We created a quirky treatment, complete with my quirky storyboard illustrations, and began talking to directors. Most all were interested, but not many could fund the production themselves.

During the process, for one reason or another, the other campaign was produced. But there was still much interest in getting ours made as well. We continued to talk to directors and ultimately things stalled out once again. Shortly thereafter, I left the agency and went on to other things assuming the work would never see the light of day.

Recently I was made aware that Digital Domain had taken an interest in taking on the project. Very excited, I stayed at arms length as Jim and another Art Director produced the ideas we had nurtured for so long. Over a few months, once again things stalled and the idea fell off my radar. And yet again, I was surprised when I found out that something had gotten produced.

Our idea grew to be very different than what I saw in my mind. But even so, the produced spots are pretty darn cool. But the coolest thing to me, is that the idea was good enough that others stepped in, nurtured it, and kept it alive.

Many would say it’s the people, but for me it’s the sprouting ideas that make it hardest to leave an agency. Ideas with amazing potential, to be great. To be terrible. Here’s where one could easily digress into a parenting analogy, but lets keep it light for the moment. I guess the fear is leaving an idea with potential for greatness and having it go afoul under others supervision, or having it turn out brilliant without you.

As a full-time creative, dividing my first 14 years in the business at just two agencies, this fear was hard to kick. As a freelancer, spending much of the last four years going from one agency to the next, it’s become addictive. I love seeing ideas out in the world, all grown up, embraced and nurtured by others.

It’s natural to be influenced by others ideas, words, styles, genres, color treatment, cropping, colors, camera moves, brush strokes, body movements, inflection, humor, wardrobe… pretty much everything and anything. There are countless sayings about imitation and plagiarism. The fact is, it’s impossible to NOT be influenced or inspired by the world around you, and others in your field of practice. Yet, there’s a moral line that each person must draw when utilizing creative resources, and today more than ever, there’s a legal line that is drawn for us by outside forces less interested in pushing the limits of concept, and more interested in monetary gain, or loss, depending upon what side of that legal you find yourself.

As creative professionals we deal with this every day. We see things that spark ideas. While concepting we constantly ponder “Has this been done before? This seems really familiar. Where have I seen it? Is it just such a great idea that it feels like it should have been done before? Shit, that was in Archive last issue!” Or upon presentation, someone chimes in “Brand X won a lion for that a few years back”.

What originally prompted me writing was a link a friend shared on facebook a few days ago to a print ad on adsoftheworld for a headache medication. As I write, I can’t remember the brand off the top of my head. But what I noticed immediately is that the main image was a sculpture that another friend and schoolmate of mine (And very successful fine artist) Kris Kuksi had done. At first, I thought maybe adsoftheworld was featuring some of Kris’s work. So I clicked the link. When the page loaded, I saw it was an actual ad, with a tagline, and a brand name incorporated into the artwork.

My first thought was “Wow, Kris sold out”. Now… I’m in advertising and I still view a fine artist selling his style for a short run campaign as selling out. Kris sells his work for tens of thousands of dollars. And as far as I know, isn’t a commercial illustrator and doesn’t want to be. So, I wasn’t sure why the hell he’d create an illustration or sell one and allow it to be modified for a scam ad in Indonesia. I was incredibly bummed and confused.

I clicked back to facebook to read the thread and soon realized that the link wasn’t shared as a congratulations. But, as an alert. I went back to adsoftheworld and checked the credits. Kris was nowhere to be found. Another name was listed as “illustrator”. Confusion turned to anger. I’m incensed that his industry, my industry, can perpetrate such a crime against someone so much more pure than itself. In a world where originality is so rare, Kris has managed a style all his own. I can’t say I’ve seen anyone that does anything like it. Until now. The obvious assumption is that some creatives saw Kris’s work and it immediately sparked a very obvious thought for a spec campaign. (See one of Kris’s pieces below)…

Kris Kuksi - The Plague Parade Opus 2

The agency or the creatives, or maybe even the client, payed for an illustrator to create an almost exact replica of Kris’s work and hoped no one would notice. Maybe they thought about approaching him and decided not to. The most typical way to avoid getting sued is to NOT approach the person you plan on stealing from. If  you approach them and they say no, you’ll be busted. If you don’t approach them and your ripoff isn’t legally close enough to the original, then you’re off the hook. I’ve seen this most often in the creation of music for video or film content. You fall in love with a track on your rough cut. You approach the musician and they want some exorbitant amount of money for usage. You have a music house rip off their track. Busted.  You don’t approach them. Then have a music house rip off their track. No Busting.

