Young, Foxy & Free Fall Scene Issue

In mid-September, the Fall Scene Issue of Young, Foxy & Free was published by Candy—on September 21, the Fall Equinox, the first official day of fall.

The issue was welcomed into the world with a fun party at 283 Bar, featuring Dan Donahue and Page Campbell as DJ's, and attended by many YFF contributors, advertisers, subjects, and readers.

The concept behind the fall issue is inspired by what many other publications do in Athens in the fall—it's a "welcome back students" and/or Guide to Athens kinda idea—but done with the full-on Young, Foxy & Free treatment. First of all, our issue came out 4-5 weeks into the academic year, after the flush of moving-in, getting oriented, and getting bombarded by other publications and their special fall issues—packed full of text book ads and pizza coupons—had receded. So, from YFF comes the inside dope on Athens.

Then, we told the story of Athens as a physical place, as a culturally active place, and provided a sense of orientation through use of images and design. We started with a photo of the burning Georgia Theatre (something that may have happened "while you were gone"), and also had old Polaroids by Chris Bilheimer with the original Grit location on fire. The music and party scene was rendered with photos by then-art student Eddie Whelan. We showed cycling as a mode of transportation and sport with bicycle messenger and athlete Zak Noles. Two art projects presented unique takes on Athens, as well as photographer Daniel Fell with his moody landscapes. More Athens bands were photo'd just for this issue, and two local models and our mayor posed in key Athens landmark locations.

Glued inside the issue, and also made available at the Athens Welcome Center, is our own Athens On A Postcard—a guide to the best of Athens local businesses, the ones who also support Young, Foxy & Free with their ads.

Young, Foxy & Free is rooted in Athens, dependent on its creative people, the businesses that partner with us, with printing by Athens Printing Company. We try to give back to all of these through our printed page and also our various online assets, including our blog, Google Calendar and Map, Facebook page and Twitter posts. You can find any of them and see the last two issues by starting at our website, youngfoxyfree.com. Join us at these locations, comment, contact us, follow us. Come be Young, Foxy & Free!

Sticker design just in time

Candy worked with Dana Jones on his newish business, Athens Print Studio, to develop an identity. We set upon designing a logo, and in that process discussed the nature of his business (how to define it for potential customers), what should the logo express and how, has a URL for the business been secured, what materials will be generated featuring the logo?

Dana specializes in art reproduction and commercial printing, with an emphasis on custom jobs and archival printing on specialized papers. He was midway through a large project for a client who will be selling faithful reproductions of paintings at a major art fair. This was an opportunity for Dana to get his name out there—so we decided that an adhesive label of the logo should be produced ASAP in order to brand the pieces that were about to go to market.

The Candy logo was designed with this use in mind—imagining the logo on a small sticker (1.5 inches square) positioned on a wide range of sizes of foam core backing for the custom reproductions. The treatment of the straightforward type involved reversing the font, then reducing the black boundary area to allow some letter forms to create shapes. The resulting design has the effect of letting the white from the type flow outward to the edges of the sticker and beyond—to the whole area on which it's placed. The logo isn't confined to it size; it bleeds into any contiguous white space.

Candy is a vendor of labels and stickers and got these one-color stickers produced in a few days. Dana was able to complete his client's print job and brand them with his new logo. Candy continues to work on Athens Print Studio's marketing materials, while Dana is to print a limited-edition photo-poster for Michael, entitled White Pylon. Dana can be contacted for hire at athensprintstudio@gmail.com.

Art show card for Didi, Carol & Lou

Michael is a member of Athens Design Development (ADD), and he was asked to design a postcard for an art show by three of the other members of ADD: Didi Dunphy, Carol John and Lou Kregel.

The show, which is at Athens Academy Bertelsmann Gallery (1281 Spartan Lane, Athens, GA 30606), is now on view until December 11. The reception is Sunday, October 25, from 2-4 PM.

Because there were three artists in the show, the design steers clear of showing any of their work. All three are accomplished colorists—Didi's painted surfaces and vinyl colors, Carol's quality-pigment oil paint, and Lou's expertly-applied house paint all share color as a key feature. So for this Candy job, Michael chose to just use type and color to create an eye-catching card.

