BY JOHN GALVIN

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SCOTT CUNNINGHAM

SONG + JINGLE = “SONGLE”
Circa focuses on development of several musical assets: “Songles” (the company’s proprietary custom song/jingles), new music, original music, scores, sound design, sound effects and, my personal favorite, mnemonics. Mnemonics act as sound branding and are used to “queue up” or “sign off” a spot or show creating distinction and competitive separation within a competitive category. Think of the Nextel or Sprint chime or the “dah di dee dahhhh” when a new puzzle is introduced on the Wheel of Fortune.

Consistently turning out world-class creative material takes passion, persistence and the conviction to step out of your comfort zone to chart new terrain. This quality is the hallmark of Circa and of all great creative entities. As many of us in the creative and marketing business know, it doesn’t take much more effort to create great ideas than it does to create good ones. Oftentimes it involves a bit of persistence and “selling” to help the client share your vision of where you want and need to go with a campaign.

I REALLY WANNA
When Cooper Tires wanted to attract a younger “performance-minded” enthusiast to the brand, John Stertz, Executive Creative Director at Falgren, turned to Circa to develop an original song and music for the campaign. “Allen’s not only a brilliant composer and producer, he gets branding and the power of creating an authentic and emotional relationship with the target consumer,” notes Stertz. The award winning spot entitled “Do You Wanna?” blasts off from the get go, causing you to grab your seat belt (and any loose food or drink articles) and hold on for dear life. “I remember seeing the spot for the first time at the Addy Awards and saying ‘WOW—there’s no way that spot was done here!’ It was one of those rare occasions where everything fit perfectly together including sound, music, lyrics, branding, graphics, editing and video.”

BUILDING SONGS FROM THE “GRUNT” UP
I’ve always been fascinated to learn how artists in other fields find inspiration and “push off shore” to start new projects. DiCenzo starts, as many of us do, by asking questions to help build a creative strategy and an understanding of the client-artist relationship. “Do you want this project taxi-cabbed or chauffer-driven? What category would we find this song in, in the record store? Who are we trying to reach and inspire? What role will this music play in the overall campaign? Is there an existing tone or style we want to reference? What would it mean if we were able to create the perfect original song for your brand?” muses DiCenzo. Hearing Allen describe Circa’s creative process can be compared to designing and building a great house. In this case, DiCenzo acts as architect, designer and general contractor all in one. The foundation consists of the creative strategy, supporting several floors to follow. “I like to start on the guitar to explore and create the ‘hook,’” says DiCenzo. “The guitar is less rigid and provides the freedom to move in many directions.” From there, he adds a second level that he likes to call the “grunt” – meaning a rhythm or run on the guitar coupled with a short lyrical or wordless hum. After the grunt, DiCenzo and the team add a third level – with lyrics to build out the song, supporting a fourth level consisting of singers and background vocals. Finally, the structure is capped with the addition of live musicians and final production, mixing and mastering.

As if the DiCenzo family tree weren’t creative enough, Allen grew up across the street from Jim Kammerud, one of the founders of Character Builders, a Columbus-based animation and character development house. As children, DiCenzo and Kammerud frequently escaped to what Allen referred to as the “clubhouse.” Here Allen and Jim spent endless hours creating characters, jingles and the worlds their make believe friends lived in. This creative partnership continues to this day with numerous collaborative projects for Disney, including Little Mermaid II, Tarzan II, 101 Dalmatians Patch’s London Adventure and others.

IF THE HAT FITS
Wearing many hats is one of the great benefits and stressful realities of running your own creative shop. In the course of any given day or week, Allen acts as writer, composer, musician, producer, salesman and CEO. Allen’s genius is his creative vision, versatility and flexibility to move quickly from one genre to the next. He is fearless and cares little about making mistakes. “You can’t be afraid to embarrass yourself,” notes Allen. “Continuously writing is the key to success.”