I’ve been influenced countless times by others work, styles, etc. It’s impossible not to be. But, there’s a line I won’t cross. As a fairweather artist myself, I think about the people on the other end. And how it could hurt them. Not just the money that it may cost me or my agency if we are found out. My biggest concern for Kris was that he be introduced to a whole new audience through a cheap ad for a headache medicine. That someone in our creative community would see Kris’s work and ultimately think “oh, he did that scam ad for Indonesian aspirin”. It’s one thing if he decided to sell his work/style for advertising. But, to have others decide for him. That’s foul. And makes me ashamed of our industry.

On a few occasions I’ve brushed up against a similar situation and have had to make a decision as Creative Director. Once recently when creating The Reverse Graffiti Project for Clorox Greenworks. Reverse Graffiti had been around for awhile. It had even been used in ads, but with a decidedly commercial message. The technique of Reverse Graffiti could also easily have been done by any number of persons, artists or otherwise. But, myself, the creative team, and the agency made a very conscious choice to go after who we thought was the inventor of the medium, or at least one of its leaders. Ultimately it gave the work more credibility in the ad community and we didn’t create a backlash in the world of street art. It gave an otherwise “uncool” brand, a cool story.

To quote John Hegarty, “Originality is determined by the obscurity of your sources”. One would think Albert Angus Turbayne and Kris Kuksi are pretty obscure. But with the current searchability of everything today on the web, virtually nothing is obscure enough to act as a virtually unaltered “resource”.

I worked with a great team of creatives who had only done a few commercials, so much of the project was helping them navigate the production process, and liaising between them, the ECD’s and the clients to make sure everyone was happy with the work. As we moved toward the shoot, it became necessary to rewrite a few spots as they died in production due to logistical and legal reasons. Scouting locations, casting and prepping for a shoot is always fun while simultaneously writing the spots you’re producing. In spite of it all, it was juggled rather well by all involved and ultimately the shoot and post went off without a hitch.

Visual pun coincidentally intended…

Ideally, I wanted a different severed body part for each different piece of communication. And each body part would have a bike related element. I started searching online for a retro mesh no-fingered glove and found some that I liked, but didn’t really have time to order one. we needed to get the flyers out asap, and Blake was pestering me daily. I asked him if he had a glove and he did, but strangely enough, riding home from work that same evening I spotted a lost glove on Market Street, and surely enough… White mesh and old school without fingers. Perfect score. I coaxed my son, Khaner to model the glove and lay down in our street at night so I could get some shots. He reluctantly agreed, but jumped up every time he heard a car coming. Not because he was afraid of getting run over, but because of embarrassment. Ah, teenagers. I printed and trimmed a hundred flyers and handed them off to Blake the next day.

T-shirts were the next hottest item. I went through a couple dozen t-shirt designs, but none seemed to do the trick.

Blake wanted the illustration to be off-center to feel more “underground”. I just wanted it to look cool. The types of things I was working with looked best centered or in spots that would prove to be difficult to produce. In the end, we compromised in terms of color, but we pushed the design off the top of the shirt and over the neckline to create the feel that the wearer of the shirt actually was the victim, and his throat had been slit. A bloody Randaneur treadmark was left as evidence of the assault.

The spoke card was next. Sticking with the severed body parts theme, I lined up the fingers in such a way, that when the spoke card was placed correctly in the wheel, it would look as though someone’s hand had been caught in the spokes and the fingers had been torn off. A few riders actually got the idea. Most seemed oblivious.

