exitcreative

Per Russell’s assignment, I’ve developed the following 5 propositions for Maple Syrup.

1. It’s tree juice.
2. Real syrup–from a tree, not a pole. It’s an extra fancy morning.
3. No fructose, no corn, just syrup.
4. Sticky, wet, not yours…but okay to eat.
5. Tapped from old trees for the young at heart.

1. The first is based on the fact that I think it’s crazy that there is this sweet, awesome breakfast condiment that starts out as sap. That’s weird to me. 2. The second comes from the Canadian phrase for fake maple syrup (Mrs. Butterworth’s, etc.): sirop de poteau, which implies that fake maple syrup comes from a telephone pole. Eh. The previous one was just OK in my mind. I like the reference here to the grading of syrup. Grade A Extra Fancy is the lightest, goldenest of the varieties. 3. There really isn’t fructose in maple syrup, since all the sugars are disaccharides and fructose is a monosaccharide. And there’s no corn, either. 4. As far as the fourth one… my 6th grade health teacher told us that if something was warm, wet and not ours, we shouldn’t touch it. It struck me that those things applied to syrup, but you can eat syrup. Yes, I know it’s a little inappropriate. But it makes me chuckle [quietly]. 5. Did you know that Sugar Maples (Acer saccharum and Acer nigrum) have to be at least 40 years old before they can be tapped for syrup? Neither did I.

I just got the notes on my first attempt with the Account Planning School of the Web, run by the famous, prolific Russell Davies. The assignment was to design a design brief for a logo for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. I feel pretty okay about the results.

My attempt is here: WCLOGO_exitcreative_edits.ppt

Here are all the other briefs, with comments:8A.ppt 8B.ppt 8C.ppt 8D.ppt 8F.ppt

(Mine was E, in case you were wond’rin’)

I read all the other folks’ briefs first. D was judged as the best, followed by B. After reading all the briefs, and before looking at the comments on mine, I felt like I had been hosed. But that’s just because I’m a blindly competitive, egomaniacal jerk. But then, after looking again at what the others provided (and what I’d left out), the Design Conspirators (esteemed Guest Judges) were right-on. In trying to be inspirational with images, pretty design and wording, I left out some valuable information.

Their (very nice) general comment about my work was: “E deserves a special mention for craft and the nice comment about the sketchability of logos. The only problem with E was that the craft got in the way of the thinking.”

Alas, mine was not the best. I was not hosed as I first thought. I may work on a revision.

Russell’s post on the results is here.