Back in ’09 my client, designer George Argyropoulos — then a partner with Jib, now running his own shop, Meta Design — approached me with a few small jobs for Far Coast’s Canada-wide brand relaunch. What began as a trickle grew to a Niagaral flow, culminating in a vast 2010 Vancouver Olympics marketing blitz (Far Coast having won Official Brewed Beverage Supplier status for the Games).

Below, some of the ads and posters used at and around Far Coast cafes and kiosks in Whistler and Vancouver.

The Far Coast website served as a key vehicle for the brand launch. In time, the Olympics sort of took it over. A few screen shots show how the various coffee and tea blends were communicated — using audio and rolling text. (If you visit the site, take note that I am responsible for the two blend descriptions shown below. The others existed before my time and aren’t quite to my, uh, taste.)

Far Coast also commissioned students from Emily Carr University of Art + Design to design and build seating for its cafes from ‘blue pine’. The timber gets its name and blueness as a result of the nasty mountain pine beetle having invaded the trees it comes from. I thought the initiative was brilliant, and so re-purposed the old ‘when life gives you lemons’ line to explain Far Coast’s adoption of this perfectly good wood, which due to its colouration is not viewed by the timber industry as commercially viable.

Since May 2, the day of The Autists, I’ve not had a moment’s rest. Pitching new clients, launching a new business and keeping up with demand from existing clients. So a quick postmort.

In sum, a massive success. We sold off virtually everything on auction, both the live and silent versions, at generally strong prices. We had three exceptional musicians — Chaka Khan, Matt Savage and Samantha Mutis — perform for us at what several conductors and musicians have already ranked among the finest concert venues in North America, Koerner Hall. And we raised a considerable sum for Geneva Centre for Autism, the exact amount I do not yet know.

I have big plans for The Autists in future, which I’ll share as they inch toward fruition.

Vast thanks to all those who worked with me, donated product, time and sweat to help our event rock the world. In no particular order they are:

Charles Pachter, for curating like the true master he is, and bringing in all those talents whose work gave our event much added oomph

Albert Schultz, for selling the goods, making us laugh and making it look far too easy

Peter Doig, for donating a fine and valuable work that helped our cause immeasurably

Stan Morantz, for saying yes to all our printing needs faster than it took him to read the list of them

Wallace Edwards, for donating a fabulous work (two actually — long story) without hesitation

Curt Detweiler, for hooking us up from San Fran with a top ad creative team in Toronto to do the outdoor and print campaigns

Jon Freir & Chunky, for producing those ads quickly and tastefully

David Shephard, Dali and Cornelius, for the blog design, ad tweaks and other last-minute favours

Fidel Pena & Claire Dawson, for designing The Autists logo and invitations that set a high and early mark and made a mere idea shine a few million candlepower brighter than it would’ve in lesser hands

Chaka, Matt & Sam, for singing, playing and giving all and remaining at the top of your respective games throughout

John Alcorn, for organizing the music, bringing such consummate pros to back up Chaka, to the extent that she took the time to write and thank us for making the experience unusually rich for her

Hindy Abelson, for believing, acting on it, tapping her people, and watching my back

Holly Bannerman, for watching Hindy’s back, and being a calming presence throughout many typhoons of uncertainty

Katie Wilson, for feeding me much useful info and enabling me to experience more personal organization than I’ve ever known, or may ever know again

Boss Marg Whelan, for saying yea not nay to a loony fundraising event, then being such a class act while attending it

The Koerner Hall-ers, for your professionalism, understanding and endless assistance

The staff at Geneva Centre, for doing what you do and making an absolute difference to the lives of people who really need a difference made

Screen-grab from theautists.com

I have an autistic stepdaughter. She’s pretty high up on the function end of things, but has trouble comprehending certain forces of nature, and of humanity. Stuff like money, avarice, fairness, conversational nuance and so on. Like some people with autism, she’s been given a gift — the ability to draw with exceptional depth and imagination — that to most eyes is well beyond her 11 years, even for a non-autistic girl.

So one evening, watching her draw, having just discussed with her the passion she has to some day be a professional artist, I thought, “Great, but how will she make a deal?” I set to wondering about that one, and after a time an idea came.

Our logo proud and strong

The Autists is that idea in the process of being realized. Its simplest description is this: A concert/party/auction event that seeks to monetize the gifts, the marketable skills (art, number-crunching, engineering, supermemory, etc.) of those with autism who’d otherwise not have an easy time marketing those skills. It’s also a fundraiser for the Geneva Centre for Autism in Toronto.

I called the Geneva Centre once I’d written out a draft of how it might unfold and spoke with Neil Walker who, on hearing barely a minute of my spiel, said, “Count us in.”

