Stay Gold

The 2011 ADDYs saw our talented team at OtherWisz Creative bringing home some hardware!  The Rave Reviews were celebrated at the Tri-Main Building in north Buffalo and saw a good showing of Buffalo creatives hanging, drinking, watching break dancers, drinking… well you get the picture.  Most of the large agencies won the majority of the awards (as usual) but our crew had a great showing, winning 2 silver, a gold and the 'best showbook ad'. The last one was quite a surprise!

The package design we created for Boston Valley Terra Cotta has won it's second set of kudos taking a silver at the ADDYs in the 'Sales Promotion, Sale Kit' category. Last month the BVTC box won an American Package Design Award from Graphic Design USA magazine. The other awards went to two more of our BVTC projects, the pocket folder with line cards set and the 64-page Terraclad catalog.

As a Buffalo Ad Club corporate member, we had to submit an advertisement for the event showbook.  Since the event was a 'rave theme' this year, our ad was a play on words hinting at the club drug ecstasy, or 'E'. See it below. It won best ad in the book and came with a big wall plaque award. 

Kudos from the judges in the Showbook- on the TerraClad book: "Detailed and well executed." and on the TC Box, "Very cool package."

Congratulations to the OW team, great job! We are humbled to have others really appreciate our work --  we know we like, we know the client liked it --  it is cool to know other people like it as well!  See our winners below.

Gold ADDY
Category: Collateral Material, Brochure, Color
Title: TerraClad Product Brochure

Client: Boston Valley Terra Cotta
Credits:
 Mark Wisz, Art Director
, Jill Wisz, Creative Director
, Dan Wangelin, Designer
, United Graphics, Printer

Silver ADDY
Category: Sales Promotion, Sales Kit
Title: Boston Valley Pocket Folder

Client: Boston Valley Terra Cotta
Credits:
Mark Wisz, Art Director/Designer, 
Jill Wisz, Creative Director, 
Dan Wangelin, Production Artist
, United Graphics, Printer

Silver ADDY
Category: Sales Promotion, Sales Kit
Title: Terra Cotta Product Sample Box

Client: Boston Valley Terra Cotta
Credits: 
Mark Wisz, Art Director, 
Jill Wisz, Creative Director/Designer, 
Dan Wangelin, Production Artist
, Hawver Display, Package Manufacturer

Best Showbook Ad
Title: We heard there was a rave tonight...

Client: OtherWisz Creative Corporation

The above photos were shot by Joe Cascio.
"Stay gold, Pony Boy..."

>> See all the 2011 winners at the AdHub website.

Control

The Buffalo Business First newspaper released it's ranking of top Web Design Firms in Buffalo in it's December 31, 2010 -- January 31, 2011 issue and OtherWisz Creative Corp. continues to rank year after year.  We are in at #21 in a list ranked by 'number of websites designed in 2011"-- but we all know it's quality, not quantity!

This year I was quoted when asked what is the most common request from customers in 2010 and I cleared my throat, and clearly stated...

OtherWisz Creative Corp. "Customers are always looking to manage their own content, link into social media (blogs, Twitter, Facebook), and have a custom-designed site and not a cookie cutter template design."

And that is a fact! I hear these things all time.

The thing that happens when you get ranked in a fine business pub like the Biz 1st is that for the next few weeks you get offers to sell you a fine plak with the article/or listing captured (& mounted) for all of eternity to hang in your paneled-office waiting room.  I have been getting these inquires for years, as we are always ranked in this list and have had our company featured a few times.  Always great to be in The BizOne! Once I actually received one of these nice wooden laminated plaks unsolicited. It was for the Best Buffalo Web Firms listing if, I think 2003 maybe.... I remember it because it had engraved art of a guy surfing a wave on it. It was pretty rad.

DENTIST'S COLLECTION BECAME BUFFALO HOCKEY MUSEUM The following issue of Biz 1st (first 2011 issue) had a nice photo and feature of our client, the Buffalo Hockey Experience + Museum.  With Dr. Joe standing in front of our Sabres 40th Anniversary display cases, it had a color photo with our fine work in the background.

Check it out, posted on the BleedForTheBlueandGold.com blog, rightee here.

Good press for 2011 so far!

Start Choppin'

Born in the Summer of 1993, Slack Magazine flourished in Buffalo NY's underground Zine world alongside such luminaries as the Sacred Cow, Snot and The Avenue Player. Sputtering out in February '96 with one last great splash (The Beer Part II), Slack Magazine lived it's life for 20 issues and included slam-bang-gonzo journalism, reviews, ridicule, satire & early computer graphics littered with scans from borrowed postcards, magazines & newspaper clippings. Written and edited by some of Buffalo's greatest creatives (writers-DJs-photographers-drunkards) of the 1990s, Slack has finally dusted itself off & entered the digital age right here.

