Don't Go Back Sacless

Don't Go Back Sacless

2009's Back To School Poster

Dads and Grads Get Inked

Dads and Grads Get Inked
This poster was designed to promote our tattooed Sac.

Probably my favorite poster we have created to date. This very simple idea really had the response we were looking for during Father's Day. We took this tattoo design and stitched it on a Sac cover. The tattoo was designed by Shawn's cousin, Alex Hinton, a tattoo artist in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Check out Shawn's Blog for comments and feedback.

Moms LoveSac Too

Moms LoveSac Too
The Mother's Day 2009 window poster.

For Mother's Day 2009 we offered the Mom's Blanket, pictured above. This blanket is custom designed for LoveSac by our product developer Spencer Pearson. My objective was to create a stereotypical "mom" environment that showed our product being great for pregnant moms, too. This was a tough campaign to create. I am a fan of tight shots that capture tons of detail. In order to show the mom enjoying the product meant I had to give up my tight shot. After having several ideas shot down by my Creative Director, I finally came up with this one. It's nothing terribly special but it shows the mom enjoying a nap while the entire kitchen is on fire from the dinner she is cooking for the family. 

Shawn started posting the window posters on his blog to get your feedback. He has really established a standard that gives us outstanding feedback from you. According to your opinion, this image is extremely sexist. Our goal was not to be sexist, but to catch your attention. I think we were successful. To read all the opinions of the LoveSacer's check out Shawn's Blog.

Easter Promotional, Part III

Made With Real Easter Bunny Phur

Here it is! The Easter promotional poster is finished. This poster will sit in the window of all 25 LoveSac stores located in malls across the United States. Look for it starting February 15th. Thank you to everyone that helped me pull this together. Hopefully this will get people into our stores. The rest is up to our sales team.

Easter Promotional, Part II

The Easter promotional shoot was a great success! The entire cast was an outstanding group. I took a few shots of everyone on my cell phone. Here they are:

No just "the creepy guy"

Kevin Gebhard

The other side of Kevin— a wonderful person to work with. I was able to book Kevin Gebhard, the creepy bunny, and he was an amazing contributor to the shoot. He played his part to perfection. With a cigar in his mouth and his trademark expression, he will absolutely be the focus of all eyes in the malls this Easter.

Phil Swetz

Phil Swetz was the ideal barber. He had the handlebar mustache, the glasses, the part down the middle and the personality to match. He had a ton of energy and, while in character, carried himself like he belonged on Mr. Roger's Neighborhood or maybe even a friend of Floyd's on the Andy Griffith Show.

Roger Hagadone

Roger Hagadone is the best photographer I have ever worked with! He specializes in these types of portraiture and never disappoints. His work is edgy and unique and fits LoveSac's style perfectly. I've used him exclusively for LoveSac photo-shoots and wouldn't want to work with anyone else. His assistant Nick came as well. Nick is a great guy and always keeps the environment light with his clever one-liners. Check out Roger's work by clicking here.

Janet Tallent-Dickson

In addition to the Easter promo-shoot, we photographed our newer t-shirts on two great models: Brian Casey and Amy Meador. In doing so, I decided it may be best to hire hair and make-up. Janet applied for the gig and had a resume that I could not turn down. She recently worked on the set of Prison Break, one of my favorite shows. She was in charge of makeup for Fernando Sucre (Amaury Nolasco) and Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell (Robert Knepper) in the show. Janet was nothing but professional and very enjoyable to work with. She did an amazing job and I will be sure to book her for future photo shoots.

Michael Warde

Michael Warde is the owner of Montana for Men, the barbershop we used as our studio. Michael was extremely helpful and open to us using anything that we needed. His barbershop offers high-end haircuts with some extras that you don't see in barbershops very often. I was very surprised to see beer on tap in his shop. How relaxing would it be to have a beer while getting a haircut?

Made with Real Bunny Phur

A sneak peek of Monday's photo shoot. Above is a quick snapshot that I took with my phone during the shoot. I can't wait for you to see the final image. You will not be disappointed.

Watch for Part III in a couple of days.

Dad's or Grad's Package?

Dad's or Grad's Package
Which would you rather have, the Dad's Package or the Grad's Package?

I just stumbled upon this jpg from last year's 'Dad's or Grad's' promotion. This window poster is also from my very first photo shoot with LoveSac. It was very overwhelming trying to organize the shoot and make sure that I had everything and did everything correctly. They seem so much easier now! Fortunately, it all worked out and ran smoothly. This image was slightly modified to fit on the web. I will post the correct version soon.

Easter Promotional, Part I

I have begun the process of pulling together the Easter promotion. I thought it may be interesting to post the process as it develops.