BY JONATHAN BARNES

PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRAD FEINKNOPF

Creative-for-creative (C4C) relationships are a lot like their better known cousin, business-to-business (B2B) relationships. C4C relationships offer something a little different – namely the potential for greater creativity, innovation and fireworks. C4C springs from mutual understanding, language and goals beyond making money and deals.

One recent C4C relationship sprang up when Jason Mlicki, who owns his own creative strategy firm, contacted Jonathan Barnes, owner of Jonathan Barnes Architecture and Design (JBAD). Mlicki, along with his father Ron, approached JBAD to recreate their office environment and redefine their brand. The Mlickis came to JBAD with the desire to blend their history, a 30-plus year old firm and a 60-plus year old office with their future, cutting-edge, web-based branding services.

JBAD has built a strong reputation of blending elements of old and new with their architectural projects like the Brunson Building lofts, 225 North Fourth lofts and the Hartman Building, so the writing was on the wall.

Through a series of business philosophy discussions, design charrettes and branding retreats, Mlicki and JBAD developed a greater understanding of each another’s companies. They discussed translating and interpreting elements of design into working environments and architecture. If that wasn’t intense enough, the project began with the wholesale renovation of the two-tired, nondescript houses that were joined to form the Mlicki offices years ago.

The design process at Mlicki is decidedly open, collaborative and penetrating. The design solution from JBAD reflected these attributes. From a jumbled, cramped, creaky labyrinthine space, the houses were transformed into a series of open, connected rooms revealing views and creating visual connections teeming with natural light. Some of the connections between spaces are large-scale and expansive while others are narrowly framed with laser-precision.

At its heart, the design is an homage to the work of Gordon Matta-Clark, a groundbreaking conceptual artist of the ‘60s and ‘70s. His manipulations of existing structures saw buildings as sculptural material and questioned assumptions of space, enclosure and the relationships between building components. The most direct homage to Matta-Clark is a pair of enormous circles cut from the once exterior walls. The circles now flank the two-story connecting structure. The openings throw daylight throughout the offices from the translucent roof, threaded by a steel bridge linking the second floors. Now the Mlicki creative staff can see each other from three rooms away – as well as visitors entering from below.

The exterior renovations also reflect the new Mlicki. A striated cladding in dark gray and silver wraps nearly all surfaces, uniting the projecting bay windows, turrets and the shapes of the original houses. They retained the original window openings and joined them between the first and second floors. This created cryptic ciphers in the façade, a firm nod to Mlicki’s graphic work. And, of course, the orange connector’s exterior speaks for itself.

In the end, a textbook C4C between creative strategists and an architectural firm produced a smart, well-informed, responsive design solution. Using a common language, an old is brand new again.

VIEW JONATHAN BARNES’ CMH CONTRIBUTOR BIO

VIEW BRAD FEINKNOPF’S CMH CONTRIBUTOR BIO

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SCOTT CUNNINGHAM

Deirdrè Brown-Postell has walked a colorful, creative path that now finds her back in Columbus as the design manager for design and construction at Columbus-based Red Roof Inn. Brown-Postell began her studies in music before turning her attention to interior design and architecture. Her creative career began modestly with a startup opportunity that inspired her to apply her sense of design and style toward designing window treatments and bedding for the residential industry and led to her first break into the hospitality industry with the Atlanta-based architectural firm of Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart and Associates. Her journey continued with positions at architectural and design firms in Nashville, Columbus and Dayton before landing a front row seat with hospitality giant Marriott International in Bethesda, Maryland.

CMH: What attracted you to the opportunity with Red Roof Inn?
DB-P: After losing my dad to cancer in January 2007, I wanted to be home in Ohio with my family. I found this position in the Columbus area and felt that it was divine intervention, as if it were waiting for me.

CMH: Now that you’re here, how would you describe our city to someone moving here?
DB-P: Columbus is a very progressive city and it seems to keep growing and expanding. It also seems to be enduring the economic storm much better than Dayton and Cincinnati.

