Newsroom

DavisDenny Exposes U of A Games' Television Juggernaut

2010-10-07T19:19:20Z

It's no secret that we love our football here in the South.
David Davis and Steva Austill helped Stan Diel of The Birmingham News show just how rabid Alabama natives are for TV gridiron action.
Thanks for the enlightenment, y'all!

Bigger than the Super Bowl? Yep, Alabama football fans send CBS 42 numbers soaring

Winter Wonderland Group Photo

2010-02-12T21:12:09Z

The morning of February 12, 2010, snow flurries descended on Birmingham, with no sign of stopping for several hours. At Steva's suggestion, the DavisDenny gang seized a rare opportunity for a Winter Wonderland group photo.

Of course, this was before the snow really hit Birmingham, carpeting the Magic City in white. Hours later, children would be sledding down the hill in Caldwell Park, and rolling massive white boulders around to make honest-to-God, full-grown snowmen, towering giants rarely seen in these parts. And it's still coming down.

Happy Valentine's Day, Birmingham.

Luke Anthony Elected to Jr. Board of Workshops, Inc.

2009-07-07T16:29:33Z

Assistant creative director Luke Anthony was recently elected to the Junior Board of Workshops, Inc.

"It's an honor to be a part of this organization. I'd visited on an errand from Dana a few months ago. We hit it off, and before I knew it, I was touring the facility with their executive director," Luke says.

Workshops, Inc. is a nonprofit training and educational organization for people with physical and mental disabilities. For more than 30 years, it has provided vocational training and employment, giving these students the instruction and life skills they need to be self-sufficient in the job market.

Workshops is primarily self-supporting, with additional funding from the United Way of Central Alabama and the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services.

This fits well with their mission to pass on the gift of true autonomy, since Workshops graduates go on to enter the workforce on their own. Participants aren't merely educated in the classroom; they learn job skills by performing assembly, packaging, binding, and other services for businesses across Alabama. You can check out their website at www.workshopsinc.com.

"It's a fantastic organization, and they've got some of the most giving people you'll ever meet. I'd driven past their building hundreds of times on the way to work," Luke says, "but never knew there was such great work going on right under my nose."

Luke adds, "I should probably shave in the car less often."

Tim Denny's Holiday Selections: July

2009-07-01T20:24:00Z

July 1: Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day - Hong Kong

July 4: Independence Day - United States of America

July 5: Tynwald Day - Isle of Man

July 6: Eino Leino Day - Finland

July 7: Running of the Bulls - Spain

July 9: HM Hassan Il's Birthday - Morocco

July 10: Death of El Cid - Spain

July 12: Battle of the Boyne Day - Ireland

July 14: Bastille Day - International

July 16: World Snake Day - International

July 17: Hurricane Supplication Day - US Virgin Islands

July 18: Nelson Mandela`s Birthday - South Africa

July 19: Sandinista Day - Nicaragua

July 20: Moon Day - United States of America

July 23: National Hot Dog Day - United States of America

July 25: Yalong Cultural Festival - Tibet

July 27: Revolution Day - Cuba

July 28: Fall of Fascism - San Marino

July 30: Father-in-Law Day - United States of America

July 31: System Administrator Appreciation Day - United States of America

Tim Denny's Holiday Selections: June

2009-06-01T16:21:39Z

June 1: National Tree Planting Day - Cambodia

June 2: Botev Day (Day of Botev and heroes died for Bulgarian freedom) - Bulgaria

June 5: Dame Lois Browne-Evans Day - Bermuda

June 6: D-Day - United States of America

June 8: Best Friend's Day - United States of America

June 10: Abolition of Slavery - French Guiana

June 14: Commemoration Day of victims of the Communist Terror - Latvia

June 17: World Day to Combat Desertification & Drought - International

June 18: Evacuation Day - Egypt

June 22: Antifascist Struggle Commemoration Day - Croatia

June 23: Midsummer Party - Denmark

June 24: Fisherman's Day - Zaire (Democratic Congo)

June 28: M'Guine Sauveur table servie pour maitresse Erzulie, Tenaisse, Mambo - Haiti