The rest is about to be history. Go to theautists.com for the story so far, and return with frequency to see how we’re making out. If you’re inclined, get involved, sponsor something, send us ideas, give us names of people who might be able to help out with cash, expertise, free champagne, etc. And if you’re here in town Sunday May 2, 2010, come to the party — it’s going to be unforgettable (perhaps unrememberable for those who really love a good bash).

Inside the reborn Royal Conservatory of Music, where rocked you shall be

I am mostly handling the creative — writing, design, advertising, promotion — while the admin and fundraising will be looked after mainly by the Geneva Centre’s charming and highly capable Ms Hindy Abelson. That’s not to say I won’t be banging on a few doors myself to extract a few (hundred) grand from the willing where I can.

Our schmoozing zone, outside the concert hall

So here’s to a successful event, and to a whole bunch of people with autism becoming enterprising people with autism.

I get my share of unusual gigs, but a dental clinic’s wall was new. The idea was to educate kids about their choppers and reduce the fear by making them laugh. This also won an Applied Arts award.

Not sure if all were used, but these are the lines I supplied:

Bored?
Try moving only your upper jaw next time you chew.

Though their mouths are smaller than a pinhead, snails have 25,000 teeth. And no dentists.

You have 32 dependents.

You’re issued with 8 pre-molars.
Care for them and they’ll never become post-molars.

In his mouth George Washington had teeth from sheep, hippos, ivory and other people. He didn’t smile much.

Ninety-foot Blue whales can’t eat anything bigger than a shrimp.

Your 8 premolars are middle managers.
They do what front-office canines and backroom molars won’t.

You have four kinds of teeth.
Quick: What are they called?

No two teeth are identical. Even those of identical twins.

The words eat, tooth and dentist are all come from the same Proto-Indo-European root ed.

A tooth wort is not contagious – it’s a type of plant.

With over 40 sets of teeth in their life,
sharks can afford to bite anything that moves.

Some people naturally have fangs.
Try not to make them angry.

Tooth enamel is the toughest substance in your body. Unless you’re Wolverine.

Killer whales’ teeth interlock in a perfect smile.
If you see one while underwater, try to smile back.

Don’t care for your teeth and you earn commemorative plaque.

Gums often bleed the first few times you floss.

Most junk food is also bad for your teeth.

Pee-you! People once used old urine as mouthwash.

Engraved whales’ teeth are known as scrimshaw.
At least that’s what the whales tell us.

Pain-free dentistry is not an oxymoron.
Ask us about it.

Drinking lots of coffee gives teeth a tan.

Clean, healthy teeth say to the world,
“World, I don’t have grave personal hygiene issues.”

Are you a flossopher?

Always brush away from your gums,
or you’ll brush away your gums.

Your gums need your teeth need your gums.

Bad breath can indicate tooth decay.
(Or a great Caesar salad.)

A wise, but toothless, man once said,
“Wook affer yer heeff.”

Your baby teeth are your practice set.

Without a full set of teeth it’s hard to say,
“A full set of teeth.”

Pretzels are worse for your teeth than candy.

If you don’t throw out your toothbrush after a cold or flu, you can get the same cold or flu back again.

Q: What’s the worst thing in the world for teeth?
A: Ignorance.

Chew your food well – your stomach can’t.

I am asked more and more to help clients create and launch new brands, or revivify old ones.

My involvement varies with each job, so in the coming decades, I’ll be posting examples of what I’ve tried on, what’s worked and what has not.

Here’s a little autopsy on some work I did a few years back with Interbrand Toronto, working with then CD Chris Campbell. The client was HSM Group, a Brazilian corporate events organizer. They were not well known in the US and their brand and advertising tactics were dated. So Interbrand first redid HSM’s basics (logo, website, etc.), then called me in to help build the whole look and feel of their first big show, a major two-day event at Radio City Music Hall, NYC featuring speakers like Bill Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, Jack Welch and other enterprise luminaries.

I was briefed on doing a name, tagline, print ads, brochure and direct campaign.

I worked up a bunch of names, finally hitting the right note with ‘World Business Forum’, which stuck. We ran with ‘Leadership Speaks’ as the tag, and used the best of my headlines for the print ads (underneath the next paragraph).

When it came time to run the ads, HSM took the advice of an ad salesman from the Wall Street Journal who told them to make the guest speakers the actual ad headlines. They did so, the event sold out. Sometimes, names are indeed headlines.

Nevertheless, I thought our ads rocked.

Next year, Interbrand brought me in again. I wrote the tagline ‘All The Power To You’ and we presented four  concepts of 3-4 ads apiece. They ran the ones below and the event sold out again.