CMH: What drove you to pursue an education and career in the design field?
DB-P: I began pursuing my career in the design field in 1991. I was a homemaker for a short time, but started life anew when my now 2-1/2-year-old son was born. I started a business making children’s clothing with a dear friend who was an architect. She wasn’t practicing at the time, but was pursuing her business venture of making women and children’s garments. She inspired me to design clothing, window treatments and bedding for the residential design industry under my company, Tipharah Designs. I later decided that I wanted to pursue a career in interior architectural design.

CMH: What attracted you to the hospitality industry and who gave you your first break?
DB-P: I attended Sinclair Community College and received my first interior design degree, from the School of Applied Arts. Before completing this degree, I was encouraged by Dr. Charles Wells at Sinclair to pursue my studies in interior architecture from the University of Cincinnati’s School of DAAP (Design, Architecture, Art and Planning). While attending the School of DAAP, I got my first break. I was hired by the architectural firm Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart and Associates in Atlanta, Georgia. I worked in the Interior Design Hospitality division. It was truly one of the greatest opportunities that I have ever had.

CMH: As the design manager at RRI, what are some of your day-to-day activities and responsibilities?
DB-P: I work directly with design consultants and manage the design of both the exterior and interior architectural design for our NextGen prototype program along with design and construction related activities supporting our franchise and corporate-owned properties.

CMH: What inspires you and influences your work and design aesthetic?
DB-P: I am inspired by the great artists, interior designers and architects of our past. My goal is to always create a sense of place. I want people to think about and remember their experience within the environments that I create. The design of NextGen is about creating a new experience for our guests. I want them to gain a new experience and a desire to return to the new RRI. Its clean lines and simplicity mimics the works of the famous artist Piet Mondrian. It is modern in its style and it encompasses a minimalist idealism. This concept is articulated through the design of the exterior of the building as well as the interior.

CMH: What are some of the challenges and opportunities that fuel your passion for what you do?
DB-P: The major challenge is adapting this new design concept in Red Roof Inn’s older building types. The development for the renovation and conversion packages is extremely challenging, but my determination to make this new concept and idea work outweighed the obstacles.

CMH: I’ve heard the new RRI described as “affordable W” – are you helping America rediscover frugal as the new chic?
DB-P: We believe that this modern design meets the needs of our targeted business traveler. We have value engineered this product over and over again to reduce costs in many ways. It is innovative, functional and cost effective. We are offering a midscale experience at an economical price. The footprint optimizes height and land requirements, and the guestrooms are efficient and minimal. The exterior design of the building has a two-story tower and storefront façade that takes full advantage of available natural light. So, to say that it is much like an affordable W hotel, I’d say…yes it is…thank you!

CMH: Is RRI focusing on a new, emerging or redefined customer segment?
DB-P: Red Roof plans to continue to stay on its current course of action to reach out to our core consumers – value seekers. Although we believe that Red Roof has solid brand awareness, Red Roof has gained customers that are newly exposed to the brand and are considering Red Roof as an option when they might not have done so in the past.

CMH: How do you see the partnership with country music stars Phil Vassar, Little Big Town, King Billy and emerging star Whitney Duncan building the brand going forward?
DB-P: The “Red Roof Loves Country” campaign is a comprehensive multimedia campaign. We are helping our guests, many of whom are country music fans, to manage this difficult economy with Red Roof Loves Country Road Trips rate discounts, free room nights at selected Red Roof properties, Budget Travel Tips and other financial stimulators.

CMH: RRI was founded in 1973 and has long ties to Columbus and the Trueman family. Knowing your new parent company, Westmont Hospitality, could have moved the headquarters anywhere, what drove them to stay in Columbus?
DB-P: After 35 years in the city, Red Roof has developed a history here. Columbus seemed like a natural choice for the corporate office. It is the perfect market – it’s centrally located to our brand, has a great workforce and an exceptional community.

CMH: What are some of your drivers for selecting a hotel when traveling?
DB-P: I need a nice, clean room that makes me feel like it’s a home away from home. If I don’t feel comfortable, I won’t sleep well and can’t wait to leave. I will also ask for another room if I’m not satisfied.

