It’s the 90 mile-an-hour curve ball or the white squall on a sunny day. None of us saw it coming. We’ve done branding for everything from builders to hospitals, but not one of us had done a real sports team identity.
With occasions like this, there’s an edge of terror for a split second that tells you to shutter in fear or go for the goal. Of course, we went for it. It being the branding for Augusta’s new hockey team the River Hawks. Concept was a retro style embroidered River Hawk that wasn’t supposed to be a cartoon bird and in NO WAY have little skinny legs. This crushed my concept out of the gate, my vision for the River Hawk looked like an tennis ball with toothpicks boasting a wad of feathers that would rival any other bird in the park.
One member of the team took it upon herself (hint hint) to just scrap the design by screen method and hit the paper. She hand drew the typeface and detailed the concept into form. The team submitted other designs as well, but quickly dove into progressing this concept to the final brand. The result was exactly what the hockey guys were dreaming for and it was loads of fun for us to be a part of. (Except for me permanently scuffing the floor with a hockey stick).
Three different branding variations were produced for the use of the Augusta River Hawks.
The unveiling event was held at Somewhere in Augusta, with a great turn out and plenty of press. It was an honor for Kruhu to play such a role in helping Augusta’s new hockey team skate into the hearts of the locals.
When the iPhone 4 started to make headlines and telling us, the internet will run faster, you can now run multiple apps at one time, have video conferencing, you can even record and edit a HD Video on your phone, this got me thinking about my childhood and asking, “What technology did I have as a child?” There was not a lot, but I remember being a kid and loading up my Apple IIE computer. In order to run one program I would need to install a floppy disk in drive one, then another floppy disk in drive two and wait for the program to load up. I had a few games, but most of them were educational games, which was my mom’s way of saying if you are going to play you will learn as well.
Internet was a foreign concept for me until I was in 7th Grade. I was visiting a friend and he told me he was going to send an email to someone through the computer and I looked at him like he was crazy! He showed me how to get an internet connection by placing the Telephone Receiver on this funny phone contraption (which was a modem, see below) and would he connect to the internet, and yes it did take a while. Some things do not change.
Now today we still have dial up, but most places you have access to high speed internet in your house, at coffee shops, on your phone or even an Air Card in which you can take the internet with you.
Kids today will never know a day without Cellphones, internet, Apps or even text messaging.Technology has changed so much, so fast new things are coming out all the time. Think about the progress of technology and how it has exploded onto the scene. Some people would say it has helped our lives and others would say, it has distracted us from relationships with others. What would your life be if we did not have technology? Can you imagine life without cell phones or even the internet? Would you consider technology a blessing or a curse?
As I have mentioned before, everyone at Kruhu wears an incredible amount of hats throughout the day. While we could muddle up the bottom of our business cards with a long list of job titles, one word really sums up our purpose throughout the day; creative. Constantly trying to think outside the box to help build your business is what gets us going in the morning. Once the creative juices really get flowing, it is next to impossible to turn them off even after hours. I often find myself in my miniature apartment dreaming up ways to creatively solve our space problems. Turns out this guy might have beat me to the punch.
Some of these pieces are really incredible to say the least. Apparently, they are selling like hot cakes in big cities around the world, including places like NYC, where space is at a premium.
I think it is important to incorporate creativity into any line of work, regardless of your job title. The great thing about being creative is that you never can be quite sure what will happen next, stay tuned.
There’s never been a better time to take a step forward with Kruhu. We’ve buckled down and brought on two new superstars to the team. It takes killer finds and leads to hunt down the best people for the positions – and lots of time – or the honest belief that God has pulled the entire situation together. The people that have come our way since we started - any of them – were never really hunting for jobs. They just came and filled the gaps where we’ve imagined Kruhu being one day. Things we’ve talked about a year ago, dreams that we thought may never happen and directions that we wanted to go in but knew that we couldn’t – are now in motion.
Through this journey, we’ve met incredible artists, visionaries and hard workers who are drawn to the unusual. I apologize if I seem proud to be part of such a group, the tiredness from work has been completely countered with the exhilaration of our new possibilities. These two have different strengths (which we will reveal soon enough) and will take us to where we’ve never been. From a small town design house to heights that are not known. The former introductions will soon be announced. Stay tuned. =)
Summer vacations are planned! Details are confirmed.
One detail that enhances the experience, and brings a warm saturation to the soul, is sweet music. Tunes are an essential accessory — the compound of chairs, coolers and towels that will be parked in the sand for 6 days, the back deck that comes custom with the sounds waves and a sweet breeze, AND the evening-relaxing-wind-down-stuffed with a bowl full of shrimp tails. Yes, we have the soundtrack covered. The art of a perfect mix-tape has been diluted over the years due to satellites and such, but nothing beats the personal craft of hand picking the right songs that flow into the soundtrack that is VACATION 2010.
We have 2 mixes that will serve as the glue that binds memories with mindless relaxification. Smack the bag of ice 3 times on the parking lot pavement, click that deck chair back a few notches, apply the sunscreen, and crank your jam-box. You are now ready to drift into ethers… you’re welcome.
Want some of the ear candy? The auditory mocha? The Jamin-on-the-one?
Email us: info@kruhu.com and give us the name of one song that takes you back to that perfect vacation from your childhood and we’ll send you a link and share the love.
Spend time making memories with the ones you love.
The object was to draw something kinda twisting old kegs into a modern and festive mobile bar system. The first sketch was as is below. The original idea was to cover the front lip with bottle caps. We realized after we drilled the centers out of 2000 of them that it would seriously busy up the overall look, instead, we’ll invest time into the curved wood grain effect. To get this effect it was pointless to try to use real wood due to the density and weight – so – we went with foam.
From there I hunted for some inspiration. The largest bottle cap that I could find was nailed to the side of a cracker barrel. See below
Then it began. We carved and coated the foams and started making the bottle caps. We decided to go with steel for a bar top and base. Then we tossed it together to see what it may look like as a concept. I wasn’t against shifting the idea on the fly to make a better project.
So here we are. We had bondo’d the tops of the caps and sanded most of them in the process to apply a nice vinyl sticker to the final tops. Then I popped the crazy question to the Kru…..”What can we do to take these over the edge?” The idea sprung up to machine out the “B” and backlight it. This meant getting acrylic, line sanding it and gluing cut out pieces to it. We also started cutting the centers out of the bottle caps, prepping the tops/bases and painting the foam to look like wood. We also applied a wood banding to look like steel and match the rusted bar tops.
It was a large amount of work. The final product is display below, take note of the lighting the lights run under the lip and behind the “B”. We also built a carrier for the bars they weigh around 400lbs each.
I want to thank absolutely everyone who had a part in helping to put these together. They’ve truly exceeded our own expectations.
Whenever I see that company doesn’t post anything on their blog for a while – I think that they’ve just not made it a priority or they just don’t have anything to say. We at Kruhu has so very much to say. I want to first say thanks to all of those that have contributed to to the projects of last month. We’ve called in favors, asked friends to pull a last night or two and put stress on our families due to the incredible amount of work that May 2010 contained. How can we say thanks? We can’t possibly say it to the degree that your endurance, patience and friendships have displayed. We are just starting to get back to the normal and promise that so very much of it will be shared with you.
