Schaefer Advertising Co.

Events

October 23, 2015

Facing the Beast

“You’ve gotta learn to drive with the fear. There ain’t nothin’ more frightenin’ than drivin’ with a live cougar in the car.”

Wise words from the character, Reese Bobby from the critically acclaimed movie, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.
In our case, the cougar (or tiger) refers to: the beast that is professional networking. Whether you’re a professional concerned with finding new talent or a student worried about starting their career, the Fort Worth Creative Co-op’s Creative Gauntlet is the place you need to be. With 4 years under their belt, the FWCC has become familiar with creating environments for open dialogue and friendly advice. This year the event was held at 916 Bryan, a recently redeveloped 2-story warehouse building designed for creative office uses, housed in Fort Worth’s Near Southside. The free event brought students from TCU, UNT, UTA and The Art Institute of Fort Worth together to make connections with creative industry professionals and present their work in a “speed-dating” style conversation/portfolio review.
Jon Chapman created the look for Creative Gauntlet No. 4 and Trust Printshop screen printed the posters and gift bags.

October 14, 2015

Arts Goggle 2015

Now that the chalk dust has settled, who is ready to plan for Arts Goggle 2016? Ok, so maybe we aren’t there yet but if you were not able to make it out this year, you missed out. This year, Arts Goggle took over the streets of Magnolia and we took over the street between Henderson and S. Adams. Best Idea Ever!! Having the freedom to be as creative as we wanted, we decided to create a 10ft x 40ft chalkboard wall in the field next to our office. The wall was covered from top to bottom with frames that were all shapes and sizes and allowed for the community to be as creative as they wanted. Starting off, the team was vigilant at keeping the wall clean for more people to participate, but as the day went on and the crowds got bigger, they over took us. By the end of the night the chalk drawings, messages and shout outs had taken over the street.
We teamed up with Trust Printshop for the second year in a row and once again, they out did themselves. To keep with the chalk theme, Matt Lucas put on his mad scientist hat and created chalk–infused ink for the day and printed Southside shirts on site. All the proceeds from the shirts went to help Fort Worth South continue to promote public art in the Southside. “If you didn’t leave Arts Goggle covered in chalk dust you were probably doing it wrong. By the end of the night that giant wall and the shirts were the chalk of the town… See what I did there?

Thanks to everyone who tagged us in your posts! It was great to see your art and hear your thoughts. Here are some of our favorites:

“Having so much fun at Art Goggle in Fort Worth today! Made my day to meet and chat with Matt from @trustprintshop and Ken from @schaeferadco. You guys are awesome! #celebratealways #artsgoggle2015” — celebrate.always

“Super cool art wall set up by @schaeferadco at this years Arts Goggle. #artsgoggle2015 #iheartart #FortWorth #instafw #instagram” — brianhutsonphotography
“A little art culture for the soul. @schaeferadco #iheartart #art #streetart #fortworth #texas” — vangbee87
“My super talented wife having fun at Arts Goggle. #artsgoggle #artsgoggle2015 #nearsouthside @schaeferadco #iheartart — weaver.engineer

August 5, 2015

Process: Zoo Ball 2014

Project

The Fort Worth Zoo’s largest annual fundraiser, Zoo Ball, attracts some of the biggest names in Fort Worth to support the Zoo’s local and international wildlife conservation and education efforts. 2015 will see the event’s 30th anniversary, and past invitations have included everything from View-Masters with custom slides to flocked, psychedelic blacklight posters. For last year’s invitation, we wanted something new, exciting and different.

The 2014 Zoo Ball theme was “Festival of the Elephants,” an annual festival held in the Indian city of Jaipur during the Holi festival when elephants are elaborately painted to honor the Hindu god, Ganesha. The theme was chosen in part because the Fort Worth Zoo had just welcomed two baby elephants named Belle and Bowie only a few months prior. (If you look closely, you’ll see they made an appearance in the invitation with their mothers.)

We started by researching Indian culture and events as well as typography, textiles and more. With reams of printouts taped up on the walls of our office for inspiration, we were most intrigued by some of the intricately die-cut wedding invitations we found.

Process

At Schaefer, we have a reputation for punishing ourselves – often saying, “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if…” then scrambling to figure out how to make it happen within the given timeline and budget. For this project, we did it again. Our complex design required us to partner with many more vendors than we typically do, but the end result was worth it.

From paper and printing to foil stamping and laser cutting, each step of the process required multiple press checks and test samples, each of which had to be okayed by the Zoo Ball committee. Thankfully, they loved it, and it was a big hit with attendees. The Zoo even had event decorations produced to match the invitation, including ten-foot panels that were die-cut using the same illustration files.

Results

According to the Zoo, this invitation was their new high-water mark. That’s quite a compliment, but as we get ready to reveal this year’s Zoo Ball invitation, it’s also a slightly intimidating bar that we’ve set for ourselves. Thankfully, we like the pressure.

