Best Friend Christmas Traditions

I've known my best friend since elementary school. We grew up on the same block and have developed some much loved traditions over the years. One of those traditions is going around looking at Christmas Lights on Christmas Eve. Sadly, this year my best friend couldn't come home because she is preparing to defend her PhD thesis.

While school is important, one could argue Christmas is more important. So this year, I went around, looked at lights and took pictures for her. Leroy came with to keep me company. Here are some of the houses from around town. Enjoy. 

Merry Christmas, Love Me 'N' Leroy

Leroy and I made this tonight! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. 

6 Weeks of Veganism

That's right. I did it. Six weeks of fruits, vegetables and water. No doubt that it sucked and is not at all easy. But it was an adventure.

It almost felt like a cleanse of some sorts, not only for my body but a shedding of the old and a welcoming of the new. The new job, the new year, the new everything.

It's amazing how this time of year really prompts people to believe in a wiping of the slate. A new fresh start and anything is possible. Here's to a great 2013.

Just Believe and Do

I ran across a video of a young Steve Jobs and it's amazing at how well he knows the world and our society in this statement. 

After watching it I started going through some more . . . 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLIN!!

Living back in Phoenix has given me the opportunity to hang out with some of my oldest and closest friends. It also gives me the chance to behave as we used to.

My buddy's birthday was yesterday and I took it upon myself to bomb his house. I know, I know. Payback is a bitch. I'm okay with that though.

Happy Birthday Buddy! I hope the last year of your 20s treats you well!

Photo Boooooth

For the in office holiday party, we decided to have a make-shift photo booth. Something low key with a few props.

Then Ken, my amazing writer, told me he has a box of costumes. This shit just got real.

We got some candy cane fabric to make the background with, some foam and skewers to make facial props and Ken brought in his box of costumes. A note for next year, more fabric and a larger background. We had just stapled it to some preso foam board we had. It got knocked over a couple times.

After our White Elephant exchange, in which stole the movie Ted from me (he brought the gift, not cool), everyone got suited up for some amazing photo booth fun.

Check out the photos below.

Work: Season's Greetings Card

I worked on a quick digital holiday card for one of our clients. We explored multiple holiday themes and this is where the client ended up. Huge thanks to Andy and Jake who made the rocked out the animation.

Animated Holiday Card from Ashley J George on Vimeo.

New Home

Last week was my first week of my new job. I absolutely love my new advertising home. The agency is full of fresh young professionals. The atmosphere is really fun and incredibly positive.

We had an open house the week before to showcase our amazing new digs on the 29th floor. Btw, the views are amazing. The view from my desk is of the Phoenix Mountains Perserve, which are my favorite mountains in the Valley.

I will post photos of the office soon.

PHX10K Shirts Are In!

We've transitioned from charcoal grey and lime green to black and electric blue for this year's PHX10K. They look so sleek and will be perfect for the November race. If you are interested in registering for this year's race, visit PHX10K.com.

2012 Facebook Image Sizes

I hate searching for all the different dimensions of images that Facebook has going. You would think with as much as I work on Facebook, I would have them memorized by now . . . not so much when they are constantly changing. Solution? Make a cheat sheet.

All measurements are shown: Width by Height

Cover Photo 

851px by 315px 

Profile Image 

160px by 160px (Scaled to 32 x 32px)

Uploaded Photos 

2048px by 2048px 

Displayed Photos 

960px by 720px 

Milestone Picture 

843px by 403px

Link Thumbnail 

90px by 90px 

Pinned Post 

403px by 403px 

Application Favicon 

16px by 16px 

Application Icon 

110px by 74px (Size 5mb max)

Happy Birthday Leroy!

So my little man turned two this year and I can't believe how lucky I am. Leroy is seriously one of the best dogs I have ever had. To celebrate we had a combination house warming birthday party. Here are some pics from the event. 

Work: Update

Wow. Things around the agency have been ridiculous and I realized how long it's been since I posted some work that I've done.

First Things First Light Campaign

This campaign has finally launched after working on it for about one year. I developed the concept after thinking about the scans doctors use to see different parts of the brain activating. Since those are really not all that beautiful to look at. I decided the best thing would be to showcase the scans on the child's head in real life. This would bring some warmth and magic to something extremely scientific. The campaign consists of television, billboard, mall boards, newspaper, cinema and online. 

First Things First - TV 2012 from Ashley J George on Vimeo.

Arizona Office of Tourism Summer Campaign

In a world of instagram photos, what's better than showing your vacation in Arizona to the world without having to do anything extra? Nothing.

