It's something we don't do often here because we aren't much into self promotion (at least not here) and there are far more interesting things to talk about out there than... what F360 is doing, but I will make a quick little exception today.

The background: F360 started out a little over two years ago as a collaborative project between a handful of Greenville, SC-based creatives with a passion for photography. Several of us had either been pro photographers at one time or were doing some commercial shooting on the side, and we thought... hey, why don't we get together and start a little side project and see where it goes?

Well, it went.

Right from the start, our clients started asking us... "hey, do you guys do graphic design too?" The answer was yes. "Copywriting?" Yep. "Can you guys design catalogs?" Sure. "Do you do ads?" Why not. "Websites?" Well... we can help you with the look and feel, but we can hook you up with folks who live and breathe code. Before we realized what had happened, the side project had turned into a full-time gig, and commercial photography had become just one among many of the things we do.

The thing is... we're small. Tiny, actually. Sure, some of our work has had national and international exposure, but for most of what we do is local or regional. Believe it or not, we kind of like it that way. Every one of us at F360 came from the corporate world, and yeah, we used to work with big brands... but, you know, we all kind of needed a little break from the madness, I think. We were getting a little burned out with the ties and the cubicles and having to work with plain-jane, vanilla, safe-by-default marketing strategies. Bleh. We wanted to work with passionate little companies. The struggling little diamonds in the rough who either couldn't afford big ad agencies or had been burned by them and were looking to make some changes.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Truth be told, we actually like working with small businesses. The lack of bureaucracy, nepotism, and the occasional big C.E.O. ego allows us to connect with them better, and our work reflects that deeper connection. And it's more fun. We all like it a lot.

But back to the point of this post: Our first international print ad. Two months ago, Set-Up Events (the country's largest triathlon race production company) asked us to design an ad to introduce the 2007 South Carolina Triathlon Series in Triathlete Magazine's 2007 "Event Guide" issue. We met with them, and they told us what they wanted: A very simple, slightly gritty ad with a few postcard-looking photos of their races, the schedule, and some sponsors.

Easy enough.

The result was... a very simple, slightly gritty ad with postcard-looking photos I shot at some of their races last year, and a few sponsor logos.

We thought about pushing for stronger and edgier creative, but the client knew what they wanted, and were super happy with the piece, so we left it alone.


The March issue of Triathlete Magazine and the ad are on booksellers' shelves the world over right now. (Yipee.)

And yes, we did buy the very first copy that flew in to Greenville, SC.

Since we never expected to go in that direction, we're kind of excited, and we thought we'd share the love. 2007 is only getting started, but it's off to a pretty good start.

Below: A piece put together by Jason Crosby, one of our favorite collaborators. (We just supply the photos, and he turns them into art. Genius.)


Have a great Monday evening, everyone. :)

Labels: F360