The Greatest Agency

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The Greatest Agency in all the land.

Friday, September 7, 2007

Awesome sketchpad now at House of Plaid

We just added a new House of Plaid product - a limited edition sketchbook. Only 50 copies of this beautious plaid wonder in the entire world!

Labels: houseofplaid

posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:48 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Introducing the House of Plaid

We've just launched the House of Plaid, a side project and experiment for our design and branding firm.

For creatives, by creatives. The House of Plaid allows us to explore and create inspiring design objects that as creative people, we'd like to own ourselves. Each House of Plaid product is made by an independent artist, manufacturer or craftsperson in limited editions. Once sold out, we'll never produce that particular item again.

People who buy House of Plaid products will be supporting an artist, craftsperson or indie business, and keeping individuality alive. And getting some cool stuff.

You'll also note that we've designed the site not as a retail site, but as a blog - (where you can buy product). It's still a work in progress, and we believe a unique approach to small business on the internet. Like a blog, you can comment. Like a store, you can buy.

Our first product is a super sweet Plaid messenger bag. Coming in the next few days - an awesome sketch book. Stay tuned, and bring Plaid into your life!

Labels: houseofplaid, plaid

posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:36 AM 0 comments

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Plaid bags are almost here

Our limited edition Plaid messenger bags are complete. They were built by hand, in Hungary! They're shipping tomorrow, and I'm guessing that process will take about two weeks, with customs and everything.

These will likely be the first product to sell on House of Plaid. And there's only THIRTY of them, in all of the world. They'll each be numbered as limited editions.

I can't wait to get mine - judging by the pictures, these are going to be awesome bags. We'll share details and photos soon.

Labels: houseofplaid, plaid

posted by darryl ohrt @ 11:32 PM 0 comments

Monday, June 4, 2007

Ltd. edition Plaid sketchbooks move ahead

Mucho thanks to the loads of input from other designers, bloggers and creatives regarding Moleskine's ridiculous policy of product customization.

Without getting into details or arguing copyright, we're moving ahead. I'm pleased to announce that the original artist that we've commissioned for these books has happily agreed to begin producing them.

Sketchbooks will be here shortly, the House of Plaid will launch, and 50 people across the creative land will be able to purchase a very special and unique Plaid sketchbook. More details very soon.

Thanks for everyone's input, and especially to the Moleskinerie blog for bringing even more attention to this issue. We promise the finished product will be worthy of the wait.

Labels: houseofplaid

posted by darryl ohrt @ 9:30 PM 3 comments

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Moleskine brand sketchbooks not cool

We've been working on a couple of really cool projects to launch House of Plaid, our soon to be limited edition design goods site.

Today, we suffered a minor setback, and discovered something icky about Moleskine brand sketchbooks. We had commissioned custom linoleum block Plaid artwork, to be printed on Moleskine sketchbooks. There would only be 50 pieces of this wonderful object ever made.

As our artist put together the order with her Moleskine distributor to complete our project, she was informed that Moleskine "does not allow for the resale of customized merchandise unless approved by the manufacturer. Once approved they have their own company that you must use that does commercial printing (but not letterpress/fine art printing)".

Sucks. For us, yes - but the bigger picture is that Moleskine, possibly the coolest brand of notebooks that I've used religiously up until today - doesn't understand current art culture. They should consider a project of this sort the ultimate fandom - and celebrate its existence. Like the artists who customize MacBooks. Or the countless other "mashups" that have become the norm in popular culture. We (or the artist we commissioned) were not attempting to present this product in any other way that might compromise their brand. Bad, bad, bad brand move on Moleskine's part.

So, now we're on the hunt for similar sketchbooks. Preferably a direct competitor to Moleskine. Our linoleum blocks are ready for printing. Know any good manufacturers who have a clue?

