These Sharpie keepsakes will last long after you say “I Do”…

All images via Pinterest

Thinking about tying the knot with some personalized Sharpie markers for party favors? How about a Sharpie-inspired wedding cake?  We are doing our best to dig up the cream-of-the-Sharpie-commitment-crop and share them with you on our “Love Is Permanent” Board on Pinterest! Take a peek and share your own by tagging them “sharpie.”

]]> http://blog.sharpie.com/2012/05/goin-to-the-chapel/feed/ 0 http://blog.sharpie.com/2012/05/sharpie-snap-share/ http://blog.sharpie.com/2012/05/sharpie-snap-share/#comments Wed, 02 May 2012 21:47:26 +0000 Caitlin http://blog.sharpie.com/?p=8831 Continue reading →]]> …With Sharpie on Instagram!

Instagram is a fun and quirky way to share your life with friends through a series of pictures. Snap a photo with your mobile phone, then choose a filter to transform the image into a memory to keep around forever. Then share it with your friends on Instagram and  on a photo-by-photo basis on Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter. Additionally, if you specify a location with your photo, you can opt to have them check you in on Foursquare. Pretty nifty right?

In honor of National Photography Month and to celebrate that Instagram is now available on iPhone AND Android phones; I thought it was about time to introduce the world to our best kept secret, Sharpie on Instagram! Ok, ok, its not that well-kept, we already have more than 14,000 followers and growing ( #humblebrag ).

Want to check out Sharpie on Instagram? 

1. Download the FREE Instagram app to your mobile device (NOTE: it is currently only available on iPhone and Android devices)

2. Create an account and get snapping!

3. Follow @sharpie and be sure to tag us in all your Sharpie-riffic photos!

Instagram also has a pretty sa-weet blog that showcases the best pictures from around the Instagram universe if you want to check it out, we highly recommend it!

Happy snapping!

The heart breaker, in the flesh... or at least in black and white.

Lock up your hearts ladies, he already stole ours and we cant be held responsible for your newest raging crush.  

Let’s get to the good stuff… 

Tell me about yourself! Where are you from? Interests? Likes? Dislikes? Pet Peeves?

I jokingly like to call myself the “Kid from Cleveland.” In the 1930s, there was a group of teenage actors who were called the “Dead End Kids.” They were wisearse street kids who always wore newsboy hats, and usually had some dirt on their face. I was sort of a 1980s version of that. Growing up in Cleveland from a family a modest means, I learned how to be scrappy as a youngster. My friends and I were always up to no good: smoking cigs, playing street ball, stealing baseball cards, running from dogs, jumping neighbor’s fences, throwing eggs at cars. My sweet mother had her hands full! When I was a kid, I was proud to have bruises and scars on my body after playing outside. Having bruises and scars meant I was having fun.

What inspires you and your work?

I’ve watched Winnie-the-Pooh about 10 times in the last year. Christopher Robin says, “You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” What an idea! I’m currently trying to be more naive with my work. Graphic design books and blogs will only get me so far. We should be inspired by other mediums, but more importantly, we should be in touch with an openness in life that has nothing to do with information, language, “success,” or dollars.

How would you describe your style? 

I work hard to get my voice and my humor in my work. As my old boss Brian Collins says, we’re not in the ‘kind of nice business.’ Meaning, we’re here to be provocative, to be memorable, and to tell great stories. Even though I’ve adopted a drawing style, if you look at my body of work you’ll see that I generally work in many mediums across branding, identity, and editorial. I have no interest in making work for solely aesthetic reasons. If we ask questions, and think like storytellers, then we can have a larger dialogue with our clients and ourselves.

You seem to be quite the jack-of-all-trades; working as a designer, art director, and illustrator, what IS it about your work that gets you goin’?

I used to paint homes, hang wallpaper and drywall for 4 1/2 years before going to design school in NYC. I was a horrible high school student and I needed time to figure out what I wanted. In the beginning, I was a laborer, hauling buckets of wallpaper glue up ladders for 12-15 hours a day. That taught me an unruly work ethic. Later, it showed me how fortunate I am to be doing what I love, and how lucky I am to do it in New York. I try not to take any of it for granted. The way I see it right now, being a designer is a duty, not a career choice.

