Members Party

On a cold night in December, we met at her apartment to brainstorm ideas and get a concept. I wanted to go to Blimpie for dinner; she insisted that because I had never been to Quizno's, we had to go there. It was not starting out well. My assistant was already bossing me around.

After dining on toasty subs, the standard throwing out words -- however random or bizarre -- and writing a list brainstorm session ensued. It did not go well. The problem with this concept when Tom is involved is I always segue into middle school "come up with the most bizarre words or things ever just to make everyone laugh" mode. This does not help the team reach a creative concept. This is also why I could never work at an agency.

One of those seemingly off the wall words was "Candy Bar". Here my assistant is, throwing out smart, intuitive terms and words, and I throw out candy bar. In the words of the immortal OMC, "How Bizarre".

After generating a list of a hundred or so of these words -- half competent (hers) and half amazingly not drug-induced (mine) -- the task was to take one or more of these words and get a concept or a fleshed out idea. With half of the list in the state it was in, this proved to be tough. She said quite knowingly that I needed a drink. What an insult, I thought. I am not a drunk! But while she drank a Diet Pepsi, I took shots. Of nasty Hypnotiq liquor, straight from the bottle, no dilution.

Ten minutes later, the booklet and campaign were concepted and done.

I can not describe why. Nor how.

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That seemingly innocuous phrase -- "Candy Bar" -- tied in with Kit's name. KitKat bars. What if we made a candy bar for the event, and called it "KitChing"? Wouldn't that be cool? I thought so. But like every one of my ideas, ever, I immediately thought it was stupid. I have zero confidence in my creative ideas, I hate everything I've ever done, at least until myself or someone else convinces me its cool.

To her eternal credit, my assistant recognized the brilliance of the candy bar idea, and kept me going on it. It ended up being a fantastic collectible at the event; rock star Kit requested a whole case of them to take with him to the next Pentagram partners meeting to hand out. People like Michael Beirut, Paula Scher, DJ Stout, and other huge icons of our profession, will get something I did! And not something I designed but didn't have the idea for, but something I thought of myself. Good stuff.

The concept surrounding the KitChing bars was solid as well: a booklet entitled "PartyKit" which would contain items needed for a successful party. My original idea was a sparsely illustrated, black and white booklet that had the look and feel of the "Worst Case Scenario" books. My assistant thankfully took that idea and made it better, by using my copy and ideas but making them colorful and giving them more of a party look.

Partly because I was taking the advice of my buddy Nate, and partly because I wrote the whole thing in ten minutes, the copy was short. And if I don't say so myself, pretty good.

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The printer, unfortunately, really screwed us over on the printing. I'm not going to name them, because they normally do some pretty fantastic work and have been generous to us in the past. Everyone screws up once in a while. It happens. Oh well. They had problems with the InDesign files -- Quark, ick! -- and instead of telling us and asking for an EPS version, or using the PDF we supplied, they kept it quiet and tried to solve it first themselves, and later by sending the files to an outside source. Needless to say, the finished piece was two weeks late.

But it was going to be OK. The piece would arrive one week before the event, not ideal but OK. But then another disaster struck -- the mail account had no money in it! So the piece actually arrived the day before or the day of the event.

The Executive Board personally called each and every member of AIGA Nebraska to tell them about the event. Surprisingly, the overwhelming response was the same: people not only knew about the event, they were planning on coming.

As I wrote earlier, the ride to pick up Kit from the airport was an adventure. But it worked out OK. We took him to eat at a true Omaha original -- Caniglia's Steakhouse on 7th and Pacific. Good stuff. He got a real Omaha steak, and it was good.

Friday night came, and I was a nervous wreak -- so I did the genius thing -- I drank and get really overbearing and bossy. I needed to be smacked. Why someone didn't, I don't know. I was obnoxious.

I really thought no one would show up. But show up they did. My head count was 92 people -- the largest draw for a non-competition event in my three years on the board.

When my good buddy and AIGA Nebraska President Drew Davies got up to introduce the evening, he thanked me -- and I was nowhere to be found. Doing something in the kitchen. They ran into the other room and pulled me away to go onstage for a bow. Embarrassing.

I was too antsy to listen to Kit's presentation. I hear it was quite good, but the relief of having the event be a smashing success was too much to handle. I was just glad it was over, and honestly, I nearly fell asleep during his presentation more than once. The nervousness had worn me out. So I had to get up and walk around, which I'm pretty sure pissed off a lot of folks who thought it was disrespectful for me to be out walking around instead of listening to Kit.

After Kit finished, I did get dirty looks from some people on the board. Sorry guys, I put on the event, you enjoy it. I can't.

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A half dozen people came up to me personally and thanked me for organizing the event, and mostly for bringing in Kit to speak in Omaha. My buddy Nate, a fellow board member, was visably shaking, and he said it was the best event we'd had in years.

What can I say, I'm brilliant.

It was embarrassing. Here you have principals of agencies, huge local stars and businessmen, thanking me and saying they're indebted to me for bringing in such a figure as Kit. Thanks, I guess.

I thanked the board for their help, and for putting up with me being an incredible ass, bossing everyone around.

From: Tom Nemitz (AIGA-NE)
To: AIGA-NE Board
Sent: Saturday February 5, 2005

My sincere thanks for everyone who helped out last night. I hope people had a good time.

Actually, it was a pretty decent event. Not bad, really. I had many people comment to me it was the best event we’ve had in years. While I certainly disagree, it was OK, I guess. Not too shabby. I don’t think we lost money, so at least that’s good, right? (Maybe I’m just too close to the event to truly enjoy it like other people did — I’m just happy its over to be honest with you)

Everyone pitched in to help me with something, and the event wouldn't have happened without your contributions! Hi fives all around. Especially Donovan, who helped me to convince Kit to come to Omaha. Thank you thank you thank you, everyone!

You bet.

Tom

Donovan responded "If this wasn't the best event in years, you name one that was better. Your members' party rocked!"

I don't know. Is it possible that something I did actually turned to gold?

On the ride back to the hotel after the event, Kit gave me the greatest compliment I have ever received from another designer. He told me the "KitChing" bars were brilliant, and he couldn't wait to give them to the other principals of Pentagram.

If Kit's insistence on passing out my "KitChing" bars to some of world's most highly respected designers is any indication, then the answer to whether something I touched had turned to gold was indeed a resounding "Yes".

Or at least, a "You Bet".