I wanted this campaign to look like it was just lifted from the camera of people's vacations, so that's what we did. All of the photos in this campaign are from real Flickr users. We utilized Instagram's technology and paired it with Google Maps to allow everyone to share their vacation photos when they enable their geotag after taking a photo.

Citizens Clean Elections Commission Infograph

Being super busy in the office this project had about a two day turn around. Super quick and there was a lot of information that didn't necessarily relate to each other, but it had to be in there. One of the biggest things you see during election time are the banners, signs and other advertising methods to promote different candidates. Using that insight with the color palette nature provides I created the infograph as a long poster taking you from the sun in the sky to the grass on the ground. 

US Airways 30 Days for DC Logo

I did the logo to help celebrate US Airways adding flights out of DC. The promotion spends a month celebrating with DC'ers with give-aways and a lot of partying.

Some other things that I've been working on around here include:

• Arizona Governor's Conference on Tourism - Logo, Emails, Invites, Save the Dates, etc. 
• Arizona Ready - 2012-2013 Campaign
• Grand Canyon University - Direct Mail, Website, View Books etc.

Junior Creative Advice: Miranda Lambert

I pretty much love this lady. She's such a badass. Whether she's by herself or singing with her band Pistol Annie's, I love how she sings about un-lady-like things.

  

In advertising you have to kick ass. You have to stand up and defend your work constantly. You have to believe in what you do and make others believe it too. Start thinking through your work, know the reasons you chose to do something in your work and have some fun.

Pay attention to your brief, know the strategy inside and out and finally listen to your intuition. Intuition is that last piece that separates creative people apart. It's a magical voice giving us hints on the journey to a bigger idea.

A Little Motivation from Eleanor

I get a lot of inspiration and motivation from the words of Eleanor Roosevelt. She is a woman way beyond her time. Incredibly intelligent and well spoken. Three of her quotes are ones I look to often when I need a little push.

• The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
• You must do the things you think you can not do. 
• Well behaved women rarely make history. 

The first is because I have a dream I have been working on since I was in sixth grade. It's slowly growing, though it would be great if I could do more advertising. 

The second goes with the first, only because starting a company when you are in sixth grade comes with a lot of "aww that's cute" or "haha you are so lame" or "ha. good luck". It definitely forces you to believe in yourself and motivate yourself if you want it to happen. 

Finally, the third. This is my motto. It's the quote that allows me to respond, "so" or "well I am" when someone tells me that no one else has done it or can do it. 

Right now my company, Bruonis, is up for a grant. You fill out an application and some judges pick the companies they think are most deserving. The other part to this is that you have to get 250 votes to become eligible for the grant. This is a remarkably humbling experience. I am so grateful for the people who have voted already. 

As of right now, we have 102 votes. Which means! 148 votes to go. 

You go through a period of hitting up your friends and fans. Hitting them up again. And . . . hitting them up again. I am to the point where I know I have to dive deep into my creative advertising brain and start to think of how I can start to reach people outside of my personal and business circles. It's a very humbling experience but I am down for the challenge. I believe in this an have known this is something worth doing since I was 12.

If you are interested in supporting Bruonis please visit missionsmallbusiness.com. It's a pretty easy 30 second process. You will log-in (it's FB connect), search for Bruonis and then hit Vote. 

Super easy. Super fast. 

Long Live Snail Mail

Photo from William Arthur Fine Stationary

I am starting to dislike email blasts. Not because they are ineffective, in many cases they are, but because there are way too many in my inbox every morning. I delete around 120 email blasts every morning and of those 120, I probably open one or two.

I used to open a certain clothing retailers emails all the time, though the template has remained the same for a couple years and the sales aren't that good to drive me to go to their website. Eventually the email content wasn't even good enough to get me to open the email. I haven't unsubscribed yet, though their emails go directly to my trash.

At the risk of sounding like a dinosaur when I say this -- I miss getting direct mail. I am not talking about the over sized postcards, I am talking about the really cool open and do something with me direct mail pieces. Things that you would love to put on your desk and leave there for months.

The other thing I love is getting 13x19-ish sized autographed and numbered prints from photographers. I have every one that I have ever gotten from every photographer. There are a couple I have framed and hang in my house. Those photographers are top of mind every time I am starting a new campaign.

There is something about knowing the direct mail piece is just for you and no one else. You know email blasts are going to hundreds sometimes even thousands of people. It's just cold and impersonal.

Here's to hand written letters and the pony express.