Labels: houseofplaid

posted by darryl ohrt @ 11:05 PM 17 comments

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

plaid sketchbook rocks

We received the test printing of the Plaid Sketchbook. It's awesome. We approved the rest of the books for printing. We'll have 50 books - each signed and numbered by the artist - and then we'll officially retire this particular color scheme, so each book will be a true limited edition.

Paul is working on building out our House of Plaid site, where you'll be able to purchase these, and other cool limited edition design goods.

They'll probably sell for around $30, but we're still figuring that out. We'll look to essentially cover costs. This isn't a money making venture for us, but instead a creative exploration where we get to design fun objects. All while supporting independent artists and craftspeople.

Available soon!

Labels: houseofplaid, plaid

posted by darryl ohrt @ 9:39 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

The hottest messenger bag

Our first prototype for one of the products to be featured on House of Plaid was just completed. For newbs, House of Plaid is a side project of ours, where we'll create limited edition design goods, for sale. The sole purpose is to allow us to explore, and design stuff we might not get to design, on an average day. We're working on the site as we speak.

One of the first items we'll feature is a Plaid messenger bag. These will be signed and numbered, and will likely only have a run of 50 pieces. VERY EXCLUSIVE!!

You can see the prototype for the bag, above. We're thinking of adding a black nylon stripe on one side, with a (very small) Plaid logo. Like this. We're also going to have the pockets built in black nylon too, so that they can weather more abuse. What do you think?

Labels: houseofplaid

posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:19 PM 2 comments

Friday, May 11, 2007

End of a wild week of Plaid

What an awesome week. We launched a new company! And a new way of doing business.

We're still in the midst of the many logistics related to our re-branding. You have no idea how many places your logo appears, until it's time to change it. Everyday, something new comes up.

Next week should be pretty fun as well. We're planning our self promotional campaign (more on that in a few), and setting up House of Plaid.

House of Plaid will be a cool side project for us, where we'll sell limited edition design goods. Basically, stuff that we wouldn't mind owning ourselves. The first two products will be a custom sketchbook, and a messenger bag. We should see prototypes for both objects next week. Can't wait.

We'll also officially design this blog. It was originally intentionally left 'un-designed' while we established a brand for Plaid.

In the meantime, we're busy as heck turning VIA logos into Plaid logos. On our invoices. On our checks. And envelopes. And front door. And building directory. And so on...

Have a very Plaid, Plaid weekend.

Labels: collateral, houseofplaid, identity, plaid, via

posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:32 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

plaid exists in hungary

We've posted about the custom messenger bags that we're producing for House of Plaid. Now, the design is really coming along. We had a real hard time finding a plaid pattern that we liked, and that was available in Hungary. Apparently, Hungarians don't wear a lot of plaid, these days.

Anyway - our supplier, Bagaboo, found exactly what we're looking for. A sample is pictured above.

Our prototype bag is being sewn together as we speak. Can't wait to see the finished product.

Labels: houseofplaid

posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:43 PM 0 comments

Thursday, April 12, 2007

introducing the house of plaid

We're going to be introducing a few new business units and service offerings with the launch of Plaid. One of these will be The House of Plaid.

Separate from our service offerings for clients, this is purely a fun, creative outlet. House of Plaid will feature limited edition design goods. Cool stuff that designers, marketing and brand managers, or other creative people might dig. We plan to continually offer new items - and each product will be produced in a limited, numbered production run.

One of the first items is going to be a messenger bag. We're working with this really cool company in Hungary, Bagaboo, that makes custom sewn bags. Really nice stuff.

We're in the process of designing the bag as we speak. The photo above is some other bag made by Bagaboo. Ours will be cooler. So far, it's black, with some really sweet Plaid elements. There will likely only be 50 of these bags manufactured (still working on the numbers). Each one will be a hand-sewn special slice of art. That you can keep stuff in.

We'll keep you updated as this progresses, and as other House of Plaid products materialize.

Labels: houseofplaid, plaid

posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:06 PM 3 comments