The font used was chosen for its monumental presence—just like the art! The type was skewed to get more dynamism, and that perspective suggested the extruded 3-dimensional treatment.

The back side of the card was crafted to allow for mailing; by placing a 3-inch wide address label on the bottom left and a stamp on the upper right, the card could be mailed without obscuring any of the info—which runs diagonally.

The high-gloss card was printed by Candy through our special vendor relationship, which allows us to offer our clients inexpensive high-quality cards at many stock sizes.

It's an honor to be able to represent three artists through Candy's graphic design, and I'm thankful that they trusted for this job. Go Didi, Carol & Lou!

EcoFocus Film Festival, Year 2

The second annual EcoFocus Film Festival is occurring during this month of October—with 2 or 3 feature-length films showing per week, as well as 3 blocks of shorts. Most films will show at Ciné, 234 W. Hancock Street in downtown Athens, Georgia.

Last year, Candy worked with festival director Sara Beresford on the 2008 EcoFocus Film Festival to design the 16-page program and a promotional postcard. Coming late to the process, Candy was working with the logo and campaign visuals that had already been developed—but we were able to provide useful assistance through marketing advice and production of those pieces.

This year, Candy's role expanded to include responsibility for all of the design elements for the 2009 festival. Candy designed a striking visual as the cornerstone for all promotion: a large lower-case letter "e."

The letter E was chosen to represent "environment," which is the topic of all of the festival's films. It was also floating around in Michael's mind from the 1970's when he was involved in the so-called "ecology movement" as a teen; there had been an attempt to brand the movement with a symbol—in the manner of the peace sign—that was based on the letter E and/or a Greek letter.

The Candy design renders the E with the graphic element found in the permanent festival logo—which is loosely based on a film reel. The graphic was rendered at various sizes and colors of green, a color that had been studiously avoided in the 2008 campaign and in the logo itself; Candy sought to reintroduce "green" as a color without resorting to what is understandably an overused idea in the realm of marketing "green" solutions for everything from consumer products to multi-national oil companies. By using lime green, blue-green, green-blue and olive, the color is varied and fresh. Then the chaos of all the overlapping and differently sized and colored icons was overlaid with a unifying color at the outline of every icon. Since it is not constrained by the big "e," this thin stroke in a light lime-green creates a fuzzy "halo" around the design.

Candy designed a bus poster, city poster, marquee posters and program cover. Candy also designed and printed 5000 two-sided postcards. The Candy design was provided to other agents for use in billboards (Fairway Outdoor Advertising), cable TV (Comcast Spotlight), print ads (Flagpole Magazine), and website. Candy was pleased to recommend Athens Printing Company to EcoFocus for the program, and also for their new environmentally-friendly large-format printing services. (Athens Printing Company expertly prints our Young, Foxy & Free magazine.) Candy provided its services at a reduced rate for this non-profit festival, and therefore is included as an in-kind sponsor of the event.

Last year, Michael was impressed by the quality and content of the festival's feature films; the idea behind the festival is that the movies are entertaining, even as they provide insight about topics such as transportation, food, energy, the environment. Because, as the festival tag line states, it's about where we live. Come to Ciné this month and see some engaging films at the 2009 EcoFocus Film Festival!

Supercluster designs by Candy

Candy worked with Vanessa Hay—my bandmate from Pylon—on some of the designs for the debut CD by her other group, Supercluster. We started with art work by Randy Bewley, the guitarist of Pylon who also played on most of the Supercluster tracks before his death in February. I combined elements from the two drawings that Vanessa and crew wanted to use in order to create a wrap-around panel for the CD booklet, with the left half serving as the CD cover and the right half as the back cover of the 8-page booklet.

The Supercluster "logo" is comprised of the font Unicorn, which Vanessa had chosen a while back. For the 2-color disc design, I flowed the text into the wave-like shapes of an op art graphic.

It's typical Candy design—not fussy, tries to stay out of the way of the art work, and hopefully errs towards legibility. The interior of the booklet and the CD tray card were designed by Supercluster bassist, Kay Stanton.

In the role of photographer, I recently photographed the 8 members of Supercluster who played on the CD or in live performances. That photo will make its debut in the fall issue of Young, Foxy & Free, coming on the Autumnal Equinox, September 22.

