THE 2023 FRONTIES

25:14They thought it was real. The purse cars. Yeah. Little Yachty made an album. Drippy Pope. A great album, too, with AI on the cover. Autocado was a Chipotle robot. And yeah, there was even a robot CEO. Remember that? Yeah. That she doesn't have weekends because she's AI, so she doesn't need to take any time off. Working on the weekends like usual. Yeah. Yeah, remember? It was a drinks company called Dictador. Who could forget that? Wow. Wow, that name of the year. Dictador. What happened to Dictador? Only time will tell. They're doing it. They're thriving. Yeah. Have we been able to pick up a Dictador drink in our local bodegas yet?

26:01Because if not, this robot CEO needs to sort of pick up the pace. Well, I think the CEO is just following by the laws of distribution. Think locally, act globally. Yeah, I'm looking at the packaging. It does appear that it is a real brand. And the packaging looks like it was made by AI, being that it looks forgettable. So, hey, listen, AI, big story. Yeah, we love you. We love and appreciate our overlords. And we appreciate them for all their help this year on our projects. And we suggest and recommend to all that they embrace and celebrate. Say please and thank you and chat to you, please. Yeah, exactly.

26:44Exactly. Don't be rude to your chat, GBT. Like if you're asking for something and you're like, you know, make it shorter, say, please. Yeah. You know, say, hey, I like what you've done here. Yeah. Yeah. It's like any creative, you know, when you're giving feedback, start by the positives. Hey, I really like what you've done here with your answer. I think it's clear that you put a lot of work and time into this. But I would curious if you could try a shorter version. Yeah. Be polite to them. Yeah. Be polite. Because, you know, they're working with you. Yeah, exactly. Like, I've noticed that when I ask it for lists of things that, you know.

27:18Yeah. Lists of things that are related to another thing. That's right. Sometimes it gives me 20 or, you know, it starts off giving you 10. And I'm like, let me get 30. And then you ask it for 30 enough times. And, you know, you don't even need to specify a number. That's right. It just keeps giving you 30. And, you know, I like that. Yeah. It's almost as if it's learning you, Kevin. Yeah. But, again, be kind. This is a public service announcement from Front Center. Yeah, you don't want to be on the wrong side of history. That's right. Yeah. Be kind. Say thank you for those lists and say thank you.

27:49Can I have another? Moving on, Kevin. The award. A big award, I would say. Yeah. For things people got really heated about for two weeks and then moved on. Yeah, a really big award. And honestly, something we can give out to so many different topics here. But we got to give this one to We Heart NYC. I know. Our biggest podcast to date. Yeah. We rode that wave. It was nice. So we did. And a bonus episode, a special limited edition. The Bone Zone. Where we talked only about We Heart NYC, a story that got the people in the design industry going for two weeks. Mostly New Yorkers, where we know most of the designers live.

28:32We talked about We Heart NYC. Obviously, the iconic Milton Glaser design was given a refresh for a new cause here in New York. No, but they weren't refreshing the Milton Glaser one. I know. It still exists. Kevin, I know. It wasn't a rebrand. You're still getting heated, dude. Yeah. Kevin, calm down. But yes, people did not take that too kindly. And I even saw it on a best end of year list for best rebrands of the year. And then people were getting upset about this, like being like, what? This can't be real. This has got to be trolling. This is not the best rebrand of the year. Well, should we troll people?

29:06Should we say rebrand of the year, New York City? Yeah, let's do it right now. Kevin, fronty. Yeah, fuck the things people got mad about award. Rebrand of the year. We scrapped a rebrand earlier. Yeah, that's it. This is rebrand of the year, New York City. Congratulations. Congrats to all the people that worked on We Heart NYC. There were a lot of great rebrands this year. Bolt and Pepsi and Nokia, just to name a few. but none of those were as talked about in my mind as We Heart NYC. And to accept the award, Eric Adams. Is here, yeah. Welcome, Eric. You're in the front. Oh, it's Hannah. No, it's not Eric Adams.

