thoughts in space

Updates and inspiration from the 8/7 studio.

Changes Ahead!

When 8/7 Central split off from Raygun at the beginning of 2010, we consisted of six and a half guys who had just a vague idea of what we were doing. We hadn’t yet screen printed a poster, written a website contract, or even figured out how to pay taxes correctly. We had space to spare, and we wisely filled that space with a dart place (an oche, as we later learned) and a leaning place (modeled by Zach).

Fast forward two years to present day and we are bursting at the seams. We have more people than desks, more screens than shelves, and most of our meetings take place off-site. It is incredibly difficult to thrive in this chaos.

So… we are moving to larger confines! We will still be in the East Village, in fact, we will still be on the same street. Our new space is situated between Jimmy Johns and The Continental, and will feature proper ventilation (no more fumes!), a conference room area (no more people up in your bidness!), a real bathroom (no more standing water!), ample desk space (no touching!) and several other tricks we aren’t quite ready to reveal yet (no telling!).

More info on the new space and the open houses will be dropping as we get moved in in early April.

What’s all the fuss about?

Recently you may have seen our stream of ADDY related tweets or glanced at the photo we posted on Facebook of a few new shiny things. Let me ‘splain.

We decided it was about time that our web and design work was put to the test. We think it looks cool, but what does everyone else think? Asking the question seemed a little baited, so we decided to be official and entered into the local ADDY competition. Put on by the American Advertising Federation, the ADDYs is defined by their website as “the advertising industry’s largest and most representative competition, recognizing and rewarding creative excellence in the art of advertising.” Fancy, huh? While we haven’t started doing billboards or commercials, we have done some solid creative work that some might even consider advertising.

Back in January we started looking at a few different pieces we thought would be up for the challenge and here’s what we came with:

Self-promo: Employee of the Month t-shirt…anyone rocking one of these? You know who you are.

Logo: The Cheese Shop…a new personal favorite location of ours.

Interactive work for the Arts: Public Art Foundation website

Book: Badowers Look Book

 

Mixed/Multiple Media: Badowers Rebranding Campaign….we can’t take credit for you being the best dressed at the party, but we did create the website, design the logo and work to ensure you know where to shop for men’s clothing in Des Moines.

What do you think? According to the ADDYs…all of those are ahem, award-winning. Gold ADDYs (which move up to the next level of the competition) went to the Badowers Rebranding Campaign and The Cheese Shop logo and silvers went to the rest. All in all, we were pretty pumped and glad to have some great clients to work with to make it all happen.

The Nail Gun

Like a real man, I just got a nail gun. And like men do, I started trolling around the shop looking some something that needed to be built, so I could avoid doing real work. I found a project.

The Problem: Squeegees.

It’s easy to get them 95% clean. The last 5% takes a lot of paper towels, chemicals, and patience. Our storage situation dictates the squeegee needs to be 100% clean before getting thrown into the drawer. And most days, the squeegee is coated in ink again within a few hours. It’s an exercise in futility.

So here is what Shawn and I built. The important thing is that you can see the nail gun in the background.

It is a squeegee rack, and it is going to get ink-nasty very quickly. It isn’t that fancy, but it was a good use of an afternoon.

Really Kindof Amazing Workplace

There are a lot of perks to my job. First and foremost, I’m surrounded by a team of truly talented people who all take great pride in what they do. We get to create things from scratch almost every single day and we get to be part of a trade that still makes things by hand, a community on the verge of extinction. We get to support our local community while sourcing most of our garments from right here in America. Clubs, bands, schools, teams, fundraisers, and start-ups all come to us when they want truly creative design on high quality apparel. We have freedom not only creatively and with our schedules, but in what we say and do, think and feel, and even wear to work. There is no dress code, but that doesn’t mean we wear our underwear outside of our pants and we don’t have to listen to Lite 104.1 but that doesn’t mean we listen to Lazer 103.3 either.

Instead of casual Fridays, we occasionally have Formal Fridays or Kenny G Fridays where all we play is Kenny G (until everyone runs out of song vetos). We almost always have beer in our fridge and are free to drink it whenever we want. This doesn’t mean we hammer a 6-pack before noon and pass out on the lawn, it just means we keep some suds in our fridge knowing that someone might encounter the need to have a cold one in the middle of the afternoon. Instead of fostering irresponsibility and the desire to punch out at 4:59 to catch the tail end of some lousy happy hour, it encourages us to stay in the shop and enjoy overtime with our co-workers.