How did you get started? 

Having mentors and constantly making things. My old creative director, John Fulbrook, hired me right out of school as a book jacket designer for Simon & Schuster. Soon after that, he left the publishing world to become a creative director in branding, and he took me with him. I will forever be indebted to him for helping my career blossom. I think it’s paramount to find someone that will help guide you, beyond design, in a way that teaches you more about life. I remind my students about this often. As for the illustration stuff, it came as a result of wanting to explore different things, and to get my name in the Times so I could impress girls. Isn’t that what it’s all about, anyway?

Worked for us...

How did you come up with your Valentine’s Tweet-a-thon?

After leaving Apple (yes, THAT Apple) in October, I promised myself that I would make more time for personal projects. I started thinking about how much time I spend on Twitter, and how I don’t know most of the people I chat with. So I wondered how I could honor these virtual relationships? However, as many of us do, I beat myself up with doubt and fear: How could I possibly draw a valentine for every single one of my Twitter followers? Why would it matter? Who would care? Einstein famously said, “If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.” I tried convincing myself NOT to do it. Luckily, my good buddy Erik Marinovich encouraged me to follow through with it. In the end, it was extremely rewarding on many levels, and I was very touched to see how much it resonated with people.

One look, a flutter, and some eyelash batting/tweeting and we knew...

...this was a Sharpie match made in heaven.

You have been a part of some pretty incredible stuff; your work at Apple, the Ace Hotel, features in the New York Times, Wired and Time magazine, JUST to name a few, what accomplishment do you wish you could have unlimited bragging rights on about?

I’m proud of the work I’ve been able to do, and I feel fortunate to have so many inspiring and encouraging friends, mentors, and colleagues around me. Nothing is done without them. While I leave the bragging on the resume, I do pull out the Apple card a lot. They’re the most successful and innovative company in the world, everything they touch is a smash, the whole world watches them, and every client wants to be them. And besides the fact that my mother questions me at least once a week with that Are you sure you didn’t make the biggest mistake of your life by quitting? tone in her voice, I’m happy with my decision to quit and move back to NYC.

How did you come to contribute to the Art Director’s Club (ADC) bathroom ?

The wonderful people at the ADC asked four of us (Mikey Burton, Chris Rubino, Rich Tu, and myself) to create a mural in their ladies room. With only one Saturday to do it, we had to think fast and act quick—and luckily we came to an easy agreement on concept and execution. And let me tell you, there’s nothing like four dudes sweating in a bathroom all day! After some initial emails during the weeks before, we decided to shower the walls with compliments and an array of ‘lady etiquette.’ After all, shouldn’t all respectable ladies know that a beautiful dress can be ruined by wearing lumpy, baggy underwear?

(Funny story.. this is the same place that hosted the TED award ceremony for the Ads Worth Spreading, so  you may have seen a tweet or two from @Sharpie about this beauty–and that was BEFORE we knew Tim was the man behind the mirror err… bathroom! Some things are just meant to be)

 Any cool new projects you can tell us about?

I have a weird superstition when it comes to talking publicly about work that hasn’t happened yet. I will say that I have a great new rep/studio manager, and I’m very excited about the future.

Your designs have a cool edginess to them; how do you come up with new ideas?

Ideas are totally disposable and constantly in flux for me. I learned that while being in branding. Anything can spark an idea, and you better have at least 100 of them. However, some of my favorite ideas have come while I’m flying. Which is ironic, because I used to be horribly afraid to fly and I couldn’t step foot on an airplane for 3 years during college. I learned to overcome that fear, and I have flown over 25 times in the last year and a half. Now I absolutely love flying! I can’t wait to get in the air, put my headphones on, and get my sketchbook out.

Do you have a soft spot for one of your designs in particular?
My friend William Morrisey always says, “If you want to change your look, change your tool.” About 2 years ago I made a conscience effort to get my hand involved in my work more. I had the perfect opportunity to make that effort sing when I was asked to do a mural for the Ace Hotel. That project opened up an entirely different creative avenue for myself. A healthy amount of work I’m currently doing is hand-drawn, and it all stems from that project.

Where the magic happened... The ACE is what brought us all together!

