What Happens in Vegas...

Goes to Market.

This summer, we wrote about the design of a packaging project for a local client, SaraBear Baskets. Amanda's parent-friendly prose combined with Derek's shelf-stealing design made for one gorgeous box. At least we thought so. The proof would be when an advanced shipment of 25 packages arrived from China (where they were printed) so that our client could take them with her to display at a trade show in Las Vegas.

Fingers crossed.

We got an email from Sin City this afternoon:

" Dear Derek, Just have to share with you…we’re at the trade show, and you should know that the packaging is completely selling this product. Buyers are ga-ga for the boxes. The larger international distributors are making deals, and it’s the boxes that are truly working to make up their minds. Thought you’d like to know this cool tidbit of info." —Melissa

Here's to a job well done, baby.

Wide Angle Creative

Our clients often ask us: How did you come up with that concept? Who wrote that headline? Whose idea was this?

The team at Trampoline is compact, but creative. It's in meetings like the one pictured below that the real work gets done. Messages and images are bounced back and forth across the room, with both client and audience perceptions hanging in the balance. It's our favorite part of what we do, and ultimately it's our product. Ideas, perspective, and approach all serve to create a better form of communication, no matter the medium.

Our thanks to Jon Katz, a Trampoline client and gifted photographer (who also happens to be an author, farmer, shepherd, gospel aficionado and curmudgeon) for stopping by and capturing the moment.

Some Assembly Required

Sometimes it's nice to get away from your desk. Friday, Derek and Sean headed for the Berkshire Museum to install the latest round of support materials for their ongoing capital campaign A Wider Window. It was good, hard work—after enough time in our office at 196 Glen, it was great to get our hands dirty and wield screwguns and saws instead of exactos and lattés. Six hours, several banners, case panels, interpretive signs and a system of stenciled icons later, we were bound for home. Weary from the day, but proud of the work—both physical and creative. We were grateful for the three day weekend to recover, and grateful to have a client like the Berkshire Museum that allows us to have fun with design.


On your left: great creative.

Derek is not afraid of heights.

Sean puts the screws to the final interpretive panel.

Three panels or one?

Stenciled icons make any project better.

Are you a Member?

Trampoline recently completed a membership piece for the Albany Ad Club and we just had to have a little fun with the project. In order to make the Ad Club look even more appealing, we put it in the company of these other noteworthy organizations. Can you guess what they are? Leave a comment with the correct answers and we'll send you a Trampoline Design Jumpin' Jacks set for FREE*. Have fun.

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*Quantities are limited, shipping restricted to the US & Canada. Employees and their family members are not eligible to play. In fact, employees should be working, now, shouldn't they? That goes double for family members.

ALTA

It's the kind of one-word brand that a creative dreams of.

Treasured by its followers, envied by its neighbors.

Alta is it.

World renown as a skier's cult-status hero, Alta is located 12 miles up the canyon from Salt Lake City's Olympic majesty. Joined at the hip with its closest neighbor Snowbird, Alta, while smaller, is widely venerated as superior.

Alta.

Or, as whispered—reverently—from the lips of a mountain-bound skier, settling into his seat on a flight departing from Chicago's O'Hare:
"Altahhh..."

Alta. Now a Trampoline client.

Keep your skis on.

More soon.

The Company Picnic

It's August. Things at 196 Glen have been humming along since Memorial Day. New hires and exits, interns and sunburns. Web sites, retail packaging projects, capital campaigns, identity development and, of course, pro-bono work. It was high time to take a much-needed break, and we had just the place.

The Sacandaga Outdoor Center is located at the confluence of the Sacandaga and Hudson Rivers. Put another way, it's where the Sacandaga meets the Hudson. —But then, one wants to use the word confluence as often as one can. So we'll stick to that description. For rafting, tubing and kayaking, this is the finest spot in the northeast, and while there are several Rafting outfits in the area, SOC is, by far, the best. Trampoline has proudly called owner John Duncan and family a client for three+ years.

Shoving-off into the white waters of the Sacandaga River is a little like being at the crest of a long roller coaster climb. By the time the raft is assaulted by first wave of rapids, everyone is thankful to be soaked—because they've pretty much wet themselves already. It's completely safe...it just doesn't feel safe. Or like anything remotely close to safety. Guests are battered by spray, drenched by walls of water, commanded by seasoned guides, spun like a top and narrowly miss dozens of VW-sized boulders.

For some reason, rafters at SOC are smiling, all the way down. Thanks to John and Co. for making this summer's Trampoline picnic a memorable one. We definitely Enjoyed The Ride.


At the shop, Johnny D and Jess Duncan—known on the river as No Fear and Sneak, respectively—reassure Julia and Ben Slayton that they're about to have the time of their lives.

Several minutes later, at the put-in, Julia and Ben are still wary, and Raeanne appears to be having second thoughts, too.

Turns out, they had good reason for concern.

The Magees stayed on dry land with a crew too young to take to the rapids.

It was, ah, less exciting than rafting...

But the scenery was nice, and the Hadley railroad trestle is always picturesque.

It's a special group here at Trampoline.

Creativity: Not well applied to rafting.

Nice earrings.

Briar and Raeanne meet over strawberries.

Thanks to the staff for a great time, and a marvelous third quarter. Go Team Trampoline!

A Sagamore Holiday

Derek and Sean made another appearance in Bolton Landing, this week, this time crossing the bridge to Green Island, home to the Sagamore. This historic (and breathtaking) lakeside resort turned to Trampoline to help market their thanksgiving, holiday and New Year's Eve Resort Packages. Considering how the Old Girl twinkles with a little snow on the ground, it should be a pretty easy sell. When that winter wind starts to nip, where would you rather be but curled up by a roaring fire in the very finest Adirondack accommodations?

Derek snaps a shot of the cupola.

Our Latest Project

The workbench that was 14 months in the making*, is finally...finished. A few months after construction was competed on Chateau Slayton, a big storm ripped down the leeward side of West Mountain, leaving a swath of felled maples in its path.

After a Trampoline budgetary meeting over microbrews at the house (customary), we wandered up to the treeline to marvel at the damage.

"Don't chop those up" one of us suggested to the other. "They're pretty straight. Might make good legs for a workbench in your garage."

Now it might sound like we're channeling Duncan Kincaid, but we ARE in the Adirondacks, here, and the subject of the conversation was a rough-cut workbench, after all.

We put it off for as long as we possibly could, until Paula and Amanda hatched a plan to put both Derek and Sean in the Slayton garage with a pile of lumber and some power tools. Leave it to them to find a way to get it done. Thanks, ladies.

Behold, the results.






* We didn't spend 14 months building it. We spent 14 months talking about building it.