An Ode to Peeing Outdoors

This weekend I am going yurting on the Oregon Coast near Florence, and while I will have full access to all the modern amenities, something about roughin’ it out there reminded me of this piece I wrote.

Camping, heater and bedding included.

In an attempt to get into the mindset of the great outdoors and thoroughly embracing all that being outside implies, I give you:

 

An Ode to Peeing Outdoors
Let’s face it. Peeing outside is just better than anywhere else you have the opportunity to pee. It’s manly, it’s rugged and it’s a little dirty. And that’s why we love it.
For some reason, it’s no longer socially acceptable to urinate outdoors unless you’re in the wilderness, or if you really really have to go and can’t hold it any longer.
I’ll tell you a secret. It’s not that I can’t wait until I’m inside- honestly I could probably hold it if I had to. I would just rather go outside.

Why? Because it’s there. And because I can.

 

 

Well, enjoy your weekends, all!

Stay away from my eyes, Brooke Shields.

Has anyone else seen this commercial (often intermittently played oh Hulu between episodes of Arrested Development and Square Pegs) that claims it will give you longer, fuller lashes? Brooke Shields stars, and check it out:

Now wait just a minute. Pay close attention to the medical warnings, which begin around :27. It starts out with concerns over eye pressure. When I think of problems with eye pressure, I immediately worry that my eyes will deflate in their sockets and dribble down my face- and this isn’t even the worst side effect. Oh no, you can also worry about darkening of the eyelids- which may or may not be permanent, as well as possibly permanent darkening of the iris.

Yikes.

If you’re having to write warnings about eye pressure and skin and eye discoloration, perhaps it’s time to invest in a little further research rather than a celebrity endorsement. Just sayin’.

I know Where the Wild Things Are

In honor of the upcoming release of Maurice Sendak and Spike Jonze’s new film, Where the Wild Things Are, I tried my hand at creating my own home-made Wild Thing. The materials are a bit eclectic. There was no road map to where I was planning to go, but here it is:

Where the Wild Things Are: can you find it?

Stuff the sock and cut the legs.

Improvise a makeup sponge for a nose.

Stuff legs, attach claws. Sew/stuff arms, attach claws.

Root Canal. Or gluing in the teeth.

Glue on hair and horns!

Pick out buttons for eyes. Pay attention to this step. It gets creepy fast.

See? Just quirky enough to not be entirely creepy.

Stitch on some scales.

You’re done! Now find him some friends.

Where the Wild Things Are: can you find it?

Put the ball in the sock. (I swear this is leading to a stuffed animal.)

Careful when carving the mouth…

The Raw Materials

Food? Not quite. More like snacks for thought.

Some things I noticed on my drive to work today:

-The extreme creepiness of abandoned cars on the side of the road. Where are the owners of these cars? Are these cars broken-down, their owners walking down the side of the highway to find the nearest gas station? Or are they just for sale? If this is a selling technique, who really whips out a pen and paper or their phone hoping to buy a car while whipping by at 70 mph? Especially when you think that in order to be seeing this car on the side of the highway, they have to be in a car themselves driving by. Curious.

-The prevalence of ads on cars lately. Not vans or semis, but entirely normal, seemingly innocuous SUVs and four-door sedans. Has anyone else noticed this, or  is this special to the Happy Valley area? Most of these ads are websites for florists or party hosts, my guess the owner of said start-up is the ambitious gal behind the steering wheel who just cut me off before running that red light (In this case, is this really the best association to make with your brand- that you’re rude and a bad driver?)

-There sure are a lot of jalopies out there. Is this a sign? Are there recessionomics at play here? Because people seem to not be taking care of their cars as well, driving them longer, and in general opting to ride out the economic crisis (haha) before investing in an upgrade. Judging from my car, Big Blue, you’d think this recession began in 2003.

-And finally, a word problem:

Erin drives her car to and from work everyday. The drive takes 25 minutes, and it takes about $30 to fill up her gas tank, which she does every 2 weeks.

Erin and Jesse with their ride.

If Erin were to ride the MAX to work, it would take about an hour, cost $86 for an all-zone pass, and still require her to drive to the nearest park and ride.

Green Means Go!

What are the pros and cons of driving versus riding Max? (and yes, I know what is more environmentally friendly. I’m looking more for the hard numbers, and need your help.  I never was too good at math…)

In other news, Amber and I have a new blog in the works- name and specific content to come soon. We’re forming focus groups, drafting logos and in general having flurries of brainstorming sessions. Expect big things!

Hi Jordan!

I Can’t Believe This Post Starts with a Jessica Simpson Quotation.

“On my first day of Jr. High I was in Geography class, and the teacher asked us if anybody knew the names of the continents. And I was sooo excited. I was like, Damnit! It’s my first day of 7th grade, Im in jr high and i know this answer. So i raised my hand I was the first one and I said A-E-I-O-U!” -Jessica Simpson

I’ve been having a lot of First Days lately. The nature of COLABORATORY was such that in the course of one six-week internship, I had essentially 4 First Days: One with each of the 3 agencies I visited: Pop Art, Ascentium and Grady Britton, and one with the intern agency I help create, Wet Paint.  I also just started a new internship with the media buying office for RPA.

