Posted: May 28th, 2009 under News.
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As you know, tooting one’s horn is not particularly high on our roster of things to be doing. But once in a while something special happens when tooting becomes permissible. For a second year in a row we are privileged to announce that one of our clients, Paste magazine, has been nominated for an ASME award. We are grateful to work alongside them in their quest to create one of the most important entertainment/music magazines in the country. Winners will be announced end of April.

Posted: April 9th, 2009 under News.
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I rarely make new years resolutions, mainly because I don’t feel strongly compelled to change much about myself. I keep a tight budget, go to the gym, eat the right foods, etc. But I’ve never thought of doing something to build my creative muscle during my free time. Luckily back in January I found a thread entitled “Make Something Cool Everyday” on one of my favorite sites online. Dozens of artists were contributing original art. The rules were simple and very broad: make something that looks cool and do it everyday if you can. So I started submitting, and quickly realized this was going to be a lot harder than I thought.

I discovered limiting myself in terms of concept was key. All designers love the idea of a 100% open-ended project until they actually have to go about creating it; the freedom can be crippling. My first few entries dealt with creating imagery based on my most-played songs in iTunes. That morphed into building a visual representation of some experience I had each day, kind of like a visual journal. Meanwhile, other submitters were reamagining movie posters, creating photo collages, designing craft projects … endless creativity, really. My results were humbling in comparison, to say the least. It exposed my creative limits for all to see, but at the same time challenged me to think outside of the box and evolve my design sensibilities.

The project has been well worth it so far. I may not have created something every single day, but I would encourage any person with an ounce of creativity to give it a shot. You never know, you may discover a new hobby, and become internet-famous!

(A few of the things I’ve created are pictured above)

-posted by Josh

Posted: February 20th, 2009 under Design.
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It is an unfortunate truth that many non-profits, churches included, stay firmly “inside the box”, unwilling or afraid to be different and draw attention to themselves. It is also unfortunate that many accept less than great design, when we are called to dwell on what is good, true, AND beautiful. So when Grace Presbyterian Church contacted us from The Hamptons and had the idea to invite and even challenge members of their community to “Question God”, we jumped at the opportunity to design the campaign for them.

The objective was to reach skeptics who didn’t think there were good answers to their questions, and to encourage the community, in a winsome manner, to earnestly approach God with the questions that challenge their disbelief. The church then donated money to a charity of the questioners choosing, and held an event last week, at which the notable Dr. Os Guinness answered the #1 most frequently asked question—”God, if you are so good, why does evil exist?”

The campaign included a direct mail postcard, posters and a website, all of which needed to capture the attention of the viewers and prompt them to ask their questions. 

Check out the website at ItPaysToQuestionGod.com—but don’t ask a question unless you live in The Hamptons and can join one of their discussion events to find out the answer. And if you do live in The Hamptons—Metaleap plans on visiting you, so get your guest room ready!

And thanks to Grace Presbyterian for trusting us with such an exciting campaign in the life of their church and community.

Posted: February 9th, 2009 under Design, News.
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One of the perks of sharing our office space with Paste magazine is the wealth of musicians that stop by to record live performance podcasts for pastemagazine.com.  We’ve had everyone from Josh Ritter to Joan Osbourne to Matthew Sweet grace us with their presence over the past few years. Last week, Switchfoot’s Jon Foreman and Nickel Creek’s Sean Watkins paid us a visit with their new band Fiction Family to play a few songs, including a cover of Radiohead’s “Idioteque” around a single mic. The harmonizing was great; Watkins’ voice provided a good backdrop to Foreman’s and the addition of instruments of a more Nickel Creek fare added a real earthiness to the sound. I love experimental collaborations like this in that it may work out, it may not, but Foreman and Watkins definitely have a good time with it for however long they wish to team up.

Paste has more artists lined up for future podcasts including singer/songwriter Joshua Radin and tourmate Dar Williams. And I’m hearing rumors that Andrew Bird (one of my favorites) may stop in this week to play us some tunes from his new album. Here’s hoping.