I gathered all the digital issue of Slack and posted them in it's very own URL at SlackMagazine.com Slack now lives in the digital age, enjoy this slice of Buffalo, NY 1993-1996.

Check it out, kids!

Bustin' Loose

I am joining DJ Jeffro for a little night of music at Staple's this Saturday night in historic Allentown (across from Nietzsche's). Come on down folks! Funk, funk, funk and (mostly) all vinyl, baby.

Doing It To Death

Featuring DJ Jeffro with guest DJ Dr. Wisz of Deja Blu

According to the creator of this funky night, DJ Jeffro:

What is Doing It To Death? Nothing crazy, just a laid back night of hard hitting horns, snares that are mighty tight and alright, and ridiculously raw grooves that are pure dynamite. Aided and abetted by The Funkmaster Generals.... Otis, Stevie, James, Sly, Curtis, Zig, Booker, Maceo and Arlester.

Grooves that are so ON the money that you'll be amazed you got in for NO money.

4+ hours of classic soul & funk music from the 60's, 70's and early 80's. Stax, Motown, Curtom, King, Tamla, Desco, Hi, Daptone, and more.

Saturday, July 26, 2010

11pm- close

100% free, 200% funky

keep on keepin' on.

Spin Me 'Round

People always come over and seem to enjoy visiting our studio space (especially other artists). I was thinking on working on a series of blog posts that would be about some of the graphic artists and creative folks I know-- so see if I could get them to let us get a peek into their studios. Creative people often have the best spaces to work in- packed with designs, inspirational material and just plain cool stuff!

Earlier back, when this blog started, I did a series of posts which were brief interviews with some local Buffalo design-folks. I'll see if I can get the time to get into this sort of project. I'll start to see what sort of interest there is from you, the loyal readers, and the artists themselves.

In the meantime..... a peak into the OtherWisz Creative office space (top floor).

What's Going Ahn

In a world rendered only in back & white, there were few graytones and bitmapped reigned supreme.

I remember the olden days when everything was on black and white (unless it was printed on colored paper stock). Before color printers were all the rage (and affordable), us event-marketing types (aka poster-flyer makers) did all our posters in single color: black on white. Simple graphics for simpler times, they were....

While searching back for some deja blu flyers, I unearthed some rock show flyers I had designed back in the early '90s.

This collection includes:
> 808 State at the ICON
> Ladies Night Saturdays at the ICON
> The Headhunters at Nietzsche's
> A 1991 double bill of The Headhunters & the Steam Donkeys at the Little Harlem
> Gil Scott Heron at the ICON

These flyers were build on a combination of either a band's press photo or something scanned from a magazine-- usually vintage Life magazines or a '90s rock rags like R-Stone-- and some typographic magic. The one up top-- the Double Hoedown (at the Little Harlem, a vintage Buffalo soul & jazz club that burned to the ground and was demolished in 1999) has titles generated in 'Typestyler', an early font manipulation program that was used to create effects now common in ALL graphic design programs. These crazy effects included: drop shadows and outlines. Wow. Heady stuff back in 1990. The graphic computer tricks that seems so basic on computers today, were a byte-churning event back then. Typestlyer was known to take a few minutes-- yes, a few MINUTES- to create a text effect! This DBHD! poster includes a hint at my early obsession of stars on rock posters. I still haven't kicked that habit.

For a band building a reputation at the time on the blips and bleeps of early acid house-techno-- 808 State-- I tried to get 'super electronic & computery'. This flyer was built upon a photo scanned from a science textbook that had some state-of-the-art Photoshop magic -- a noise filter, glow and drop shadows-- added to it. Wow (again).

This other Headhunters poster was a simple one, but it is my favorites from this bunch. Not a lot of computer tom-foolery on this... just a simple closeup of rock legend Chuck Berry lighting a cig, darkened to give it's shadows a bit of a sinister undertone. It had the most basic of event details overlayed in a blocky font. I remember going for something to compliment Terry Sullivan's band's real rock-&-roll sound and I wanted a paste-to-the-wall vintage feel- I think this one has really stood up over time. As the Ladies Night -- with a cleavage peaking, cig-smoking Isabella Rosalinni-- looks dated (Good God Stretched Type! Argggh!!), I think this one and the Gil Scott still look good. They might look nice printed in a 20 x 30 format?

To think these were created on a Mac SE-30, often transferred by floppy disc to my job at a local service bureau and printed to Photostat Paper to create a 'master' hard copy ($8 each). You couldn't print your own-- laser printers wern't all that good back then.... they were printed by the bar owner (or the band) at Kinkos on 8-1/2 x 11" white bond paper. Though I think the futuristic 808 State flyer was printed on neon yellow paper.

Did I get paid well to do these back then? Ha!

No, but I got to see alot of great free rock shows...

Click for larger views:


The Headhunters at Nietzsche's (updated)- Classic rock image for a great Buffalo rock band.