Not to toot my own horn or anything, but all these in such a short time period have led to a kind of First Day learning curve. This doesn’t mean I’ve mastered this process- far from it. Actually, I’ve found myself to be so consistently inept that I thought others may be able to benefit from my problems.

With this in mind, I’ve accumulated a few First Day Tips to help you make the most of it, and try to avoid the awkwardness that generally surrounds me on such days.

First Day Tip #1: Ask a lot of questions. I don’t mean questions like “where’s the bathroom?” or “so when do I get paid?” I mean the questions that show you’re paying attention and are interested enough to learn more. Plus, you only have a short period of time in which you can ask introductory questions of projects, people or processes. As time goes on, you will feel more timid about this because you’ll assume you should already know the answers. Welp, relish in the not knowing and ride out this golden age.

First Day Tip #2: Remember names. This seems simple, and for many of you it is. Not me. I have to actually remind myself every time I go in for the handshake that I should pay attention while the other person is introducing his or herself. I get so caught up in what I’m going to say that I forget to pay attention to what the other person has just said. My trick? Handy little diagrams. Because most offices have permanent seating arrangements and you more often than not see the person at this location, I find it easy to write a diagram of who sits where and then associate that name with the person in this way. Below is my example for The Office (which premieres this week and I’m so excited to have my favorite prime time shows back!):

The Office reconstructed to the best of my memory.

A note of caution with this tip: Do not leave this lying around, it might seem like you’re plotting your escape route or something. Also, do NOT assign names with embarrassing or rude mnemonic devices­- you will invariably slip up and use the nickname to the person’s face.

First Day Tip #3: Dress a little better than you expect to on an everyday basis. You can never be sure what the particular company culture demands when it comes to dress code, but as an intern you need to be a little extra formal in order to not appear totally wet behind the ears. It doesn’t matter that we’ve graduated from college and are supposed to be “adults”–in a professional workspace, we tend to look like babies.

First Day Tip #4: Do not bring lunch from home. This isn’t to say don’t eat, just be sure to ask around and see where other people go to eat, maybe tag along with some coworkers. Eating together can be a good way to get to know people, and get to know the area where you’ll be spending your 9-5 hours.

Overall, first days are really opportunities to make the right first impression and capitalize on that short period of time when expectations aren’t set and there is no such thing as a dumb question.

Given these tips, why do I still feel painfully awkward at this?

Because it’s human nature. I’m trying to get better.

A Typographic Affair

Hello, my name is Erin and I’m a Typoholic.

Hello, Erin.

In all seriousness, I have a long-standing obsession over typography. Serifs, sans serifs, stroke, ligature, I try to take in all aspects of the lettering. Part of this fascination comes from being a writer and knowing that the way the word looks can often convey just as much meaning as the word itself.

That being said, I tend to collect typefaces. Here’s the pretty piece of typographic eye candy that I’ve become fixated on lately:

Lubalin.

I discovered this font while visiting the Portland Street of Dreams in the Pearl. The main thing I really love about this font is the “R” and how it doesn’t quite connect back to the stem. I also love the little serif boots on each letter. It’s light and airy like my much beloved Helvetica, but has the panache of the old western slab serifs.

This is how cool I am. Amidst the PDX skyline and beautiful interior design, I take pictures of the wall.

In tribute to my musings on typography, I’ve changed my blog header image to a compilation of photos I took in the Portland area. Each of these images are hand painted (or chiseled) lettering- truly an art form.

Erin Davis, Intern Ingenue, Muses on the Material Metamorphoses in Transitioning from her Now-Erstwhile Life as an Unemployed Deviant to her Newly 9-5 Lifestyle.

Let’s break this down, shall we?

Erin Davis [that’s me], intern ingenue [newbie], muses on the material metamorphoses [figures out what’s changed], in transitioning from her now-erstwhile life as an unemployed deviant [from being a college graduate] to her new 9-5 lifestyle [to participating in this great opportunity with COLABORATORY].

Setting aside this exercise in verbosity and allusion, let’s get to the meat of the matter. Three weeks and two agencies into the COLAB experience has given me a good perspective on office culture. Here are some lessons I’ve learned when it comes to office life:

Acronyms are everywhere. Working people love to shorten phrases into a few letters. It’s a way to show you’re down with industry jargon. The first few days of this internship, I just nodded along when someone used an obscure acronym, and made a mental note to look it up later. To keep you from wondering, “WTF?”, here are some basics:

• ROI : return on investment. Make sure you’re spending money to make money.
• QA: quality assurance. Make sure you’re earning your money by doing things right.
• OOO: out of office. Someone’s lucky day!
• CEO/CFO/CMO/COO: chief ______ officer. Pay attention because this person is important.

