From Projectiles to Parades

While 2008 was chock-full of meaningful work at ISITE Design, it was fascinating to look back at the memes that captured the hearts and minds of our eclectic web team. Between desk sabotage, flying Rice Krispy Treats and festive parades, we truly had it all last year. In a season rife with ‘best of’ lists, we took a swipe at our own Best ISITE Design Memes for 2008.

A meme is just about any cultural trait—an idea, concept, behavior or catchphrase —that propagates virally by imitation or repetition. Think of it as a cold transmitted from one person to another to another, except instead of a virus, it may come in the form of funny pictures of cats with bizarre misspelled captions. By all accounts, 2008 was a banner year for memes at ISITE Design. Here’s a look at the highs (and some lows) that bounced around within our walls.

Launch Parades

Imagine, if you will, a gaggle of geeks running laps through the office woo-hooing and waving their arms in glorious (and exhausted) exaltation. Welcome to an ISITE Design website launch parade. Introduced in June with the launch of our Travel Alaska website, the parades achieved unprecedented publicity in December with the new Zipcar site. The entire staff took it to the streets, parading around the block in Zipcars, and punctuating their elation with quick blasts from a trombone. Yes, a trombone.

El Consultador

A beloved ex-lucha libre wrestler moonlighting as a corporate consultant made a big splash in 2008. What started out as an amusing 90-second video became a bona fide Internet meme, complete with its own Twitter presence, a see-it-to-believe-it Flickr photostream and a powder blue apparel line. El Consultador’s popularity peaked in November when he made an in-person appearance at the Boston MITX awards. The poor attendees still don’t know what hit them.

Fourth Friday Potlucks

We affectionately like to think of ISITE Design as one big happy family – a family that also really (really) loves to eat. A tradition of monthly potlucks emerged in 2008 uncovering hidden culinary talents from some unexpected places. The feasts have included everything from a Flash programmer’s wicked good cheesecake to a content specialist’s sinfully delicious bacon-wrapped almond-stuffed dates.

Bacon

Speaking of bacon, not a day goes by at ISITE that doesn’t include at least a fleeting reference (if not a mildly embarrassing public reverie) to everyone’s favorite pork product. In fact, these unassuming strips of flesh have inspired more discussions, email threads, haikus and neologisms than anything else in the office. Most disturbing discussion: clothing made of bacon. Most delicious: the bacon cheese roll recipe. Also, there may or may not be a package of uneaten gummi bacon in a certain account manager’s office. (Dibs!)

Projectiles

Safety goggles may soon become part of our business casual repertoire as we can’t seem to stop chucking things at each other. What started with Rice Krispie Treats was escalated to some serious-looking Nerf dart guns. While the guns were deemed too noisy, the darts are still flung by hand and stockpiled as a deterrent (and retaliatory measure) to the frequent ambushes.

Desk Warfare

The creativity of our desk sabotage pranks knows no bounds. Picture if you will entire deskscapes taped down, bubble-wrapped, defaced with Clif Bars and meat kabobs fashioned into unappealing shapes. The crowning glory was an entire office wrapped in tin foil, right down to each individual business card and every book on the shelf. The attention to detail was simply breathtaking, including wrapping the garbage in the garbage can. A masterpiece of mischief indeed.

Word Nerds

With a plethora of English and journalism majors on staff, there is a fierce passion for the rhetorical arena. Seemingly endless e-mail threads will debate the proper use of logged-on” or “logged on,” “login” or “log in.” The pristine silence of a productive afternoon is often shattered with a joyous chorus of “BAM!” – reveling the achievement of scoring 100% (well, usually) on The Free Dictionary’s daily Match Up challenge.

Powerthirst

This video spread like wildfire through the office, and with catchphrases like “uncomfortably energetic,” “manergy,” “energy legs,” and “electrolytes, turbolytes, powerlytes, MORE LYTES THAN YOUR BODY HAS ROOM FOR”…how could it not? Best viewed over a nice cold glass of Rawberry (made with real lightning!).

Typornography

Whether drooling over the latest Veer catalog (those type coasters!), comparing “Which Font Are You?” quiz results (mostly Helveticas, with a smattering of Edwardian Scripts and Couriers), or emailing incessantly about favorite typefaces, we love to geek out over type. In a fit of typophilia, our creative director even got a forearm tattoo of woodblock type.

Sean Penn Keeps Punching Me

Now before Mr. Penn’s lawyers start calling, let us clarify: SPKPM was our 2008 Portland Ad Federation Battle of the Bands nom de chanson – inspired by his infamous run-in with the paparazzi. The uber talented ISITE house band brought it with such radical 1980’s style that for weeks beforehand the hallways reverberated with the sweet, sweet strains of “We Are the World” (our set’s pièce de résistance). Behold the spectacle for yourself.

Until Next Year

And there you have it, folks! From the trivial to the memorable, it’s safe to say 2008 was not a dull year at ISITE. Happy New Year.