The common thread between Tim, Dan and all this Sharpie love

 How do you use Sharpie markers in your work?
With immediacy and with mistakes! I’m a big NBA basketball fan. I love the New York Knicks, and I hate to miss a game. I like to drink a beer soda.. (right, Tim?) (note: mistakes), watch the Knicks, and draw draw draw.

 Favorite Sharpie?  Why?
The Sharpie paint markers! I love the way they spread, the way they adhere, the way they smell, the way you have to shake them to get the ink flowing. It’s a very sensual process, which is probably why I dig it so much.

 Best part of your “day job” and if you weren’t doing this what would you be doing?
It’s been six months since I left Apple, and I’m very excited about my newfound self-employment. My favorite part is the flexibility. I can take a 3 hour lunch; I can skip town whenever I want; I can choose my clients, or work on personal stuff anytime. Right now I’m on the path of the unknown, doing everything I should be doing.

If you could have one super power what would it be and why?
I hate poverty, and I hate that so many kids have to grow up in poverty. There are over 16 million children living in poverty in the United States alone. I wish I could make poor kids live like rich kids and rich kids live like poor kids for one week.

 What trends do you see making it big in 2012/ what are you pumped about in 2012?
One of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco, Mission Chinese, is coming to NYC!

Want to pick up some Chinese with Tim? Well, we can’t promise that (heck, we are still working on our own date), BUT you can follow him on Twitter- you may even get your own Valentine out of the deal!  Check out more of his amazing accomplishments by visiting his website, and trust us, there is A LOT more where this came from. 

And as always, share the love and leave a comment– we want to know what you think! 

Hanna Agar ladies and gents!

I have been kind of obsessed with thinking about memory.  How we deal with memory. How we interact with our memories.  How we hold onto them.  How we yearn sometimes to be rid of certain memories that persist in haunting us.  How we lose memories.   When I was 14 my grandfather died of Alzheimer’s and the last few years of his life he couldn’t remember who I was anymore.  By the end my grandmother was the only person who he seemed to recognize.  It is really scary and sad to think about all of those amazing memories fading away.  My grandfather was a cartoonist, a photographer, and a writer and I think I take after him in many ways.  I wish that I could have had the chance to get to know him better, but I was too young to understand what was being lost.

"Memory Keeper"

Memory Keeper is an image I created with my grandfather in mind. Imagine if every memory that has been lost is collected somewhere.  Somewhere these memories are building up, piling up, layer upon layer.  There is a little clerk sitting behind a desk as these memories come pouring in.  He is trying to organize them for us in case some day we want them back.  He sits there year upon year as the lost memories pile up.  He knows how valuable these memories are.  He wants to keep them safe for us.  He wants them to be recorded, to be sorted, to be stored, to be saved.  For this shoot I had friends email me with memories that they would not want to lose and these I recorded with Sharpies onto rolls of receipt paper.

Some people become trapped in their memories.  They become obsessed and entangled in a web of words and thoughts and images.

"Memory Trap"

"Memory Trap 2"

Some people become lost in the nostalgia of the past.  They romanticize their memories and live in this state of feeling and yearning for their “better” past.  They are adrift in this unmoving dream world, so focused looking behind them that they fail to see that they have stopped moving forwards.

"Nostalgia"

We can store knowledge in our memory library.  We can absorb new ideas and thoughts from an early age to shape us and shape the world around us.  We can use our memories and our knowledge to teach others and create new things.

"Reading Room"

Not all of my images are memory related.  Many are formed from an idea of a story or are inspired from a painting or song or theater experience.  Sometimes I will see a location that strikes me in some way and I try to develop a story around my reaction.

"The Journey"

"Summer Sledding"

As a little update since my last blog, I have now been living in Brooklyn, NY for almost a year and a half.  I am working for fashion, beauty, and celebrity photographers as an assistant, digital tech, and retoucher.

To view more of my work please visit www.hannaagar.com

Thanks!

Hanna

So while we get to work on commandeering our summer transportation or making a really awesome friend who has one…how about a sprucing up your day with a bouquet of brilliant new colors from Sharpie Pen!

You too, can pick from the growing garden (insert courtesy chuckle here) of Sharpie Pen colors and add Hot Pink,Turquoise, Coral and Clover to your spring collection!