CMH: Now that you’re again part of the Columbus community, what do you love about the city and what would you like to see changed?
DB-P: I absolutely love the restaurants, shopping malls and summer activities. One thing I’d like to see happen in downtown Columbus is the revitalization of the City Center shopping mall. Something has to be done with such a great space. It shouldn’t be left vacant and with no plan.

VIEW JOHN GALVIN’S CMH CONTRIBUTOR BIO

BY JOHN GALVIN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SCOTT CUNNINGHAM & NICHOLAS HINSCH

As I turned onto Holly Avenue from Third, I noticed a long, red industrial building sitting on the west side of the street among a cluster of smaller warehouses. No signage or fanfare. No “Reserved For Owner” parking spaces and no evidence of fabricated marketing declarations of the “creative world.” In some ways it was a throwback to the days when we all shared space, went out and grabbed work and stayed up all night trying to create the next great campaign, identity, film or product. Very refreshing.

I’ve been hearing the name Vital Film Works, www.vitalfilmworks.com now for several weeks and my curiosity has been building by means of my close proximity to Laura Miller during CMH production meetings. She seems to be a big fan and, by nature for those that know me, I was very curious to get to know Vital a little better myself.

Upon entering the front door, I’m met by Jason Clayton, one of the founders and partners at Vital. Jason is one of those creative guys who lets his passion and enthusiasm for what he does infect everyone around him. We grab a drink and I’m given a quick tour of the studio. The warehouse is divided into a number of lounges, editing suites, sound rooms and flex studio space for shooting. A number of rooms are in various stages of set change or construction and once again it all appears refreshingly unpolished. My sense is that this place is more about collaboration and developing great ideas than it is about sales tours and displaying accolades and awards.

My interest and occasional exploration into film and content development provided me a great foundation to dive in and “talk shop” about some of Vital’s current projects. Just as we are starting to look at some work, fellow partner and founder John Daugherty walks into the editing lounge. John looks like he could have directed at Warner Brother’s in its heyday and, like Jason, didn’t require me to check him for a pulse. As we started to share some of Vital’s capabilities, projects and the inspiration for starting the company, I found myself thinking, “Yeah, I could work with these guys.”

People in high level creative positions often seem preoccupied with how great they are, how their current project is going to revolutionize the world and how they’re better than everybody else. Even in Columbus there’s enough ego, credit stealing and behind-the-scenes opportunistic maneuvering to fuel its own mini version of the Hollywood Reporter. These guys are passionate, credible and, most important, sincere about what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. John and Jason are hands-on and involved in all aspects of the business and projects under development. Our conversation centered on collaboration and how Vital continues to step forward to activate ideas. As in any great creative firm or studio, they are providing an environment to test ideas, succeed, fail, learn and better their craft and end product.

“Many of our team members come from sound, music and video backgrounds. A number of us have worked or partnered on projects together for years,” says Jason. Vital’s focus is a mix of corporate work and funded private projects typically leveraging their own capital and time. I was amazed by the diversity of projects in simultaneous production, including record development, music videos, original short films and programs supporting our Columbus community.

THUNDER AND LIGHTNING

Jennifer Reeder, an aspiring writer and director from Chicago, came to Vital to help produce her short film titled “Seven Songs About Thunder.” The short is adapted from a written feature film and focuses on the lives of difficult women and the impact these women have on those around them. “The men of Vital Film Works took on this project with respect and enthusiasm,” says Jennifer. “They’re a highly efficient team – professional and forward-thinking. So far, we have guided each other through tough decisions without jeopardizing either the creative integrity of this project or its commercial viability. We are working synchronously to make this a remarkable movie.”

Jennifer had past success working with Vital and building a relationship based on mutual trust – something crucial in the development of any film project in which many hands have input into the creation and production of what makes it onto the final screen. The project shot over six days in central Ohio in April of this year. Final production, including development of the trailer and a finished 15-minute short, was produced at Vital. Jennifer and Vital will be shopping the short at film festivals this year including Toronto, Sundance and Berlin with the hopes of picking up a larger production deal to produce a feature length version of the film.

