Good news for the Grip blog and its readers: We have a new editor.

Effective now-ish, the lovely and talented Leilah Ambrose will be taking over for me as Editor of Big Orange Slide. Leilah is a Senior Copywriter here at Grip. She has an infectious laugh, razor-sharp wit, and a pen that is mightier than any sword I know. We are in good hands. This transition also coincides with the blog’s first birthday (woot woot).

To mark the occasions, please allow me to ruminate on lessons learned in year one:

1) Start by failing.
This isn’t Grip’s first blog. You probably never heard of the first. It was called “Better Ideas.” And though it was originally slated to be an external blog, it never gained the momentum it needed to get off the ground. It did, however, provide a testing ground for what a Grip blog might be if it pulled up its socks. In the end, “Better Ideas” died to make way for an even better idea.

The lesson: Whether you’re throwing down bad ideas in a brainstorm or creating an ad campaign that’s doomed to mediocrity, failure is an important weigh station on the road to success.

2) Get some muscle.
Big ideas need support. Lots of it. For this blog, that support came in the form of one of Grip’s Partners, Dave Hamilton. He recognized the seed of a good idea. Got behind it. Assembled a team. And then gave it the muscle it needed to power through the rough patches of its inception.

The lesson: Teams are only as strong as their leader. Make sure you’ve got a good one.

3) Make it pretty.
There are more than 120 million blogs on the internet. And despite what the cynics say, a lot of them are good. So what makes this one extra-worth your time? For me, it’s the pictures. Grip’s Associate Partner, Creative, Colin Craig created its playful look and feel – and paired it with an arresting illustrative convention. Of this blog’s 197 posts to date, nearly all of them have been given their own wonderful little illustration. They add richness beyond measure.

The lesson: You can be as wicked smart as you want, but if you’re not presenting well you’ve already lost.

There are more lessons: Always write about StarCraft 2; Posts about Apple cause foaming at the mouth; Sometimes the people you least expect to be able to write are the best writers, and; Our industry is chock-full of witty, passionate, intelligent people.

For my part, I’m excited to see where this blog goes next. Upwards, no doubt. I’m also excited to have a bit more time in my schedule for writing on it. Stay tuned. And welcome Leilah.

Many people (ok, some people) (ok, some ART DIRECTOR people) have speculated about where Grip’s visual identity comes from. To answer this question, we polled current staff on “why orange?”

Those with creative responses were quickly promoted, and showered with diamonds and glory. Those who laughed it off are, sadly, no longer with us.

Here is a smattering of what we got.

Staff Conjecture:

“Orange is vibrant, energetic and warm, like us!”

“It’s the cheapest fruit available to serve to staff?”

“Hindu swamis traditionally wear orange robes because orange symbolizes fire. Obviously.”

“The only thing that rhymes with ‘orange’ is ‘sporange.’”

“I heard it was because we’re always creating, or polishing, or re-evaluting. At any given point it is safe to say that something is ‘Under Construction.’ Hence the orange.”

“I heard it could be our unwavering support of the Dutch soccer team.” “Unwavering?” “Well, my unwavering support?”

“Orange you glad you’re not a banana?” (Ed. Note: no longer with us)

“Orange is tied to energetic days, warmth and ambition. There is nothing even remotely calm associated with this colour.”

“Orange is the color associated with the Sacral Hara Chakra (sexuality and reproduction). Need I say more?”

“Because Big Green Slide didn’t have the same ring to it?”

“It’s bilingual.”

“Easy. Oranges fight off scurvy.”

“I’m colour blind.”

Partner Clarification:

“When we set out to find/create a name for our company, our over-riding objective was a name that evoked a traditional work ethic. This was going to be an agency where everyone rolled up their sleeves and got into doing the work. Workman-like, journeymen, doers-not-talkers.

“’Grip’ became the interpretation of that philosophy. The sound of the word. The connection to our business on the production side. All point to a sense of getting your hands dirty.

“For me, Orange was the perfect backdrop to that language. The colour and the style are reminiscent of the old Gulf Oil wordmark. It feels and looks industrial or industrious. It was differentiating. Name a colour associated with another agency. Can you? The colour is bold and prominent. It has a point of view. It’s clearly Orange and proud. It’s bright. It’s warm. It’s inviting.

“And now, I can’t imagine us being any other colour.”

- Bob Shanks, Managing Partner, Business

“Back when we were first forming Grip, I was driving down Richmond Street and happened to notice a beautiful old building — The Graphic Arts Building — at Sheppard Street. I noticed construction workers going in and out. I decided to do the same.

“Most of the original design was intact. I found out, via a logo imprinted on the banister, that it had once been the offices for Saturday Night Magazine, as well as a humour magazine called Grip Ltd.

