Pop Art Blog

If you haven't signed up to attend WebVisions , you should do it now. If you are not familiar with WebVisions, it is a creative web conference that takes place here in Portland. Many of us from Pop Art are going and if you are there, be sure to say hi. This year, the speakers at WebVisions include: Jeffery Veen, Roger Black, Bill DeRouchy, Lynne Johnson and many more! I've often thought when attending WebVisions in previous years that it was missing an awards show celebrating the best in... Read More...

Once upon a time, computer and console games were the bread and butter of geeks – they brought on the image of people glued to their monitors and lost in a world very far from reality. More recently though, that stereotype has begun to erode. Entire generations are now growing up with digital activities as their main source for entertainment and learning. Other gaming platforms, such as the Nintendo Wii, are already making strides by appealing to non-typical gamers. Understanding how these trends... Read More...

On May 12, 2007, Warner Brothers released the first web teaser for the upcoming Batman Begins movie sequel, The Dark Knight. The teaser was an image of the Batman bat symbol exploding into many pieces. It was mysterious but it was only the first clue into an almost year long interactive marketing campaign that bridged the offline world and the web, and fiction with reality. The following is the chronology of “The Dark Knight” interactive marketing campaign. May 13th-ish: Fictitious campaign posters... Read More...

"The experienced web designer, like the talented newspaper art director, accepts that many projects she works on will have headers and columns and footers. Her job is not to whine about emerging commonalities but to use them to create pages that are distinctive, natural, brand-appropriate, subtly memorable, and quietly but unmistakably engaging." -- Jeffrey Zeldman, Understanding Web Design Read More...

This magazine cover is a perfect example of why you should always have someone else review any art decisions you make. There are several things in this illustration that don’t make any sense… The kid on the left, I assume, is supposed to represent current, cutting-edge technology — hence, the Web 2.0 shirt — so why is he playing Pong? I guess that old is represented by wearing a tie, being unshaven, and working, while youth is represented by spiking your hair, getting a facial... Read More...

When I write, I use em dashes. A lot. At one point in my career, my creative director returned an article to me in which I'd used an em dash in EVERY SINGLE PARAGRAPH of a 700-word article. Clearly, I had a problem. Em dashes (or the long dash, like this: — ) are remarkable little devices that allow you to stop the flow of a sentence and redirect it elsewhere.They also can let you set off a thought in the middle of a sentence, not unlike how you'd use parentheses. Only, with an em dash, it's... Read More...

I need to start with a disclaimer. I own an iPhone. I do not plan on switching phones anytime soon. I don't care for AT&T and the slow Edge network, but the functionality and pure wonder of the iPhone is too much for me to even consider a new phone anytime soon. That being said, I love the new Sprint "Waitless" campaign. Waitless is a digital campaign. An interactive campaign. I haven't seen any tv ads or print ads for it, but I have seen banner ads here and there. I can't... Read More...

Last Month, Stephen and I attended Flash Forward. I came back charged up and totally inspired. We have reached a point where the potential of the technology we work with (Flash, PHP, .NET, hammer, nails) has exceeded our ideas, and we need to take advantage of it. What a beautiful place to be in! We get to think bigger, smarter, crazier, more creative... and outside of the desktop. I'll be honest, I can hardly wait to break free. Craig Swan: Imagination+Technology The best reason for me to attend... Read More...

"Hey, we've got this comp due to the client in 30 minutes. Think you could knock out a headline for us?" (If you found this funny, you're a total ad nerd .) Read More...

Probably one of the best things clients get from typical brand pyramid exercises is the "who would your brand be?" But how do you use that information for copywriting? One of our interns this summer loved theater, and she simplified it well: Branding means writing in character. I love this copywriting short-hand because our culture's weird fascination with celebrity makes it easy for writers and clients to mimic a person in the culture, and to act out that personality when they're... Read More...