GIVE AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE

The Ohio Film Office recently sponsored The Ohio Film Music Video Challenge. The contest was designed to support filmmakers throughout the state while partnering with educational institutions and musical acts. Participating production teams were given a three-week period to partner with a musical act, create a concept, shoot and edit the video, and post it to be judged on YouTube. Part of the submission requirement was to incorporate a number of Ohio-based landmarks and assets into the final edited video, including historical markers, a reference to one of our state’s professional sports teams and items featuring Ohio colleges or universities.

The Vital team jumped at the chance to participate, leveraging a long-time friendship with local musicians Jesse and Casey Cooper of the band The Receiver. The band is gaining local and regional notoriety and many feel it’s poised to make the jump to the big stage. “We were lucky enough to be approached by Vital as a band they would like to work with on this,” says Casey. “It was perfect timing for us. We had just completed a new record and were already researching possible music video options. We started a relaxed dialogue about the song material, the meaning behind the lyrics and how we’d like to see the music come to life visually. They were an absolute pleasure to work with. What stood out to me most was their willingness and effort to serve the song with whatever visual work they did.” The video titled “Visitor” was shot around Columbus and The Ohio State University campus.

The public voted on the videos and narrowed them down to the top 10 finalists. Finalists were then judged by professionals in the music and film industries, including actor and Dayton native Chad Lowe, representatives from Sony Music and other executives from Hollywood media, production and management companies. All finalists were asked to join the judging panel at the House of Blues in Cleveland, where the winner and runners-up were announced as part of a weekend showcasing the return of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies to Ohio. The hard and fast-paced work paid off as Vital Film Works’ entry was chosen as “Best Video.” Along with the award, Vital received a swanky prize package from the Music Video Challenge sponsors. Vital’s goal is to use the momentum of this win to shop The Receiver to larger labels and help the Cooper brothers become the next great band to make it from Columbus.

CALLING ALL TEENS

When arts programs are eliminated from local schools, it affects students, parents and teachers alike. It also hits home to all of us in the creative community here in Columbus. Instead of taking a comfortable and hands-off seat on the sidelines, John and Jason decided to do something about it. “We’re appalled at arts funding being cut from schools,” said John. They had visions of creating a film school for kids. “We wanted to create an experience that would engage young teens who wouldn’t otherwise have an opportunity to step into the creative world of film writing and development,” added John.

Through their friend, Allison Circle, Vital was introduced to Julie Scordato, teen services specialist at The Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML). John and Jason met with Julie to learn more about CML’s youth initiative and her overall goals and needs within the program. “When we heard CML’s goals and vision for their youth initiative, we felt it was a perfect match for our film school concept,” says Jason. The summer program will take place over a four-week period and is offered to 12–18 year olds at the Linden and Northern Lights branches of the Columbus Metropolitan Library system. “The overall theme of this program is to ground teens in not only the technology behind making a film, but the process, from all the roles involved to the ethics of filming,” says Julie. “Teens are familiar with content creation rather than just content consumption. Web 2.0 applications like Flickr, YouTube and Twitter appeal to their drive to express and interact. Historically, libraries were guides to content and now we are shifting to being guides for both content and creation.”

The film school program will expose teens to a variety of aspects of film writing and development and each student will develop original scripts as part of the program. All student scripts will then be reviewed and judged with Vital producing and directing the winning script into a short movie.

“Teens need a lot of help to become productive, happy, adult members of society. Working with the Vital Film Works team will give them opportunities to form relationships with adults outside of their family who can act as role models. This kind of project can increase self-esteem, a sense of feeling valued by and contributing to the community, and increase cultural competence. I am very excited that teens will be given the opportunity to really think through what it takes to create a piece of media. Beyond helping them with creation, this will ultimately help them evaluate media, providing an important skill to have at their age,” adds Julie.

