Hasta La Ideas

A short and sweet video of Trip Print Press by Brought to you By.

photo by Angela Kohler

I was happy to have UPPERCASE magazine as part of the swag for the latest blogshop recently held in New York. I’m so impressed by their fashionably fun marketing savvy! Thanks, Bri, for the invitation. Check out the video:

I want to go paint my nails now. It makes typing a blog post much more exciting.

Eclectic flavors match stunning presentations from a NY-based design/chef duo

Taking catering in a new direction is Pinch Food Design, a NYC-based catering company specializing in both presentation and culinary innovation that’s guaranteed to surprise and delight. Founded by industry veterans Tj Girard (head designer) and Bob Spiegel (head chef), the two work together seamlessly to make Pinch’s creations both pleasing to the pallet and the eye. A short while ago some of the CH team was invited to their Chelsea HQ to see and taste what the creative team has been working on lately. The following are four of our favorite appetizers and an in-depth look at one of Chef Bob’s finest works of culinary art.

As a perfect example of Pinch’s focus on design, the serving dish has been cleverly created to use cabinet knobs to present the basil crusted filet mignon. Topped with shallot marmalade and tiny popover pastry, each bite sized piece is an absolute delight.

What may be the most interesting appetizer that we sampled, this falafel adaptation was fun and flavorful. The pressed pita chips act as the ultimate vessel for the red olive, hummus, cucumber pickle and of course falafel meat. Pleasantly surprised with its canny taste, the moist little towers won the team over instantly.

Drizzled in mustard oil and port, the chanterelle broccoli rabe sausage is literally balanced with a delicate piece of pequillo toast. Secured on both ends by Pinch’s custom toothpick design, the two sides to the appetizer play well off each other, allowing the holder to follow the savory sausage with a complimentary crunch.

For dessert Pinch keeps its patrons on their feet with their suspension pastry galettes. The copper structure holds light and flaky pastries by free swinging hooks, allowing each piece to be picked by hand. Adding to the seasonal selection of peach, fig, berry, pear and strawberry rhubarb pastries are copper bowls of cinnamon, chocolate and regular whipped cream for dipping. These were hands down our favorite and the most creative way to serve dessert that we’ve come across yet.

After a great deal of negotiations and bargaining we persuaded Chef Bob to give up the secret recipe for his amazing mini spaghetti and meatball appetizer. These were unlike any appetizers we’ve ever seen, and obviously worth a closer look. More on the recipe and his essential preparation techniques as told by the inventor himself after the jump.

Spaghetti Roll

3 Cloves Garlic, sliced thin

2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 cups canned Plum Tomatoes, pureed with juices

1 cup tomato paste

Salt

Pepper

1/2 pound Angel hair pasta

Parmigiano-Reggiano, whole, not grated

Meatballs, rolled the size of a dime, recipe follows

Lightly brown garlic in oil, add the tomato puree, cook for 20 minutes until emulsified. Take out 2 tablespoons of the sauce and set aside for finishing later. Add the tomato paste and cook on a low flame. The key here is to cook this for a lot longer than you think, as the goal is to evaporate all the liquid, but not compromise the flavor. This is what makes the ‘glue’, the key to the whole dish. Meanwhile, cook the angel hair in salted water until al dente, strain—do not rinse off the starch—and add the sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

With tongs or rubber gloves, pull out some of the dressed angel hair pasta. Place it on some plastic wrap and roll tubes about 1 inch thick. Refrigerate these for an hour or two until the pasta is set. The angel hair will continue to absorb the sauce and not be as al dente, this creates the illusion in your mouth as when you cut the pasta it feels more al dente than it is.

To serve, cut the pasta rolls 3/4 inch thick, lay them next to each other and microwave for 15 seconds. On a separate cutting board, micro plane the parmigiano, stack back up the angel hair roll and liberally roll the round sides in the parmigiano.

Meatballs

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves, smashed

1 tablespoon flat parsley leaves, roughly chopped

1/2 cup, toasted breadcrumbs

1/2 pound ground beef

1/2 pound ground pork

1 large egg

1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

salt

pepper

Combine the beef and pork in a large bowl. Then add all the rest of the ingredients and mix well until the olive oil is completely absorbed. It may seem like a lot of olive oil, but this is what give the hors d’oeuvres its moistness. Refrigerate and roll into dime sized balls.

Sear the little meatballs in olive oil and finish with the reserved tomato sauce, season with salt and pepper. Spoon the meatball and some sauce on top of the pasta roll, micro plane some more cheese on top. Serve while still warm.

UPPERCASE is please to be a {small} part of Blogshop, a travelling photoshop + blogging workshop, when they make their next stop in New York City September 24 and 25. I’ve provided complimentary issues going into the goodie bags for all the participants, to help ignite their creative fires! Check out this gorgeous workspace that they’ll be using. wow.

