17 April 2009

New Work: Viva Nash Vegas Logo

The best road trips usually involve lots of bathtub speed, reckless driving, half-witted county sheriffs, fistfights, buxom hitchhikers, Hell's Angels, CB radios, and jumping either a dry creek bed or moving freight train in a souped-up muscle car.

That said, road trips that skew a little tamer can be fun, too. There's plenty of time for PG-rated mayhem between scheduled bathroom pitstops, home-cooked meals waiting for you at various points in the trip, and a comped luxury hotel room waiting at your destination. This is the kind of road trip that needs it's own fancypants logo, which is where MBD comes in.

Read more about Viva Nash Vegas over on Bigmouth and say hi to the girls either via Twitter (@amyguth, @leahjones) or their show on Blog Talk Radio.

04 April 2009

Peas and Carrots in the House, Y'all!

Spotted at the Abbey Pub before a Kosha Dillz/Yak Ballz show:

03 April 2009

Good Design is the Concept

You've seen this video, yes? Or at least heard the story behind it? How, in 1976, French director Claude LeLouch mounted a gyroscopic camera on the front of a Ferrari and commissioned a Formula 1 race car driver to go all Grand Theft Auto before there was such a thing: Paris, end to end, in less than ten minutes. 140 miles per hour, running red lights, going the wrong way down skinny one-way streets, taking to the sidewalk to pass a slow moving truck, and nearly clipping spectating pedestrians, with that burly Ferrari engine growling and tires screaming for their lives the whole time.



Problem is, such an awesome display of recklessness never happened. LeLouch has admitted that the Ferrari was a Mercedes, 140 was more like 80, and the mysterious speed demon behind the wheel was the director himself.

However, knowing what you know now, watch again and tell me that nine minutes behind the wheel is any less exhilarating.

I like this video in the context of talking design because it's a perfect visual metaphor for my philosophy that design doesn't need to be concepted to death to work. Sure, it makes for a good if not gimmicky presentation to the client when you can say you chose a color because, say, its PMS value is exactly one-third of the year the company was founded, but just as LeLouch's video is badass regardless of backstory, neither should design rely on the crutch of a nebular concept to be impactful.

And what do you know, Paul Rand agrees with me. (Dig the afro mullet on Miggs B.)