Have I been hanging out with account people too much?

I can't help it. I watch this spot and I just think, "Hey, global warming is awesome! We'll all get these cuddly polar bears as pets!" If an account person said that to me, I'd get exasperated and accuse them of being too literal. Shrug.

The ADCD show deadline is May 30

I can smell the spraymount.

How does one put a book together in the year 2008?

I'm a book junkie. Doesn't matter if I am happy where I am or not. I'm always replacing and reordering campaigns. Other people watch TV. Me, I look at my book and wonder how much it sucks.

Take the ad that illustrates this post. One of the last I wrote at TT&D. It's kind of cool. Especially for the alpha-mom target. Then again, it's just headline - photo - copy - logo. Couldn't it've been a little rougher around the edges? Should I put it in my book? And if so, what should I kill to make room for it?

But I digress.

Because what's really bugging me is how to display stuff like web banners, integrated storytelling, and nontraditional media.

Like the Regis stuff we did. I love the heck out of it. Because it wasn't just a print campaign. It was an attempt to build a relationship using a mixture of wild postings, SMS and student-generated content.

What does that look like in my book?

Or our new web banners for Denver Tourism. Some cool, fun rich media executions. But you really need to play with them to appreciate them.

When I got out of ad school in 2000, you could flip through my book in 60 seconds flat and decide whether you wanted to interview me. Now, it takes 60 seconds just to explain some of my work. ("See, when the page loads, it looks like this. But then when you roll over this banner, suddenly this other banner expands and becomes a game...")

I considered divvying things up. Print in a PDF, video as an Quicktime movie, sound as an .mp3, and digital on a website. But it felt clumsy. Worse, it lessens the power of the integrated campaigns I am proudest of.

I also considered abandoning my book altogether, and just posting my favorite stuff here on my blog. But I'm not sure that the world is ready for that sort of approach. I know that when Karsh looks for new creatives, we ask for physical books we can flip through and sort into Yes, Maybe and Hack piles.

I'm not the only one struggling with the issue of building the perfect portfolio. Astheria (via my fave anonymous ad geeks) did a non-scientific study which concluded that all online portfolios suck, always.

Sigh. Being good is hard enough. Do I still have to figure out how to prove it to complete strangers, too?

The Egotist gives away something other than advice

Sure they trashed the Karsh site. But they asked for a link and this is a pretty darn nifty promo:

The Denver premiere of the film Beautiful Losers is a week away and The Egotist has teamed up with online magazine, The Filmlot, for a special ticket giveaway. That’s right, you and that special someone can cozy up and enjoy an evening of creative inspiration along with the chance to meet a legend in the urban/street art movement.

All you need to do is submit a piece of your personal or non-commercial artwork to us via email.

New Karsh\Hagan agency site

Our new site is on the tubes at karsh.com. Some of our recent digital work isn't up yet. But the site feels cool and clean to me.