Wife stood in the Barnes and Noble music section wearing the headphones and listening to nothing. A few yards away Son Three (four years old) was also wearing headphones but grooving to cds with brightly colored covers. After a minute or two of fidgeting with the kiosk, she asked Son Three how to make the music play. He waved a cd under the upc scanner and continued to rock out. Wife told him he was silly. She asked him again and he showed her again, she dismissed his naivety. Frustrated she called over a clerk. The clerk took the cd and did exactly what Son Three had demonstrated. The music played but she was too confused to enjoy it.

When she got home she asked me how the device sucks the music off the cd through the packaging.

Oh, there’s more. Fascinated with the kiosk, middle son swiped a book under the upc scanner and waited for the book to be read to him in the headphones.

My immune system is super bad ass. Seriously. I have survived a gauntlet of deadly epidemics, pandemics, plagues and outbreaks. The trendy Swine flu? Check. Remember Bird Flu of 2004? Check. How about Mad Cow disease, remember that? Check. Eboli, Legionnaires, Bubonic plague? Check, check, and triple check.

I know what your thinking, “Man, that is one seriously bad ass immune system, how does one acquire such a system?”. You wanna know my secret? I will tell you, but I already know you don’t have the guts to put in the time and effort that I have. A bad ass immune system doesn’t come from sitting on your couch, watching Fox news sniff out the latest pandemic. It comes from hours of sitting on questionable public toilet seats.

That’s right, you heard me. What doesn’t kill you can only make you stronger. The next time the urge hits you to make mud, leave your home immediately. Embrace and celebrate the questionable toilet seat at the nearest roadside park or minority owned corner convenience store. There you will find a seat akin to a germ youth hostel hosting a cornucopia of rare and exotic viruses from around the world. Most likely your first instinct will be to line the seat with two layers of Charmin, or hover above the seat. No good. Sit down for a spell and relax. Just don’t let your junk touch the porcelain, that’s just gross.

I did a series of 16 of these modern primitive alien doodles. I have submitted them to Threadless. If you like them score them a 5. If you don’t like them, score them a 5. Ok?

    
I posted an anatomically correct sticky note Space Invader on my office window. The office window across the way responded with a sticky note Pac Man.

I have decided to migrate  the ultramicroscopic version 1 content (about 3 years worth) into this modern day ultramicroscopic. Several old doodles have been added. Many, many more to come.

I recently went to see Art Chantry speak. Chantry claimed that sometimes advertising is done to keep people away. On the surface level this sounds contradictory, but actually proves to be true in nearly every case. Chantry designed gig posters for punk rock shows. Many are almost unreadable. To decipher what the poster was about or the show details, the viewer needs to engage with the poster and truly study it. The poster serves as a filter. If the viewer is offended, annoyed, or simply not willing to invest the time in reading it, most likely they would not enjoy the show. Punk music is not easy listening.

The concept can be the difference between good advertising and great advertising. Exclusion can give the campaign a sharper edge. Exclusion becomes a way of relating to the true target, a knowing wink. It effectively communicates to the target that the advertiser truly understands them. Hence the target perceives the advertiser as a trusted and credentialed advisor rather than being driven by money.

I often write creative briefs. Among other things, the brief identifies the target audience and what’s relevant to them. I’m going to start considering The anti-target. Who do I want to exclude? Then I will determine how to introduce an element into the campaign that will turn them away. Seriously.

The images above are gig posters designed by Art Chantry.

This little fellow managed to escape my sketchbook and make it on to the scanner bed. He was colorized in photoshop. Tentacles seem to be showing up in a lot of doodles lately.

Wow, that seems like a million years ago.

It may be time to revive this site.