Cathedra Furniture Company

Just to be clear, this is a faux company. This was done for my graphic designer (Maggie Fritsch) who had to brand a company. She made hers up. The company sells do-it-yourself and authentic furniture for the up and coming crowd. Hope y'all enjoy.

Diamond Strike-A-Fire

Perhaps some of the most badass fire-starters ever created for outdoor use, these matches are made for any situation and gives you fire when you need it most (which usually is when it's about to snow or when you want s'mores). My art director was Lance Thomas who also happens to be my roommate. He's a designing ninja. Hope you enjoy the ads.

Khakis and Cocktails

This is an assignment that I had to write for a concepting class. We had to get into a target markets frame of mind. Mine happened to be an executive who believes in martini lunches and the golf course a conference room. Hope you enjoy it.

To: Bobby McFrangleton, VP Technology Division

From Will Thomsen, SVAP Marketing Division

Subject: The Week Ahead

Hey Bobby,
My apologies for getting back to you in a tardy manner. The traffic this morning was horrible and caused my ulcer to act like Mt. Vesuvius, but I'll spare you the details. After reading over your letter, I was shocked to find the laundry list of issues that need to be addressed. While it would be advantageous for us to take care of this post-haste as you had mentioned, I do believe that if you step back and analyze the situation you'll agree with the plan that I am about to lay out.

Pardon my bluntness, but starting today on the strategy session would be about as good as promoting Jenkins from mop jockey to department head. Did Hannibal conquer Rome in a day? Does America believe in Communism? Do you want to make another conservative pre-emptive strike upon a problem without research? The answer should be no! As our past has shown, a dive into strategy has presented obstacles that sometimes we never surmount because of our Sisyphean-type efforts.

That is why I recommend we wait until Wednesday to strategize. We can meet at the High Ball and do some drinking and thinking. Besides, it's almost three. Do you want to be late for our tee time? Make the plump girl from the front do the research and tell her to have it to me by morning.

Now Tuesday we'll have to meet at the gym. Mr. Roidrage is making me work my back since that disc slipped last spring. I'd say the only thing he’s helping me lose weight from is my wallet. The doctors prescribed some Xanax and Lahem-something or another, but it worked about as well as my stock broker. The kicker is he won't give me anything else for it so I self-medicate with Doctor Seagram's and his nurse Ms. Marnier.

Please let me know if that's possible because I'm taking the misses to the airfield at three and then it's squash at five with those guys from the Nagasaki corporation. They’re about to get a taste of the 1978 North Dakota state champion.

Like I said, Wednesday at the High Ball. Make sure that Judy calls for the car service. There's a reason they call it the High Ball. After we get back, we should coordinate with the Milwaukee office and overnight the documents to them after we're done with lunch. Have Bartlesby get with Romanakov and have them start on the ideation and development on Thursday.

I'm going to take Friday as a mental health day. You should too. We’ll talk more on the green.

Let me know if this works for you. Run it by Donice.

Well, I believe that is my three o'clock masseuse at my door and I wouldn’t want to keep these old love muscles waiting. I hope she's a real blond this time.

Get back to me about tomorrow,


Will Thomsen

My Favorite Words

As a person who likes to manipulate sentences, grammar, and the English lexicon, I have naturally developed a special place for certain words in our language. In somewhat of a hierarchal ranking:

1) Defenestrate
2) Quagmire
3) Epidermis
4) Cataclysmic
5) Bailiwick
6) Couth
7) Zoology
8) Discombobulate
9) Yesternight
10) Monophagus

If you don't know the meaning of a word, do what your parents told you, ask someone else.

National Geographic Magazine

So how do you advertise perhaps one of the most iconic magazines on the face of the Earth? Well, my team and I set out on what we thought would be a Sisyphean task because it was an intimidating client. However, after many hours of coffee, stacks of magazines, and a play list consisting mainly of mariachi bands, we finally thought of our message. We executed it as a 16"x24" poster and in the process I developed a new found respect for the profession of collage making. You'd be surprised how few magazines use the color purple. I know I was. Hope you enjoy it.

All-Bran Buds

This is All-Bran Buds. This was the only thing we got after two weeks of work. Let's just say it was a lot harder than I imagined. The subject of fiber is a fickle one. Maybe one day, perhaps after my time has come and past, toilet humor will be witty and no longer low brow. Jeff Foxworthy can only hope.

Global Pet Finder

Here are some ads I did for Global Pet Finder which is essentially GPS for your dog. This was all hand drawn by an illustrator (David Ortega, AD) at my school and then put into vector. My partner (Stacy Mann) and I were pretty stoked on how it turned out.

Coming soon... cool, hip slap bracelets featuring GPS for kids! Own'em all!

More?

So it's almost half way through quarter and I have oh so neglected this blog. I apologize. Not so much to y'all who happen to read this, but more so to myself. Write. Write. Write. No more slacking. So hold onto your knickers. It's about to be a long, strange road.