Here’s a video from a recent workshop. Looks like too much fun!

B L O G S H O P 2 – Los Angeles from Son of Shark Pig on Vimeo.

Blogshop is run by Bri Emery of designlovefest + photographer Angela Kohler

“BLOGSHOP is is a Photoshop bootcamp. minus the push-ups. It is a full weekend spent stuffing your brain full of things to make your images on your blog unique and eye catching. We teach the basics from scratch as well as some more advanced techniques and then applying them with your own perspective to layouts that you will use when you go back to your own blog. People who have no experience with Photoshop will leave the course with confidence to create layout, prep images for mood boards and collages, retouch skin and color correct images, animate gifs, add textures, borders, type and drawing to their images to make each of their blog posts or other visual materials special. At the end of the first day we will have a portrait session, so on the second day you can work on your own pictures which will be perfect for contributor photos and bio pages. This jump-right-in approach to Photoshop is a great way to demystify the program, and make it another tool to bring with you into the competitive world of visual design.”

A new book celebrating brand-appropriate ingenuity in today’s marketing-saturated world

Today’s successful advertising campaign has evolved well beyond the simple television product spot or the full page fashion spread—formulas we’re sometimes so familiar with they almost disappear. Pointed out in Guerrilla Advertising, Gavin Lucas’ first book on the subject published in 2006, current marketing tools span all mediums and are so artfully crafted for their target audience, it’s difficult to sort out what is advertising and what is not. Lucas’ followup book, Guerrilla Advertising 2 revisits the subject, showing how effective unconventional branding and communication can be since the introduction of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the iPhone. Lucas also highlights how the sheer definition of advertising is constantly shifting, saying “It is not just impossible to come up with a new advertising formula—it is now completely inappropriate.”

The book is divided into five major themes, which include Street Propaganda, Site Specific, Sneaky Maneuvers, Stunts and Multi-Fronted Attack. Each of the 63 campaigns was selected for its remarkable ability to engage the public, using a method that was perfect for the product or service. Sticking a massive inflatable pig between two Toronto buildings, Saatchi & Saatchi’s Glide dental floss campaign appropriately sums up the book’s motive, showing how powerful even a simple idea can be when executed the right way.

Lucas explained in our recent interview, “consumer insight has to be plugged in at the beginning of the creative process in order for the right choice to be made regarding the approach to an advertising campaign.” One great example of this is Sony Music Creative’s tactic for AC/DC’s new album Black Ice. With a target audience of 30- to 40-year-old men, Sony decided to take on their attention at the office by putting the album’s practical information in an Excel spreadsheet, breaking through corporate firewalls. Even more cleverly, they included an ASCII version of the video for “Rock ‘n’ Roll Train.” The spreadsheet was downloaded over one million times, the video saw nearly two million YouTube views, and the spreadsheet links had an interaction rate of 31% while banner advertising only saw a 0.05% return.

TBWA made it difficult for the 13 million passerby at Zurich’s Central Station not to notice their “Impossible Huddle” campaign for Adidas, but the giant footballers did not only influence commuters. The large-scale installation was so captivating, every major European news outlet and dozens of international blogs spread the word, taking the message beyond its geographical confines. “Brands don’t just want us to simply see their adverts anymore. They want us to engage with, respond to, photograph, talk and blog about them,” Lucas adds.

People want to be involved in the process more than ever, and as Lucas points out, “consumers now play a crucial role in the distribution of brand messages.” Agencies need to know their customer as well as they know their client, because technology has taken the word-of-mouth concept to an entirely new level. “If a brand or its agency create something its audience want to share (things we think are clever, beautiful, funny, entertaining or awesome in some way), the audience is now set up to act as the perfect amplifier of the message.” Lucas also astutely points out the importance of getting the message right—”If you get it wrong, your audience is also in the perfect position to shoot you down.”

One example of technology’s newer capabilities is Ogilvy’s “True Evidence of War” campaign for the U.N., which displayed tangible evidence of conflict within the glass at bus stops, along with a request to donate €5 through simple text messaging. By putting the items right in the public eye, the straightforward concept is undoubtedly more successful than any infomercial, despite its humanitarian plea.

A more lighthearted interactive concept was T-Mobile’s take on the flash mob, making a TV spot out of the “impromptu” dance that took place at London’s Liverpool Street Station. Viewers who saw the commercial could press the red button on their remote to view extra footage, and a dedicated YouTube channel invited users to upload videos of them doing the T-Mobile dance.

An unequivocal look at brand communication in the tech-advanced 21st century, Guerrilla Advertising 2 is an essential read for advertisers and the public alike. The book will be available September 2011 and will sell from Laurence King for $40.