One of the best things about advertising is when you can put your efforts into actually helping a good cause. Working with good clients on good brands is always nice, but it’s extra rewarding when it’s something you can actually see making a difference in the world.

So for their 15th annual fundraising event, Powerful Voices, a non-profit organization that serves at risk girls and helps them find their voice through writing and poetry, asked us to create a video to help raise donations. From there we got to meet a handful of the PV girls and were able to collaborate using a mash-up of their own poetry and prose. They even made for some wonderful first-time models. Then last month during the event held at the Seattle Art Museum, we got to debut “You & Me” in front of a packed house. And the icing on the cake is they not only met their fundraising goal, they exceeded it.  Nothing beats that.

"You & Me" was created to help raise donations during the 15th annual fundraising event for Powerful Voices, an organization that serves at risk girls and helps them find their voices through writing and poetry. CW/AD: Angeline Oey, Christy Jasionkowski & Andy Westbrock CD: Eric Gutierrez Director/Animator: David Llama Audio: Justin Braegelmann Agency: Hey, Client: Powerful Voices

And be sure to donate yourself if you want to help a cause that actually makes a positive impact on tons of young girls in the Seattle area.

Sometimes the best projects are the ones you can make for yourself. So luckily for me, I was in need of some new business cards. A damn good project to take on. Because if you can’t have fun doing that, there’s something wrong with you.

Well, clearly there’s something wrong with me because I hated the whole process. I hated searching through smelly old antique stores for stupid dinosaur stamps. Writing self-deprecating messages for the cards made me depressed. Then having to stamp each card by hand gave me a rash. I don’t even understand how that happened. But it did.

Thankfully that horrible process is over and done with. Now I can get down to business.

At least two laws were broken to make this. Unfortunately, snapping pictures while driving (what I like to call “autotography”) is too much fun to worry about any of that.

CW/AD: Forrest Healy, Zach Hitner & Andy Westbrock Ad Agency: Frank Unlimited Production Company: Loaded Pictures Director/DP: Matthew J. Clark Producers: Brian Homman, Chris Borden Line Producer: Mark Campbell Editor: Michael Southworth, Editville Original Music: Matthew Hutchinson Sound Design & Mix: Scott Weiss, Pure Audio

Advertising is one of those great creative pursuits where you never do anything completely on your own. It’s always a team effort. And that was definitely the case for this project for the 15th annual Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. So to create this years trailer, the guys at Frank Unlimited teamed up with me, who, with Loaded Pictures and Pure Audio, were all teamed up with the fine folks over at the Three Dollar Bill Cinema, who do all the hard work to actually put on the SLGFF. Plus, all the actors and other talent who ran through the mean streets of Seattle to allow this whole thing come together.

CLIENT: Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival
CW/AD: Forrest Healy, Zach Hitner & Andy Westbrock
AD AGENCY: Frank Unlimited
DIRECTOR: Matthew J. Clark
PROD: Loaded Pictures
SOUND: Scott Weiss, Pure Audio

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Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls. Step right up and prepare your eyes to see the strongest man in the whole wide world. You’ve heard the stories, you’ve told the tales. Well, brace yourself for the real thing. He stands a full 6 feet 8 inches tall, weighs in at over 310 lbs, and comes to us all the way from Kitzbühel, Austria. The one, the only, the mightiest man this side of the equator, Magnus the Strongman.

I’ve been trying my best to post a wide range of things that make, whether that be photography, ads or a pin made from a root beer bottle cap. Unfortunately, one thing that has been sorely overlooked has been my illustration. Well, here is a step in the right direction, and a commitment to keep doing more.

So that brings us to Magnus the Strongman. He doesn’t have a purpose other than I wanted to draw him. Actually, he was laying around from an old project that got derailed, and I never got to finish him. So after some more attention, he gets to finally see the light of day.

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For the past two and a half months I’ve been working with the great folks at Hey, one of the newest agencies to spring up in the Pacific Northwest. They’ve been around for about a year now, and since they’re still in the process of laying their foundation, it’s a fantastic experience to help them with that process. I love that sorta stuff.

Probably the best thing about Hey, is that they’re quite aware of the normal ad agency pitfalls, and are doing their best to avoid them. Luckily, they have a few things going for them. First of all, they have two good guys behind the steering wheel, Eric Gutierrez and Chris Lloyd, both former DDB Seattle guys. Another thing working in their favor is they’re small, and taking time to grow. They’re not chasing money from bad clients, and are actually pretty selective with the projects they take on. They also have zero interest in just being another soul sucking ad factory that churns out the same crap that makes people hate advertising (you know who you are).