We have received several awards for the piece, including Best of Show for the 2015 Fort Worth ADDY awards, a national Gold Addy Award and entry into the Graphis Design Annual.

June 10, 2015

Party. Animals.

Each year, the Fort Worth Zoo brings together some of the best restaurants and music acts in town for a tasting and music event called Beastro. For this year’s campaign, we boiled it down to the essentials.

June 5, 2015

Off the Record with Ann Compton

The Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting began with a red lanyard at check-in, private access and the declaration: “We’re making you all reporters today!” from none other than retired ABC News White House Correspondent Ann Compton. As the keynote speaker, she offered objective insight into upcoming campaign media coverage. The Chamber enlisted her 40 years of covering seven presidents and First Families to offer entertainment and nostalgia in an upper-level business audience challenged by regulations and taxes.
Our charge was to create collateral materials that would grant access to the “confidential” White House details regarding business or public policy. We established a political look and feel, with a patriotic color palette and layered “press badges.” In place of a ticket, each of the 700+ business leader attendees received a lanyard and folder of collateral that detailed Chamber activity and relevant articles. Our team even had the honor of meeting the decorated as they received “Off The Record” comments about local business.

March 11, 2015

Advertising is Dead.

The old axiom says: You don’t know what you have until it’s gone. So we thought there was no better way to put on the 2015 American Advertising Awards, than to take it away.
In late 2014, with the help of the People’s League for the Abolition of Advertising (plAAd), the United States government passed Amendment 28 to end the practice of Advertising as it was rampant with persuasion and coercion. Local agencies were canvassed with official cease and desist notices and instructions on how to package and submit their, now illegal, advertising materials.

To keep advertising and our livelihoods alive, AAF Fort Worth swept into action and the AAFFXFW underground advertising movement was born. The group intercepted the government submissions and threw an Addy Awards celebration under the cover of “bingo night” at the local Masonic Temple. Our craft was celebrated, awards were won and Amendment 28 was repealed by night’s end.
Long Live Advertising.

March 1, 2015

A Twenty-Year Overnight Success

Our friends at Fort Worth South Inc. asked us to create the collateral for their twentieth anniversary celebration earlier this year. FWSI began as a small coalition of Near Southside businesses and community leaders and has grown dramatically over the last two decades. The redevelopment of Fort Worth’s Near Southside was the story we wanted to showcase. Schaefer worked with them to find headlines from the past 20 years that helped to tell the story of how this community has become a vibrant, urban, mixed-use neighborhood.

Our very own Ken Schaefer was one of the speakers, talking about the growing creative scene in the Southside. He rocked a bow tie and shared some great insights about the unique opportunities that are available in this culturally rich community. His message focused on how important creative organizations are to helping this area flourish.

November 24, 2014

The Force is Strong With This One

For the third year in a row, we partnered with the Fort Worth Opera to develop the invitation design for their largest and most impactful fundraising event of the year – the Opera Ball. Proceeds from this event go toward programming, community outreach and the annual FW Opera Festival. The Opera Ball committee had chosen a sci-fi theme for this year’s ball. Not saying we’re nerds or anything, but our minds quickly went into hyperdrive upon hearing this. Get it? Of course you do. The Fort Worth Opera Ball competes with several high-end donor events within the city, and it was imperative that our materials grab people’s attention and get them excited to attend.

We ultimately named this year’s ball the Galactic Gala and included references to Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica and other stellar movies. See? We can’t help ourselves. With a minimal print budget, we were still able to create a printed invitation that people could interact with. When you pulled the invitation from the sleeve it looked as if the light saber was turning on. Many people felt compelled to make their own sound effects. Some were better than others, and we may or may not have looked it up on Youtube to see who was closest.

November 8, 2014

Malware Apocalypse!

At this year’s Spice World expo in Austin, Texas, Schaefer client McAfee Security was there in force to help all those IT professionals keep both their I and their T safe. The concept, Malware Apocalypse, likened all the computer-eating monsters roaming the internet to our favorite brain-eating monsters roaming various movies and TV shows.
We helped deck out the booth (and the humans) in all sorts of zombie hunting gear. We had zombie themed props and giveaways – we even had makeup artists at the booth to give people the undead makeunders they always wanted. No surprise, it was a hit. The client agreed it was one of the most successful Spiceworld showings yet, and there’s no doubt that our concept left a lasting impression on attendees.

November 3, 2014

All work and no play makes meetings pretty dull.

If you think a corporate planning session sounds kind of boring, you clearly haven’t been to one that was hosted by Schaefer and TTI. This long-standing client tasked us with inviting their company brain trust together to discuss the coming year’s business and marketing strategies over fine wines and delicious food at Del Frisco’s Grille in Fort Worth. Designer Blair Babineaux came up with this cheeky little custom wine label that paired perfectly with the evening (which was a big success, by the way).