Tim Denny's Holiday Selections: May

2009-05-01T14:24:21Z

May 1: Save the Rhino Day - United States of America

May 3: World Press Freedom Day - International

May 5: Cinco de Mayo - Mexico/United States of America

May 6: National Nurses Day - United States of America

May 8: V-E Day - United Kingdom/United States of America

May 9: National Heroes Day - Moldova

May 10: National Receptionist Day - United States of America

May 12: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Day - Australia

May 15: International Conscientious Objector Day - International

May 19: Ho Chi Minh's Birthday - Vietnam

May 21: Sheep Festival - Cameroon

May 23: World Turtle Day - International

May 24: World Schizophrenia Day - International

Tim Denny Reviews AIGA Portfolios

2009-04-20T16:04:48Z

The University of Alabama at Birmingham Visual Arts Gallery was the site for the 6th Annual Birmingham AIGA Student Portfolio Review. About 20 area graphic designers, photographers, creative directors and in-house creatives, including Tim Denny of DavisDenny, were chosen to serve as independent reviewers and participate in a panel Q&A discussion with graphic design students.

"I think I've been at all six of these and the work is getting better," says Denny. When asked, "What makes it better?", Denny acknowledges tech advancements as one reason. But he was quick to add, "It's not the most important thing. There are some really good instructors and professors and so forth who care about typography. In my opinion, the leap in design from old student to new student is the attention students pay to type."

Over 130 students from about a dozen colleges and universities, as far away as Northwestern, lined up with portfolios, some toting their distinctive black zippered cases and others with laptops.

"I wish we had more than 30 minutes per student. Maybe AIGA could grow this into an all day thing, panel discussions mixed with reviews. I want to see more work," Denny added.

The purpose of the AIGA Student Portfolio Review is to provide design students with professional feedback on their work and their presentations to prospective employers.

DavisDenny Wins BBJ Pacesetter Award

2009-04-17T19:35:56Z

DavisDenny was recently recognized by the Birmingham Business Journal in the 2009 Pacesetter Awards. The awards recognize the fastest-growing businesses in the Birmingham area, and include companies with revenue streams ranging from less than $2 million to more than $100 million.

David Davis credits much of the company's growth to the DavisDenny team, and the reputation they have built in the last twenty years.

"Every day, we're building on the foundation of the previous day," Davis says. "It means an awful lot to continuity in the work that is produced here."

Members of the DavisDenny team joined other recipients at a special honorary luncheon at the Wynfrey Hotel on April 9th.

The Pacesetter Awards were published in the April 10th edition of the Birmingham Business Journal. Click here for the full article (subscription required).

Local Yokel Schmokel

2009-04-17T14:35:01Z

Next Tuesday is my birthday. We are going to visit my daughter at Warren Wilson College and go to a Wilco show. I saw them at the Alabama Theater on the night they won a Grammy and if they play anything like they did that night, they will officially become A Band To See Twice.

Anyway, Warren Wilson is about five miles from Asheville, North Carolina. It is on an organic farm and the students MUST work 15 hours per week on campus doing everything from cleaning bathrooms to running a printing press to ploughing. They must have 300 hours of community service to graduate. Not to mention the challenging academics in both traditional and progressive courses. I mean, you can get a degree in Peace Studies there taught by a professor who conceived the Reconciliation Courts after the rotting of South African apartheid.

I think that studying peace is a noble pursuit.

This is the kind of stuff that happens in Asheville.

I have been there many times since my first trip from Chapel Hill a long time ago. When I go there Tuesday, I have no reason to believe much has changed and that will be of great comfort to me. Asheville has a vibe. Like New Orleans has a vibe. Like Barcelona has a vibe. They are different vibes, mind you, and each distinct. But Asheville is a small town by almost any standard, far and away smaller than the above vibesites. It may even be smaller than, say, Chattanooga, but I'm not sure.

Asheville is populated by young and old hippies, dastardly bankers, trim business men and women, farmers and crafts people who make useful things like drawer handles, books, natural organic local food and lots of other useful items. The retirees mostly live in cabins on hills or mountains surrounding the city proper. Their minor league baseball team's name is The Tourists, but many who visit from elsewhere never get past The Biltmore.

Asheville's vibe is local.

Local food. Local merchants. Local talent. Locally made things.

And local beer. Here's the marketing part you thought we'd never get to.
A local brewery, Pisgah, is located in the village of Black Mountain, near the foot of the Swannanoa Valley about seven miles from Asheville. A couple of organic brewers set up shop and began making really good beer. I don't think they entered it in one of these competitions other breweries work to win so they can say so in their advertising and packaging. It took these guys about a year to get everything like they wanted it, selling a little here and there to keep the hops coming. Pretty soon, they had regular customers and delivered the beer in a pickup purchased locally. Demand ran up, and these local fellows had some decisions to make: "Do we invest in trucks for delivery? Do we buy more stuff in which to make more beer? Can we afford more employees so we can get home before 3:00 a.m. every damn day?"

