It was a great weekend for The Clink Room. Thanks to all you guys supporting this little experiment of ours. We’re feeling great about how this thing is going and we hope you do too. Thanks again, we love you.

You’ve probably seen this on the telly. Not only is it funny, as all SportsCenter ads are, but I always get a kick out of seeing our Reds uniform that we designed in action and up-close. AND, we get a shot of Mr. Redlegs which is one of the best manifestations of our character designs that I’ve ever seen.

I saw this video of the legendary and amazing John Lasseter, head of Pixar, Walt Disney Animation Studios and the new head of Disney Imagineering. What a trio of titles, right? Definitely one of my heros. This video chronicles Mr. Lasseter’s epic hawaiian shirt collection (My Pops also has an amazing Hawaiian shirt collection. Not a cheesy one either, real classy-like.). The video is cool and all, but it reminded me that John Lasseter was once a ride operator for the Jungle Cruise. He mentions it around the 1:05 mark.

Why is that significant? Well, I’m glad you asked. Our very own Jason has been obsessed with the Jungle Cruise for many moons. He used to give impromptu “Jungle Cruise” tours around the quad at our alma mater, Helix High School. A spot-on never miss a word performance too. Really impressive. So impressive is his Jungle Cruise knowledge that in 2007 Jason answered a call to win a chance to be a guest Jungle Cruise Skipper for the day. And he won! See, dreams do come true. Wanna see him in action? Well, here ya go…

Just to explain a bit, Jason used to live in Florida now lives in Vegas, hopefully we’ll get him back to SD soon. And yes, this is how he talks in everyday life. Like he’s announcing his own personal horse race in his mind.

Well, The Clink Room needs a Girls Scout sash. Scratch that, The Clink Room needs something like a Girl Scout sash. Something to put all of our patches on. I feel as if they’re kinda like merit badges and that they need a sash-esque place to call home. Know what I mean? A letterman’s jacket? A giant blank hat? A sticker book?

Shout out any ideas you have in the comments. If your idea gets used not only will we be indebted to you for eternity. But We’ll shower you with Clink Room merchandise, you’ll get Clink patches from now till the end of time, and whatever sash-esque thing you invent of course.

I can’t decide! It’s driving me crazy. Tom has expressed his interest in HEADS. I agree. But then on the other hand, I love the mystery of TAILS. Ugh!! So we’re taking it to you, HEADS or TAILS? You call it! Shout-out your votes in the comments. I wanna see some bickering. I need to be convinced of which to pick.
Kick this weekend’s ass everyone!

UPDATE: One of the things that kicked off this HEADS or TAILS confusion was this great photo sent to me by Efra. Forgot to add it. Great find Efra!

I know in the past that I haven’t done enough behind-the-scenes of what we do here at Plan B. Branding. So I guess I’m making up for lost time. Here’s a glimpse of a project we did last year for the Everett AquaSox. Tom, the GM up in Everett, asked us if we would come up with some ideas to liven-up their team store to better showcase their new look. We came up with a bunch of ideas that they could execute on their own and do it cheaply. This is a look at the elevation sketch we dreamed up. (Click here for a larger version of the image.)
Tom told us that the best thing has been these cell phone camera photo spots that we designed. Simple cheap fun. Just like Minor League Baseball.

Once Jason and I finish branding a team the work rarely stops there. And one reason we love working with teams like the Spokane Indians, besides they’re all really fun great people, is that they understand a brand needs to be treated like a living breathing organism. Even a brand like Spokane’s, which has a very classic look, needs to constantly be evolving to stay fresh.

When Otto, one of the ringmasters up in Spokane, asked us if we wanted to take a crack at 3D-ifying their logo we were pumped. Spokane has helped us create countless new services that we now regularly offer all our clubs. Keep on inventing guys! I became obsessed with mesh gradients in Adobe Illustrator a few years back. The Clink Room’s site is almost entirely designed using them. If you don’t know what they are or how to do them here is a link to 20 tutorials.

What’s great about this type of file is that it can be scaled and printed to the size of the State of Washington without changing the resolution. Just like all Illustrator files but with shading! All of you entering Clink Room collaboration contests in Photoshop, get on the Illustrator wagon. I’m talking to you T.J.

I think the first time I ever saw one of our uniform and logo designs in a video game it was the Tulsa Drillers and it absolutely blew my mind. This still geeks us out in the best way possible. Jason just sent this over, a screen-shot of the new Omaha Storm Chasers uniforms we designed in the digital world.

The Asheville Tourists mascot, Mr. Moon, has a posse. Well a Facebook page anyway. I love seeing our designs brought to life as mascots. One of those perks of the job that never gets old. Join his Facebook here… (Thanks to Kenny for the link!)

We vote for the Night League Monday! Yes!

Here are a handfull of the great things that have crossed my desk over the last few weeks. A cool video of Tim Lincecum pitching in slow motion…

Got these Tweets from @Mike_Shake and @Suitkace about our MishkaxClink caps with nice vignettes of what you get when you grab a cap from The Clink Room…

“Bought a @TheClinkRoom x @MishkaNYC Cycotics hat. Amazing. Will be a best fitted of ‘11 I’m sure.”

“From a mega baseball cap enthusiast I love the personalization on this package. Thanks @TheClinkRoom!”

Murs approves of the Pollos Terribles (Now only $14.95).

And last but not least, check how the Lehigh Valley IronPigs top off their parking lot lines. Just another reason to love Minor League Baseball.

Kick this weekend’s ass everyone!