So anyway, this concludes my ass kissing for the day. I do feel pretty lucky to be working there with good people and on fun stuff and I really think they represent a positive movement in advertising. Same goes for a lot of the cool, small shops that have been popping up over the past few years. We need more of it.

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In honor of the start of the 2010 NFL season, it seems appropriate to post these desktop wallpapers I made last year for Redhook. At the time we were doing a lot of work with them in the fantasy football world, and since all that takes place online, it only makes sense to have your computer looking the part.

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Nearly everyday for the past three years I’ve driven over the Alaskan Way Viaduct for one reason or another. Work, the airport, whatever. But no matter what the reason, and despite all the worries it will collapse the next time a hummingbird lands on it, I actually like driving on the Viaduct. Especially heading north when you get that great top view of all the buildings in downtown Seattle, and can lookout over the Sound to catch a glimpse of the Olympic Mountains. Last year Hyundai even used a shot from here for a Super Bowl spot (starts at :38). The drive south is also nice as it takes you into SoDo, right past Safeco Field.

So no matter if it collapses tomorrow or they tear it down in a few years, my little slice of the Viaduct can live on forever in this digital world.

I’m cutting it close, but last night I whipped up an envelope and dropped it in the mail for the Lil’ Happy Invisible Creature S.A.S.E. Club, put on by none other than the very talented guys of Invisible Creature. Luckily, it won’t have to travel far from Seattle to make it to Seahurst, WA, because the deadline is Sept 1st.

It’s a pretty cool deal they have going on here. You design and send them a self-addressed stamped envelope, then they send it back with all kinds of mystery goodies. And they could be sending anything. Well, probably not live animals, drugs or explosives because those are prohibited by the USPS. But there’s a lot of cool stuff you can fit inside a #10 envelope and if there’s anyone to fill it it with amazing stuff it’s Invisible Creature. Plus, the whole thing is a fun idea all around.

So if you’ve yet to send in an envelope to the Lil’ Happy Invisible Creature S.A.S.E Club, perhaps there’s still time. Grab some markers, paints or whatever and get to it. Don’t miss an opportunity for a bit of nostalgia and a chance to use the postal service for what they’re really intended for, bringing you cool stuff.

Recently while searching through an antique shop, I bought a vintage camera, an Argus Argoflex E to be exact.  It’s an old twin-reflex camera, made sometime between 1946 to 1948. But that’s not the cool part. Inside this camera was a little gem. Or at least the possibility of being a gem. Because inside this 70 year old camera sat an undeveloped roll on 620 film. The only thing was, no one knew what was on it, if anything. For all I knew, it could have been damaged beyond recognition after years of rotting in some musty basement and from the outside you couldn’t even tell if it was black & white, color or slide film.

But all that doesn’t matter because it was far too interesting to remain sitting in the back of this camera any longer. So Ibrought it down to the Panda Lab and got it developed. And to my surprise, it had ten beautiful images waiting to blow the minds of all who gaze upon them.

The thing is, only more questions arise now that it’s developed. Things like, “who is this family?”, “What happened to this camera to why it lay forgotten for what appears to be 45 years?” and “where are these people now?” It’s mind boggling and frustrating to think these questions will most likely never be answered. How could you take photos of your young family playing in the yard, only to then leave the camera and the film sit untouched for decades and decades? It’s even confusing to think about how the camera ended up on the shelves of an antique shop.

But as for now in the year 2010, after all the things that must have fallen into place for these images to cross my path, I feel mighty lucky.

NOTE: Thanks to the detective help of Andrea Nelson and her automotive scholar dad, they were able to decipher the white car in the photos to be a ’66 Ford Thunderbird and the others are early 60’s Dodges. So perhaps if the Thunderbird is a few years old, it could mean the film was taken sometime around 1968.

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Did you know you can take pictures through a peephole? Well you can. And you should. It’s the perfect poor-man’s fisheye lens. Plus, if you want some really unflattering portraits of yourself, it works great for that, too.

