Mutt Holiday Party

Thank you and Happy Holidays!

Love,

Mutt

we missed you Z...

When Gen X met the Millenials, it was murder.

I remember the first time we met. I was at a trends presentation in Dallas. You were on slide 19.

Years later, the details are a bit fuzzy. But I do remember you and your peers clutching trophies and banging on about changing the world. I also remember wanting to vomit.  

Last year you walked into my office looking for a job. You seemed humble and scared and nothing like the PowerPoint deck from Dallas. And you knew how to use Photoshop. So I offered you an internship; unpaid of course.

The first month you did everything we asked of you. And it pissed me off. I just knew you were snowballing us. I also knew that if I offered you a job, your notoriously obnoxious sense of entitlement would rear its ugly head and poison Mutt to its core.   

So I offered you a job.  

Weeks later, when you revealed you were living with your parents and that your mom was coming by to take you to lunch, I thought I had made a mistake. And when you returned from Pizza Schmiza with two large veggies for yourself and a kiddie-size pepperoni for the rest of the Mutts, I knew I had made a mistake. 

But slowly, as we learned to turn recriminations into questions and differences into debates, our relationship began to thaw. I liked it when you complimented me for playing Seals and Croft. And I was grateful when you finally checked your digital snobbery and taught me how to use I-Chat. Now, every time I drag a JPEG into that little rectangle and send it ripping through cyberspace, I think of you and your humble tutelage. 

I know we still have our awkward moments. Like today, when you tried to reason that a kickball match was more important than preparing for a new business pitch. But I do know that I’d be lost without you. And that, in spite of what I supposedly learned that day in Dallas, one should never judge a Millennial by a trends presentation.   

 

Dance Embassador Dewitz

I'd like to introduce you all to a very special Mutt. His name is Danny Dewitz- but we'd love for you to call him Dance Embassador Dewitz- and he is the head of R&DD (Research and Dance Development) here at Mutt HQ.

At first we didn't think we even needed an R&DD. After all, we're the forerunners of the gigging and jerkin movements. Not to mention we have a resident english folklore dance expert. But the moment Danny sent in his resumé (see the below) we knew we had to hire him.

And that was Danny at age 13. So it's no surprise that three days into his department's study of current Southern dance movements fifteen and a half year-old Danny found this gem. Ladies and gentlemen, allow us to introduce you to The Bern.

Ray Fresco

Monsieur Luker and Mr. McCommon have been road tripping with the Ventura, California based rock band Ray Fresco. They've been climbing mountains, fending off killer mountain goats and making sweet lullabyes in the middle of Convict Lake, California:

The Times

See, I fooled you there...You thought that was a title for a post with clever reflections on the trials and tribulations of everyday life here at Mutt HQ. I must say, I've got some promising material...but I feel it needs a healthy dose of holiday season nostalgia. Stay tuned for that until either Thanksgiving or Chrismahanukwanzakah for that installment (under a different title of course, maybe "The Year Of The Pigon?")

Instead, we're making the title literal. When you think of non-interval-based "times," what do you think of?

Perhaps, New York?

Like, the New York Times?

Yeah, like that one. And that one wrote a thing about us (or mentioned us in a thing it wrote about them/them).

For a second I thought Steve and Mike were actually on a Vision Quest.

The Hibernator

Scott Cromer, age 5, wondering how a bear is so lucky to be able to take naps.

In addition to thick manes of hair and intimidating size, Bears and I have a lot in common. Another one of these commonalities is impressive sleeping abilities. Last night I went home and passed out on my bed after eating half a sandwich and a warm bowl of vegetable soup. I've been illy lately, and as a result i've been exhausted. Anyway, I took a four-hour nap and then woke up around 11 and thought, "man am I glad I'm not Scott Cromer."

See, to start, Herr Cromer probably couldn't nap for four hours if his life depended on it. And second, if he could, he'd have no chance at sleeping through the night. He doesn't have it as bad as some, but he's pretty much an insomniac, which goes a long way in explaining his severe mood swings.

But my name isn't Scott Cromer, it's David Zavertnik and I am the Hibernator. So twelve hours later, after I woke up from my second sleep for the evening, I thought more about sleeping - specifically, those of us at the office who love to sleep. Have you ever seen a sleeping Mutt?

Beauvais sleeps on his back

Nick is a chair-sleeper

Scott prefers his stomach and the comfort of his laptop

Luker's a stomach sleeper but requires ultimate comfort.

I have yet to witness the sleeping patterns of Mike McCommon or Damien Webb, but I promise to keep you posted with any developments.

Our Friend Joel

It's been at least a month since I've last seen our mayng Joel Colley. Last time we were chatting, he was building little office oases (which is the plural for oasis, because he built something like 75 sets) for my other main mayng, RJohnson. And since then Colley (and RJ) have been flourishing.

As I fffffound out last night, Joel entered a pair of Play-Doh kicks into Core77's one-hour design challenge. Not only did the man enter, he received honorable mention - despite deserving something in the range of Medal. Peep the Air Max's he made...

