‘The South’ and ‘Florida’ are not exactly synonymous. The south is plantations, boiled peanuts, sweet tea, and big oaks. Florida is swamps, alligators, palm trees and beaches. So, in our creative exploration, some of our ideas had a more Floridian angle and some were more truly southern. We partnered with our pals at Think Creative and one of the first things that got us excited was the line, “Film Sweet Film.” An obvious play on “Home Sweet Home.” The idea of presenting the line in cross stitching seemed like an excellent way to give it the right southern feel, however, we did foresee a challenge of not making it feel like your grandma’s film festival.

These images are just concepts and not presented as final executions, so give us a break, we know these are pretty rough.

Then there were the more comedic southern lines about boiled peanuts and grits.

Another concept that came out of the process was the ‘fresh squeezed’ reference. For the most part, the festival features new films from young filmmakers. The fresh squeezed idea spoke clearly of that aspect of the festival’s content and becomes an obvious nod to fresh squeezed Florida orange juice with these visuals. The first of these would be a sort of refined orange crate label; the second, a more traditional orange crate label that would hopefully have gone a little bit kitsch in final execution; and third, a WPA style poster.

Another visual solution was to create a collage that brought together images that referenced the south and film. This was so we could invoke the feeling loosely without directly referencing that Florida was a part of the south.

One last thought we had was more silly than anything else. On researching, we had seen a few film festival posters where a person’s head was replaced with a camera. Looking at some record reviews, we noticed an album cover with a lone chicken on it. Why not a chicken with a camera in place of it’s head for our southern fried festival?

After presenting everything and much discussion, the client feedback was that they preferred  three concepts and wanted to know if they could be combined. A common request to which designers usually grumble, saying that what we do isn’t like buying Garanimals where you can mix and match everything. Luckily, one of the executions they liked was the collage. We figured we could easily combine the chicken with the ‘film sweet film’ in a collage, and here is the final result!

Every once in a while, an opening act you’ve never heard of takes you by surprise and truly impresses. You weren’t planning on paying that much attention. You were just going to have a couple of beers, talk with your friends and maybe check out the merch table.  These guys were just going to provide an inconsequential backing soundtrack for the moments that led up to the headliners taking the stage. But they start playing. And they’re good. Really good. You stop chatting up your friends and you fall in love with finding new music again.

It was a cold Thursday night and after a Guiness at Finnhenry’s we were headed to the Social to see Midlake, the seven-piece folk rockers from Denton, TX. From the moment we walked in, I was drawn in and made my way to the floor. Sarah Jaffe had already started her set and I was immediately disappointed that I may have missed something–even if it was only one song. It was mezmerizing. Sarah delivered smart, sensative lyrics with elegant phrasing, beautifully restrained melodies and a very honest, soulful voice. Thankfully, I can’t exactly pin down the sound. A little Neko Case. A bit Madeline Peyroux. A touch of Adele. She and her band, featuring some very tasteful guitar and accordian work from Robert Gomez, switched seamlessly from swing to sorrow.

“Somewhere someone is listening to the sound a record spinning.”  That would be me. The record would be Sarah Jaffe’s EP, Even Born Again. And that should probably be you, too.

Horehound, The Dead Weather

Fever Ray, Fever Ray

I Blame You, Obits

Geneva, Russian Circles

Embryonic, The Flaming Lips

It’s Blitz, Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs

Curse Your Branches, David Bazan

Kingdom of Rust, Doves

No More Stories are Told Today, Mew

Lost Channels, Great Lake Swimmers

Intern, Timothy Meadows, printing the first plate.

Wright Massey, of Brand Architecture, presented the impressive depth and breadth of his approach to building brands. Some of the components of his methods I am familiar with but the totally immersive tactics and multidisciplinary team approach was fascinating.

John Deeb demonstrated photographic principals about depth of field, balancing foreground and background light, and lens focal lengths. Having been on plenty of photo shoots and shooting a picture myself now and then, I have a pretty good understanding of these things. Still, I found it interesting and informative hearing it explained so succinctly.

Dan Rubin dispelled some myths that keep some print designers from getting involved in website design. Being a print designer dealing with this paradigm shift on a daily basis, I could totally relate.

It was the first speaker of the day that really inspired me with concepts I felt like I already understood. Debbie Millman’s simple and direct presentation of ten resolutions for designers were familiar, but so cleanly written and brilliantly presented that it was like hearing these ideas for the first time. Her resolutions included commentary on “Know what you are talking about,”  “Be prepared for every possible scenario,” “Speak their language” and “Learn how to present your work” to the resolution we have been repeating all week in our own studio, “good design equals operational excellence,” there was plenty of great advice.

I’m certainly not suggesting I didn’t learn anything new at Re:solutions. I did. There is always something new to learn at these events. But hearing some things I already knew, elequently worded and passionately presented was re:assuring.