The Mark and TRUE™

I'm sitting here on one of my favorite cafés in Copenhagen Denmark. The weather is finally nice enough to sit outside. It's been just a little while since I blogged, but this time not because I just didn't get around to it, but because I've been busy. Yeah really? The worlds most overused excuse.
Starting up a new company with another party is not just something you do from day to day. Lawyers, contracts and trying to find an office is filling my time these days, but it's so exciting. I've been talking a little bit about TRUE™ earliere but let me go through it again. In some time I've been looking for someone who matched my ambitions, the way I work, my humour and meeting Jan at the worlds greatest burgerbar Halifax was just an eye-opener. We match real good. He works hard and is not a stuck-up artist. He sees graphic design as a craft, just like me and we work around our clients wishes, unless they appear to be a waste of their money, in which case we advise against themselves. Icon22 (Jan) is also settled with a good client portfolio and things - like with The Mark - is working out just fine. But having someone to work with projects on, do pitches with and just the everyday ping-pong and excitement on jobs is so much fun and rewarding.
We are almost there with selecting our new officespace. An old apartment with skew floors and lots of character in the centre of Copenhagen will be the new playground of TRUE™ and of course The Mark and Icon22 as well. Yeah we are keeping our current companies but will use a lot of energy on getting TRUE™ flying where new clients will find their graphic safehouse.
Speaking of new clients, we like to welcome a few of them. First of, we have been contacted by Pernod Ricard Denmark for banners and drink cards to Roskilde Festival and are working on a storyboard for an animation for them too. Another new client is Gouda (travelinsurrance) who asked us to litterally make a hole in the floor for them. They asked for a floorgraphic and we are working on that as well.
The Mark is working on a scandinavian in-store/ad campaign for Bose in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland, and also found time for little something for Bose PRO. Next week will be a lot of Mindshare cases. So busy busy, but that is what we are looking for and this is how we thrive. We are making extra room for a graphic design student that we want to change every six month and also for freelance graphic designers that we look to work with on different projects. We want more clients and we want to grow - and that is why The Mark and Icon22 are joining forces under TRUE™.

Look out for openhouse day when the office is up and running!

Talk to you soon

Mark

The Mark and TRUE™ creates posters for Haiti

A friend sent me a link for The Haiti Poster Project that was launched three days after the January 12th, 2010 earthquake in Haiti. The project is a collaborative effort by the design community to help effect change through our work. Signed and numbered, limited edition posters have been donated by designers and artists from around the world. All money raised will be donated to Doctors Without Borders.

This of course touched my heart and I just started making sketches and ideas right away. My mind is glorious (yeah I said it) in the way that It kind of just keep going even when I do other stuff and often out of the blue, the idea comes to me. I also asked my partner in TRUE™ if this wasn't the perfect project for our new project and being the nice guy he is, he agreed. We talked about the ideas and came up with writing words with band-aid on the back of a naked black girl. First of, we would just manipulate the band-aids on a stock photo in photoshop, but then we thought the idea was too good not to all the way with.

We contacted some friends who knew people and two of them came up with the same cute model, Rute. I called her and she was in on it right away and she had worked with a photographer, Mikkel ( http://www.mikkelmarquart.dk ) who would work for charity too. And she even had her own make-up artist who was kind enough to play along. So a couple of hours one night we wrote words in band-aid on Rute's back and shoot her a couple hundred times untill we where satisfied.

We are very pleased to introduced the final posters ready for purchase online right here and please share this link:
http://www.thehaitiposterproject.com/posters/view/415

We got an e-mail from the founders of The Haiti Poster project and I would just like to end this blog in their words:

"Truly a beautiful piece of work here guys."

