How many people can say they work for a company that truly celebrates its history?  How many people even know their company history or care?  Well, HOK (Hellmuth Obata + Kassabaum), the world’s largest architectural design firm, wants everyone to know where they came from, how they got here, and the people and projects that contributed along the way.  In fact, they just launched a “living archive”  http://www.hok.com/history/ that celebrates their 55-year legacy and allows employees to contribute as it evolves – keeping the experiences alive for current and future team members.

Switch worked with the HOK team to record “living history” storytelling segments that comprise the “spoken word” portion of their History + Lore website.  Together with video segments that illuminate the lives of the founders -George Hellmuth, Gyo Obata and George Kassabaum – the narrative story of the company journey is provided to visitors who explore the site.

Switch is excited to play a bit role in this evolving story and looks forward to its evolution.

Have you seen it yet?! Not only does it feature tons of exciting things to do in good ol’ St Louis, but on the cover is a great shot of Chuck Berry and Nelly together on-stage during the 2009 MLB All-Star Commissioner’s Gala.

Switch produced the St Louis themed event last summer…read all about it here  if you’d like to refresh your memory or see more pictures.

Otherwise, you can check out the cover and the rest of the Official Guide here.

Anheuser-Busch recently tapped Switch to redesign their Budweiser merchandise style guide for the UK. Senior Creative Director Eduardo and Senior Art Director Kristen took this challenge head on. For them it’s the perfect marriage of their passion for driving brand creative standards, consistency and application across a variety of packages/elements. The final product was so well received; we were also asked to revise the U.S. Budweiser merchandise style guide.

The Budweiser merchandise style guide basically works to provide design direction and brand standards across multiple package types for licensees using the Budweiser name. Insuring consistent branding and a quality look has always been top priority at both A-B and Switch so these projects fit right into our and our client’s wheelhouse. It’s not too often around here an art director gets to set the universal style rules for brand asset relation, white space, stroke, color, gradient, etc. It’s like being given your own fiefdom, then being appointed “ruler” of that fiefdom all while serving the King of Beers!

Switch’s Senior Creative Director, Eduardo Nieuwenhuyzen, recently designed the Michelob Ultra Big Shark Team Jersey, Big Shark’s Off-Road (mountain biking and cycle-cross) jersey, their Junior National Jersey, and their Tri-athlete Team gear.

As a present for our CEO Mike’s birthday, he was able to negotiate with Big Shark for Switch to get logo placement on all the jerseys.  Yay for Switch branding and our involvement in the cycling and design community!

Click the thumbnails below to see the designs up close and personal…van wrap coming soon!

Keep your eyes peeled or at least open for the next issue of Event Design magazine. Our Kicker Visitors Center will be in there somewhere. A half page blurb? A three page spread? The editors have been tight lipped but we’re hoping for solid coverage.

Our Exhibits and Environments group here at Switch sometimes seems to exist in another time zone from the rest of the company. Witness, this Kicker project began as an idea in 2006 and was finally completed in February of 2009! Long story. It was by all accounts a success: productive working relationship, happy client, good design, healthy bottom line. Here’s a quick look at what it was all about.

Kicker wanted to engage, immerse and inform a range of visitors from local schoolchildren to global business partners. The exhibits had to express the quality, technical prowess, swagger and fun that is the Kicker Brand. Our work needed to compliment a new steel and glass architectural addition to their headquarters in Stillwater, OK. while showcasing Kicker’s fantastically designed audio components. When we started, this new building only existed on paper. Kicker’s vibe is exuberant and muscular, more like Samurai armor than audio equipment. We gave each exhibit its own look and personality, from understated to lyrical to architectonic to downright aggressive, with Kicker’s Brand personality reflected throughout.

Once you walk through the entry doors, motion sensors trigger the Speaker Wall, an interactive sculpture comprised of 19 synchronized 15” subwoofers suspended along the wall in the form of a sound wave. Rather than immediately blast visitors with a wall of sound – wait for it – this whimsical greeting sends low voltage signals that activate the speaker membranes causing them to noticeably vibrate in a variety of pre-programmed sequences. From a few feet away the quiet air displacement actually rustles your hair!

Using graphics and multiple interactive elements the four Tower exhibits tell the colorful Kicker story – their speaker technology, company history, innovation and product development. Taking full advantage of the atrium’s height, they rise 11 feet high, radiating out from 4 tapered columns, arrayed like identical mini skyscrapers with different graphic facades.

Measuring 40 feet in length, the Art of the Install exhibit details the importance of a proper audio system installation. It follows the sweep of the window wall arc inviting leisurely exploration with its low-key presence along the perimeter.

The Wall of Boom is the elephant in the room, the biggest and loudest saved for last – of course. Part product display, part hands-on demonstration and all sound-and- fury, it is anchored on the far wall. Standing over 14 feet tall and 20 feet wide, it showcases 28 subs, 46 speakers and 18 amps. The cresting wave-like form holds the promise of a thunderous crash and with the press of the touch-screen controller, it delivers, vibrating nearby glass windows into rippling panes of viscous goo. While the design tries to respect the building, the subwoofers make no such promise.

Despite the range of work that went into this project from conceptualization, storytelling, graphic design, exhibit design, construction drawings, fabrication, printing and installation, Switch did almost all the work in house. Our outside help consisted of an AV technical specialist, an interpretive writer and an illustrator for a special comic book sequence.

This trip is going by so fast that between sleeping, shooting & flying we’ve neglected our duty to update everyone on our project. The picture above actually has all three of us in there plus an actress, and with three midwest boys there’s no surprise you can’t see her. This was during our shoot in Istanbul and in my opinion the most beautiful city on our project.

