Do creative ideas grow on trees?

A creative holiday party decoration

One of the reasons I like having the brand expression consultancy Blackcoffee as a client is that they bring so much creativity into everything they do. They contacted me after deciding they wanted a life-sized car freshener-styled display tree for their holiday party. They called me on Wednesday. The party was scheduled for Friday.

You’ve seen these scented trees from the Car-Freshner Corporation hanging from a million rear view mirrors, but never one that was over five feet tall.

I love the smell of creativity in the morning

I told them my recommendations for production. Ideally, we would direct print it on a  4′x8′ sheet with the tree image angled to fit two up on a large flatbed printer, one with an automated router that would cut out the die line as well. My challenge was to find out which of my manufacturing contacts could meet the delivery time without going over the miniscule budget. It turns out I was overly optimistic that I could make it happen that way.

Instead, the printing was done on a matte paper by a photographer friend with a large format inkjet roll printer, mounted to foamcore and cut out by hand.

The assembled tree was then sprayed with pine tree scent and prominently displayed where people entered the studio for the holiday party.

So many people come up with great, creative ideas that never see it to completion because they don’t know how it can be done. I love translating these kinds of ideas into finished products. So, what are you thinking about for your next promotion?

Jamie Bradley
Idea Translator

Tagged as: Blackcoffee, Car-Freshner Corporation, flatbed printer, inkjet roll printer, Tim Gilman, Translating ideas into products