“Grip had started to make more money from designing ads for the magazine than from producing the magazine itself. It slowly rolled into a graphic design firm, and, as it turns out, counted Thom Thomson and many of the Group of Seven amongst its staff.

“To me, that name embodied everything we envisioned for our agency: a group of people who were rolling up their sleeves to do what they loved, and to do it better. I was so struck by it that I bought the available URL with my credit card for $25. That night, I went to Bob Shanks’ house and said ‘I think I found our name…’

“Scott Dube took on the unenviable lead of designing our logo. If the name was any indication, the debate over our logo had the potential to go on forever. However, we all gravitated to the bold orange and black look right away. It FELT the way Grip Limited SOUNDED: the workman-like attitude, the images of road pylons and ‘men at work’ construction signs. It doesn’t scream ‘panic’ like red does, or instill a sense of anxiety like yellow.

“When Grip launched, the whole industry (from press to peers) said we wouldn’t last. But we decided not to acknowledge the negativity. We’d let the work speak for itself. That logo, and its colour…a big, orange rondelle, did a lot of the talking for us. It was like our shield. It was perfect.

Still is, in my opinion.”

-  David Crichton, Creative Partner

“Apparently being the designer of the Grip logo means I have to weigh in on my choice of Pantone 021C – which has since evolved into a custom mixed shade of Orange. (Our very own shade of orange!)

“Well, it just made sense. In the end it represented different things to different people. But  in colour theory we’re taught that orange promotes curiosity and exploration, and a willingness to embrace new ideas. It also stimulates enthusiasm, creative play, and vitality with endurance. I’ve heard it also said that people who like orange are usually thoughtful and sincere. These characteristics seem to suggest the very best kind of work culture.

In starting a new company, it didn’t hurt to recognize that Lady Luck’s color is orange. Guess that worked too!”

- Scott Dube, Creative Partner

Ed. note: though the ad is basically the same, this is not an image of the ad referenced in this post.

A couple weeks back, some girl friends and I were walking down Front St. past the hundreds of moms and their husbands en route to the Michael Bublé concert. At the corner of Bay and Front, there were two TekSavvy billboards featuring a severe-looking man with braids, dressed in what appears to be a Star Trek wetsuit of some kind.

“Who is that guy?” I asked my two girl friends.

“Maybe he’s the president of the company.”

“Maybe he’s just the unfriendly face of an employee?”

Consensus: no idea. But, according to the Big Orange Slide blog team, the face of TekSavvy is Georges Laraque, a French Canadian hockey player (and the wetsuit, actually a branded jersey).

Now that my original question was answered, I had a few more.

Is TekSavvy’s target market entirely made up of male hockey fans? Is this spokesman doing his job? Does advertising need to get more complex than this for it to get its basic messages out?

I’d love to see you savvy marketers dissect this one. Because honestly, I’m at a loss.

Skinny jeans: slim through the thighs and knees, slimmer still through the calves and ankles. The uncontested hipster uniform. Let’s face it: if you’re a 20-something art director reading this, you’re probably wearing them right now. Skinny jeans are not for everyone and they require a bit of struggling to get into. Especially if you’re a baby.

So why are we marketing them to babies?

But there it is. Skinny jeans are this season’s latest trend: fresh off the change table and now in your local windows of Gap, American Eagle Outfitters, Levi’s and Old Navy. They’re the latest age-inappropriate item marketed to the six months to nine-year-old girl set. Naturally, this product has (and should) generate some controversy around using terms like “skinny” and “super skinny” in children’s clothing markets. The fear: that it will prematurely nudge them onto the never-ending diet train that plagues women for much of their lives. Not to mention the obvious hyper-sexualized subtext of tight pants – or, indeed, tight anything.

It may seem preposterous. They’re just tapered pants we’re talking about here. But maybe mini-adult clothes really do come with mini-adult problems. Maybe the conversation needs to be extended from the imagery and messages that kids encounter in the media and in advertising, to the perceived market for products of this kind. Products are created in response to demand. Have we come to the point where hot pants for two year-olds is a viable product space?

What do you think? Is marketing skinny jeans inappropriate to tots? Or is it just another pair of pants?

In the four months since its release, the Apple iPad continues to loom large in the tablet market while other manufacturers try to play catchup. In that short time, it is interesting to see how many magazines have been quick to use the iPad to reinvent themselves. Unlike websites and mobile phones, the iPad has shown great promise in translating the book reading experience to the digital forum. Together with the rich content of a print publication, the ever-changing immediacy of a website, and the portability of an e-book reader, the arrival of the iPad represents unrealized potential for the magazine industry.

