Hey Mikey Show crew,

I enjoy your show so much everyday I feel like I owe you. The best I can offer as a creative in advertising are some possible logos, a tagline for the nation and one of many fun shirt designs to come. I had nothing but fun putting this together and there are no obligations, I just want to share these with you. If you want to use any of them, holler at me and I’ll get you the native design files, all I ask for in return is a shout out and more appearances by Dave Matthews and Jersey Girl. Maybe those two should have a conversation.

Tagline

One of my favorite things to do when copywriting is coming up with taglines. I’m not sure if the M1 Nation needs one but I felt the need to write one. Everyone has one but only good one’s work with that specific “product” and can’t be transferred. Examples: “Wells Fargo, The Next Stage”, “Yellow Pages, Let your fingers do the walking”, “Las Vegas, What happens here stays here.” So with that I came up with “Rise Up” for the M1 Nation. It has a double meaning; one for the fact we do get up in the mornings to listen and the second reinforces the whole group-uprising-rebilish-side of the community. Another thing about copywriting, it either hits or misses, because of that you have to have thick skin and learn. So if you don’t dig it I won’t take any offense

Logos

This first one is my favorite. I can see many options for the “M1 Nation” mark to be on one side of a shirt like dead center on the chest and the “Rise Up” on maybe the sleeve.

The second design is one of my first sketches and like any creative idea it may not be the best but you have to get it on paper to make sure. It still has a place in my heart because of it’s typographical play but I feel the first design does everything I wanted this to do but better.

This last sketch was me trying to force something I saw when I would make a #1 with my hand. The three fingers form an “M” while the pointer finger follows with a “1″. It might fail as a graphic design but it can be a symbol when we gather to see you guys.

Finally, just for shiggles I made this silly shirt idea for this last week’s inside jokes for Sienna. Pretty self-explanitory. Hope you enjoy these as much as I enjoy your show. I don’t have work on Monday but will “Rise Up” to catch it.

Sincerely,
M1 12-7

I’m blessed to work with people who don’t mind letting me try things a bit out of the norm. When Crystal approached me about her graduation announcements her biggest complaint with the ones she’s seen is they looked too plain. After showing me some examples I agreed most templates felt too “academic.” We talked about her design aesthetics and found she leaned more toward the contemporary wedding invites. With that in mind we came up with this design. In the slideshow you’ll see another design, it was a bit more electric but Crystal decided to go with the more whimsical option. I was happy either way.

As for the baby show invite, the Smiths are definitely not your typical couple. Both are always on the go and have tons of energy, for the lack of a better word, they’re just fun. C’mon, the baby shower is being held at a bar. I whipped this up as kind of joke since their baby boy will be their first and their days of random travel just might come to grinding halt. I take that back, with these two that little guy might come out with a passport screaming for family trip.

It’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to design something that doesn’t have some kind of price or incentive. Not that I hate those projects but this was a nice break. I really had fun with it.

Later we had to add logos and eventually some kind of hook while keeping the essence of the original. For my site I’ll keep the original, because here, I’m the client.

Looking at this final piece, it’s a nice feeling to see it evolve from the early stages of the look/feel, to campaign strategies, to the photo shoot and then finally designing it all to come together.