When we advertise for an internship, even a barely paid one, we don’t have just 3 or 4 applicants. We get almost 50 eager responses. That’s 5 times more people than our actual workforce. 50 kids ready to challenge themselves and work their hands to the bone for meager monetary compensation and the chance of a full time gig. We’re honored by this. We realize we have created an environment where people want to work and that’s the sole reason our turnover rate is so low. It could be all the fumes we’re inhaling, but people don’t mind coming in to work at 8/7 every day. Sure, some days we’d rather be snowboarding or at the movies, but for the most part a job that’s akin to all-day-art-class is hard to beat.

Of course with this power, comes great responsibility, as they say. We must be willing to respect and trust each other and work hard when necessary. It requires us to pull our own weight and at times the weight of others. This is how it should work.
And so far, it has.

I just returned from a 4 week paid sabbatical. I planned for myself a 5,000 mile roadtrip through the West, a drive I’ve always wanted to make. I hoped to get out of town and find some new inspiration, visit old friends, peer off into distant landscapes and meet new people along the way. Photography has long been a passion of mine, but I don’t have the time to indulge it fully. So I went to take pictures and see how others spent their days and lived their lives. I took thousands of images, I read books, wrote and played music with strangers. A lot of this you can find on the blog my fellow traveler, Carla, and I built to document our trip: www.reallykindofamazing.com

Countless other ideas, books and projects have spun off as a result of this extended time off. I look forward to pursuing all of them. I returned home and to work feeling more refreshed than ever. I left with the overwhelming need to get away and returned with the unmistakable desire to come home. I’m lucky. Really kindof amazingly lucky. I understand this. I wrapped up my jobs as best I could before I left and turned things over to the guys in the print department. They handled their current workloads as well as mine and I’m grateful for that. Their thanks will be returned to them during their months off.

We asked ourselves, “who else out there operates like us?” and “couldn’t this slowly spark a movement?” “what if more companies in America started doing this for their employees?” What if companies that experience slower months, especially in the winter, negotiated a semi-paid sabbatical and enjoyed lower overheads? What if they freed up space for a temporary intern to get their foot in the door? What if they invested in the long-term benefits of happy and healthy employees rather than the short-term ones? What if companies treated their adult employees like adults? That is, adults with other interests and passions beyond their love for balancing spreadsheets? It’s lofty, we know. But take it from us, it’s feasible and more importantly, it’s necessary. Bring it up in your next board meeting – we dare you.

A company not far from here in Chicago IL, has a benefits package that would make a Western European jealous. Red Frog Events rewards their hard-working employees with unlimited vacation days, one work-from-home-day per week, and a paid 4-week vacation (guest included) to another country, in addition to the outstanding package that already includes health benefits, 401k and birthday massages. And nobody in their industry told them they had to do that. No parent company prescribed to them their corporate culture. We, like them, decided that in order to get the most out of our employees when they are at work, we must make arrangements to manage when they’re not.

That to me is the mark of a strong and healthy company and the only kind of company that will ever employ me and my talents.
~Garrett Cornelison

“the CAPITALS” postcard series from my roadtrip

The Real meaning of Christmas Sweater Tee Shirts

This isn’t everyone’s memory of Christmas sweaters, but it’s mine, and if you want to have different memories, then go write your own blog.

It’s trendy to have ugly Christmas Sweater Parties around this time of year. Everyone laughs, takes a lot of photographs, and then eagerly scurries home to post the hilarity to Facebook. Just take a look at how happy our gracious models are in the photos below.

But before ugly sweaters were commercialized by corporate giants like Goodwill to drive profits, before they were a reason to drink egg nog, before people smiled while wearing them, they were the standard uncomfortable apparel at the center of the two of my family’s worst holiday traditions.

1. Christmas card pictures at Olan Mills. Inevitably, at least one of my siblings ended up crying. The resulting photo included forced smiles and puffy red eyes that were begging Mom to deem the photo “decent enough to send to Grandma.”

2. The church Christmas program. This involved singing Silent Night with a bunch of other kids who hadn’t shown up to rehearsal either and also didn’t know the words. As if not knowing the words was bad enough, I usually had to stand next to the cute blonde girl who knew all of the words and sang Christmas songs as they were meant to be sung: at ear drum damaging volume.

So this holiday season, before you get caught up in the hype, make sure to take time to pause and reflect on the misery that these sweaters caused you not that many years ago. Instead of buying this year’s sweater from a thrift store, consider buying one off the back of a crying child. This simple act can bring so much joy to a young one, and will warm your heart as well. If you prefer chilly forearms to a warmed heart, we made a few Christmas Sweater Tee Shirts as well which are on sale here for $17.

