Zookeeper Blog • Branding + Design + Advertising

Changes Afoot

As you may have noticed, we have a new brand identity for Zookeeper. Many more details to follow soon on this, including our process on how we created it and what the change symbolizes.

Many more exciting things to announce as well, so stop back soon.

Gone is our old identity, which served us well since I started Zookeeper nearly 10 years ago in February 1999, and featured a giraffe. The photo below I purchased a couple of years ago from Drew Force, who also runs his own design firm, located up in Portland. Drew loves to go to Africa on safari and has taken some stunning photographs that have been featured in his art-gallery shows. I loved the giraffe skull below that he captured and expertly composed. A fitting metaphor for the moment.

THURSDAY: Sketch of the Week

Just when Dave thought that I’d given up, I present to you yet another Thursday Sketch of the Week. Perhaps, this one needs a name and a story. Or perhaps there is no name or story. I mean look at this guy. Does he look like he has a name? I think he’s mysterious. Mission: Booyah. Status: Achieved.

Zookeeper helps Iwata-Medea increase website traffic by 400%

We’ve been working with Iwata-Medea, distributors of the world’s finest airbrush products, since 2004 on their website. In January 2005, Iwata had 6,000 unique site visitors a month. Thanks to a huge increase in site content and a targeted, consistent email campaign, the number of unique monthly visitors in July totaled over 24,000! That’s a 400% increase for those of you scoring at home.

Want to learn how we can help your business achieve similar results? Contact us today.

We’re currently in the process of a complete redesign of their site that will feature a blog, more interactivity and a freshly updated look. We’ve just uploaded the monthly site update which you can check out below.

Iwata-Medea Website

TUESDAY: Music Video of the Week

Named after the fictional castle in the animated TV series She-Ra: Princess of Power and not the 1983 Atari video game, Crystal Castles from Toronto bring us this week’s video “Vanished”, a super-cathy, almost hypnotic song. Enjoy: 

“We have hijacked your baby”

Owning a bunch of different domain names means you get a LOT of spam. My junk mail box regularly takes in nearly 5,000 spam emails a week. Last week spammers tried to swamp our comments section of our blog, but we enacted some security measures and cut them off at the pass.

After a while, you notice certain patterns behind their junk mail. What’s become very obvious is that the spammers have a marketing plan. But how do you cut through all the clutter, especially when you are competing against all of the other spams in your inbox? I noticed they had a top ten CNN stories of the day one going a couple of weeks ago. But yesterday, they really took it to the next level. I’ve gotten hundreds of these new ones, with the title:

“We have hijacked your baby”

The message goes on to tell me how I “must pay once to us $50 000. The details we will send later...” Then they are nice enough to attach a “photo.”

Very tricky, spammers. Imagine the havoc you could cause if English was like your fourth language…

Manny Manny Manny

Continuing to get our faithful readers caught up to do date on our latest escapades…

Our good friend and emerging voice-over superstar Mike Vaughn invited me out to the Dodgers-Phillies game last Thursday.

Here’s a photo of newly acquired Manny Ramirez stepping to the plate early in the game. The Dodgers are completely transformed with Manny in the lineup, a totally different team with playoff aspirations. Dodgers fans were always on their feet and cheering when Manny approached the batter’s box:

The Crystal Method DJ Set

Lots to catch up on in the last week…

Ken Jordan of The Crystal Method invited us out to the Blur party last Wednesday at the Henry Fonda Musicbox. The Crystal Method mixed an awesome DJ set that brought the place alive:

Carmen Electra even made a brief appearance – she’s the second one from the left. My iPhone isn’t a big fan of a) dark places or b) movement:

The previous night I was at a surprise birthday party for Ken in North Hollywood that migrated over to The Crystal Method studios. The Crystal Method have a new album coming out later this fall that they previewed – it sounded great and features a couple of incredible tracks by Peter Hook of New Order and Joy Division fame laying down riffs.

Kenny’s cake, as you can see here, was not only a festival of lights, but also had his likeness screenprinted on. You know you’re big-time when they print your picture on the cake: