a Twitter trend and popularity, but it's a great example of UNIQLO's innovative and customized use of social media to connect customers to their brand.

Via CScout