TONIGHT’S THE NIGHT, PHOENIX: Our half-ass traveling roadshow is here, Arizona. And tonight, we get down and dirty in the desert dust, with you. One night only! We’re gonna talk about independence and proof of design existence and things we love and how we work and a couple tall tales to get you whispering. Our wild, stupid, little story, up on the big screen to Phoenix’s creative community. One of many spirited romps around the nation, and around the world! We’re going for broke.

Mark Dudlik and Andy Cruz started hitting me up months ago. I instantly accepted and plans started coming together. Thanks for rolling the dice on the DDC, fellas! I pledge to do what I can in a “damage control” kind of way, so as not to harm yer stock prices too much with what I’ll be presenting tonight. Thank you.

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THE MOST PERTINENT DETAILS:

AIGA Arizona presents, “Tall Tales From A Large Man with Aaron Draplin of the Draplin Design Co.”

Thursday, February 9, 2012
7 pm - 9 pm
ASU Campus, Business Administration C Wing, Room 216
Tempe, Arizona, U.S.A.

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WE MADE A POSTER FOR YOU, ARIZONA: We worked up the poster you are seeing up above a couple weeks back while watching the tube after our dayshift or on planes back and forth to Denver. Really packed in a lot of Arizona into that thing.

Everything we love about Arizona! Bands, places, people and old logos that are quickly dying off…rescued forever. Printed by our friends at Seizure Palace of Portland, who’ll patiently listen to my rambling theories on identity design and color choices. Thanks, Nick and Fran. Holy shit, these things turned out incredible.

Way limited edition of 300. These sumbitches will go fast. They’ll be on the site once the dust settles after our Phoenix speaking fiasco. That is, if we make it back. If Arizona gets the best of me and I get snubbed out in some desert fruckus, well, hell, it’s been a great run. Damn, I hope I make it back. I have open gigs that still need wrapping up! 4-color on thick, off-white poster stock. Beautifully printed by people who care about each and every pull.

Add some Arizona spirit to the wall of yer apartment, bungalo, dorm, adobe, lean-to or Maricopa County prison cell. You need one of these. Seriously.

WE NAME OUR OWN COLORS:

01. “Navajo Turquoise Spirit Blue” or “Backyard Pool Splash Blue”
02. “Terracotta Floor Tile Burnt Orange” or “Development Community Roof Orange”
03. “Burning Sun Orange” (Man, it is BRIGHT down here!)
04. “Tarantula Fur Dark Brown”

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OUR FINAL PITCH: C’mon, Arizona, you gotta come to the show. Flew all the way down here from Portland. Packed into the sweatiest flight ever. Sitting next to some bubbly ASU student who smelled of Walgreen’s latest perfume aisle scent. A spirited talk, given to many, and tailored just for you. We bring a well-stocked DDC merch table at cut-rate “Arizona Only” prices. No credentials to speak of, whatsoever. No accolades. Delusional. Orange things. Wiener dog ghosts. Small parts. Stupid, little ideas. Big, rambling plans. Logos. Love. Hate. American-made memo books. Multimedia moves. Us, up on a stage, going for it. Come and hear us out. You might dig it. Might not. Hard to say. Be there. Do it. Tonight.

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BROUGHT TO YOU, IN PART, PROUDLY BY: Field Notes brand memo books. Makers of fine, sturdy memo books, dry good, writing instruments and cool shit. All made by our friends in America. “I’m not writing it down to remember it later, I’m writing it down to remember it now.â€

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LET THESE WORDS GIVE YOU STRENGTH, ARIZONA: “That night I had a dream. I dreamt I was as light as the ether- a floating spirit visiting things to come. The shades and shadows of the people in my life rassled their way their way into my slumber. I dreamed that Gale and Evelle had decided to return to prison. Probably that’s just as well. I don’t mean to sound superior, and they’re a swell couple of guys, but maybe they weren’t ready yet to come out into the world. And then I dreamed on, into the future, to a Christmas morn in the Arizona home where Nathan Junior was opening a present from a kindly couple who preferred to remain unknown. I saw Glen a few years later, still having no luck getting the cops to listen to his wild tales about me and Ed. Maybe he threw in one Polack joke too many. I don’t know. And still I dreamed on, further into the future than I had ever dreamed before, watching Nathan Junior’s progress from afar, taking pride in his accomplishments as if he were our own. Wondering if he ever thought of us and hoping that maybe we’d broadened his horizons a little even if he couldn’t remember just how they got broadened. But still I hadn’t dreamt nothing about me and Ed until the end. And this was cloudier cause it was years, years away. But I saw an old couple being visited by their children, and all their grandchildren too. The old couple weren’t screwed up. And neither were their kids or their grandkids. And I don’t know. You tell me. This whole dream, was it wishful thinking? Was I just fleeing reality like I know I’m liable to do? But me and Ed, we can be good too. And it seemed real. It seemed like us and it seemed like, well, our home. If not Arizona, then a land not too far away. Where all parents are strong and wise and capable and all children are happy and beloved. I don’t know. Maybe it was Utah.” -H.I. McDonough, Arizona, or maybe Utah

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AND JUST BECAUSE: Suck it Jan Brewer, you hate-filled, viper-tongued, devil-horn-for-a-chin’d desert beast!