Stop the Insanity!

Fish Tag Friday has taken off across the country (See CNN article). This insidious game is right up there with cat juggling for its cruelty to the animal world.

The safe design

I was struggling with the concept, so I took the easy road and illustrated a fish. Mark Osborne gave me the concept of the fish rejecting the hook for the small fish.

Bill Bass Sez, "Think Safety!"

This idea came to me one morning, when everyone in the creative department joined in singing this 1984 ditty by Barnes & Barnes first heard on the Dr. Demento Show.

Animal Rights Cause: Stop Fish Tag Fridays

In the spirit of Steve Martin, the Three Stooges, and Howie Mandel. This is one of my favorites, but I know it is over the head of most people and will be the first to be rejected.

Don't Throw Caution To the Wind

My favorite, you have to actually think to understand the visual. This is a melding of the phrase, Don’t throw caution to the wind, and various safety symbols.

Anatomy of a concept

Neways Human Resources asked the Creative Services department to come up with a t-shirt design for their upcoming safety fair, they supplied us with two concepts: Got milk? and Hooked on Safety. The project was open to everyone in the department to participate. This diagrams shows the different directions I took in trying to resolve the problem. HR specifically asked that a fish be incorporated into the Hooked on Safety concept. Mark Osborne gave me the idea of a fish rejecting the hook in favor of the small fish. And John Tracy gave me the idea of incorporating Ron White’s famous line: You can’t fix stupid.

Neways—Insight Newsletter Jul/Aug 2008

Editor: Christopher Bigelow; Illustration (building rendering): Steve Keele

The Danger of Plate Glass

A Western Tanager stuck our building (see image at left) and was killed, here is an excerpt of an article on the dangers of glass buildings:

Over one billion birds strike windows in the U.S. every year. It is rapidly becoming the most significant contributor to the overall decline in bird populations. Birds don't see or understand windows and reflections. Instead, they see images that signal a flyway -- and they fly into the glass.

The expanding use of curtains of glass to enclose buildings will cause bird collisions to grow to catastrophic numbers. And with this comes an increasing concern about the problem. For architects, designers, building owners and managers, residents and tenants, bird collisions are an evolving business and environmental issue.

—Birds & Buildings Forum