I took some of the “dead’ t-shirt illustrations and simplified them for buttons.

In an Alley Cat race, riders are given a manifest, or printed list of locations.

Riders must check in at each location, but not in chronological order… in the fastest order. At each location a rider’s manifest is stamped. Once all stamps/locations are collected, he sprints to the finish for the final stamp. First one wins (obviously). To bring the theme to life, I created a body part icon for each checkpoint. The icons were made into stamps.

The goal: Collect all the body parts. Win cool swag, fame and glory.

A BBQ followed the race. See pics from the event…

All media drove to openforum.com, a place where small business owners come together to compare ideas and help one another. Hence, the two REAL small business owners in this spot, directed by James Brown from Skunk US.

I’ve been working with SF Urban Riders for quite some time on building and maintaining multi-use trails in SF, as well as laying the groundwork for a bike park in San Francisco’s McLaren Park. Last month, The SF Rec and Park Department  held one of three planning sessions to identify new projects for McLaren and to involve the community in the decision as to which ones will move forward. We figured this would be the ideal time to demonstrate community support for the bike park through a social media campaign driving to an online petition. The ultimate goal of the petition: to quantify the need,  as well as gather letters of support for the project.

We created a Facebook fan page to keep people updated on meetings and events, as well as grow the support base by creating awareness of the poor condition of the future location of the bike park. Currently, the site is covered in broken and decayed asphalt, continues to be used for illegal dumping and is littered with trash and broken glass.

Last July, a severed leg was found not far from the site, which calls attention to the low level of traffic through certain areas of the park resulting in homeless encampments, drug deals and other types of undesirable activity. A bike park would create foot/bike traffic and mitigate this problem.

In addition to online social media, we’re reaching out to community leaders and neighborhood residents asking for their personal support in the form of letters and meeting attendance. At the next planning meeting on March 23, we’ll hear the results of a survey that SFRPD created to gather thoughts and ideas on the top priorities for improvements to McLaren Park. And we’ll be there en masse.

Logo Design: Dustin Smith.   MBP website/blog, Facebook page and Petition: Dustin Smith / Dayton Crites.

I thought Facebook was an all inclusive club where anyone with www access was welcome. Of course you can refuse a friend request, and can unfreind someone when they fall out of your favor. But everyone is welcome to be a part of the community. Individuals can find a long lost friend. Brands can taught their wares and talk about themselves and all their wonderful attributes. You can become a fan of a brand, a band, a celebrity, a non-profit… But  just like any other brand, putting your own personal brand “out there” for critique opens you up for just that… people’s opinions of you. And when you have a high profile, you best have a clear social media strategy before opening yourself up the world. And you better be ready for the conversation your presence generates one way or another.

As far as the article that just popped up this morning on AgencySpy, I have to say I was surprised. I received a friend request from Mark yesterday and thought ” Hey, cool. Tutssel’s on Facebook.” and I immediately accepted his request. I didn’t read his info. I didn’t look to criticize. I looked and saw a colleague reaching out to connect with the people that he’s lost touch with over the years. I figured he’d probably been a bit timid about it because of what may happen (and just did). Obviously there are marketing reasons for his jump into Facebook. Maybe his approach was a bit more appropriate for LinkedIn. And maybe if a brand came into the community with that same introduction it would have been met with the same response. I’m not sure. I don’t know what his profile said. I just welcomed him.

Ironically, my comment to his first status update of “Hello Everyone” was: “Take the blue pill…” Judging by Mark’s lack of profile information today, he may have done just that.

Finally got the new CA Photo annual and was happy to see these images made it in. Congrats and Thanks to my good friend Mark Zibert. Photographer: Mark Zibert, AD/CD: Dustin Smith, CW: Daniel Mabe, PPM: Issy Penaflor, for DDB San Francisco. Check out the campaign.

While I was at Team One a for 2.5 weeks, I produced this Wall Street Journal ad which falls within the campaign they’ve recently launched  for the new Lexus HS Hybrid. More info to come…