Snow Drawings

As some of you may know, I have an obsession with snow/snowflakes. These Snow Drawings by Sonja Hinrichsen are stunning. Check out the video.

Sonja Hinrichsen Snow Drawing

Sexiest Deck Ever.

These are stunning. Purchase your very own monochromatic cards here.

Drumroll please.....

The verdict is in!

Alliance Bakery 'takes the cake' coming in first place and Filter Cafe follows close behind with third. Congrats to Kenny and the crew who made it happen.

Thank you 30 SECONDS OVER CHICAGO.

Tune in and VOTE

If you enjoyed the :30 sec spots from the last post. Tune in tonight and VOTE!
Here is the schedule of events for online viewing. If you'd like to participate, 10:15 cst is your chance (pending schedule accuracy). 

Alliance Bakery
Filter Cafe

8:15
Show begins with quick Introduction. Ads will be shown twice (back to back), followed with judges' feedback. 24 ads total @ 5 minutes apiece = 120 minutes.

10:15
Voting begins (during which we'll replay all 24 ads one more time).

10:30
Voting closes. While paper ballots and online votes are counted The Sometimes Family plays for 15 minutes.

10:45
Announce winners!

30 Seconds Over Chicago

Over the last couple of months a friend from work and I have been busy writing, directing and producing two 30 second commercials for Alliance Bakery and Filter Cafe. This is part of a local competition called 30 Seconds Over Chicago, which is an all-city advertising competition where the creative process is crowd-sourced in making 30-second commercials for 30 Chicago small businesses. This upcoming Tuesday at 8 pm is the big event where our 2 spots will be judged and voted on by the audience against 28 other spots.

Think of it as a cross between Mad Men and American Idol.

Click here and tune in on Tuesday at 8 pm and vote for your faves live.

For a sneak peek, watch our Alliance Bakery spot here and Filter Cafe's spot here. Thank you so much to everyone involved to help bring our ideas to life. 

West Coast Road Trip: Venice Beach

Our journey ended in Venice Beach. It's a place where people are fucking nuts, in the best way possible! We were all smiles up and down the boardwalk with a $5 freak show and endless people watching. Came across a great skate park and 50+ person drum circle, including homeless, hippies, actual drummers and anyone else who could keep a beat. I'd do it again.

West Coast Road Trip: High Voltage Tattoo

Our L.A. adventure began with a stop at High Voltage Tattoo in West Hollywood. Being fellow creatives and fans of Kat Von D, we wanted to quickly stop by to see the shop while making our way to Hollywood Hills. We weren't even going to walk in until I pressured Val into checking the availability of a walk-in spot. "You only live once, you'll regret it" is all that was needed to give her the courage to head to the counter. Kevin Lewis was available, and 4 hours later, Val had another unique masterpiece added to her cold shoulder. Kevin turned out to be a former Chicagoan himself. We all shared many similar interests, nerded out and it was awesome. Needless to say we never made it to the Hollywood sign...