So this is what they did. They decided to limit their sales footprint to Buncombe County only and hired a local designer to develop an appropriate label and package. Nothing over the top.

In less than a year, they were outselling Budweiser. People were driving in from other counties to buy Asheville's local beer. Everybody from farmers to dental hygienists were drinking Pisgah.

Local people supporting local products. That's genius. It never started as any kind of an organized Support Your Local _________ Movement. It doesn't have a leader and is not governed by a committee. The truth is, buying local is what Asheville and many other places, large and small, really want. There are several good, sound reasons to buy local: there's the freshness factor, the familiarity factor, there's the let's-be-a-part-of-the local economy factor, and other sound reasons. You may be your neighbor's customer. And if something goes wrong with the deal, Ashevillians are liable to work it out over a local beer at a local bar.

So there you go. Ask yourself, "Is it worth it to buy local?"

Lord willing, I'll be in Asheville Tuesday afternoon. And, one of the best things about the place is that you're treated like a local. That feels pretty good to a visitor from anywhere.

What Luke Read: Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk

2009-04-16T19:28:54Z

A few years ago, I gave my father a copy of Haunted for his birthday, sight unseen, on a friend's recommendation. Dad loved it - this is the man who got me into Fritz Leiber and Stephen King, after all. A few weeks later, he vividly described one of the more horrific stories. I didn't read Haunted until last month, but that spoiler chipped the edge of one of its best tales, so I won't sully things by showing you the trailer.

Haunted follows a group of aspiring authors at an intensive writers' retreat. Food, shelter and equipment are provided; for two months, they will be completely cut off from the outside world, and everything that hinders them from authorial greatness.

As events progress, we see one disturbing, autobiographical tale after another from each character. Locked in their time-sealed theater, the writers soon fixate upon the workshop ordeal itself as their magnum opus (provided it's sufficiently tragic). Before long, food is running out, utilities are sabotaged, and everyone starts shedding pounds. The stories grow more and more extreme.

Cue the body count.

Given free rein to bang out a score of oddball vignettes, Palahniuk gleefully casts off the shackles of extended continuity (and pacing, and characterization).

There lies my only real gripe. Haunted is a collection of short stories, each of which devotes about ten pages to each of nineteen characters. Palahniuk gets so busy with the "Strange Tales" slide show that he gives no reason to care about anyone. The reader is held at bay, at a firm emotional distance. Each character writes in the same dry, deadpan voice Fight Club fans will recognize; it all sounds like Edward Norton reading poetry in a jail cell.

Which isn't to say it's not a charming, inventive piece of work. Some of the tales are impressively disturbing, quirky or grotesque. Some are outright hilarious. Haunted is marketed as "horror," but the advertising boys at Doubleday Publishing would do better to call it a dark comedy. Palahniuk sticks to his usual style - characters prowling just outside normal society; bizarre money-making schemes; and odd, real-life factoids - because he does it so bloody well.

One of Haunted's first yarns comes as close to David Foster Wallace's weapons-grade entertainment in Infinite Jest (see previous "What Luke Read" post) as we'll see in real life, outside of cursed and seditious texts. Playboy magazine initially rejected the piece as too disturbing, then ran it after news of strange audience reactions at publicity readings began to spread.

That's as much of a spoiler as you'll get out of me. Read it, if you've got the guts.

Tim Denny's Holiday Selections: April

2009-04-01T19:25:53Z

April 1: April Fool's Day - 9 countries

April 4: Tomb Sweeping Day - Taiwan

April 6: Drop of Water is a Grain of Gold Day - Turkmenistan

April 7: Day of Beauty & Mothers - Armenia

April 9: Passover

April 10: Good Friday

April 12: Easter Sunday

April 13: National Day - Chad

April 15: Rubber Eraser Day - United States of America

April 19: Landing of the 33 Patriots - Uruguay

April 21: Tim Denny's Birthday - Worldwide

April 23: World Copyright Day ©

April 25: World Penguin Day

April 28: Day of Mourning for Persons Killed or Injured in the Workplace - Canada

I Pod

2009-03-11T19:18:06Z

Last month, Public Relations Manager Dana McGough took an impromptu 48-hour trip to New York to see Mary-Louise Parker in Hedda Gabler. This is her story.