29:44Yeah, Rebrand of the Year. I agree with you, Kevin. Let's give it out and a well-deserved award. And who could forget a great moment in 2023. Hey, I like it. I genuinely like it. Yeah. Yeah, shout out to all those typewriters. Nobody uses a typewriter anymore. Yeah, typewriter. Why would I use a typewriter? Obsolete. Obsolete. That was one of the great moments of the year. I will say that. But there is actually an award for the real true winner for moments of the year, Kevin. Do you know what that is? Oh, I know what it is. Yeah. It goes to the best tweet of the year. And of course, that goes to Ice-T.

30:19Yeah. Who could forget? Who could forget? So this backstory, if you don't recall, was someone reached out to Ice-T asking him about one of his font choices, but which was, he was using Impact, one of my favorite fonts. And they were criticizing Ice-T for his use of it and said, love you, man, but come on. To which he replied, I do not give a flying fuck, all caps, about fonts, dot, dot, dot, weirdo shit. That's facts. Shout out to all the weirdos listening right now. I know you guys like fonts. That was incredible. Yeah, just a lesson, lesson we learned, Do not fuck with iced tea. Do not. Because you will get, you're going to get iced.

31:02Yeah. That was, that's a moment that we'll look back on this year and think, that ruled. That was amazing. That was sick. And that's why we have an award show to give him an award for that. I know. Where else is he going to win an award for that tweet? The Grammys? No. Probably not. Our award show. Iced tea. Salute that man. Weirdo shit. Yeah. Beautiful. It is weirdo shit. Yeah. Yeah. A bunch of fucking weirdos. Dot, dot, dot. Weirdo shit. I mean, just kind of perfect, really perfect, and also really puts into perspective how much we care about the things that we care about as designers and how much someone like Ice-T cannot be bothered.

31:37Yeah. Which is a great reminder for all of us, honestly, that when you get sort of upset or nervous or scared or sort of embarrassed. Yeah, stop being a weirdo. Yeah, just dot, dot, dot, weirdo shit. Yeah, stop being a weirdo. Kevin Shoe of the Year, because of course we're sneakerhead pod. Yes. Shoe of the year. Shoe of the year. We needed those writers for this one. Yeah, right? Because are we complex? You know, Hype Beast? You know, we... Shoe of the year. Who could forget all the amazing shoes? The 990s, the 550s, the Sambas. Yep, yep. Of course. We had a healthy debate over this. We're giving it to Mischief.

32:16The Big Red Boots, another wonderful moment of this year. Those things were fucking everywhere. Yeah, I think this is the one story in this award show that was, it could have went either way. It could have went to the fronties or go into the backies. And we choose to celebrate the big red boots for their impact culturally, you know, globally. You know, we love seeing them, you know, sitting courtside at the Knicks game. Great. Shout out Diplo. That dude freaking rules, bro. Do you see that Dolan is not letting Emily Ratajkowski come back to Knicks games because she left a tight heat game two minutes earlier than the end of the game?

32:53Honestly, I respect that. Me too. I think that's so Dolan to be like, if there's a tight game and it's come down to the last five minutes, you can't leave. We're putting you courtside. Respect the game. Respect the game. But also, respect to mischief. That's the best thing Dolan's ever done. Yeah, I think mischief won some big award last year, like the agency of the year. Studio of the year. Something like that. They had another great year. I think they pivoted pretty hard to shoes. They've been pumping out shoes this year. And some were hits, some were misses. But the big red boots is the biggest hit of all of them.

33:24It was a cultural sort of zeitgeist moment that, yeah, we'll look back on this here. I think we'll see people like Diplo or whoever wearing those boots in public and laugh. Be like, ha, ha, ha, ha. Remember that? Yeah, fucking weirdo. Remember those boots? But listen, I think when you make an impact like that did, it should be self-reported. I don't think that should be sort of a backy. That's a fronty. Yeah, that's why it's in the fronties. And anyone who disrespects those shoes is wrong. Like, you did not make a shoe, first and foremost. And second of all, you did not make a shoe that people were clamoring, posting about.

33:55Everyone was up in arms about it. Everybody wanted that shoe. Everyone wanted that shoe. And Mischief made it. Everybody wanted that hunk of plastic. Exactly. That silicon. Yep. Yeah. It's a beautiful story and a beautiful, yeah, just, you know, shout out to them. Anything's possible. No, but also, like, it broke through. And that's why we celebrate here things that we remember at the end of the year. Which is, again, hard to do. Kevin, you want to talk about community of the year? Oh, yeah. So this is a very special award this year. We made it up. Because that's what we do here. We find the things we want to talk about again, and then we make up an award for them.

