I thought it might be fun to design logos for some of the local businesses on my block in Bushwick, Brooklyn. I live next to the corner of Flushing and Knickerbocker avenues which are filled with many colorful venues. Bushwick car service got me to work when I was running late a few times. Martinez Deli smells like cat piss but has cheap beer. Tomo is a surprisingly great and affordable sushi and Japanese Fusion restaurant around the way with an amazing lunch special: 3 rolls for $9.95!

What other places should I design logos for? Been in Bushwick? Let me know!

The Brand

Dark Matter is hypothetical matter that is undetectable by its emitted radiation, but whose presence can be inferred from gravitational effects on visible matter. Dark matter is postulated to explain the flat rotation curves of spiral galaxies and other evidence of “missing mass” in the universe. According to present observations of structures larger than galaxies, as well as Big Bang cosmology, dark matter and dark energy account for the vast majority of the mass in the observable universe. Inflating a bubble of Dark Matter could have dire consequences, be warned!

The Concept

Traditional advertising has reached its limits in terms of psychographic connectivity. Lifetimes of exposure to proliferating visual noise have relegated advertisements to the status of white noise. The future of marketing lies in guerrilla and alternative advertising.

The Solution

From a distance you can see an object floating in a public square, high off the ground. As you get closer you realize that it is a person with a huge bubble coming from their mouth. There is a rope attached to their ankle that is tied to a nearby pole. A sign on the pole reads “WARNING: tether yourself before blowing a bubble with our gum.” They must have blown a bubble big enough to lift them off the ground!

Below the sign their are sample packs for you to try. You grab one and open it, on the inside is a line of text that instructs you to text “DRKMTTR” to a phone number. You send the text and receive a reply with a coupon for a free pack if you sign up for email updates. You sign up and an email is sent to you with a coupon and your iPhone/Blackberry is immediately sent to a micro site with further information on the brand. You put a piece of the gum in your mouth and start chewing…it’s really tasty. Should you blow a bubble?

This is the most interesting and immersive experience you have ever had with a brand, you’re hooked for life.

Guerilla Advertising Concept

The Warning Sign

F.A. Hayek was a huge influence on my understanding of the utilitarian shortcomings of central planning. Although he falls short of producing a consistent and perfect ethical system, he never really strived to do that. His life’s work was in dismantling, often in the face of much populist pressure, the apparatus of socialism with theories such as the breakdown of the Price Mechanism, Economic calculation problem, Catallaxy, Extended order, Dispersed knowledge, Spontaneous order and Hebbian theory.

So I created a beer to celebrate his life!

This is one of my initial attempts at the Cape Mayo ident. Packaging and marketing materials coming.