Why the crazy set up? Well as you can see by the shadows the sun was behind us and in full force. We had to shoot the ATM screen and with the glare from the sun, that was impossible. So you grab the umbrella used for softening lights and your travel guide’s knitted jacket to make the best “flag” anyone has seen! It worked and that’s all that matters.

Beijing was also great, another place we’d love to spend more time in. We shot at a local pizzeria that you’ve might have heard of … Papa John’s. Yep, they have them in Beijing and actually taste pretty good. Our client NCR has a global presence and this shoot is showing every part of that.

It’s truly been a whirlwind adventure around the globe and we’ve just landed in Tokyo for our last shoot. I hope to update before we leave then have a great wrap up of this exciting project. It’s 2:37am in Tokyo … wonder why my clock is messed up?

I’m sitting in the Amsterdam Airport on a layover and I realized a good start would be to give everyone a summary of what we are doing, where we are going and why. Dan Reus, Creative Director, Tom Eisenhauer, Executive Producer and your dominating blogger Adam Hecker, Shooter & Editor are working on a project that is taking us literally around the world. We are creating multiple videos for our client NCR, that will play in their new Peachtree Facility in Atlanta, GA. The cornerstone video is titled “NCR – Day in the Life”. We’ll be shooting actors on location using NCR products around the world showing the company’s great global presence and how they are a part of many lives each and every day.

So where are we going? Our shoots will be in Mumbai, Chennai, Istanbul, London, Beijing and Tokyo. As we shoot and travel to each city I’ll be updating our status every day or two. *depending on your time zone

Be looking for our next update out of Mumbai or Bombay for all my old school cats.

We got a call today from the St. Louis Cardinals and it was one of those calls that makes you wish all relationships were as considerate, smart. and reciprocal.
About a month ago, they asked Switch to start brainstorming some ideas about ways to help the Cardinals celebrate making it to the 2009 World Series. We had just finished presenting some initial ideas when it became apparent they would not be needed… this year… unfortunately… and no, we have not gotten over it.

Now, we’ve been here before… do some work and despite everyone’s best intentions, some outside force intervenes and the opportunity disintegrates. It happens. When it does, you usually get a “thanks, sorry…” and that’s it.

Not this time. The Cardinals called and said they appreciated how much work, effort and yes – dollars – we put into the initial ideas. Further, they said they wanted to give us a luxury box for a game next season gratis as a token of their appreciation. Now that’s our kind of client! They actually appreciated the effort… even though it would not be needed or used. That’s a real breath of fresh air for our agency.

Compare that to some “clients” that tap into our good faith, expertise, have us figure out their needs, their inital designs and then suddenly become quiet and incommunicado… until you read about them executing your program with your design using your name “in house”… and without any payment or a token of appreciation.

Guess which client will be getting our best efforts next time they call. A tip of the ol’ redbird cap to the St. Louis Cardinals. Thanks and see you next season!

Switch recently planned and produced a homecoming bash at the brewery for Anheuser-Busch wholesalers from across the country.  3,000 wholesalers and 2,000 employees converged on Pestalozzi Street to celebrate the heritage of A-B and the brewer-wholesaler family.

The guests received the royal treatment as they entered on a giant red carpet leading the way down the heart of the brewery.  A Cadence drum band added energy to the entrance like the marching band at a home football game.  Employees packed around the edges of the entry welcoming wholesalers as they stepped off the shuttle.

The street and surrounding buildings were illuminated by LED Wash units, Source Four Pars and Air Stars just to name a few.   We did projected video on buildings at three specialized locations along the street, using Switch’s very own Barco 18K projectors with warp cards to allow for off-access projections.  We showed Budweiser Nascar video footage to build excitement for the reveal of the new Olympic-branded #9 Kasey Kahne car.  Kahne and the legendary Richard Petty were both there and allowed plenty of time for pictures and autographs.

Between the Bud Lager Lounge, the Port-A-Bar with plasmas showing Monday Night Football, the Bud Light UFC Tent, Grant’s Farm animals, the Nattygator equipped with tailgating games, and The Bottle Rockets band on the main stage, there was plenty to keep the party in full swing.  We ended the evening with fireworks from the rooftop of the Bevo Bottling Building. A-B President Dave Peacock called it an unbelievable, memorable event.  Big shout out to our partners at Contemporary Productions who handled the entertainment, and the awesome event team at A-B for throwing a great party A-B-style.

Eighteen years ago in another galaxy, inhabited by Native Americans, I started in Mobile Displays. At that time it was three tractor trailers that traveled the country together. The destinations included races (NASCAR, Indy Car, drag racing, Hydro-plane boat races), large fairs and almost any large event you can think of. Upon arrival, 13 people would spend 10 hrs assembling  what would become a large interactive display.

One of the trucks was a “racing simulator”.  At the time, it was the largest realistic mobile simulator on the road. In fact the whole display which covered 120′ x 150′ was a one of a kind.  It was not unusual to have a thru-put of  2,000 people a day. That didn’t include the people that tried to come by but were turned away by the massive crowds.  It could be seen from most highways or heavily traveled roadways, giving even more exposure.

I went on to do 2 more large tractor trailer displays.  My roadie life totaled 8 1/2 yrs (a standing record), 350,00 miles, and 40 states. It was the best! I saw and did things I could never have imagined. (Rolling Stones Steel Wheels concert, 15th row with numbered hat!) But, most important, I have never seen a marketing tool that allows you to engage your consumer the way mobile event marketing does.