The process began with a brainstorm session. Our goal is to create an image, for our store windows, that is "remarkable". In the brainstorming session the idea was generated to have an Easter Bunny getting a haircut. That "bunny phur" would then be used as the Easter Sac cover package. The tagline was then coined "Made from real Easter Bunny Phur".

Delux Easter Bunny Costume
This costume seemed to contain the right amount of creepiness.

The first thing I did was order the Easter Bunny costume and some extra phur that I can cut up and use as hair shavings. BuyCostumes.com delivered the costume very quickly.

Love the feel of the decor in this image. Downloadable comp from istockphoto.com.

Cool old retro looking room. Downloadable comp from istockphoto.com.

Love it! Downloadable comp from istockphoto.com.

My research helped further develop the idea. I wanted a 50's feel to the image. I thought a barber with a handlebar mustache would be a cool visual. Our web director remembered a local barber shop that had the look I was thinking of, so we all went to scope it out. They had a 100-year-old barber chair along with several antique barber tools which made this an ideal location for us. I was able to secure the location for a January 26th photo shoot.

Montana for Men 100 year old barber chair.

Montana for Men
The back drop (brick wall) of where I will put the chair to shoot the scene. I will PhotoShop in any retro elements that I feel are needed.

The next step was to book our photographer, Roger Hagadone. Roger is an awesome photographer who specializes in these types of campy shots. He is also a wonderful photographer to work with and always finds ways to improve the overall image and concept. Check out his website: Roger Hagadone.

Phil Swetz
Hired Phil to be our Barber for the shoot.

The next step was to find a barber with a handlebar mustache. I posted an ad on Craig's List and received a response within an hour. Phil Swetz will be perfect! He is booked and ready to shoot.

I then did some research for props. The barber shop that we will be shooting at is willing to let us use anything we would like, but I wanted to make sure we have access to anything that we might think of. I ordered several props from Atlanta Barber and Beauty Supply.

We had another meeting about the promotion and Shawn had the idea to use a creepy man with ears on his head rather than an Easter Bunny outfit. I wasn't 100% on board with this idea but decided we could do both the costume and the man and see which we liked better. The costume came with the ears too so this is at no additional expense.

Kevin Gebhard
Would be perfect for the creepy Easter Bunny.

Now I needed to post an ad for a creepy-looking man with facial hair to use as a model. This didn't come as easily as the barber. After 4 days of submissions I think I have my man. What do you think? I will most likely book him on Tuesday when I get back to the office. The last few things I need to do before the shoot are: make compositional sketches; book hair and makeup; organize the fine details; and make it all happen. I will post a follow-up under Easter Promotional, Part II.

Show Her Some Love

Rock Her Socks Off

The new Valentine's Day theme

I just finished the Valentine's Day art. We ran out of time to squeeze in a photo shoot so, like Christmas, we are relying on a design-centered look. I used a few stock graphics this time to help meet the deadline but you probably wouldn't recognize anything I used. Everything was modified to some extent. The "Rock Her Socks Off" theme is referring to three packages that we are offering this promotion— the PillowSac Rocker with three custom covers to choose from. They will be available around the first week of January.

FarmerTan

FarmerTan
Alain Ackerman as "The Fried Gamer."

I stumbled upon our summer window poster today, so I thought I would post it. The summer promotion was for our new GamerSac called "FarmerTan". Since it was summer, it was only fitting to give a skinny nerd a nasty sunburn. The story was something about a gamer going outside for the first time, mid-summer, for just a few minutes and getting totally fried. Then, in serious pain, he goes back to his game play on our Black and Tan GamerSac Package. Alain Ackerman modeled for us and was a great sport. We made him strip down to his underwear, duct taping his underwear hole (of course), then painted him for 2 hours in makeup. We owe Alain's look to the awesome makeup artist, Debbie, and the wizard-behind-the-curtain photographer, Roger Hagadone.

The package is still available for a limited time here and comes with a SpeakerSac. They are set at a $199 blow-out price to make room for the Christmas packages that will be in stores today. We are also offering FREE SHIPPING on everything for a limited time.

Christmas Confusion

Love Comes in Chocolate
This is the 5'x5' poster hanging in the front window of each of our 25 locations. It changes to a new theme each holiday season. I will post some of the best past designs soon.

Merry (early!) Christmas. It's a change of pace designing for retail. Campaigns are designed so early that it seems to play tricks on my mind at times. So with the Christmas campaign designed, printed and up in all of the LoveSac stores as of November 3rd, I am already planning the photo shoot for Valentine's Day. It almost feels like Christmas is over. To add to the "Christmas Confusion", Shawn passed out our company Christmas gifts today. He wanted to be there to see us get them because he leaves for his Frontline Tour tonight. Anyone interested in getting some LoveSac gear should check out that link. He is giving away a $50 gift card to the first few people that visit him in each store location of the tour.