Why We Support Sabbaticals (and what we’re doing about it)

November 1st marks the unofficial beginning of the screen printing “slow season.” To say things were a little busy around here for the last few months is kind of an understatement. It feels more like we got curb stomped. It’s difficult to keep creativity levels up when you are physically exhausted.

So instead of repeating the same thing over and over and hoping for different results, we are giving each employee in the screen printing department a paid month off this winter. Hopefully this will clear the air of the smell of screen opener and Icy Hot. It’s the least we can do for the men who have broken their backs to clothe the huddled masses.

That’s a simple way to explain what is going on over the next few months, but I’d like to take a little time to go deeper into our idea, and maybe even get a little personal.

The concept of “work” and the role that your “career” plays in your life has been debated since the beginning of time. Probably the most common answer has to do with making rent and feeding a family, which is about as noble a reason as I can find. But that answer addresses the issue of money, it doesn’t solve the deeper question: “What am I doing with my life?” It’s a mystery that I have yet to solve, and I don’t think I am alone.

We live in a competitive culture. If you aren’t working, you are falling behind. If you are falling behind… then… you aren’t going to… win. Win what?  If you don’t know what the end game is, it gets tough to keep doing the same thing day after day. That’s when you get burnt out on life.

We feel that as employers we have a great responsibility to our employees. If we can help them answer these questions, everyone is much better off for it. So this winter we are encouraging them to skip town for a month on our dime (and a lot of their dollars). Here is what we hope they accomplish:

The road trip that Garrett will be taking in the month of November.

1. Get renewed. Most people take vacations from work, but usually these last one, or at most two weeks. One week is about enough to decompress and two weeks is enough to feel rested, but we feel that a month will be nearly sufficient to fully renew one’s mind.

2. Learn something about themselves. Try food they haven’t eaten in a town they have never been. Read one book instead of one thousand emails. Learn a computer programming language. We don’t really care what as long as they are pushing themselves forward.

3. Contemplate life.

4. Meet someone. It is sometimes tough to imagine, but there is a whole world full of people outside of Des Moines. If the guys can meet even just a few of those people, we’ll be happy.

5. Come back.

The last one is sort of a joke, kind of. There is a lot to do out there, we would feel extremely guilty if we were the reason these talented dudes didn’t make the most of their lives. We’ll keep you updated as the project moves forward.

Elizabeth Arynn CD Release Poster

In truth, it takes a lot more work than can be shown in five photographs, but here is a brief pictorial summary of Jon doing what he does better than anyone.

Watch for the posters to be popping up around town soon. The CD release show will be Saturday night at the Vaudeville Mews. We all know you’re just going to be sitting around in your underwear eating pizza that night anyway; now you have no excuse not to go.

Upcycle our T-shirts

Upcycled T-shirt scarf from 8|7 Central Shirts Now that there’s a girl writing on this blog, get ready for a few more posts about pretty things. While I wouldn’t necessarily characterize myself as fashion forward, I am all about wearing scarves. Although this week has been nice and warm, we all know what’s around the corner. In Iowa, you know what I’m talking about, so I’m not even going to bother saying the word for fear of ending the sunshine too soon. Anyway, the point is – between my love of Pinterest and a new-found, seemingly endless supply of t-shirts, I’ve been all about t-shirt inspired crafts, especially scarves.

Yesterday, I came in with this lil’ number – a scarf made out of some of the shirts the guys didn’t need anymore. There’s a lot of ink on it, but that just might be part of the beauty of it all. It’s quite simple to make, just find one of many tutorials online, grab some scissors and tie it all together.

And guess what? You can make one, too! Drop by the shop, say hello, tell me about yourself and grab a few test shirts.

8|7 Has a Girl

Some might say it’s narcissistic to announce yourself to the world, but no one else has yet, and I need to meet my blogging quota. Before I start writing about being the only girl surrounded by 9 guys all day, I figured you needed an introduction. Furthermore, you can start warming up to the idea of a chick working at 8|7 Central. Crazy, I know, but it’s the truth. I’m here to stay. Below you will find a list of FAQs I’ve heard in the past month since I started working here. (Yes, all questions were actually asked by a real person…I didn’t just make it up to tell you random stuff about myself).

Sam or Samantha?
I answer to both (and you can email me at either one… @eightsevencentral.com). Back in the day, I used to be fairly specific about one or the other but now I basically go with whatever. I’ll typically refer to myself as Samantha whenever I talk in third person or talk to myself if that helps you narrow it down. I’ve also been known to answer to Sarah or Amanda when people get confused and somehow think it’s my name.

