["Dinosaur" Cube Grenade for sale at the gapingvoid gallery.]

I’m currently accepting new commissions for “Cube Grenades”. Please read on for some Cube Grenade case studies, or for more background theory, read the Cube Grenade archives. Thanks! gapingvoid@gmail.com.

‘Cube Grenades’, I believe, is where my art works the best- small Social Objects that you “throw” in there in order to cause some damage– to start a con­ver­sa­tion, to cause disruption, to spread an idea etc. And I want to work with clients to make more of them.

1. CASE STUDY: SHIT CREEK CONSULTING

The groovy cats over at Shit Creek Con­sul­ting com­mis­sio­ned me to design them their own “Cube Gre­na­de”. After loo­king at the half-dozen or so ideas I pre­sen­ted to them, they chose the one above. I believe they’re loo­king to use it for their busi­ness cards, for example.

Shit Creek are a Mic­ro­soft Gold Part­ner. It seems a big part of their busi­ness is coming in and clea­ning up the mess left behind by the large tech con­sul­tan­cies [I’m not naming any names]. So that’s the idea I ran with.

The name of their com­pany implies they have a lot of atti­tude. They wan­ted a car­toon that con­ve­yed this. Easy. It was a fan­tas­tic com­mis­sion and I’m very happy with the car­toon they chose.

[The Cube Grenade archive is here...]

2. CASE STUDY: KULA MARKETING

[The “Cube Gre­nade” that Kula Part­ners com­mis­sio­ned me to draw for them. You can down­load it here and print it out etc.]

In December, 2009 Social Mar­ke­ting Whizz, Car­man Pirie and his colle­agues launched a new com­pany, Kula Part­ners.

As the idea behind their compa­ny was par­tially ins­pi­red by my wri­tings on Kula and Social Objects, they com­mis­sio­ned me to design a spe­cial Cube Gre­nade for them, which I gladly did.

I’m very happy with how the piece tur­ned out. It illus­tra­tes nicely a point I’ve been har­ping on for a while now– “Peo­ple Mat­ter, Objects Don’t”- i.e. what makes a pro­duct or brand inte­res­ting is not the thing itself, but the human con­ver­sa­tions that hap­pen around it.

Con­grats to Kula Part­ners on their launch, and Big Thanks for being such great clients! Rock on.

[The Cube Grenade archive is here...]

3. CASE STUDY: THE MONSTER IN YOUR HEAD

Jerry Colonna used to be a Venture Capitalist. He was EXTREMELY successful as a partner with Fred Wilson at Flatiron Partners. Before that, he was an investment banker on Wall Street.

Then he decided he wanted out of the business. He had made his money, he now wanted to give back. He wanted to teach.

After teaching business classes at CUNY in New York for a little while, he set himself up as a business coach. A damn good one.

“A bit like being a shrink,” he told me, “but more business-focused.”

A big part of his modus operandi is not telling people what to do with teir businesses, but trying to get them over their fears of acheiving that which they MUST do, if they want to become the people they one day hope to be.

“The issues my clients fear the most tend not to be the actual stuff out there- competition, cashflow, marketing,” he says, “but the worst-case imaginary scenarios. ‘The Monster Inside Their Heads’, as it were. So a central tenet to what I do is helping them to get over The Monster.”

So he commissioned me to draw a Monster-themed “Cube Grenade”, as a signed, fine-art print to give away as presents to his best customers and allies. something to keep on the office wall as a constant reminder.

I was glad to do it. I’ve always got my fair share of Monsters, myself. Rock on.

[The Cube Grenade archive is here...]

4. CASE STUDY: AGENCIACLICK

In early 2009 I was hired by a Brazilian ad agency, agenciaclick to create a privately commissioned edition of the Cube Grenade above.

As with my other clients, they didn’t want these prints just for themselves; they wanted to give these out to their clients, as conversation starters.

“All brands are open brands? Huh? What does that mean? Do you agree with it? Why? What does “open” actually mean? What does “brand” actually mean…?” You get the picture. The same idea that made The Blue Monster so successful. Again, it wasn’t about the message, the object. It was all about the social.

[The Cube Grenade archive is here...]

5. CASE STUDY: STORMHOEK

This is a design I did for Stormhoek, a small wine brand in South Africa, that I’ve been working for, off and on for five years.

[The Cube Grenade archive is here...]

6. “ART AND THE REAL WORLD”

[Originally posted on this blog, October, 2009]

[“Port­fo­lio Num­ber One”, han­ging in a collector’s office in Germany.]

I’ve been pla­ying around with this line a lot recently: “Art For The Real World”.

I’m inte­res­ted in how art affects what some peo­ple call “The Real World”- the work­place, the world of work, the world of busi­ness. That’s what the Cube Gre­nade idea is all about.

My adver­ti­sing buddy, Vinny Warren, grew up in a Roman Catho­lic hou­sehold in Ire­land. He was telling me that his parents would always have a few reli­gious icons han­ging on the wall somewhere. Pic­tu­res of Saints, Mary & Baby Jesus, that kind of thing.

Why? Says Vinny, “To remind us who we are.”

Art that reminds you who you are. Exactly. What applies in Catho­lic hou­seholds also applies in pla­ces of busi­ness. Sha­red Mea­ning. Exactly. Social Objects. Exactly.

I don’t think any of this is roc­ket science…

[The Cube Grenade archive is here...]

[Update:] John left a good com­ment:

I think surroun­ding our­sel­ves with icons, art, books and such to remind our­sel­ves of who we are, where we have been and where we hope to go is essen­tial to kee­ping our hearts alive. It is too easy to lose our way. My office is full of these things.

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