Blog

Just before the New Year, Cowie and Fox launched Lili Blossom, an online beauty retail boutique. You can find the most amazing gifts for others and a little indugence for yourself too! Lili Blossom features a unique variety of products with beautiful scents as well as unscented for sensitive skin. You’ll be able to find something perfect to suit almost anyone you’re shopping for.

One of my favorite lotions is Malie. When you open the bottle it’s like a mini tropical vacation inside, it’s fragrant, but not too strong (i’m one of those people that doesn’t like perfumed products). I was also impressed with how it softens the skin. Definately a must have product!

I’ve worked on Semperviva newsletters for a while, pretty much since the initial few, and it has gone through a few design refinements. The first change was inspired by a new Semperviva website and the other times is was just a push for bigger imagery and massaging in the top banner area. After doing so many, it’s interesting to go back and look at some of them. Semperviva is a great client and they allow great creative freedom.

Check out the newsletter archive

Every year Opus Bar has their annual street party, filled with music, dancing, amazing food and all of the who’s who of Vancouver. Some of the previous themes were Africa and Jamaica, but this years choice was Bollywood.
Cowie and Fox created the VIP invitations (designed in a booklet format) as well as an online RSVP.

Check out the inside pages of this exclusive invitation:

Front and Back cover:

Inside spreads:

The target market: youth, university students and highschool.
Advertising collateral included: posters, newspaper ads, scratch cards, stickers, instore signage, university campus ads and more.

Poster:

Stickers:

This past year, Cowie and Fox created a reusable, colourful, yoga bag for Semperviva. The dual sided artwork has been quite eye catching all across Vancouver. I’ve seen it on almost every bus I take and even in the local grocery store.

Recently the bags have been spotted on the other side of the world in Greece.

If you’re wondering why the bags have recently been spotted in Greece, find out more information here

Vanity Fair describes itself as the cultural catalyst that drives popular dialogue globally. When they are writing about something do you take notice? When the most trusted clothing and lifestyle brand lululemon sends out a picture worth a thousand words, do you get the point?

Well, if you don’t then maybe I will text it to you.

That way it may be in a format that you can understand.

This month lululemon and Vanity Fair are both saying that we should try to preserve the real and tangible aspects of our lives in the midst of the rapid expansion of technological advancements.  Messages like this only get heard when they are united with the right people and media.

My challenge to you is to submit your unique way of speaking to your readers/fans/followers on how technology infringes on the quality of their lives.

Here is some examples on how to be unique:

As quoted from the article What’s a Culture Snob to Do? By James Wolcott in this month’s Vanity Fair
link: http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2009/08/wolcott200908

Use a lil humour….
“How can I impress strangers with the gem-like flame of my literary passion if it’s a digital slate I’m carrying around, trying not to get it all thumbprinty?”

Or
Use metaphors….
“Books not only furnish a room, to paraphrase the title of an Anthony Powell novel, but also accessorize our outfits. They help brand our identities. At the rate technology is progressing, however, we may eventually be traipsing around culturally nude in an urban rain forest, androids seamlessly integrated with our devices.”

Or

Cactus Club Cafe is now on Facebook. With overnight success, gaining over 100 fans, they were able to get their vanity URL.

Become a fan today!
http://www.facebook.com/cactusclubcafe

Newly launched Semperviva Yoga College website has now been followed up with it’s own facebook page. Become a fan today and don’t forget to check out their main facebook page too.

http://www.chipsnotdeadyet.com

Update: lululemon founder Chip Wilson and Cowie and Fox heated up the pavement once again with the fun and engaging Chip’s Not Dead Yet Memorial Mile. The event last weekend showcased C&F’s playful creative amongst numerous superheros, rockstars, scantly clad runners, street performers and a bustling beer garden. Approximately $100,000 was raised for BC Children’s Hospital Foundation and Chip is going to match that. It was a great success and one heck of a party!

Not that there is anything wrong with statues, monuments, buildings or roads that are built to commemorate somebody’s life, but the one unfortunate feature of this kind of commemoration is that they almost always depend on that somebody being dead. It’s nice to be remembered, but certainly nicer while you’re still alive. That’s why Lululemon founder, Chip Wilson, decided to forge his own legacy instead of waiting to die and have someone name a cul-de-sac in his memory.

Chip decided that part of this legacy would be a yearly charity run. Unlike most charity runs, Chip’s run is pretty short, just one mile to be exact. The brevity of the run was specifically set so that anyone could join in. The soul purpose of the event is to get as many people together to do something good, and to have fun while doing it. In order to find a way of capturing and sharing this spirit, Chip enlisted his long time agency, Cowie and Fox, to see what it could do about making this the largest and ‘funnest’ one mile race in the world. (more…)

http://www.bootlegger.com

When you hear Bootlegger, you probably think ‘jeans’ – if you’re thinking ‘hillbilly moonshine in a darkened Chicago alley’ that’s a different bootlegger all together. Seriously though, with 98 stores across the country, Bootlegger has placed itself as Canada’s jean expert. Finding the right pair of jeans isn’t as easy as it sounds. Different brands fit differently, different denim hugs differently, different cuts will make you look different. One size doesn’t fit all. That’s why at Bootlegger, they offer a lot more than just a good jean selection. Sure they carry the brands that you want, but more importantly they can help guide you into the right pair of jeans. They won’t just sell you the brand because it sounds cool because that’s not nice, and the people are at Bootlegger are very nice, knowledgeable people. That’s why they’re called Jean-e-ologists – they’re experts that care, basically loveable scientists of denim.

So if you’re a company that prides itself on being Jean-e-ologists, your website had better live up to expectations. Cowie and Fox has designed and built the Bootlegger brand website for years, and has made sure that the experience was always a reflection of the ideals that the brand lives by. (more…)