What do you do there?
We’re figuring that out more each day. They’ve been calling me the account manager/project manager with the idea being that I can help everyone stay on top of deadlines and details on the web side of things. What that actually boils down to is still a bit of a mystery. We’re mixing some of my previous agency experience with their love for web design to meet in the middle so everyone’s happy and on the same page, clients included.

What do you do when you’re not a work?
The type of things all people do when they’re not at work – hang out with friends, crafts, bike, read, bake, music, write, church, freelance, clean and spend time with my husband.

Wait, you’re married?
Yes, I am. On Sunday it’ll be a whole year of marriage. I’m married to Scott Gratton, he’s one of those skinny musicians that can play everything. I might be biased, but I think he’s pretty cool.

So, what are the guys like when no other girls are around?
Why I’m asked this question, I’m not really sure. I am still a girl, believe it or not, so I’ve never really witnessed that. Topics tend to focus on the following: weekends, sports, food, books, travel, hunting, music, work.

But really, do they talk about gross things all day?
Okay, I can see that this is a real point of interest. I came mentally prepared for the worst and it hasn’t been as bad as I thought in that area. There have been things I’ve rolled my eyes at and even the occasional “um, yeah, no more” but, they’ve all been nice to me for the most part.

What’s your favorite thing about being at 8|7?
Good question. It’s hard to pin that down in just a few weeks, but I do like that everyone seems to generally care for one another and for what they do. You don’t find that everywhere. I’m excited to see where things go from here.

Badowers Overhaul

If you are looking for something to do this Thursday (or even if you have plans) Badowers is showing off their new remodeling and branding. The party goes from 5 until 8, with the official after-party taking place at the nearby Alpine Lounge.

Lining up Badower’s new vision with an appropriate visual identity was the challenge. We felt that the way it was before referenced a very specific era and spoke to a definite iconic visual language that has nothing to do with how Badowers saw themselves moving forward.

After developing a compass statement for the new vision, we felt that we needed to go further back into history to help determine the future of the Badowers identity. We needed to rediscover a typeface that reflects the simplicity, durability and timelessness of men’s wardrobe staples. Furthermore, accessibility, simplification and functionality needed to enter men’s social conscious before the notion of what a timeless wardrobe staple could be established. For example, the looms of the industrial revolution made material more accessible. The Gold Rush and mining lead to denim as a widely used functional work pant. Men were moving away from the embroidered and jewelled and towards simple and formal comfort. Many sanserif typefaces came into existence around the same time as these historical markers with the same accessible, simple and functional purpose. By applying the actual scale of a man to the letter forms, we narrowed our selection to the typeface that you now see Badowers using. The colors dark grey (90% black) and white are used for their functionality.

We were also asked to help create a look book. Not to be confused with a catalog, the look book’s purpose is to build excitement around Badowers. It gives us a glimpse into who Badowers is as well as allowing the viewer to project themselves into the lifestyle environment it creates. In this look book you may notice a white line running throughout the some of the spreads. This line references a “dynamic thread” connecting the range of classic wardrobe staples that Badowers has to offer.

Our own Garrett Cornelison was tapped as the photographer to shoot the look book. With the help of Jen Morrow, he scouted the coolest spots along Ingersoll within an 8 block radius of the store. David Bartells, the model, showed up around 5am so they could capture some of the moody early morning light over the eastern horizon. Here is a sneak peek of what will be available to all who come Thursday night.

Follow Up To Our DPI Tantrum

Last week, admittedly, was a long week. We were buried under the crushing demands of providing warmth, decency, comfort, and entertainment to every self-aware citizen of the up and coming city of Des Moines. As such, tempers were running high and we decided to publish this without properly explaining to what we were referring. Our goal is to inform, not to throw hissy fits.

DPI (dots per inch) refers to the resolution of a rasterized image. 72 DPI is a very low resolution and we occasionally get customers who give us their artwork in this form. This pirate sword looks ok when it is a thumbnail, but when we attempt to embiggen the image in order to print it onto a tee shirt, this is what we end up with.

So what if we increase the resolution of the image from 72 DPI up to a more reasonable 300? As an informed reader, you have surely already asked and answered this question in your own mind, but if not, please accept our explanation. When we increase the resolution to the aforementioned magnitude, we are actually multiplying the number of dots per square inch by about four. In other words, splitting each pixel into four smaller pixels. The difference is nearly undetectable.

Hopefully what you will take away from this is that when you want a tee shirt made, the artwork we need should begin as a high resolution (at least 150 DPI) image or a vector graphic, able to be resized at will. If everyone does this, it will help prevent our glorious youthful hair from going grey prematurely, and we all win.

©2010 8/7 Central