The Pod Hotel met my three criteria for a preferred New York City hotel: cleanliness, easy access to a good subway line, and a location on the East Side within walking distance of Serendipity. Most New York hotel rooms are minuscule, so I decided to reward this hotelier for boldly parlaying that into an actual theme.

Most rooms at The Pod share bathrooms at the end of the halls. For this trip I decided to splurge on a "comfy double" room with its own shower and toilet. Laying crossways across the bed, I could touch the north and south walls of my room. As promised on the website, the bed doubles as the couch, and luggage only fits in the room if it's shoved under the bed. With white walls, stainless fixtures and colorful comforters, it was the perfect place to pass the 1.5 waking hours of my trip not spent out enjoying the city. The location and price tag more than made up for the awkward moments spent waiting for the elevator in the morning beside antsy guys in boxers with toothbrushes in hand, waiting impatiently for their go at the loo.

There's also a truly fantastic hole-in-the-wall Thai place down the street called Thai 51. That, coupled with the great speed at which my blackberry received and sent data, reminded me why so very many people live and work in that city.

Returning to Birmingham, I spared no expense for my colleagues at DavisDenny. I brought back the specially designed Pod shampoo bottle for my boss Tim. He took one look and quipped, "Is this a urine sample?"

The Pod was fine, but on the next leg of my New York's Tiniest Hotel Rooms Tour I plan to stay at The Jane. As a friend described it on Twitter, "OMG!!!! A Wes Anderson inspired hotel in NYC!!!!!"

At a whopping 50 square feet, The Jane's rooms are "built to look like a ship's cabin." Yeah, it's just like on the open seas -- all the way down to the iPod docking station and 23" LCD television. It does, indeed, look like Margot Tenenbaum could stumble out of the lobby in barrettes and a fur coat. But its $75 a night price tag is the only thing that would justify staying three creative subway transfers away from Serendipity.

Davis Speaks at Annual Bar Convocation

2009-03-03T20:13:48Z

David Davis was a panelist at the Birmingham Bar Association's annual convocation on Friday, February 20th. The "Bench and Bar" retreat was held at the Marriott Prattville Capitol Hill. David was part of the "Marketing and Client Retention" panel, which was moderated by respected industry veteran Lee Thuston of Burr Forman.

Theirs was the only "non-lawyers only" session over the course of the two-day retreat.

Also on the panel were Mike Cunningham, VP of Litigation and Assistant General Counsel of Infinity Insurance Group; and Laura Meherg, former head of marketing at Burr Forman and a founding partner of the Wicker Park Group. David was honored to speak alongside such esteemed professionals, and elaborated on the many ways firms can target and streamline marketing and communications efforts.

"Having presented at other attorney groupings in recent years, I see a growing trend, locally as well as on a broader scope, of professional services firms embracing our kind of work," David says.

"Whether in branding, design, paid media, general communications, client retention, or litigation communications, attorneys have a great opportunity to leverage communications planning and marketing."

Tim Denny's Holiday Selections: March

2009-03-01T21:46:42Z

March 1: Yap Day - Micronesia

March 3: Declaration of Establishment of Authority of the People - Libya

March 7: Peace Corps Day - United States of America

March 9: Baron Bliss Day - Belize

March 12: Crown Princess' Nameday - Sweden

March 14: Pi Day - United States of America

March 16: Black Press Day - United States of America

March 17: Evacuation Day (Boston only) - United States of America

March 18: Men's Day - Mongolia

March 20: Petroleum Day - Iran

March 22: Mothering Sunday - United Kingdom

March 25: Lady Day - United Kingdom

March 30: Spiritual Baptist Liberation Shouter Day - Trinidad & Tobago

DavisDenny Puts Final Touches on Short Film, THE POWER OF LIBERAL ARTS

2009-02-19T21:50:11Z

The University of Alabama College of Arts and Sciences commissioned DavisDenny to do a short film to be used to demonstrate the value of a robust Arts and Sciences foundation no matter what path you choose in life. Most students at the University spend their first two years in the College of Arts and Sciences, making it by far the largest college in the University. This place is often where a young student has an epiphany, one of many throughout life.

Working together, a theme evolved that allowed us to express our successes by interviewing some graduates of the College. It's shot in a traditionally rendered format deemed appropriate by Dean Robert Olin, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

A custom score was written that puts a new twist on "Yea Alabama".

This project had a lot of moving parts. If not for the fine staff in the Office of the Dean, professors, students and maintenance experts, this thing we made together would have never been started. They pulled yeoman's duty. I mean, really. I especially thank the Dean, Don, Becky and Susan.

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