Supercluster's Waves CD will be released on October 6, with shows around that time in Athens and Atlanta.

Promotion Before The Fall: boxes, calendar, Facebook and Tweets

HELLO YFF AD PARTNERS

It's mid-August, still hot and relatively quiet in Athens—but we're working to give your more traction this summer from your ad in Young, Foxy & Free.

NEW PUBLICATION BOXES

The physical distribution of our magazine is important in getting your ad our there and in the right hands. We've just expanded that system by getting two of the downtown Athens publication boxes—and we'll get more as they become available. Now you can be sure that YFF is always available, day and night, at these two spots: in front of the post office on Hawthorne Avenue, and on the NE corner of College and Clayton, by the Fred Building (Southern Mutual Building) and across from the parking deck.

NEW ONLINE FEATURES AT YFFMAG.COM

We've added two new features to our suite of online offerings: a Google calendar of our choice events in Athens, and a Google map of all our distribution locations. If your business is not listed or if you are out of copies of YFF, please notify Michael at michael@yffmag.com or text-phone him at 706-363-0933.

HELP US PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS

We view our relationship with you as ongoing and mutually beneficial—and we want to continue to bring value to your ad presence in YFF. As we head into the busy period of students moving in and faculty and families coming back from the summer, let us promote you in our blog, Facebook page and Twitter posts. Please send ideas and information to Michael, become a fan of our Facebook page, and follow us on Twitter (so we can follow you and repost some of your tweets). Send us pertinent links, dates, details!

OUR FALL ISSUE IN THE WORKS

Our Fall Scene Issue is in the works and will be all about Athens as a place, a vibe, a social context. We'll explore the physical landscape, landmarks, transportation, people, parties—and of course, more music and art. After all the "Welcome Students" publications have run their special issues—loaded with ads, coupons and come-ons—the new Young, Foxy & Free will appear on the scene after everyone has gotten their bearings and it's starting to feel like fall, on the Autumnal Equinox, September 22. We think they'll be ready and attentive to our presentation, our content, and our ad partners. Make a commitment now to be an ad partner in our fall issue; as long as you run continuously, you are eligible for our 4-issue rate of $250. And best of all, you'll have an uptick in your sales receipts before we need to collect for your ad: our ad deadline for proofs and payment is September 8. Reserve now and Candy can begin work on your one-sixth page color display ad for fall.

Come be Young, Foxy & Free!

michael@yffmag.com

706-363-0933

This email is from Michael Lachowski at Candy, the Pro Active ad agency, PO Box 749, Athens, GA 30603.

Call for Submissions to the EcoFocus Film Festival Environmental Short Film Competition

Candy is working again this year with the EcoFocus Film Festival, scheduled this year for October. The festival shows feature and short films that combine entertainment, inspiration and information on topics including food, transportation, climate, water, energy, development and nature.

A call for submissions for their environmental short film competition follows; please pass this information along to those who may be interested:

Call for Submissions to the EcoFocus Film Festival Environmental Short Film Competition

Short film entries for the EcoFocus Short Film Competition should be submitted no later than August 7, 2009 through www.withoutabox.com. Early submissions are encouraged. Short films (maximum 40 minutes) should in some way relate to the environment. We are open to any genre or style of film, and welcome a variety of environmental subjects. Films that push beyond the boundaries of what one would generally consider to be "environmental" are welcome. We seek films that promote awareness, discussion, and hopefully action among the film’s viewers. We would like these films to inspire our audiences. Awards and prizes will be determined. Although films of up to 40 minutes are accepted, please note that it is easier for us to program shorter films. Questions can be directed to ecofocusfilmfest@gmail.com.

EcoFocus Film Festival will take place during the month of October 2009. EcoFocus is a presentation of the Odum School of Ecology at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia. The mission of EcoFocus is to bring great films to our audiences and combine them with creative outreach activities and events to inspire audiences to become better stewards of our planet. EcoFocus is a community effort that draws upon the dedication of a variety of individuals, organizations, foundations and sponsors from the Athens community and beyond. More information can be found at www.ecofocusfilmfest.org.