Storytelling Reimagined
For the first time, both editorial and information design have the opportunity to benefit from a richer narrative experience that can now include 360-degree product views, non-linear navigation, video, sound and the ability to share topics of interest (to name a few).

Only a few short weeks ago (still, a dog’s age in the digital realm) Flipboard introduced the iPad’s first aggregated, personal magazine platform. For those who want the dedicated magazine experience, Flipboard offers up pre-selected partner content. The real breakthrough is that a proportional amount of emphasis is placed on social media. With a double tap, your Facebook and Twitter content is formatted in the same way as the magazine partner content, with rich media links available at-a-glance (or tap).

Distribution
Look no further than the influence iTunes has had on the music industry to understand why publishers are quick to recognize what a marriage between iTunes and iPad could mean. Distributing content digitally in any form offers a big savings over print, and more importantly creates another level of accessibility not yet seen before in the magazine industry.

What’s Old is New Again
As magazines establish themselves with more content, the back-issue will be more accessible than it has ever been. In the ink-and-paper world, a magazine has a 1-month shelf-life, whereas the digital version could potentially exist for decades. And, with social media extensions permeating how this content gets shared, the life cycle of things gets exponentially longer. Going back to the Flipboard example, articles are accompanied by a panel that shows referring Tweets.

Advertising
When it comes to advertising, the iPad format will create a whole new range of opportunities beyond the traditional online ad. Rich media ads within digital magazines will have the potential to engage a targeted demographic while offering more interesting and beneficial content than the traditional printed page.

We’re turning the digital page into a whole new forum for mobile entertainment and utility. It’ll be interesting to see how it  forces lateral thinking from content providers, who now have to anticipate how many different ways people can consume information in one place.

As the demand for tablets grow, and the devices themselves become more ubiquitous, will the traditional printed magazine stand the test of time? Or, will they go the way of vinyl records?

After accidentally smashing my iPhone 3GS to smithereens on Thursday, I decided to spend last weekend technology free. And by technology free, I really mean Internet free. It was a bold experiment I have tried previously without success. It seems that something always comes up. Work. New iPad. Whatever.

With the sudden absence of my iPhone, I thought THIS was the weekend to do it. I told my wife. She laughed sarcastically, obviously used to my good intentions that never amount to anything.

So Friday at 5:30 p.m. I shut off. Shut down. Disconnected. Radio silence.

By 5:31 p.m. I was already suffering withdrawal. What was going on out there? Gawd, I wanted to check Twitter. Facebook. I wanted to log on to Beejive. What if a B-list celebrity died? Is there some new viral thing everyone is laughing about? I wouldn’t find out until Monday!!!

“Hello. My name is Jon Finkelstein and I am an iDouche.”

It was crazy hard. But I was determined NOT to connect with anything digital/screen based for two whole days. My laptop was there, deadly black. My iPhone was in the drawer, tempting me. Every moment of silence, every second I wasn’t doing something else, my mind wandered to Facebook, email, etc. On more than one occasion I reached into my pocket for my phone only to find it empty. I have become a serious multi-tasker. Never satisfied doing one thing at a time, never fully enjoying each moment. I think this is wrong.

When I went out to the park with my kids, I found myself looking at the other dads, head down, thumbs-a-typing as their children called for their attention. I am (usually) one of those guys. I noticed couples doing the same thing at restaurants, favouring the screen over the face across the table. WTF?

During my unplugged weekend I learned some things.

1. I am not that important.
2. If people really need to contact me, they have my phone number.
3. By disconnecting, I allowed myself the opportunity to recharge a little more than I usually do. Which, in a way, made me more energetic on Monday.
4. B-list celebs don’t usually overdose on the weekend.

To say that advertising is a busy industry is putting it mildly. It’s fast. It’s service-oriented. And in order to succeed you have to work hard. Really hard. But in the process of developing my career, I think I have lost some of my ability to turn off and focus outside of the business. And I think that’s a loss. But is it lost forever?

After another Buffalo Bills game in Toronto last Thursday (with more on the way), the National Football League (NFL) is continuing with its efforts to establish more of a presence for itself in Canada. However, the announced attendance at last week’s game was just 39,000 people, easily the lowest of the “Bills in Toronto Series” so far, and well short of the roughly 70,000 usually expected at a game in the U.S.

It makes you wonder, would the NFL in Canada work?

After all, we do already have a little something called the CFL — the Canadian Football League. And despite the league being the butt of the occasional joke south of the border, it’s a very strong brand on its home turf. (Especially in the prairies.)

Canadians are pretty loyal to the CFL, and an NFL team in Toronto could mean the end of our style of football. The fear is that the team would take a lot of the attention away from the CFL, as people would become more interested in seeing a bigger and (arguably) better brand on the field. But would anyone outside of Toronto even root for an NFL team?

