Puppies, pie and polka dots. Who doesn't love 'em? I don't sew much, but browsing around a fabric store always makes me happy. I was especially drawn to these spotted bolts of cotton. 

Faced with the annual challenge of How to Thank My Clients, this year I vowed to be ready. HOW's Promotional Annual is filled with over-the-top graphic designer's holiday gifts, some of which surely take an entire year to produce. I needed an affordable solution for about 25 people, and settled on homemade cookies in a custom-designed container. The "Cookie Canon", riffed on explosive themes, and a list of "How to Surrender to the Battle of the Bulge", by eating the cookies. Finding the right tubes was the biggest challenge, most were made of heavy cardboard and too narrow for cookies. The breakthrough came by typing "paper tubes" rather than "mailing tubes" in the search engine and voila! up popped Cleveland-based Custom Paper Tubes, who kindly retrofitted the tube dimensions to fit like a glove into the mailing tubes. There has been much debate about ROI of holiday promotions. I prefer to view them as a token of appreciation and a chance to design something special.

Medical marijuana is legal in California, but I never stopped to think
about how it would play out in print. The "clinic" ads in the San Diego Reader (their City Paper) are relegated to the back, sandwiched between used cars and "escort" services. Many rely on bad stock images of cross-armed doctors and nurses with de rigueur stethoscopes draped around their shoulders. Did we mention "medical"? Others get right to the point: leather-clad dominatrixes hoist hukkas to their pursed lips. And for the hippy set, "Green Hope Collective" is set against a rainforest backdrop, smiling faces and a green leaf logo. Go Green! The above ad was the best design-wise, although I am unsure about the headline. Maybe it should have said "Smell Cheese". For anyone (myself included) who thinks our pot policies are Draconian, these awful advertising spreads made me smile. Say "CHEESE!"