Category Archive

When the Marlin crew found out our quarterly meeting was going to be at the Springfield Nature Center, we were pretty excited. The chance to venture out of our offices and see this thing called daylight? Yes, please.

When the big day arrived, after a couple of minutes of disorientation (that sunlight stuff is bright), we made our way to the beautiful Nature Center and learned all about what was going on with all the different facets of the Marlin Network. It was, as always, a blast to see everyone and all of the great work they’re doing.

Of course, it just wouldn’t be a Marlin meeting without a little surprise. And what’s more surprising than a auditorium full of snakes?!

Okay, we may be exaggerating when we say “an auditorium full” (it was more like one or two) and the exclamation point was totally uncalled for, but come on—there were snakes! And in answer to the question we know is on the tip of your tongue, we’re not sure why it had to be snakes.

It was actually a lot of fun though. We learned a lot, got a delicious sack lunch—provided by Food IQ—and at the end, everyone got to pet the snake.

You heard us.

We proudly announce the promotion of Chris Rock to Associate Creative Director here at Marlin. He has since gone through the four documented stages of promotional acceptance. First, anger (for some reason). Second, shock. Third, glee and a general sense of wellbeing. Fourth, contemplative of the rapidly expanding future. Congratulations, Chris.

We can’t tell you how happy we are at Marlin that someone has finally captured the essence of what it is to be a part of today’s fast-paced, no-nonsense, dog-eat-dog, hyphen-filled world of design. A world where up is down, down is left, and getting directions can be pretty tricky.

It’s a world where success isn’t about producing amazing work. It’s not even about being the best there is. It’s about doing all of that and going so far above and beyond your clients’ expectations that they give you their first-born child (plaques are okay, but people are really impressed when they catch a glimpse of a kid in your trophy case).

In all (some) seriousness though, check out the good folks at Digital Kitchen’s humorous take on the goings-on within a design studio.

Are we all this vain? Of course not. Are we this beautiful? Yes.

Marlin production guru Don Leveque just returned from an epic fishing trip to Perrault Lake in Northwest Canada. Hundreds of fish were caught (some of which apparently are the size of European cars). Shore lunches were enjoyed daily. Life was good up there for Don. For the fish, not so much.

Welcome back!

Director Jay Baker was nice enough to send us a time-lapse he made on one day of our Brashears tv shoot a few months ago. Witness the amount of work it took to make a horrible couch look good on film. WITNESS IT.

And if you can tell what the guy on the couch is doing in the last few frames, we’ll give you a dollar.*

* We won’t give you a dollar.

Two rare new species invade the fish tank at local outdoor behemoth Bass Pro Shops. Click to watch the video.

Love that the guys basically get out and squeaky-shoe run their way out of the store entirely unshot.

Hands down the tastiest of the many Marlin entities, FoodIQ, recently launched their very own food blog, Nourish The Thought. (We’ll go ahead and coin the new mash-up term “Fblog!” Say it with your friends! Exclamation points!!) The FoodIQ blog is already chock full of commentary on food and culture and food culture. Good stuff.Case in point, this post on the potential for good and/or evil in the inventive new fast food packaging, Col-Pop from South Korea’s BBQ Chicken.

The basic idea is that you stick chicken nuggets or other similarly poppable morsels into a little plastic holder that is then stuck into the top of a drink cup. There’s even a straw so you can slurp while you munch. (Hey BBQ Chicken. Free name idea to replace the Khmer Rouge-sounding Col-Pop. Ready? Slurp-n-Munch! Or how about the Slurpinmunchinator? The kids will love it!) The result is hot fried lovin’ up top and cool refreshment down below. It’s McD.L.T. Mach Two.

So is it a brilliant packaging solution for today’s hectic lifestyle or the end of civilization as we know it? Do we need to eat nuggets from our cupholders? For that matter, do we need to eat nuggets?We’ll just have to wait and see. And while we wait, why not enjoy the on-the-go convenience of Col-Pop? Mmm…so mobile!

Thanks to Nourish the Thought for the heads-up on the possible impending packaging-induced apocalypse.

We were inundated by costumed shorties yesterday for the Marlin Treat or Treat 2007 Spooktacular. Click here to check out a slideshow of spookaliciousness.

And Shorty Portraits, snapped by our very own Brian Collins.

This is a little tardy (because we’re still freakin’ busy), but just over a week ago The Marlin Network held its quarterly meeting. Unlike the term “quarterly meeting,” it was actually fun. We met for breakfast at The Moxie, Springfield’s only indie movie house, and quite the little startup by a couple of MU alumns.

What was for breakfast, you ask? Your choice of falafel or rye bread with some cheese on it, Dane-style, which I guess is called Smørrebrød. Why was it that, you ask? Read on!

We had a quickie update on what all the different cogs o’ Marlin are currently up to, met a few new people, then enjoyed two fantastic short films.

The first was “West Bank Story,” a fantastic send-up of West Side Story a la the Gaza Strip. It’s the Kosher King versus the Hummus Hut, and there’s even a dancing menora. And that’s why we had falafel staring at us at 8:30 in the morning.

The second was a sweet little animated short that won an Academy Award, “The Danish Poet.” Thus, the Smørrebrød.

Marlin meetings are always events. This one was no exception. Gotta run.

Our first recipient of The Grand Humpie Award For Excellence In Cheeky Behaviour is none other than Mrs. Jill Fannin. The announcement came as no surprise to many in the agency who, well aware of Jill’s near-genetic inability to avoid saying inappropriate things at just the wrong time, were surprised she hadn’t won the Humpie already.

In accordance with internet decency laws, the Grand Humpie-earning comment will not be repeated here. But we will show you a nice picture of Jill with her Humpie. Her humpie humpie humpie. Checkitout!

Michael Stelzer, agency President and all-knowing being, got himself a fancy new MacBook. What’s one of the fun features of the new laptop, you ask? Why, it’s the Photo Booth function with a variety of crazy effects.

The entire Marlin Network (Marlin, iMarlin and Deep) met at a local Go Cart/Batting Cage/Mini Golf paradise to go over a few company updates. But the real reason was to see who could push their lawnmower-like go cart into something approaching speed. There were even a few horrendous pile-ups on the track. (Yes, I’m lookin’ at you, Kujawa.) Click here for more hot pics.

We baptized the intimidatingly huge flat-screen tv in the main conference room with the first of our monthly matinees. The movie was Vernon, Florida, the 1981 Errol Morris documentary about eccentrics in a small Florida swamp town, and what it lacked in surround sound, it more than made up for in quirkiness. Even better that The Office made fun of corporate movie time in this week’s episode.