The Blue Jays in the MLB and the Raptors in the NBA aren’t exactly thriving, and that’s without competition from other professional baseball and basketball leagues. And let’s not forget the hesitation of American athletes to join a Canadian team, what with our multi-coloured money and colder temperatures.

With a brand allegiance as strong as the CFL’s (seriously, have you ever been to Saskatchewan?), an NFL team in Toronto could be doomed. Not only would it give the rest of Canada yet another reason to despise  — and be jealous of — Toronto, but simply being competition to the CFL would be added incentive for football fans to avoid it.

The lower attendance numbers suggest that interest in seeing the Bills play here is already waning. Maybe the NFL has overestimated the appeal of their product outside of the States. Or maybe the NFL and the CFL simply can’t coexist in Canada.

My bet is our brand of football comes out on top, rouges and all.

Questions of privacy in the digital space are nothing new. But with the U.S. launch of the Shopkick app and Facebook’s Places platform this week, we may have new material to work with. In one camp, those who love blurring the boundaries between their online and real life behaviour. In the other, those who believe that the combination of Facebook Places’ third-party check-in system and Shopkick’s trackable shopping may have tipped the scales towards Minority Report-ville.

Have you bought your futuristic leather jacket yet? At the very least, you may want to work on your intense, Cruise-esque “game face of the future.”

Whereas existing location-based application games like Foursquare and Gowalla are limited to first-person check-ins to alert friends to your location, Facebook’s application has a third-party check-in system. Simply: if you happen to be in a location alongside one of your Facebook friends, they can post that you’re there too. The trouble is, you can’t really turn it off.

Instead of allowing users to opt-in to Places, Facebook has left the Places privacy settings unconfigured, meaning that users have to independently find the convoluted instructions for disabling it. Those this seems to be common practice when Facebook updates functionality, it has resulted in a rather politically heated discussion with The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, who have criticized the fact that you have to manually manage each check-in alert with a “Yes” or a “Not Now” response. Notably, never a “Never.”

Naturally, applications that depend on (or are enhanced by) location-based data will also be able to access the information you or your friends share with Places. Facebook counters the privacy criticisms with an argument that sharing this data has the “potential […] to make really compelling social experiences.” If this is true, then Shopkick has buttered its own bread.

Shopkick rewards you with “kickbucks” simply for walking into a participating retailer (Best Buy and Macy’s are early and notable participants). Not only that, but it geotargets your behaviour IN THE STORE, handing you additional reward points for demonstrating physical intent to buy, such as heading towards a change room or the register. GPS isn’t accurate enough to get down to such a granular level, so targeting is achieved via an in-store device called, compellingly, “The Deducer.” Marvel, eat your heart out.

Marketers involved in Shopkick decry the privacy issue by claiming that the program is opt-in. It’s simply another incentive program, only you are your own loyalty card.

Though Places and Shopkick are, in fact, still opt-in to a degree, they do serve up consumer habits in a way that most people may be incapable of calculating. The question is, do we bother worrying about it? By downloading the Shopkick app, you are technically opting into a rewards program. By signing up for Facebook, you’re signaling a desire to be public with your information to a certain degree. So, to what extent are our curiosity and participation responsible for inviting the very policies that we may come to resent?

Do we only care about privacy issues if our participation results in personal drama or spam?

No. This post isn’t a self-righteous rant about animal rights, or a collection of the best movie quotes ever written. It’s about how changing the outside of something doesn’t necessarily change what it really is. It’s about how people are all too often fooled by the illusion of change. It’s also about french fries!

Why? Because McDonald’s has been busy completely overhauling their exterior image and it’s definitely worth a chat.

To anyone who’s caught a glimpse of the golden arches lately, it’s pretty clear they’re targeting young urban hipsters with their flashy new exteriors and trendy interior design.

McDonald’s has always targeted youth, but in the past they didn’t have to be so obvious about it. Throw in a new happy meal toy and send Ronald around for the occasional visit and everyone’s happy. Now, despite the flashy new look and heavy advertising, little else has changed. It all looks like they’re trying to do too much with too little.

And McDonald’s isn’t alone. There was an article in Marketing Mag this week discussing the new look that A&W just unveiled. The difference being that A&W actually innovated their offering to match, adding several healthier menu options, built-in self-serve ordering kiosks, and a few green initiatives.

Does an external redesign have a better chance of being successful when the product is updated as well? Or, is rebranding on a superficial level only a token move to keep people interested?

On the other hand, I’d argue that total overhaul also carries its share of risks: would *you* want to be the guy to tell people that McD’s french fries don’t have that meta-potato taste anymore?