Who is Scott Bedbury? More than some dude. Much talked about – post the dot gone days – and still today,  you can say he single handed-ly shifted the creative industry toward a ‘brand-centric’ state. You would have been hard pressed to come across any design/marketing/advertising/pr/strategy/online firm in the mid 2000’s that didn’t tout their ‘Brand Building’ processes. The brand was (and still is – kind of) King. Advertising had it’s time in the late 90’s with mega agencies like Arnold producing incredible work, and in the early 90’s, it was design that took the stage with super stars like Duffy. Today, The Brand still holds it’s own.

For sure, great work will always be done in all creative disciplines, but it was Mr Bedbury (among a handful of others) who brought ‘The Brand’ to the forefront and he’ll be here in Bend to talk to us. Cool. Check out his book.

So it’s going to be an Ad Fed gig. I’m a member of Ad Fed and was asked to help develop the creative for this event – It had been a while since I offered my time to the Ad Fed – so guilt set in when I got numerous calls and emails, so I committed – and knowing Scott Bedbury was going to speak made it a pretty easy decision to boot.

The board already had a concept for the conference – ‘A Fresh Perspective’. Everything else was up to me. The catch? It was due yesterday – kind of. I had about a week to start and finish.

2 days later I was done (At the School of Visual Arts we had 2 hour, 2 day, and 2 week projects – all of which counted equally towards our final grade – I was prepared). On the second day, after they had already approved one of my concepts, I thought of another one as I was walking to the studio. I thumped it up and knew I could make it happen before days end – so I started in a new direction.

1 idea, 2 sketches, 3 packs of gum, and mini photo shoot later, I had everything I needed to make the concept come to life (there may have been a micro brew or two involved as well).

With the help of my trusty Adobe tools – I created gum, and not just any gum, Fresh Perspective gum! Bendamint no less.These photo-illustrations will be the main visual element for the forthcoming ads which will have the conference details.

Look for the print ads in the Cascade Business News and The Bulletin.

2008 Ad Fed Western Region Conference September 18 – 21. Registration Deadline > Sept 11 / Speakers > Scott Bedbury – Author, A New Brand World /
Mark Carlson – Senior Creative Director of McDonald’s / Shelly Stevens – Weiden and Kennedy /
Brought to you by AdFed of Central Oregon. Learn more and register online > adfedco.org /