I was sitting around the studio one day just waiting for an idea to hit and I noticed my trash was overflowing.  I had a number of empty cans just waiting for somebody to clean them up and instead of doing just that, I piled them onto a canvas and starting dripping layer after layer of paint over them. (Inspiration really can strike anywhere…)

After a few weeks of layering paint the result was really interesting to me.  You had to really look closely to see what the object was under the paint.   It had a very Jackson Pollock style and lose feel that I was very attracted to and I wanted to explore further.  I started doing other objects like cassette tapes, old cell phones, wine corks, and even a pair of stilettos.

I was really enjoying the concept and seeing a series developing.  I’ve started to do some of these paintings with product and branding in mind as well.  I looked at companies that are using artist as tools to promote their product, then looked at the color and shape of the actual product and created an interesting mix of product and fine art.  It didn’t take long for me notice the extremely large stock of Sharpie’s lying around my studio and the second the idea hit, I was off and running.  For this particular piece there are about 30 or so Sharpies under, roughly, 50 layers of diluted acrylic.

The interesting thing is this painting is still changing and evolving long after I put the final signature on it.  The ink from the sharpies took on a life of it’s own and began to release from the pens which created a really unique affect.

That’s my favorite thing about art, when you open your mind up all of the sudden art is everywhere.  A pen isn’t just a writing tool in the right hands, it’s a possibility!

Stop by and show us what you're starting! http://pinterest.com/sharpieuncapped/

In case you haven’t been on this fast growing and addicting social media darling, Pinterest is best described as a vision board-styled photo sharing website and app where users can create and manage theme-based image collections.

Pinterest’s mission statement is “to connect everyone in the world through shared tastes and the “things” they find interesting.” Which is exactly what users are doing! People are using Pinterest to help plan their weddings, decorate their homes, organize favorite recipes, build fashion archives and more. By labeling and creating theme-based image boards, users populate their own boards with inspiring images and videos found online using the “Pin It” button

Sharpie is joining the pinning party and has officially launched its own page!  With 10 boards and more than 130 pins already, Sharpie is covering everything from DIY to die for, aspirational home décor and inspiring ways you can start something with Sharpie!

Check out Sharpie on Pinterest and be sure to “follow” all the different boards to stay inspired and up-to-date AND tag us in your Sharpie creations so we can check out what you’re starting with Sharpie.

BUT be sure to brush up on all the pinning rules and regs prior to getting “pin-it fever”! For more information on Pinterest,  to get an invite and get started visit their help page!

Pinning really is the new #WINNING…

Ideas are what make the world go round.  They’re the foundation of the future.  They’re what inspire us to dream big dreams and climb big mountains and solve big problems.

At Sharpie, ideas come from our fans.  And they’re an inspired  bunch.  Have you seen what they’ve created?  Have you seen the ideas and inspirations and possibilities they’ve put out into the world using Sharpie as the conduit to creativity?  Maybe you’re even one of them.  Maybe your idea is one worth sharing.

Every once in awhile an idea comes along and somebody notices.  The TED award for “Ads Worth Spreading” recognizes great ideas in advertising, and today Sharpie was named one of 10 recipients of the 2012 award.

TED is a nonprofit group devoted to ideas. Since it started in 1984, it has become a driving force in advancing open dialogue, creativity and innovation in the areas of Technology, Entertainment and Design.  Through its annual conferences, TED brings together thought leaders from around the world to collaborate, learn, listen and engage toward a better tomorrow.

TED selected Sharpie’s webisode featuring pen cup artist Cheeming Boey to receive the award. It showcases Boey as he takes us on his artistic journey and the role Sharpie played along the way.

Boey was featured in Sharpie's print campaign, too!

The TED “Ads Worth Spreading” award is given to ads that become part of our cultural story, that amplify passion instead of ambushing viewers, that elevate the craft of storytelling while beautifully blending traditional and digital media.

But you be the judge.  Watch and weigh in with your thoughts.

So bring on the color and start popping your collar with Kristen’s brightened up button-downs and Stained by Sharpie!

Image via GlitterandGlue.com

Image via GlitterandGlue.com

Be sure to check out Kristen’s blog, Glitter and Glue, for more pictures and tips!