34:31Kevin, you're giving out the sausage. Secret sauce. But for this one, brand community of the year. Yeah, big word, community. Yeah. Everyone's using it. Nothing stronger than community. That's right. Especially when a brand fosters that community with a fucking hashtag that goes this hard. the hardest hashtag of the year. Yeah. Double award winner. International delight for hashtag Creamer Nation. Creamer Nation, stand up. Let's go. Let's ride Creamer Nation. This obviously comes from International Delight for their flavored creamers, which I know my mom is a huge fan of. Yeah. Your mom's a creamer, dude.

35:08Creamer Nation. She's a part of Creamer Nation, and everyone knows that that product makes your coffee instantly taste like candy. And for that, it's an American innovation story more than anything here. And to celebrate those fans. Because, listen, a lot of brands talk about community. Like they're trying to create sort of a group of people that have a similar bond, a connection. In these trying times, right? Yeah. We need human connection. Now more than ever. And all brands strive to create that amongst their fans. Now more than ever, we need. That's right. We need the cream. And International Delight Creamers, they have that.

35:45They're not trying to create a community. They have a community. Oh, 100%. And so what they needed to do was unite them. And that is why they created Creamer Nation, which is to kind of have a banner for all these people that are cream heads. Yeah. To celebrate their love and their shared love. Because I think that was the problem was they have lots of fans. Obviously, I would imagine International Direct Creamers sells millions of dollars a year. There's no doubt about that. I don't even need data. So how do you connect them all is really the problem and the challenge. And so we have to celebrate them for...

36:20Creamer Nation. Hashtag Creamer Nation. An incredible highlight of this year. Wow. Yeah. Salute to them. Salute to them. Should we talk about another innovation this year? Oh, yeah. 100%. And I think as we look back on the year, we try to remember the things that really impacted us. The things that we remember, like Alex said. Yeah. And this one, I think, you know, we had a lot of love for it when it first came out. We stand it. Stood it? Stan? I don't fucking know. Stand it. Yeah, we did stan it. That's right. We stan it, yeah. We still do stan it. That's right. And the innovation of the year, innovation that excites the year, sorry.

37:02That's right. is the Twisted Tea Vasectomundies, which, if you'll remember, March is the hottest time of the year for men to get vasectomies. Everyone loves doing elective ball surgery when they can rest up on the couch and watch basketball. March Madness. So, you know, opportunity for Twisted Tea to create an underwear that you can stuff two Twisted Teas in. I usually just stuff one. But two twisted T's in, and it'll ice your balls for you. That's right. This is a real concept that they actually put out into the market. This is a real story. We did not make this up. This is not parody. This is a real advertising concept that they, and a story.

37:49I forgot the backstory, Kevin, and the strategy. So thank you for reminding me. Two things I know are true. Dudes love March Madness, and dudes rock. So let's go. That's absolutely right. And one of the things that I love about this story is that I love that Justin Genak, an advertising legend, a man who has put brilliant ideas out into the world, like working, not working, wants for sale, garbage, sort of garbage for sale. This man has put brilliant, strategic ideas out into the world. So the fact that that episode, that he was our guest, and Visek the Mondies, it's just that kind of cohesion, synergy.

38:30that you couldn't write it. You couldn't write it. If you took that story to Hollywood, they'd say, get the hell out of here. Too good. And the fact that he came in with two giant cans of twisted tea, not tucked into his vasectomundies, but into his jeans. It's a moment I'll remember forever. Yeah, I mean, I kind of liked the twisted teas. I was a little twisted. That's right. I chugged that one too. Kevin, we got only a few more awards here. This is, you know, when the Oscars get to the end and they really start to say, you know all those other awards that we gave out on the show? They were good, but these are the big ones?

39:05We're at that moment right now. Are these the big ones? I feel like all of them are big. No, no. They're all great. They're all big, but then there's some that are just a little bit more important than all the rest. And the first one goes to designer of the year. Think about all the designers up there. There's so many designers. Yeah, a lot of them. Yeah, there's just a tremendous amount of talent, probably more designers. Johnny Ive. Yeah, I mean, we've talked about a handful of designers that have created some really wonderful work this year. So who would win Designer of the Year, Kevin? Adonis.

