Prize-Winning Cow, 1904 World's Fair by W. Richards

I was looking at the photos in this collection last night. The last time I saw them was when I built the web site for the Webster Groves Historical Society in 2005. I quickly remembered how unique and interesting they were, so I thought I’d share.

The photos were created by an amateur photographer, Walter Richards, from Webster Groves, MO. They provide a non-traditional view of the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair with some other St. Louis images mixed in.

A Summer at the Fair

Between charging forward with creative at Big Wheel and activities outside the office, I probably listen to at least 50 hours of music a week on average.

This month I’m spotlighting 5 picks that fall under the “Music to Motivate” category.

Enjoy!

1. Chromeo – Fancy Footwork

2. Hockey – Too Fake

3. Aloe Blacc – I Need A Dollar

4. Pacha Massive – Don’t Let Go

5. Black Kids – Look At Me

We are pleased to announce the recent launch of a new and greatly improved Web presence for AEGIS Professional Services. In addition to a completely new look and feel, driven by the brand we created for them earlier, the new site takes advantage of the best tools the Web has to offer in regards to content management as well as interactivity with the audience as a result of the LinkedIn conversation that is accessible via the site.

As a business that is focused on the concerns, actions and opinions of its clientele, AEGIS is now properly outfitted with a Web communications platform that suits their unique and innovative practice areas.

Visit their new site at: http://www.aegisps.com and don’t be shy about joining the current conversation/discussion through the direct linkage in the lower right of the Home page. You may even find one or more Big Wheeler’s weighing in on the matter at hand…

Kingsbury Animal Hospital, known in part for their compassion and understanding of animal behavior to better treat patients, recently came to us with the task of re-defining their identity system.

The hospital architecture is semi-inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright. The interior is warm with wood finishes, stained glass, tall ceilings, and is inviting yet sophisticated.

With these attributes in mind, we created a new logo and identity system that combines these architectural attributes with man’s best friend – the dog, and man’s other best friend – the cat.

To learn more, visit Kingsbury Animal Hospital, located in the University City Loop in St. Louis, Missouri.

One of the new banners for the updated City Museum home page

City Museum, our local experts on imagination and creation, always have some new development brewing to provide a fresh and engaging experience for every visit. Recent additions include life-size Rock’em Sock’em robots that you can use to battle your friends for bragging rights, new secret passages, renovation in the first floor area, and more. In addition, expanded summer hours will begin soon on March 15th. With so many updates, it was only proper to also give their web site an update to reflect their inspired activities. We’ve updated their home page with some fresh colors, photos, and a scrolling-marquee-type banner to highlight the activities of St. Louis’ most imaginative group.

We always enjoy working on branding campaigns, big or small, from the ground up. In this case, one of the largest designer resale shops in St. Louis came to us with the task of defining a new store name, logo, business cards, advertising, and a simple micro-site.

With an audience ranging from late teens to early early forties, it was important to have a name that evoked personality and spoke to the exclusivity about “being in the know” to find out about their trendy name brands at great prices.

From that idea, the name “clique” was born and everything else fell into place.

To learn more and join the clique, visit cliquestl.com.

Are you looking for something a little less traditional in outdoor furniture. Not only has loll designed a really nice looking modern line, they have done it with 100% recycled materials. You can relax in style while enjoying the outdoors you are helping to save.

As you probably know, we are big fans of good typography. I recently discovered typographicposters.com. It’s a design directory of typography mixed with poster style artwork, focused to inspire the graphic design community. If you get a chance, check it out.

On January 28th at 7pm, the first ever Pecha Kucha night in St. Louis will be held in downtown St. Louis. A tradition started in Tokyo (and now spread globally), Pecha Kucha nights are an opportunity for local artists, entrepreneurs, thinkers, and creators to get together and present an interesting thought of their choice and stimulate discussion. Each presenter is allowed 20 images, and 20 seconds to talk per image. This should be a great opportunity to not only be exposed to some new ideas, but also learn some new faces in the local St. Louis community. It’s like the TED conferences, but from the grassroots up. And each presentation is less than 7 minutes.

For more information and a list of the presenters, visit http://www.pecha-kucha.org/night/saint-louis/1.

For the past several months, I have been watching a show on HGTV named, “Holmes on Homes.” The premise of the show is for a contractor, “Mike Holmes” to go into peoples residences to repair and correctly finish their “Home” that a previous contractor had incorrectly remodeled or walked away from before the job was done, costing them big dollars. When you watch this show, it’s hard to believe that anybody could treat their customers this poorly and show this much lack of character, but I guess it happens.

Mike Holmes is like a savior to these people and I like him. I like him because he believes in hard work. He believes in being fair and doing the best job, not just an average job. He takes great pride in what he does for a living and I wish we saw more of that in America in general. Any job worth doing is worth doing it well.

Every time I watch this show, I think of my team at Big Wheel. I see the care and pride in producing good work and doing it right. I see how much it means to everyone to make a project a success. Most of all, I see the passion and endurance that takes a project from the beginning all the way to the end – which is just about the most crucial part of the process, especially in the t.v. show referenced above. If you can’t cross the finish line, don’t even bother to start the race.

So cheers to you in 2010 and the delivery of the Big Wheel promise of doing “The Hard Work.”