A L E X A N D E R E V A U G H N
Designer, Moxie Sozo
www.moxiesozo.com

Bose product launch

In february I was invited by my long lasting client Bose to Göteborg, Sweden for their latest product launch. Besides the obvious interest in seeing my clients new products, It's was also very interesting in meeting my clients own customers and listen to how they felt about doing business with Bose.
About the details of the products, I can see they have not yet been revealed on Bose.com so I will not go into those details but rather talk about how listening to your clients often bring out the best in your product development. Easy to use is the new thing. There, I've said it. Remaking the controller and grouping buttons in a innovative way was just a smart way to go. But the way they built their new systems with intelligent plugs that on screen will tell you if you are setting your system up right and if not, then what plug to use. On screen setup with small videos and the best part for me was how the Bose Controller in seconds takes over the control of your other controllers for electronics like TV, BlueRay, Ipod, DVD or whatever you want to add to your new system. And doing so with only a few buttons pressed.
As I can't show you anything yet on the products, I at least can show you some photos from the beautiful spa where I spend my morning running and enjoying an outdoor jacuzzi. And of the Porche with Bose surround sound speakers... awesome! Enjoy!

The Haiti Poster project

It is not new for The Mark to do charity work. We have worked for Amnesty International on a national school project and is every year involved in raising money for breast cancer and even doing so good on the first year, the result was being used as a case in advertisement. It is close to our heart to help where we can.
In 2010 the earthquake in Haiti caught our eyes and in our new collaboration with Icon22, TRUE™, we are participating in "The Haiti Poster Project". This is a collaboration of designers and artist from around the world, benefitting the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. Last night TRUE™ was at a photoshoot with a beautiful model, a cool make-up artist and a sharp photographer to make our vision into photos for our limited edition posters. We will of course upload the result here as soon as they have been printed by our good friends at Damgaard Jensen. These posters will be shipped to the US to be sold online to raise money, and we hope they will make beautiful artwork on one happy rich dudes mansion...
You can read more on http://www.thehaitiposterproject.com/

2010 is upon us

First of, happy new year reader(s) :-)

Second lets start with another new client. I mean why not?
At the end of last year I was contacted by some former employees from my client Mindshare and they worked in another media agency called Vizeum. I stopped by and had a little talk with them and left with my first job. So welcome to Vizeum.
In December I also help newcover ad agency Underline for a couple of weeks. Sweet people and very competent.

2010 will also be a year for collaboration for The Mark. I have started working together with Icon22.com on getting new clients and projects together and we are working on our second project right now and its going really well. We call this new collaboration project of ours TRUE™ and will post our work on http://www.truecph.com/ in the future, but of course I will blog and spread the word when that happens.

Chasing clients
This is simply not my thing. I've tried for 11 years getting through to new clients by phone, e-mails and direct mails, but I'm not that kind of salesman. Even though I believe I can easily help their business it's like they automatically thinks I'm trying to sell them something bogus. But if I get my foot through the door I have no problems. Then I can show them why they should choose The Mark for their graphic design challenges. What I am trying to say is recommendations and network is my most powerful tool and to get recommendations ...I have to stay sharp... all the time and that fits me perfect. I am a sucker for giving as for getting good service.

Again, happy 2010 and may the wind blow in your back

Welcome to Mindshare

Recently I've helped Mindshare with the decor of their reception. They needed an update and we decided to use icons for different media to show the rage of Mindshares expertise.

Wunderful Wundergrund

Wundergrund is an annual event in Copenhagen, setting the scene for experimental music, in the open space between contemporary classical, electronic and popular music. Anything can happen during the festival's many wondrous interactions, between Danish and international new music, other musical genres and art environments.
Wundergrund also creates platforms for creative dialogues/partnerships between experimenting music and other creative industries. In 2007 the festival collaborated with the fashion industry (Baum & Pferdgarten) and the gaming industry (Hitman/IO Interactive). Other extern partnerships in process are taking place with The Danish Architecture Center, The Danish Design Center and CPH:DOX.
By recomendation from my friend who is Head of Design in the TIVOLI Gardens, Wundergrund asked me this summer to stop by for a meeting and I left the meeting with a job for a 20 page newspaper, a small ad and a A1 poster for the streets of Copenhagen. It's been an exciting project and we are all really happy about the result. The guys from Wundergrund was wonderful to work with and I hope they will return to me next year.

Read more about Wundergrund on www.wundergrund.dk