Anywho, as I contemplated the mental processes of today's design challenges, I watched an episode of Sneaker Game. Have you all seen this? If not, you're slippin' kid....My mayng Patrick Tinkle is killing it this episode with the bedazzler.

Foursquare?

As you may, or may not have heard, Foursquare is the new twitter. And being the digitally savvy people that we are here at Mutt, we've joined the club. That's right, Mutt HQ is on Foursquare and, of course, it's all about incentives and becoming the mayor and whatnot. 


We have a very special incentive program here. Check in at Mutt three times and receive an original ink portrait by our very own Head of Research, Scott Cromer.


For those of you unfamiliar with CromerArt®, here's a tantalizing introduction:

Red Plaid Shirt day at MUTT Today! Tell everyone.

"That was impressive."

Oh Canada!

In an effort to be a be a little more worldly, I recently subscribed to a few international newspapers, one of those being The Globe and Mail. I don't exactly have time to read all the papers in a morning, so I generally pick a paper per day and get up nice and early to read it before work. 

Wednesday's are The Globe and Mail days, so imagine my surprise as I'm flipping page by page and all of a sudden the familiar face of Mutt's favorite fashionista, Miss Rachel Mara, is staring at me. Life couldn't be more perfect, because the article is a perfect segue into today's blog post. 

Today is all about Rachel Mara. You see, over the past couple weeks Rachel has been receiving a lot of coverage (read more articles about her here, here, here, here and here,  and watch her on Breakfast Television Toronto and CHCH Morning Live) for her participation in the LG Fashion Week in Toronto.  

We're all terribly excited for Rachel and wish her the best tonight (you can stream the coverage here, her show starts at 8pm Toronto time, 6pm Portland time).

And finally, for those of you who won't be able to catch the coverage, peep Mutt's latest creative venture for Rachel Mara's 2011 Spring line. 

America ♥s Automobiles

Yesterday Ad Age named Ford Motor Company Marketer Of The Year for 2010. I say this because I'd also like to mention that we here at Mutt have been involved in a pretty stellar collaboration with Team Detroit over the past year. 

It all started a little over a year ago when Team Detroit's ECD, Toby Barlow, asked Mutt to help collaborate on the all new Ford Fiesta project. 

Actually, the story really started the summer prior to this, when I picked up a promising looking book (read: cool cover) titled Sharp Teeth by some advertising guy. Turns out that advertising guy was this Toby Barlow. Talk about a small world. And for the record, the book was good, it's about werewolves in LA. 

So fast forward past that summer's read and cut-to all of us Mutt's feverishly writing "Big" launch spots for the not-so-big Ford Fiesta. Concepts, scripts, storyboards and several presentations later and the Ford Fiesta became a pretty big deal.

Then Team Detroit went silent for about six months until a few months ago when they approached us for another job. This time we'd be helping not only to concept but also produce spots for the 2011 Ford Explorer. We're well into the process and can't wait to show you what we're working on (mostly I don't know what I can and cannot show you right now).

Until then, we'd like to give big ups to big man Ford Motors for the Marketer of the Year award and we hope 2011 is equally successful. 

I Love My Ducks

It's true, I went to Oregon, and as a result I'm one of those occasionally obnoxious Ducks fans you can hear screaming "O" from down the street. Or in the booth right next to yours. 

So as the Ducks relaxed in their sheepskin slippers and watched the Buckeyes crumble, I was in the snow-capped mountains of Baker National Park sporting my t-shirt while I entered one of the deepest meditations of my life. 

Mid-way through the meditation my spirit animal came to me and dropped some knowledge. Over the course of the night we sipped whiskey, watched the stars and kept ourselves warm with a pushup contest (he won). Just before he left, he saved my life from a cougar that found itself a little too far north...

My Spirit Animal is a Bad Ass.

Now, after the weekend away from it all, we can all celebrate our newfound position as the most dominant team in College Football. Yes, Oregon is number one, and that means everyone else is going to come hating (including the BCS computers). Haters love to hate, but I myself am more of a lover. And my oh my do I love my Ducks.

It's September 14th

And I feel like writing a blog post.

I also feel like curling up under a blanket with a glass of wine and a nice book (or in the case of this evening, the latest episode of Mad Men).

But first, where the hell have we been? It's been nearly a month since the last time I updated you on the goings on of Our Dear Mutt, and that sad fact makes my bones hurt.

A Surgeon I am not...

Well, here's your update- my hand in a terrarium. Yessuh. We've gotten our hands on something like seventy-five glass globes that we're filling with ideal office environments for our international friends RJohnson (you should re-click that link in a week or so for some terrific terrariupdates, not the smoothest but tee-hee).

In just four days time a few of us Mutts are heading to Vancouver for the weekend to plant (PUN!) these beasts (NOT A PUN!) in the heart of Vancouver's business district. For those of you following Mutt in the friendliest third of North America, here's a little map to help you flourish.