Singularity of vision
We got some Chipotle at work today since a bunch of the team is working hard on a final push to finish up a large project. Cool.A few hours pass. My computer's checking something out of subversion so I look around aimlessly, waiting.I look at the bags they came in. I've read some Chipotle bags and cups before and I was always at least mildly amused.Then I saw this bag:I looked at one side...Cute. A subtle dig at me. I like it. I like the non-corporate-ness of the whole thing.Then I looked at the other side and completely lost it.OMFG!Beautifully hand-lettered "lorem ipsum."I can't help but laugh with the artists about this little in joke. This is normally a place-holder text for something to be added later... but this isn't a placeholder, it's real and awesomely hand drawn.It's like opening a book and finding a page reading "this page isn't blank" stuck inside.I did a bit of Googling for it and the first result had response from one of the artists:
Hopefully I can help shed a little light on this mystery...I am an Associate Creative Director at Sequence, the agency in San Francisco that designed and developed this entirely hand-written packaging system with Chipotle.As someone who worked on this project from its inception, I can tell you with absolute certainty that every single bag in this system was painstakingly hand-markered right in the middle of our office (we have at least two sharpie-stained tables to prove it.)I can also share with you that this particular bag was completed intentionally. We thought there was something funny about writing out Lorem Ipsum (which, as we all know is used as placeholder copy) by hand...We were hoping this little "easter egg" in the series would add a little fun and generate some buzz around the packaging redesign. Lucky for us, Chipotle is the kind of client that likes to have a little fun.This particular bag has caused quite a buzz all over the interwebs--and the speculation and comments have been great to read.You can check out additional shots of the packaging system (and some of our other work) at sequence.com.AJ KieferAssociate Creative DirectorSequence
This was absolutely awesome. This is someone with a singular vision for an inside joke that somehow really got made.Something like this isn't something that comes from a committee, this is something that comes from one person having one dumb, stupid... no AWESOME idea. Props to both Sequence and Chipotle for making this bit of impressive joking around.
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Later on one of my co-workers turned to me saying "programming is all about collaboration."I don't think so. Well, not completely at least.Sure, you're on a team... but at the same time you need a leader with a vision. The vision of how the system (whatever system that might be) should work.It's never a complete vision which is where the collaboration comes into play, but you need someone that can set the vision in motion. We all are on the winning team, but someone had to stick their neck and start things up.[smugmug url="http://photos.vec.com/hack/feed.mg?Type=gallery&Data=21621207_ZWxZp3&format=rss200" imagecount="100" start="1" num="100" thumbsize="Th" link="smugmug-lightbox" captions="false" sort="false" window="true" smugmug="true" size="L"]