Weekend mystery at the Spunk shop. The following four items were left on our exterior lawn chairs that face our street outside the shop. What could this mean? The lovely shoe was placed on its side just so….

2 great brand names we came up today – for no client in particular. “Boy Howdy” is a cowboy-themed gay bar and “Click-a-Doodle-Doo” sounds like some kind of web company. I’m tempted to open up “Boy Howdy” on my own. – jj

Design Smoke’s newest episode features Craig Duffney, design director from DesignWorks at BBDO. Parts one and two are online and the final third part will be updated very soon. Enjoy!

Thanks a lot to the Type Directors Club and Chank for having us and everyone that made it out. It was a honor to present at the TDC and we all had blast. Truly Smashing.

Pairings Food And Wine Market is now officially open! It’s off Shady Oak Roadand Hwy 62 in Minnetonka, and their space is beautiful. These photos probably don’t really do it justice. Great furnishings, too. Oh, and the food isn’t too bad either.

(Note: These photos were taken pre-opening, so forgive the emptiness and lack of wine bottles)

A new episode of Design Smoke is now online. In this episode Jeff interviews Katie Kirk and Nate Strandberg of 8 Hour Day. Smoke if you got em!

The Type Directors Club is proud to present “Smashing Alphabets” with Chank and Spunk at their monthly Type Salon in NYC on May 21.

The best branding campaigns all use typefaces to help define their visual identities, but when they do it right, you don’t even notice the font. A font is the voice of the printed word, but how do you choose the right one for your campaign? How can you capture the flavor and personality of your brand by selecting the right type? When does a typeface become a distraction instead of adding distinction? Can a custom font bolster your visual identity?

Learn more about how type differentiates brands through the typographic improvisations and renovations of font designer Chank Diesel of Chank.com. See inspirations for Chank’s early font work, samples of fonts in action and case studies of how custom fonts help create great brands. Hear about the fonts and follies of a full-time, self-employed creative visual artist.

You’ll see fonts in a whole new light once you see how Chank has used custom fonts to help his clients add character and charm to their marketing campaigns. Ben Pagel & Justin Martinez of Spunk Design Machine will speak more about distinction over distraction as they show Spunk’s typographic solutions to some recent design projects.

YOU MUST RSVP TO ATTEND THIS EVENT. Admission is limited to 70 people. For more details, visit the TDC website here.

Big Thanks to Seattle Aiga! http://blog.designreplace.com/
We had an amazing presentation with Chank for the Seattle AIGA on April 16th at Asian Art Museum as part of the Smashing Alphabets. An incredible crowd of folks – and we, no joke, finally got kicked out by security after everyone just kept asking us questions. Then the AIGA folks took us all out for boozing and eating at a righteous joint called Bario. Chank and Spunk team up again on the SA tour in NYC on May 21 for the Type Directors Club. http://tdc.org/tdc/events#salon

Thanks Seattle – you are truly Smashing!