39:35Yep, that's true. Adonis, everyone knows Drake's son that he had. Everyone remembers when Pusha T outed Drake for having a son in sort of their rap beef, a great moment in rap beef history. And Adonis is now of age, or of some age, to be making a design. Adonis is of an age where they could be putting artwork out into the world and designing. I believe he's six. Six years old. Of age to win designer of the year, an award that has no age limit. The youngest gun. Yeah, someone could say, yeah, Young Gun Award winner, future Young Gun Award winner. And no nepotism involved here whatsoever. Designer of the year goes to Adonis for their work on Drake's album, which is called...

40:29For All the Dogs. For All the Dogs. Thank you, Kevin. The cover of the artwork had a sketch of a dog. I was quick to call it out, the fact that Adonis did not design this in Photoshop, but really drew it with a black crayon of some sort, and there was some post-production work done, later found out, was later confirmed of that suspicion, suspicion so shout out to me and that's how poppin a designer adonis is he's not he does the original artwork and then he's got some fucking junior designer under him taking care of the entire business like the rest of it yeah yeah just like me does you know a little bit of the work and then says you know please help me bring this idea to life and that's how great of a designer adonis has gotten it just six years old adonis isn't taking the alan peters approach to design he's not doing it tip to tail no he's doing it tip and then he's letting somebody else take care of the That's right.

41:21He does the sketch and he's like, you guys got it. Which, honestly, kink shit. Yeah. Salute. Shout out to Adonis. Designer of the year. Nepo Baby and Designer of the Year. Kevin, only two more awards. Only two more awards. And I think you have three more. Actually, no. I think three more. We got three more. Oh, three more. You have to announce this one. This is yours, Kevin. So every year, we talk about and admire the brand mascots. And I feel like every year, they decline. We don't get as many brand mascots. They're going extinct. I don't know what the thinking is there. Save the mascots. Yeah, we need more mascots.

41:54Pickleman, right there on your jug. Pickleman's a great mascot. Yeah. But there was one mascot that stood out to us. We covered it pretty recently, but mascot of the year goes to Piss Jug Man for their work in promoting truckers to not throw their piss jugs on the road. Yeah. Which is also very important. You don't want to run one of those over. You don't want some fermented piss to get all over your car or your person. Or you're in trouble. Which is a great build and tagline and maybe like a catchphrase you could say. Yeah. Maybe it's like, stop, you're in trouble. Yep. So Piss Jug Man, we salute you.

42:31We love you. Come on the pod. I hope you accept this award. And what a great year for Piss Jugs. Save the mascots, as Kevin said. You know, something that is a sign of a previous time maybe where all brands had mascots. That's the real mission here of this award, our work in trying to save mascots. That's the real repercussions of Blanding is we're getting rid of mascots. Wow, Kevin. That's a big brain idea. I saw you actually had to rub your temples to come up with that one, which is true, though. You're right. Blanding, the real... Who gets hurt in Blanding is the mascots. Mascots, yeah. Yeah.

43:09And us. It's true. And us, because we love to talk about them. I've been pitching mascots all year. Yeah. On deaf ears, to be honest. You're right. Everyone laughs at me. I'm sick of it. That's true, Kevin. You bring up a good point. You have brought up a mascot within the last 24 hours, and I did indeed laugh at you. So, Kevin, I apologize. I'm sorry, and I'll take this moment to say it's not okay in 2024. I'll be better. Yeah. One of my favorite parts about Piss Jugman was obviously the costume itself. That was a package design and a beautiful suit, but also to bring awareness, you could take pictures with Piss Jugman on the side of the road, but you had to pay$5.

43:43$5, yeah. which seems like a reasonable amount of money to pay. If I was in that suit, I'd be charging 10. Yeah. He would be, you know, he's pissed about all the jugs on the side of the road. And for only$5, you can go take a picture with him from four to 6 p.m., which is another great fact I loved about that story was only a two minute window for Piss Jugman, who has a very sort of limited time schedule. Work like that. He's busy. Yeah, exactly. He's busy doing the work, Alex. Cool. To end the program, Kevin, And two big giant awards. The first one is, you know, kind of brand of the year in parentheses celebrity.

