R|com Creative Blog

The 30th Annual Telly Awards have been announced and R|com Creative has earned three separate awards in this year’s competition. We are honored that the Telly Awards have seen fit to honor us for our film and video endeavors.

Earthquake 9-1-1 earned awards in the Charitable and Public Safety categories.

Firing Up Our Future, the DVD produced to support the 2008 Greater Alarm Gala for the LAFD Museum and Memorial earned an award for fund-raising.

“These awards are really for our clients, and for our crew, as they are the ones we endeavor to please,” David Barrett, managing director for R|com Creative said. Producer and Director Cameron Barrett added, “we are thrilled that our peers find quality in our work, and adding these new awards to our long list of past achievements is an honor.”

For three decades, the Telly statuette has been a symbol of creative excellence. Each statuette is hand-crafted by the same firm that produces the Oscar® and Emmy® Awards.

Each year, the Los Angeles Fire Department throws a benefit gala to raise money for the Historical Society to fund their various programs and projects throughout the year. At each seat is a set of gifts donated by sponsors and printed material designed and produced by R|com Creative. As the designer of the program book, the short timetable and the reliance on multiple sources of information proved the most challenging elements, but the finished product was well worth the effort and time spent.

Concept

The first step to any project is to gather requirements, and the provided instructions were, in this case, extremely minimal, giving me extreme freedom in the direction of design.

Rudimentary outline for the project

Knowing that there was dramatic imagery available, I turned to the task of addressing one of the concerns with the previous years’ programs – the lack of a unifying design for the material. The task was set before me to create a design which would be able to showcase both the history and future educational plans of the Historical Society.

Design Elements

With a historical story, individual articles, and an overall look and feel to the book to create, programming and design experience meshed into one thought: combining inheritance with the necessities of maintaining an interesting presentation. Starting from a blank indesign document on the workstation, a rudimentary design was sketched out on paper and the different elements laid into the nascent document, leaving room for the design of the book around it.

Master page design for the book

Interior page masters

The Waiting Game and Final Press

Depending on government agencies and corporations means that there can be miles of red tape to slog through, but once the deadline looms, work time seems to compress into a perpetual state of overdrive, as letters and advertisements pour in during the final week.

Interior page, with content

Even with all that, though, the program was ready well in advance of the date, thanks to the diligence of the staff at Sir Speedy of South Orange County, with their dedication to perfection and willingness to work with our specific needs.

Final Thoughts

In retrospect, there’s probably a little more that could have been done, but I’m happy that there were no errors or misspellings reported, and there were even a fair amount of people came up to complement us on the book. Not to be overly immmodest, but an overwhelmed and appreciative customer does wonders for the feeling of accomplishment that comes with any project. In the end, the program is only a small part of the entire even that was put together with months of work, but it was felt great to be praised for our collective efforts in putting this together.

‘Til next time,

J

A job well done.

BONUS: Download a pdf copy of the program here to see the final product!

This past week, we completed management of a gala event in Los Angeles. This project was related to our museum client – and it was a very nice affair, even though the financial markets fell into the earth and other economic hysteria has been the rule of the land. But what is always amazing to me is – as the event gets closer, the speed of life accelerates – like a Saturn Rocket!

The 4th Annual Greater Alarm Gala utilized a number of Rcom Team skills, from print to video to event management.

This project began in January, with a casual meeting of the committee that managed the event last year. Our role was limited in the past, creating the video for the event and the gala tribute book content. This year, we are in an overall managerial role, collaborating with our three key chairpersons.

For the first half of the year, meetings and activities were straight-forward. Some food, dialog, going through the agenda, etc. The meetings would adjourn and we’d conduct our business through to the next gathering.

Then, in July, things began to pick up speed. More and more deliverables were coming due in a single week. The layout of the event, the contracts, schedules and content began to overlap. This is typical – and if you haven’t spent the time in pre-production, this is where things start to fall apart. In this case, the water remained smooth and calm, but the activity pace increased.

Our big hiccup appeared to be food management. The food was going to be prepared by LA City Firefighters. Who was doing this? When? On a WED evening, while driving in the city, I took the decision to stop by a fire station and speak with the Battalion Commander regarding the food. Cameron and I spent three invaluable hours stopping a potential calamity with a simple discussion. Okay! No more worries… or so we thought.

Suddenly, on the day before the event, time was sucked into some type of hyperspace. A 24-hour period went by in about 40 minutes. What do you mean, it’s 4PM? I just got up at 6AM and that was like, ten minutes ago? And, as the event drew closer, the number of things left undone seemed minute.

As September rolled into view, the event began to take shape in a very concrete manner. PR notifications were sent out, along with invitations, posters, etc. At this point, the event, like Frankenstein, began to breath on its own. The video elements were completed, contracts were in place, and the tribute book (this time prepared by our team completely) was nearing the printing stage.

Suddenly, the event is two weeks away. Ack! Are we ready? What could go wrong? Our meetings are more serious and now we’re collaborating twice a week in person and daily via email, SMS, voice, etc.

Ah, not so fast, event manager-type! One thing we always learn when working with events is that if you don’t expect it, whatever “it” is will take place. In this case, it wasn’t any single thing, but rather, a series of little things. Radios were not delivered to the event. The setup began an hour later than planned. The hard drive with videos on it crashed. A street closure wasn’t executed on time. Each of these things showed up approximately ten minutes after the issue previous, so the process of killing “snakes” became an all day affair.

But, thankfully, because we had such a good team, the attendees of the event enjoyed a smooth, professional, and entertaining evening. There were no visible gaffes and several of the team jumped in to fill gaps with poise and calm professionalism. As the evening drew to a close, there were smiles all around.

Naturally, our post mortem will cover a wide range of issues, and there will be much to do in the coming year to top this year’s event, but as it relates to the types of events we manage, this was a fun, engaging evening. I just can’t remember too much of it, as it was over in a matter of seconds.