Scribblers' Club

08/05/2026

You thought first dates were stressful? You're about to build your company's first major trade show booth. You know the sayings,"You are what you wear", "you only have one chance at a first impression". Trade shows are no different.

You know your business inside and out. You've helped countless customers. You have a remarkable story - but telling it in a way that stops people in the aisle is another challenge entirely.

I love listening to entrepreneurs talk about their journey, then transforming their experience into compelling words, striking visuals, and an exhibit that attracts the right customers. To me, there's nothing more exciting than a blank trade show floor canvas. Inspired trade show floor conversations start with a well thought out booth.

08/05/2026

Shout out to David of Arbourdale for stepping into the retail market space! The first of many. Happy popped my UPC day!

08/05/2026

Housekeeping, done some foodie related logos over the years!

07/08/2026

Scribblers' Club/SWEET have donated these two images to support Craig Luke's cross Canada TCAT ride. The shirts will be live for online purchase shortly. Is Craig nuts? Depends who you ask! Nuts or not, I admire his mad skills and tenacity to pull this off! Let us know your favourite design by voting with your wallets, and show your support! Will share store link as soon as its live!

07/01/2026

Talk about standing the test of time!? That's a real 3ftx6ft seaplane painting I created for a Red Lobster Dad's cross promotion. It was laden with type CTA's and was distributed as a table talker, neck hanger, door cling vinyls and floor graphics. We then created fairly large dimensional tin signage that was inspired by my vector illustration of the logo. I spot the signage frequently still in various venues that sell Dad's. That artwork was also used on T-shirts and sell sheets. Lastly, that's a real shot of actual ice and some vintage props and Dad's Root Beer wooden case I had kicking around. Always nice being paid for clients work, but another perk was always having Dad's products chilling in the office fridges.

05/21/2026

When you have something to say and you commit to three right side consecutive print spreads to say it. The same concept can be used by stacking Facebook images in a single post. GOING fills first image, GOING with swirling in second image position, and GONE as final image.

05/21/2026

Trade shows:

Every detail matters. You rehearse your key messaging with staff. Refreshing everything to do with your customers struggles and how your products and services help. You sharpen the teams understanding of your current market space, its threats and your current track record. Your team 'knows their Sh! #'. After that it's your tangible branded communications that require attention. You are what you wear when it comes to a trade show presence. Your booth needs to catch attendee attention. It needs to speak directly to them in a way that cuts thru the surrounding competitive clutter. Most competition in the trade show arena is laden with minutia, text heavy boring booths that exhibit only a fear of empty space. A thousand messages side by side fighting for attendee attention.

Less is more.

A river of traffic walks past your booth, you have seconds to catch their attention. In Arbourdale's case we used humour. We started by creating an oasis from the 'noise'. The entire booth is backlit, the space is well illuminated and inviting. Attendees feel a sigh of relief, a break from the incessant onslaught of noise.

Keep it simple.

The poultry market threats were broken down into a highlight reel. Most companies offer a core suite of solutions. Their products may solve a litany of problems but typically those problems can be divided into a collective few categories. Speak to those few, the highlight reel. Capturing the poultry savvy attendees attention utilized clever imagery speaking directly to poultry industry threats. It's said that the correct picture is worth a thousand words; I'll suggest that a clever thought provoking picture speaks volumes. The show was a success with many new leads generated. The entire booth is designed with specific messaging isolated to one or two panels. This allows for booth updates as threats/solutions change without the expense of reskinning an entire booth. A fun side note, attendees were taking selfies in front of the booth panels. Their posts compounding Arbourdale's social media reach.

05/19/2026

Ben is celebrating his birthday with a merch sale! Lots of cool designs, many by yours truly! Enjoy!

Tomorrow is my birthday, but I'm giving YOU the present. I'm running a special birthday sale in the merch store from now until the end of May! If you want to show off your devotion to the Dork Side, there's never been a better time to pick up a shirt, hoodie, or hat!
http://Dorkintheroad.dashery.com

05/11/2026

The target demographic were financial market men. It was at the time a truly male dominated target, men who wanted to build something tangible, who would dig owning a burger joint and would appreciate the benefits of a proven franchise model. The ad was placed in the middle of anything related to financial reporting, as an island ad in the middle of the media if possible. We would pay a premium to slap the ad smack dab in the middle of where we wanted it, even if that meant encouraging the media owners to make exceptions for us. You opened the New York Times financial section and floating dead center and surrounded by the tickers would be the ads. It was placed in in-flight style magazines too, anywhere we could see our man indulging, we put a franchise recruitment ad in front of him. Once the engagement paperwork was flowing we then sent a die cut paper model of the current Prototype M restaurant design. Printed flat on 11x17 card stock and folded to 8.5x11 the die cut models were easily mailed out. The models would either make it home to the kids, or they would be built and displayed in the financiers office where they became topics of discussion. Working with the very bright Jim McGrory we later undertook creating another complex onboarding 'Welcome Kit' for signed clients. More on that and the hedonistic burger ritual in a future post. PS - If I ever write a business autobiography it will include a section on Laura Ashley pant suits and "F-OOOO-D THEE-ATE-RRR".

05/06/2026

Tiny video, big product. More to come.

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