44:20Yeah. Which, you know. A lot of celebrity brands out here now. Huge, huge. This is a big honor. Yeah. And I will say, you know, celebrity brands, you know, they got a lot of heat. But listen, there's no reason why celebrities shouldn't launch brands. And I would argue some of the best brands of the year have been launched by celebrities. So back off. Celebrities are just like us, you know, people that want to sell things. Yes. I love celebrities. We love celebrities. I love celebrities. So brand of the year, parentheses, celebrity edition goes to Kim Kardashian and the entire team over at Skims.

44:55Congratulations. A big year for Skims and I would argue award winning on many fronts. Who could forget? Kim went to Harvard to talk about Skims. They seem to be everywhere every week. They got the White Lotus Stars to appear in their Valentine's Day. sort of promotion. They got sort of so many celebrities. They did, including even men, they had sort of skims for men campaign. The beefcake. Joey the Beefcake Bosa. That's right. They even launched a nipple bra, which was an innovation that excites. They also had, they were the official underwear of the NBA. Wow. Which was huge. And the WNBA, huge moment for them.

45:39Big time partnership. They did a family campaign at the end of the year with Patrick Mahomes and his family for the holidays. Skims is for everybody. And I will say, just a tremendous year for Skims. A great brand. A incredibly huge success story. And we would be remiss to not celebrate that and give them an award. Yeah, congratulations, Kim Kardashian. This is maybe the most meaningful award you've ever won in your life. And I'm sorry that they have to win the celebrity version of the year, Brand of the Award. because they very well could have won brand of the year. Yeah, they were close. They were really, really close.

46:13In fact, I think they come in second place, which is, which brings us to... No, but they were first place in the celebrity brand. That's right. That's right. Yeah. Second place for the main award. No, they were first place. They're first place. First place. This is the main award. Best brand of the year celebrity. Don't undercut the awards, Alex. Kevin, you're right. So do we want to talk about the brand of the year? Yeah, 100%. The big award, the one brand that we talked about the most, the brand that sort of came with the most amount of stories for us. Of course, they're helping us do our jobs.

46:39They say cream always rises to the top. That is true. And listen, we're a show that talks about the top stories in design, top stories in brand, the top stories in culture. And no brand, I think, did that better than this brand this year. And that, of course, goes to McDonald's. Wow. So if you look back on our 100 episodes we did this year, just kidding, 50 or so episodes, which, again, credit to us for doing so many episodes. 52 minus 6. Yeah, whatever. 46. Yeah, that's a quick math. Good at math. The Sunny D vodka is really hitting. We talked about McDonald's a ton this year. They were almost in every month as we look back.

47:25and their ideas and they have good ideas. For the most part. For the most part, good ideas, well executed, good commercials, good partnerships, a little bit of high, a little bit of low. They brought in sort of good creative partners and they even sort of capped the year off with Cosmix, which is a new restaurant entirely. We already talked about the Grimace Shake, one of the biggest TikTok trends of the year. And with a product. Double award winner. One of my favorite stories of the year is when the McRib went away, had a farewell tour, and then came back all within the same year. Now more than ever.

48:08Yeah. McRib, as everyone knows, is a beloved product from McDonald's. And they were, you know, they liked to toy with us. They bring it back. Then they take it away. And they finally decided that this year was the year that they were going to remove it entirely. They were going to take it away. Brought it back. And they actually had a farewell tour merch item, which was a T-shirt that looked like a rock poster. Well, to be fair, they announced the farewell tour at the end of last year. Kevin, stop getting facts in the way of the story here. But it was, yes, it was towards the end of last year.

48:40But then within 365 days of the year, they announced the return of the Nick Rib, which, again, this is genius stuff. The Eagles, Kevin. Return of the Mac. Return of the Mac. Like the Eagles once said they will return when Hell Freezes Over as a band. And then they did the Hell Freezes Over tour. So shout out to the Eagles. And now shout out to McRib. You know where I got that stat? Where? My father. Wow. Shout out to him. That's such a dad stat, right? Their dad story. Oh, the Eagles. So shout out to my dad. But again, McRib back and forth. It's back. They did a great collapse with Palace. Great collapse with Kerwin Frost.