To help my friend, Laura Haithcock (a.k.a. Birdie Royale), in her bid for the Mad Men Casting Call, I volunteered my photography services with her submission. We even broke out theHolga to help aid in the look and feel department. Luckily, Laura does a pretty good job herself of looking like she just stepped out of the 1960s. She definitely made my job that much easier.

If you haven’t seen the Mad Men Casting Call, it’s a pretty cool promotion for the show. Check it out and be sure to vote for Laura. She’d be a great fit for the cast. And not only does she look the part, she’s even a seasoned ad veteran. Plus, they wouldn’t even need to run her through wardrobe. And if you need more convincing, take a look through the extra shots from our shoot.

As promised, here are some more images captured through that magical plastic lens of the Holga. These exposures come to us from a few locations from around the Pacific Northwest. Namely the Oregon coast, beautiful downtown Portland, OR and finally the remote beaches of Olympic National Park, along the Washington coast.

I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of shooting with my Holga.  Its pure simplicity can’t be beat, and the beauty of film can't be denied. The more popular digital photography gets, the more rewarding it is to shoot film. So with that in mind, hopefully it won’t be long until I can expose a few more rolls and post some more.

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Be sure to keep those eyes peeled at all times. You never know when you might spot some good looking type staring right back at you.

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After being inspired by the bottle cap pin that Carl wore in the movie “Up”, I decided to design my own. Only instead of using a safety-pin, I chose to retrofit a pin from a regular button. I also opted for my favorite carbonated drink of choice, root beer.

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This here is the world famous Snoqualmie Falls, near Snoqualmie, WA. They even have their own special brand of pancake mix. You should experience both.

Yesterday some of my photography got a nod of appreciation from We Are Creative People, a site dedicated to showcasing the creative pursuits by those in the advertising industry. And since I appreciate what WACP is doing, here’s my nod of appreciation toward them.

WACP is run by a fellow named Eric Lee, who as a creative person himself, has started something pretty cool. Advertising is an industry filled with all kinds of talented people and it’s good to see someone calling attention to that. And it’s good to see all the different things people do with their talents outside their day-to-day work. Especially since they do some really incredible stuff. It definitely makes me feel good seeing a few of my photographs alongside some pretty impressive people and equally impressive work, anyway.

The moral of the story is that creative people should create. Make stuff. Make anything. Then show it to the world and be proud.

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Keep your eyes open for some new Holga shots coming along soon. Here’s a little taste of something that was hiding out on the hard drive.

As we speak, exposures are being prepped to take a swim in the developer, a quick dip in the stop bath and then finally soak in the fixer. It’s always an exciting time because you never really know what the end result will be. It’s one the beautiful things about film and it gets amplified even more through that magical plastic lens.

Over the weekend, a few friends and I took a trip over to Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula to camp along the coast and do some hiking in the Hoh Rain Forest, all within Olympic National Park. And it was during our hike through the beautiful Cape Alava that these fine sea glass specimens were discovered by our watchful eyes.

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Since living on the West Coast, I’ve taken to looking for these little guys whenever I find myself on a beach. It’s kind of like searching for gold or precious diamonds, only you can actually find what you’re looking for. Although, it does get more complicated when you take into account the rarity of the different colors. So let’s just say if you find an orange piece, you are a damn rockstar.

Note: A big thanks goes to West Coast Sea Glass for putting together and letting me use this handy rarity chart. They make some really nice jewelry using sea glass too, so be sure to check them out.

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Keep an eye out for more Polaroids. After I round up enough, I’ll start to add them into the Photography page. But for now, please be patient. Or go check out Robert Whitman’s portfolio. Specifically under the “8os My Livingroom” and “Eryn Brenie” sections. You’ll find enough Polaroid goodness to quench your instant-film thirst there. Also be sure to check out his other work. He’s the guy who shot everything for that awesome Canadian Club “Damn Right Your Dad Drank It” campaign that’s been running over the past year and some. Or maybe it’s been two already.

But this also brings up the topic on how awesome photographers are. Not just what they do as a profession, but who they are as people. And the test of a good photographer is how much cooler they are than the average human. They’ve traveled to the deepest corners of the world, slept with more models than they can remember and met more celebrities than most celebrities. If you take a stroll through Mr. Whitman’s work, you can tell that guy has lived a life worth capturing on film and has plenty of stories worth listening to. And having that kind of person behind a camera has to make for better images. At least that’s my philosophy anyway.

For instance, Whitman has photos like this, whereas I have a few shots of an kitchen appliance.