Month: February 2011

This is no time for a nap, Superman.

Hey, there. You’re so comfortable being Clark Kent that you’re too scared to show the world your superpowers. What, are you waiting for an invitation? For the world to come to a sudden stop, for people to come crawling on their hands and knees, begging for your help? It doesn’t work like that. You need to get over yourself.

So you’re shy. You hate self-promotion. Never been one to toot your own horn, and you don’t think much of the folks that do. Yeah, we get it. You’re a real salt-of-the-earth farm boy. Understood.

But you have something that nobody else has. And the world needs you … desperately. Even more so than they realize, and by the time they wake up to the problem, it may be too late.

You see, your product is the one thing–the only thing– that can reduce carbon, purify air and water, reduce erosion, moderate temperatures. And you do it all without breaking a sweat! Your superpowers put all the other heroes to shame, yet you still shun the spotlight. Does that make you somehow more noble?

You have the answer, Superman. So what if the world could care less?

Creator’s Commentary: This was the first poster in the series, and the idea dates back several years to a meeting that the ANLA arranged at the Mid-Atlantic Nursery Trade Show (MANTS) with representatives from the EPA to discuss the problem of plastic containers going to landfills. Their message to growers and pot manufacturers was basically a threat: “Fix this problem because you don’t want us to fix it for you.” At the time I was amazed that these regulators could not see any distinction between our product and, say, a can of soda or an ink-jet printer. It did not matter that the thing INSIDE the packaging was the ONLY THING known to man that actually fixes CO2, creates O2, prevents erosion, produces shade, purifies water…etc.

At that meeting I said something like, “Hey, our product is Superman. This whole plastic pot thing is like we have our cape tucked into our shorts.”

I really do believe that plants are like Superman, and that we in our industry (myself included) act like Clark Kent. We have let every other product brazenly declare their green-cred and environmental consciousness while we quietly sit by and get criticized because we use plastic pots, synthetic fertilizer and necessary pesticides. Who’s fault is that?

For this poster, I first searched for a picture of Superman with his cape tucked into his red shorts. Didn’t find one. (So I came up with the Mother Teresa analogy for that idea, which I will post soon.) I did find an interesting one from the cartoon, Challenge of the Superfriends, of Superman looking into a circus mirror (and this gave me the idea for the “Your Mirror is a Liar” poster).

The photo I used is stolen directly from the poster for the film “Confessions of a Superhero” by Matt Ogens, which is a quirky look at self-delusion exhibited by people dressing up as super heroes on Hollywood Blvd.

In my opinion, the best part of this image is the wallpaper. Wallflower indeed! Get off the couch!

~A

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everyone loves plants! Heck, everyone needs plants, and they enjoy thinking about them all the time, dreaming about their next garden project – just like you do. Consumers are tired of digital this and wireless that – they long to toss their smartphones and get their hands dirty.

Shopping for plants on a beautiful spring Saturday is relaxing and soothing. What could be more calming than muscling a cart through gravel paths up to a cinderblock and plywood table to squint at tiny care tags as you debate which perennial to plant next?

Your customers come to you demanding new and exotic plants they’ve never seen or heard of before.

The Outdoor Room is the new living room!

And hey, don’t statistics tell us that Gardening is America’s #1 pastime? Demand should be going up-up-up with all this new environmental awareness, staycations, the baby boomers remodeling their yards because they can’t sell their homes.

Everyone knows that plants are the only thing that can save the planet … and YOU grow plants!

You’re a hero! They love you!

 

Creator’s commentary:

Back in November 2010 I was asked to create a “conversation station” at the ANLA New Clinic. My task: “thought-provoke the attendees around the bigger, marketplace-changing ideas you have been percolating on…The idea is to catch people’s attention…” I agreed to do this because it interested me creatively and because I love the ANLA Clinic.

I made 12 poster designs. 10 were displayed at the Clinic. One was taken down because it offended a passer-by. I’m not sure they were successful in sparking many conversations, or that attendees found them interesting or beautiful. At risk of beating dead horses, I plan to share them here and offer my thoughts on them. Feel free to comment!

I am sharing this Mirror poster first because I think it encapsulates my approach to the series.

The design: I wanted to start with a strong idea that was insulting, jarring, strange or somehow out of the ordinary. Then, I wanted an arresting image that would act as a metaphor. We knew we needed text as well, so I decided to adopt an age-old ad format called the Ogilvy that was popular in magazines like Life in the 50’s and 60’s. I felt there was a bit of sublime irony here in that theses posters would look like advertisements but were the furthest thing from a commercial message. The ANLA Clinic has increasingly allowed sponsoring companies to promote their products, which I view with a little distaste…however I must admit that I was on the Clinic committee when we first decided to court sponsors’ money. In any case, I thought it fun to have the most brazenly ad-like display. The font was picked to fit the theme for the Clinic this year: an urban, re-construction, edgy, in-your-face kind of look. Each poster had a “headline” around the photo that would explain the metaphor/argument but not too much, and often with a double meaning.

The message: At first I had the headline as: “you think you’re…NOT A WITCH…because your…MIRROR IS A LIAR.” The change to “beautiful” was both less insulting and more to my point. The body text was, of course, sarcastic, poking fun at how we fail to rightly see ourselves as others see us. Many of us live at our businesses. We spend all of our time there. We talk to each other. We plan vacations around trade shows. We don’t allow a lot of outside influences. As I have written regarding “Plants vs Zombies,” I feel that we are losing relevance (and therefore value) and we don’t even know it. And those moments when we do get a glimpse of what we look like to others outside the “plant world” we dislike it so much that we quickly dismiss it. “Like a man who looks in the mirror and then turning away immediately forgets what he looks like.” This lack of self-awareness is, no doubt, an ageless part of the human condition. And those of us inclined to introspection may worry about it more than the blissfully ignorant braggart, but that does not mean that we are any better equipped to actually do anything about it.

The short of it: We have an image problem. We should work on that.

Thanks for reading. Please let me know if you wish to hear about the other 11!

~Art