-JB

Posted: February 2nd, 2009 under Music.
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We usually launch projects with a big bang. Lots of pieces and moving parts and high-priced models holding signs and doing lots of pointing. But this time, it’s a soft launch beginning with a new logo we did for Burnside Writers Collective. Soon to come—total site makeover with bells and whistles galore.

Ahem, a few words from our client about it: “I’m fairly ecstatic about it, to be honest. José does amazing work. He and his wife Nikolle are awful to work with though…like the Chef Gordon Ramseys of graphic design. I’m hoping they’ll take my counseling fees out of the bill.”

I liked everything he said. Except for the quip about Chef Gordon. Strike bells and whistles galore after all. Think early web, circa 1997.

Enjoy.

Posted: January 27th, 2009 under News.
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Thanks to a fabulous client who happens to be a Senior Producer at CNN, the Metaleapers were treated to a behind-the-scenes tour of CNN in Atlanta. The scale is awesome, from the number of editing suites to the size of the graphics department, you get a clear picture of the effort, manpower, and talent required to keep the network running, covering world news 24/7. The newsroom was huge, very similar to a Wall Street trading floor, only instead of watching numbers on screen, they were all dealing with words and pictures—watching news feeds from around the world and working on their own stories. Of course, the highlight was spending time in the live production room—producers watching the pre-prepared timeline, making changes on the fly, communications between the producers, anchor, graphics, cameras, etc. It was awesome to see in action and we’re all a bit more proud of our city for being home to CNN!

Posted: January 23rd, 2009 under News.
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Since time immemorial, we have been fascinated by the aging process.

What might we look like given a different genetic strain? What if I was bigger, stronger more attractive? Even our ancestors, (if you believe in that sort of thing) may have thought: Why am I so hairy? Good question Lucy, but first, you should think about removing the dried mud and honey from your beard.

Soon came the modern age where our greatest scientific writers explored the idea of all of us having dopplegangers. Those writers being the geniuses behind Twilight Zone and Invasion of the Body Snatchers of course. However, I don’t think we ever envisioned murdering replacements to supplant ourselves.

Then there was the plasticine age. A wonderous time where we could finally manipulate our fleshy selves by siliconing ourselves to—well—death. Where is the fun in that we wondered, especially when the self-proclaimed “voice of this generation” loses his mom to a nip and tuck?

Finally, the gaming revolution arrived on our computers in which some 10-year-old working for Activision et al decided we needed an avatar to play video games. (See Second Life and Wii.) At this point, we just shook our heads, shrugged our shoulders and said, what the hey! and dove right into the mix. Thus began our internal revolution here at the “Leap” to assume our own identities for the sake of just fitting in with this crazy world.

Many thanks to our friends at Veer for giving us the tools to give you the new US! Here’s hoping we get to see more of you in the new year.

Posted: January 7th, 2009 under News.
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As with every new year, there is a feeling of hope in the air that is contagious. The list of resolutions seems do-able and for at least a moment, we find ourselves willing to believe in humanity again. In ideas that are bigger than ourselves—love, altruism and maybe even peace.

I am not immune to this “newness” and as a designer and studio head, there are an incredible amount of things that I hope to accomplish this year. Greater opportunity to create lasting cultural renewal through design and branding. More varied projects. More collaboration. Growing more deeply rather than broadly in knowledge base, and, greater trust and openness with clients. 

Mostly, I want to be better. Better at life. Family. Friendship. Giving. Worship.

I believe that what we can accomplish creatively as a studio is directly connected to the things that we pursue outside of our work. If we pursue work that “matters” it will hold true that our life outside of work will become more full and rewarding.

This has been our mantra from the beginning and will continue to be so. We have never pursued growth for the sake of growth or profit to become rich. For the last seven years, we have worked extremely hard at communicating our ethos to others with much success and look forward to doing so for the next seven.

Here’s to the pursuit of what matters most to all of us.

Posted: January 2nd, 2009 under News.
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Yay! We were deemed worthy of entry into Print Magazine’s 2008 Regional Design Annual for our work on a corporate logo as well as a cover for the 5th anniversary of Paste magazine. Cocktails anyone?

Posted: October 28th, 2008 under News.
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