Dry t-shirt contest

Hey, it’s a dry climate, right? As far as we can tell, saving any moisture is a step in the right direction (make every drop count!). Whether it falls from the sky or your armpit, it’s all valuable. Hence, the sponge shirt. Get yourself one, FOR FREE, if you have a Denver Water service address, at UseOnlyWhatYouNeed.org. Go to the freebies section. There some other free stuff there, and another shirt design to come still.

Another board

Here’s another UOWYN billboard. This one we thought we would try to inspire everyone to fix that renegade broken sprinkler in the yard/park/officepark that is wasting tons of water down the gutter. Do it!

More UOWYN

Here’s some Denver Water boards we posted this summer. We’ve still at least another to post as it runs, so keep checking back, it should be up very soon. For some of these we wanted to introduce some simple conservation tips, such as not watering between 10am and 6pm. Or, in the case of the boxer shorts, wear your stuff until it stinks (and flip it inside out and reverse it) before you wash it again (much to the chagrin of your spouse). The pruned hand hints at shorter showers instead of baths.

New:

Here’s some fun “non traditional” stuff we’ve been playing with. The barrel structures are placed around town (Stapleton, zoo, Belmar and one going in on 16th st mall this weekend) and say things like “Gone, history, adios, sayonara, kaput. This much water down the drain every month if you don’t adjust your sprinkler system.” The idea here is that by showing people exactly how much water things like a dripping faucet or running toilet or unadjusted sprinkler system waste, then maybe they’ll be compelling enough to actually change people’s behavior. To us, seeing just how much water it equates to is quite a statement, as it really looks like a lot of water. Jump on the bandwagon, people, but stay off the barrels.

The sandwich board guys are just us having fun with the using only what you need concept. I mean, really, do you NEED clothes? Especially in this darn hot summer we’re having in Denver? The guys aren’t really naked, as they’re wearing flesh colored spandex shorts, but man, on first glance they look naked. Needless to say, they are getting a LOT of attention on the streets.

Harmony in using what you need

Our Use Only What You Need campaigns have in the past really worked in Denver. Denver Water had a goal of lowering water use 21% in 10 years, and in just two we’ve already lowered it 20%. So, this year we spent some time re-emphasizing the base idea of using only what you need (i.e. don’t waste) on our bus tails, and our outdoor (next post or two!) focused more on some simple tips that can help lower water waste, and hopefully will get us to that magic number of 21%.

The idea with these bus tails was to simply show that your use and your need should be in harmony. Use should equal need. Period.

Keep ‘em flowing

First off, we’re really psyched to have this finally in effect. We’ve been trying to get this idea done for a few years- finally conveyor belt advertising is available in our market! Well, we all know how scarce water is in these parts. Being a high desert climate, it’s a precious resource. So, we thought a general consciousness message would work great for these: the belts are shots of a river (we shot the Blue river Silverthorne), so as the food/conveyor runs it appears to be the river flowing by. The dividers between orders say “Keep our rivers flowing”. Use only what you need, people.

Look for ‘em in Sunflower Market and Vitamin Cottage.

FREE BEER!

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the Egotist has gotten our beloved market talking. We at Sukle really are pleased to see them stirring the pot a little here in Denver, and we’re keen to celebrate that by drinking beer they pay for. See you people there.

Crafty-ness on the bike front

In this world of automated factory production, we as a culture have lost an appreciation for things that are hand crafted. Even we advertising and design people rely on computers to complete our visions. So, we thought we’d shed some light on some very amazing hand made creations. Meet Vanilla Bicycles. Housed in Portland, OR. The builder quotes his beginnings in bike frame building as this: “I started building bike frames with a lust for fine craftsmanship and a developed eye for detail.” And, he has done just that. Cruise the site and look at all the hand crafted details in their bikes. Beautiful.

Next, meet Renovo Bicycles. These guys are doing something cool in the bike world, as well. These guys are kinda the opposite of Vanilla in that they do all the design and building with computer technology, but what they’re doing is very unique and also quite beautiful. Hardwood frames! While you may think “CLUNKER!” (I did), once you realize the frames are hollow, you realize they are onto something here: an environmentally friendly bike that looks very sweet and has a great ride (wood dampens shocks). Nice work, guys. Oh, and to really see the images of the bikes, open the ’specs’ PDF they have on their site. Hey, Renovo, you guys need a new site to really show those sweet bikes off. We’d do it if you were interested….

now beer can come everwhere with us

In our many web travels, we came across a sweet invention: a cooler backpack. Now we can bring frosty beverages to everything we do. And we like this.

Cool

Ad for Aquafina’s sparkling (bubbly) water:

Snowboarding on pavement

We at Sukle like to spend our free time playing. That may mean biking, skating, music, camping, skiing, etc. So, we try to keep up with what’s going on with the things we love to do as our hobbies. So, we came across this in our hunt for the ultimate cruising skateboard, and wow, what a cool invention. The freeboard is like riding a snowboard on the road (too bad we hardly have hills here on the front range). Watch the ‘Watch the ride’ vid to really see how rad the thing is.

Hair-met.

These hair hats—hats that look like your hair is styled into looking like an animal’s face—by Japanese artist Nagi Noda are at once beautifully executed and retarded. We kinda love them. See them all here.

We’ve always wanted to do this.

Tired of your phone bill always being higher than you thought it would? Sick of the damn thing ringing all the time? Are you over being ‘reachable’ all the time?

Well, then cook your phone.

Different kind of pod.

Photog Craig Ferguson has taken some cool photos of the strange hotel/pod development in San-zhr in Taiwan. The development was built in the 60’s and eventually abandoned, so the shots have a real post apocalyptic creepy feel to them. Check ‘em out.

Cool skates

Usually art is screenprinted onto skateboard decks. While this works well and produces beautiful product, the folks over at Refill magazine have created a project where the art is actually laser cut into the wood. It’s a really interesting way to design boards, and the laser cutting actually provides a relief to the boards that is really unique. 50 boards per artist were produced, and they have some shots of the boards here.