49:17They brought back the McBuddies, which is a really weird sort of 90s thing. They revived Grimace. They revived the Hamburglar. Yeah. They've done it all this year. And I got to say, thank you, McDonald's. It has even driven me to have McDonald's on like three or four different occasions this year. So that's what we like to call conversion. Damn, they got you. And I still want to try Cosmix. Never tried a Grimace shake, but they continue to put out amazing things. And I will say, give them their props. These things are a combination of weird streetwear, a combination of sort of big ideas, looking into their past and their history, looking at the sort of future.

49:59And I expect more from them next year. In my mind, I think they continue to lead the way. So for that, we say salute you. Thank you, McDonald's. Thank you, McDonald's. And also call us. you know this is uh you know a show where we uh we don't pander enough kevin i will say that as a design studio that's giving out awards you don't think we pander enough no i will want to say thank you uh mcdonald's for all that you've done this year and also i'd like to say pander hardly even know her call us we would love to get in the mix and uh yeah they've done just uh they've had a banner year kevin so uh that is that is the show yeah the most prestigious award that is that is uh That is our program here, Kevin.

50:44The Fronties. The best stories of the year. The best things that happened in 2023. What a year. A year I'll never forget. Yeah. We're now on YouTube. A quick reminder for the fans. Yeah, that's a frontie. Again, to bring this back to us, this year we made it to YouTube so that you can actually see us while we drink our Sunny D Delights. We're on the YouTubes. You can see Kevin's amazing sweater here today. And yeah. Shout out Fantasy Explosion. Yeah, shout out to Fantasy Explosion and Greenpoint. I still have yet to be there, but 2024. There you go. It's all looking bright. Next year is going to be incredible for this show.

51:20Yeah. And as I mentioned, we still want to do live shows. Next year's our year, bro. A live award show. And yeah, next year. Next year's our year, bro. This is our fucking year, Kevin. That's what we're going to do. This podcast. Everything we said we're going to do. Yeah. We're going to officially punt all those ideas that we had to next year. Yeah, yeah. And we're going to say, next year, watch out. You know, sometimes you need to punt, you know, to flip the field, you know, flip field possession, pin your opponent deep in their own territory. That way you can get the ball closer to the promised land.

51:51And that's kind of what we're doing this year. That's right. We're sending a nice frickin rocket off the leg. That's right. We're down at it inside the one. That's right. And we're going to play some fucking defense. We're going to defense. But I will say, Kevin, because we're now going to switch over to the backies, the worst stories of the year, we have to say, what a great year. truly banner year for us and everyone included here on the show today and uh yeah it was a year to remember fondly yes and uh a year to remember and thank you to the listeners uh as we're being uh sort of yeah you guys can have a front you guys we'll give you guys a front listener of listeners of the year yeah to the front center loyalists the center way to listen folds the centerpieces um we don't have a fan name so um you know send that one in the comments the front the fronts the backs the who knows um thank you guys seriously it's been a fun year and doing the show and we do it because you guys uh continue to send us nice messages saying um that you enjoy the program um and enjoy our clip so thank you great we'll see you guys next year see you next year well no actually we'll see you on the back the back is yeah but next year jokes for the back that's right peace

53:06Maybe it's hard to see when you're looking at me But I do what I want, don't give a fuck at all Look and feel something sweet when it comes time to eat You better start to run when I call Cause I know that you don't really know how to handle it

53:31So get down on your knees and get ready to become my bitch I'm just a freak, yeah You know I want it bad And we can reach out But I don't need to know you, man You can pull my hair, touch me anywhere Whipping chains, I'm just a freak, yeah So show me why you came

54:15Baby ain't nothing free, especially not with me Better have a bank account, if you wanna see what I'm about I'm a good girl, come back Get in that car, drive fast Get on the road Take off my clothes Cause you're dumb but you're cute That's a good enough ratio

54:39And I'm wild as a stallion So come enjoy the rodeo I'm just a freak, yeah You know I won't And we can meet you, but I don't need to know your name You can pull my hair, touch me anywhere We've been chained I'm just a freak, yeah So show me why you came I'm a motherfucking world class sinner, sinner Touch me, touch me, touch me, touch me I'm a motherfucking world class sinner, no beginner, no Touch me, touch me, touch me, touch me I'm just a freak, yeah, and I don't wanna change And every weekend I'm trying to find someone to bang You can pull my hand, touch me anywhere We've been chained I'm just a freak, yeah So show me why you came

56:17Thank you.