Tamgram

The story behind the new animated Tam logo is that when we went and did a redesign of our site we wanted the logo to have some life to it. We brought in Aaron Dingman, one of our freelance artists, to breathe live into the logo and he did just that. Once it was edited together, I was showing my son and there was just something missing, it felt like it needed some sound to it. So I was just messing around with it for my son and he thought it was so funny. I then called Tam and did the noises for him and he loved it. The next day I was in the studio giving a voice to the Tam logo and with the other sound effects we now had a cute and fun animation for the company.

This week I wrapped the first draft of the United States Coast Guard Academy recruiting script, 52 pages long, that’s right, the longest script I have written.  I read through 63 transcriptions and compiled the best quotes from each interview and then continued the process of only holding on to the best and creating a story from what was left.

While going through this arduous task, I began to reflect back on the many trips I made to the Coast Guard Academy.  It started to feel like a second home traveling back to New London, Connecticut, every few months.  I traveled to the Academy three times last year and Tam made the trip four times, and each journey had it’s own adventure.  My first outing was in May (it was the second time I had been to the Academy, the first being a year prior for a project for their Leadership Institute).  On this visit, we interviewed cadets and parents and also Admiral Thad Allen.  With every interview I conducted with the cadets, I realized how amazing these young adults were and how the Academy was molding them into the officers they were bound to be.  Our days were spent running around the Academy, capturing interviews and b-roll wherever we could. (more…)

For this particular project, we wanted something fun…something that reflected the 4INFO branding along with the people that are served by 4INFO’s technology–young people in that sweet spot when it comes to advertising (18 – 34 years old). Like many of the projects we work on, it was enlightening. This time learning about SMS–short message service–and the amount of people reached by mobile advertising. Now a little text alert may not be as sexy as a 3D-based commercial but the exciting thing is that the 4INFO text messaging service can reach customers wherever they are and then lead them to that 3D commercial. And unlike the spam that drives me nuts every day, 4INFO alerts are totally opt in, sending text messages that mobile phone users WANT to receive. It’s one of the things I love about my job. Not only do I get to learn something new literally every day, I get to learn about COOL things every day.

Often when you go from Point A to Point B (a flash presentation), Point B ends up looking like PowerPoint on steroids when Point A (your storyboard) IS a PowerPoint presentation. How do you get beyond that? How do you take the blinders off? For our recent project for Stoke, I had artist, Aaron Dingman create the storyboards and what ended up being his base art. My input? A couple of images I grabbed from istockphoto (always great for brainstorming), a short write up on the visual direction and the script. For the look, I told him I wanted wire frame people–something that looked unique and high tech. And for the execution, I needed to show the depth and complexity of a mobile network and wanted to be able to move within a 3D space but without a 3D budget. His solution 2.5D. Not 2D. Not 3D. But 2.5 D. It was exactly what the doctor…or in this case, creative director…ordered.

As many people know, Tam Producer, Regan Eymann, has an alter ego. When she laces up her skates and hits (literally) the track, she’s known as “Shamrock N. Roller” on the Santa Cruz Derby Girls. She’s an amazing blocker who week after week would sacrifice her body for the team. She’s taking this year off from skating and concentrating on coaching as baby Shammy will make his or her entry into the world in August but this month she’s the Santa Cruz Derby Girl of the month. Check it out here: on the SCDG website, which, BTW, she and our web developer partner Dewdrop Media designed.

This project is one that we are SO excited about.  The promo for our television series idea “ChumpCars”. The promo is intended to give programmers a taste of what’s possible in the series and, in this case, give them a look at our amazing hosts – Lex and Allie.  We would travel the country and meet people who love to drive fast.  It’s the only requirement – other than they have to have a car among four to six drivers but it doesn’t have to be a great car. Hopefully just one that will last for 24 hours of straight driving. It’ll be such a kick to do and we can’t wait to get started.  We’ve already shot at two races and met some of the wildest, craziest folks from all walks of life. Check out the promo and let us know what you think.