808 State at The ICON (1993)- British electronic comes to Buffalo early '90s.


Double Bill Hoedown featuring The Headhuters & The Steam Donkeys (1991)- Great late night show of local Buffalo bands in an unlikely venue. Nice giant rock hair, Mr. Matt Smith!


Saturday Ladies Nite at ICON w/ DJ Unlimited (1992)- alternative, progessive, wave! club flyer, Buffalo, NY. "Gals," "Girls," "Women" & "Ladies" drink free!


Gil Scott Heron at ICON (1992)- The revolution was not televised, it was live! This was one of those ICON shows where the garage door was open and the side room was filled with folding chairs.

Party at Ground Zero

ROCK POSTER claim to fame- OtherWisz work included in movie about Strummerville.

I was contacted by the production staff of a movie being made about "Strummerville," the charity foundation created following the death of Joe Strummer to continue his charitable work. They wanted to use one of my rock posters (click now) in the movie!

The film is by Don Letts, the famed English filmmaker with strong ties to the Clash. His list of accomplishments is amazing: he was one of the first club DJs in England to play dub, reggae and ska, he was in Big Audio Dynamite with Clash-man Mick Jones, he is an author and he has directed numerous videos including "Pass The Dutchie" by Musical Youth and "Back on The Chain Gang" by The Pretenders. In 2003, filmmaker Letts won a Grammy for his Clash documentary "Westway to The World." Good bio link here on BBC radio.

His new movie is about Strummerville and the work they do, the bands associated with it, the yearly concerts, benefits and their continuing devotion to helping youths obtain their musical dreams themselves, as DIY-man Strummer would have liked! The charity is described on their website as "aiming to create new opportunities for aspiring musicians. Set up by the friends and family of Joe Strummer in the year after his death, the charity seeks to reflect Joe's unique contribution to the music world by offering support, resources and performance opportunities to artists who would not normally have access to them."

The production company, Brassneck TV describes the movie, debuting this weekend (March 12-21, 2010) at the SWSX music festival in Texas as:

STRUMMERVILLE- Joe Strummer's untimely death in 2002 sent shockwaves around the music world and beyond, yet Joe's friends and family were determined that his spirit would live on. In this documentary, Grammy award-winning filmmaker Don Letts demonstrates how Joe's DIY attitude is manifesting itself through a charity which helps aspiring musicians - Strummerville. The film features performance footage and interviews with Strummerville artists, supporters and founders including Billy Bragg and Damien Hirst, plus previously unseen footage of Strummer himself.

Locally, Wolf Tickets rocker Chris Malachowski has been carrying the flag of Joe Strummer since his death in Dec. 2002 and OtherWisz Creative been designing the posters for each tribute show (as well as DJing them). Chris has kept strong ties to Strummerville, as our local event has donated proceeds from each show to the charity.

It was cool to get the call, and it is an honor to have some of my work featured in a movie about such a great organization that is associated with the memory of one of my heros, Joe Strummer. So if anyone will be at SWSX this weekend, look for the film and the brief glimpse of an OtherWisz-designed poster.

LINKS:

• Here is PR of the movie on the Strummerville website: click here
  
  
• Here is the movie production company's site Brassneck TV, click here.
  
  
• Here is the link to ALL the of posters I have created for the local tribute shows in Buffalo- here click now
  
  
• More info on Strummerville- here ya go

Christmas Rapping

The PANIC! Sale was not really panic-driven. I think it was still too ahead of Christmas for panic shopping. The throngs of shoppers who strolled through the main gallery of the Western New York Book Arts seemed pretty calm during the this second annual sale of WNY crafters, screen printers, jewelry makers, book makers, t-shirt designers, and artists alike.

I shot a few snap shots of the crowds in the gallery for you out-of-towners to see. Bonus props for Eric Morse, in-town for the holidays on vaca from his job in Hong Kong. First storm rolls in to remind Eric about BuffaloSnow!

We are working full steam ahead into the holidays with a lot of stuff going on. Gotta be careful to not slip right through the upcoming holiday with head buried behind the computer. The kids would be mad. I'll try to post some neat holidays photos as I might not have a lot to say. Rock on!

Shoppers shop & the boppers bop.



Super Rich and his accomplice Carima.



Crowd chatting, shopping & more. Out-of-town Eric and his glowing alien backpack talks with Kevin & Val.



More crowd with Sunnyoutside David in front- holding court, brewing espresso, selling books.

Jill runs the WhereToRoam booth (with Rich making sure all vendors are chillin', makin' buttons, brewin' joe & hot chocolate, etc.)....

Shopper approaches the W2R booth with hand on wallet.

Shoppers under high ceilings, big windows and joy in their hearts (I think).. See Hero booth across the way.

Looking West across the gallery space from Marti's head.

Crowbiz and her wares.

Crowbiz's Capitalist Pig was coated in Russian text during the show. Ready 4 sale!

Happy Holidays to you! Support & join the Western New York Books Arts Center!