We’re lucky, and we know it, still hanging our hats in the same beachfront office that we started out in 25 years ago.
The location of our office is a highlight of the past 25 years and affords us a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean. If you follow us on social, you know we love to share our sunset pics… Here’s one for the record books.
Thanks to all the great clients and products we’ve represented over the years, SDA has enjoyed some amazing behind-the-scenes experiences. Join us as we journey back to some of our favorites that always make us smile.
In the 1996, we were given an e-ticket to the Olympics in Atlanta, GA. Watching the world class athletes compete was a once in a life time event and we were able to cheer on our Mikasa Volleyball athletes (of course!). There was a domestic terrorist attack at those games – something that was very foreign to us at the time. A bomb exploded right where we were standing just the day before.
It’s been rewarding to work with the world’s best professional beach volleyball players, like Sara Hughes, Misty May Trainer, Sinjin Smith, Phil Dalhausser and many more. Mikasa Sports, who have sponsored all these top athletes, has been our friend and client since the day our doors first opened.
On the snow side of sports, the ski and snowboarding industries have also been very rewarding creatively. We were tapped by K2 Skis to design their ads for several seasons. The “BK2” ad below was a spoof on the Calvin Klein Ads of the time. The seven featured K2 skiers were considered the best extreme skiers in the world (that’s Johnny Mosley on the far left, Gold Medal athlete). We shot this ad in the basement of a hotel in Keystone, CO after a serious night of partying. These guys knew how to party.
From K2 ski trips, to Kirkwood Resort in Tahoe, Bear Mountain and Snow Valley in Big Bear and onward to Vermont and snowboarding deep powder in Whistler Canada, SDA enjoyed some great snowboarding trips (or creative branding meetings as they were called for tax purposes). Season passes were one of our best perks, and Kirkwood ski resort was a favorite. We carved some sweet tracks thru the backcountry there on some very steep terrain. Our guide actually told us “make sure you don’t fall in the next 300 feet or it’s all over”… Wait, what…
In marketing, you get to enjoy promoting the latest trends in sports, products and society. The early years of promoting snowboarding was one such new trend, which was at the time, a sport that many thought would never catch on. Snowboarders jumped on the slopes with aggression and a fearlessness not seen before . We scored some great snowboard clients, Atlantis, K2, Kemper and Flow to name a few. Suddenly SDA was designing snowboard graphics, and we did a ton of them.
With the addition of technology in branding, film became a real creative option for our clients. Wham! SDA was now offering some serious film services that took us to many cool places. This film project for an international private security company, stretched us creatively and administratively with over 100 people on set at the same time.
This memorable Air Combat film project required us to fly upside down at 400 mph over the Pacific Ocean. Not for those with sensitive stomachs, trust me on that. #barfbag Whew!
Another all time favorite was a location shoot in Alaska, where we had to fly in on a seaplane to a remote lodge. This shoot was the first time we used camera drones, and we captured footage of bears, whales and bald eagles. This Sportsman Cove Lodge film brought 200 lbs. of halibut back home with us! It was a work trip, but man did we have a blast. #workperk
On the purely artistic side of SDA Creative, designing the autobiography about visionary Hobie Alter was a great honor. We worked hard to finish this book as Hobie’s health was fragile. Hobie was able to hold the finished book in his hands and attend the book signing event, passing just a couple of months later.
Partnering with Craig Peterson & Kevin Naughton on their surf adventure travel book was nothing short of fantastic. These guys were our heroes when we were young surfers, and to be able to work side-by-side with them for 6 months on their life story…. priceless.
We’ve now designed a zillion websites for everything from heart-valve technology to avocado growers to 3-D Printers to bra inserts. I like to think the bra insert website has padded our resume and given us a lift. (sorry)
In between design and production, we’ve had eagles land on our balcony and shark sightings in the water. We had so many shark sightings in 2018 that nobody swam in the ocean out front for 6 months.
Recently, we’ve had the pleasure of working on a hot new product on the market: CBD. What a great group of entrepreneurs these business owners are. We are cheering them on from the sidelines. Here’s the packaging SDA designed for this innovative CBD client.
Some of our favorite things about the last 25 years are actually not things, but people. We’ve worked with many of the best. And many of the best have worked right here.
So cheers to a great team of SDA designers, over the years, that have brought character and creativity to our company. Some of the very best we’ve ever had are on staff right now.
If you’re new to SDA, we invite you to join us in 2020 where the year has yet to reveal what it will hold. If you’ve been a part of our community in any form, we thank you very much for your confidence in us and contributions to our team. Cheers to you, to 25 years and to 2020.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.”
-ARISTOTLE