Basically, whenever you can’t just intuit it, google has all the answers.

People love to “leverage” everything. Prior to starting this internship, my understanding of the word “leverage” was as the action of a lever – something to do with car jacks or something, I’m not very mechanical. In the world of business, it means to take something you’ve done and make it work for more than one purpose, so as to “gain a very high return in relation to one’s investment”. This definition courtesy of dictionary.com

Multitasking is the name of the game.* This observation goes in tandem with the leverage thing. Being productive means making the most out of your time. The people at my agencies are always juggling a few projects at once, and being able to tune your brain into working on two or more problems at once makes you an asset.
*additional note: this applies double to your commute time. If you can ride the MAX or the bus, you’ll be able to read, listen to music or just relax/catch up on zzz’s. Much better than getting road rage-related high blood pressure as a result of driving in rush hour traffic. I highly recommend listening to RadioLab podcasts to get your mind properly percolating.

And finally a note for all you interns out there:
Just because the coffee/soda/beer is free, it doesn’t mean you have to consume it in copious amounts. This is a lesson I’ve had to learn the hard way after a day of practically chugging coffee. I wound up with more than the jitters- they were more akin to full-body spasms. On the plus side, involuntarily staying up until 2 AM really gave me a lot of time to get work done (or watch episodes of Doogie Howser, MD on hulu.com).

That’s about all the lessons I can eek out at the moment. If you’re a newbie currently trying to masquerade as a biz pro, I hope you are able to use these tips. Just remember that no one expects you to know everything. Fake it ‘till you make it.

Thank You, Pop Art!

Two weeks go by so quickly. The nature of COLABORATORY is such that, by the time you’re settled in and finally know the people (and the best commuting routes!), you’re moving on to a new location. I was sorry to leave Pop Art, my first of three COLABORATORY agencies.

The folks at Pop Art have taught me how to design AdWords campaigns. I learned how to motivate in 70 characters or less, how to direct eye flow in a digital space, and how to organize pitching creative ideas to clients.

I also learned a profound respect for post-its.

By way of thanking the peeps at Pop Art, I decided to make a post-it stop animation. It seemed fitting because an entire wall on the 2nd floor of the Pop Art office is beautifully adorned with a post-it rendition of Andy Warhol’s Marylin Monroe Screen Print. To honor Pop Art’s patient tutelage of me, I dove in to my first stop-animation project, which may be viewed below. Please be gentle with your judgment, as it is my first time and is honestly meant in homage to an agency that really took me under its wing.

Thank You, Pop Art. from Erin May Davis on Vimeo.

CoLab Week One

Today marked the end of my first CoLab week with Pop Art, an interactive agency that encourages brands to “Lead with Interactive”. As a copy writing intern, I’ve been able to hang with the creative team, and found everyone at the agency to be really welcoming and friendly.

There are some great things about being an intern. I get real projects to sink my teeth into. I’m actually starting to wonder where the myth of coffee getting and making copies came from. No one expects an intern to have all the answers. Thus I unabashedly ask all the stupid questions I like. I’ve been learning a lot as a result. Examples? I learned the magic of AdWords, from brainstorming different campaigns and keywords to writing the Pay Per Click copy. It’s interesting to write with such small confined spaces, it reminds me of six word memoirs.

As you may have by now guessed, being at an interactive agency has changed me a bit. My background is primarily in the tangible, and all this web-speak feels like I’m learning a new language. Which I guess I am. After getting a basic crash course in html, I’ve taken the plunge and bought this book, which has taught me to [somewhat facetiously] hyperlink words in my text [for my own amusement].

Overall it’s been a good week, and I’m looking forward to what I might tackle in the next few weeks.

How To Make A Float

Fourth of July 2007

Every year Gleneden Beach puts on a parade in honor of  Independence Day, and every year the Davis children scramble to put something together for this parade. We really just look for any excuse to drive slowly down the middle of the street waving to complete strangers. Anyway, after three years of making low-budget (ie no-budget) floats, I have come to some parade wisdom.

Carefully choose your materials. Your tool belt here should consist of duct tape, painting tape, scissors, and lots of rope. Never never use duct tape on the car- it doesn’t come off, or else it takes paint off with it.

Chickenwire can really scratch your car.This is not to be taken lightly. if you use chickenwire, place towels under it BEFORE placing it on your car. On a sidenote, chicken wire can also really scratch you, so be sure to tape all ends you cut off, and wear gloves.

Don’t forget to wash your can beforehand. Most local parades consist of older guys in their souped-up muscle cars, so remember that the vehicle is just as much a part of the show as the decorations.

Stock up on candy to throw, and everyone will love you. Throwing candy to throngs of adoring children is the most fun part of being in a parade. Pace your candy distribution to last longer than the first couple of blocks. This will require that you not throw candy to just any child. Look for the especially eager, maybe the errant child separate from the regular crowd. Be gracious and generous with that candy which you bestow, but keep in mind that their parents will also thank you for being a bit choosy.