A VITAL CONTRIBUTOR

If you haven’t heard about Vital Film Works, I’m sure you soon will. Maybe you’ll hear one of their bands on the radio, catch one of their movies or videos on MTV or the big screen or run into one of their team members spinning at a club or lounge – like I did last weekend when I ran into John Daugherty at Eleven on Saturday night. And just maybe they’ll encourage the next Steven Spielberg or Sofia Coppola to discover their passion and start their film, writing and directing journey here in Columbus.

View CMH videos produced by Vital Film Works
at www.cmhmag.com/video.

VIEW JOHN GALVIN’S CMH CONTRIBUTOR BIO

VIEW NICHOLAS HINSCH’S CMH CONTRIBUTOR BIO

BECAUSE BARE WALLS ARE BORING
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SCOTT CUNNINGHAM

BUT I’M NOT AN ARTIST – WHY SHOULD I JOIN?

Amazingly, OAL has survived two world wars, the Great Depression and more. If you believe in and value art as a critical part of our culture, OAL is an easy, friendly, inexpensive way to keep arts alive. Especially now, it is a difficult time for the arts – budget cuts are a reality for all arts organizations and have all but removed art programs from our schools.

EXPLAIN THE DISDAIN OF SOME FOR THE OHIO ART LEAGUE.

The Ohio Art League strives to uphold standards of quality – by choosing world-recognized jurors for the spring and fall exhibitions and asking the membership to vote on the best proposals for the member-curated exhibitions in our gallery. That means that while all members have an opportunity to submit, not all are chosen. That’s ruffled some feathers over the years.

Also, we make no restrictions on exhibition media, content, subject or scale, and we encourage experimentation. Sometimes that means art in our shows is deemed offensive, or may upset some viewers. But we make a commitment to stand by our artists. In fact, it was a particularly controversial show in 1995 (I think) – and our refusal to take it down – that committed the organization to operate its own gallery space where we could be free from censure.

IF OAL HAD A PATRON SAINT – WHO WOULD IT BE?

Without a doubt, one of the founding members of the art league, artist George Bellows, who gave up a promising baseball career to be an artist. Socially conscious, he was a prolific painter who made significant contributions to the art scene in his time. Also, he looked dashing in a floppy painter’s smock and hat.

DOES OAL HAVE A RELATIONSHIP WITH THE COLUMBUS MUSEUM OF ART?

Yes, in fact, many of OAL’s major annual juried exhibitions have been held there, and many museum members, curators and staff are members of OAL. CMA’s permanent collection includes many works by some of OAL’s most famous members, including George Bellows, Alice Schille, Emerson Burkhardt and Roy Lichtenstein. Through Oct. 4, the museum is celebrating our centennial by saluting OAL members in their permanent collection with a cell phone tour voiced by current OAL members.

IF I WANT TO START AN ARGUMENT AT AN OAL PARTY, WHAT SHOULD I SAY?

Walk up to a group of artists and say, “digital submission instead of art drop off – does it really matter?” and then run away. The idea that a show could be curated or juried through digital images rather than live art work is a big topic. And it is not evenly split by age either. I didn’t really understand the question until a friend described it as: “Jurying a show without seeing the artwork first-hand is like casting a Broadway musical from headshots.”

WHAT’S OAL’s RELATIONSHIP WITH GALLERIES?

Many Ohio gallery owners are members of the league. We host docent-led tours of the Short North galleries between May and September, connecting artists and collectors with galleries in our community. We operate a gallery in the Short North Arts District, where we exhibit 11 member-curated shows each year. In December, we host an all-member show there called Thumb Box. First put on by the league in 1916, Thumb Box invites members to submit new works no larger than 12” x 12” x 12”.

CMH ATTENDED YOUR ONE NIGHT IN A HUNDRED PARTY LAST MONTH. WHAT’S NEXT?

OAL’s 100th anniversary exhibition – Here and Beyond – at the Riffe Center Gallery (July 30 – Oct. 25). Curated by Margo Crutchfield, it features the work of 16 contemporary Ohio artists selected from hundreds of artists in our membership. I’m really interested to hear Margo talk about the work she selected and why.