We’re pleased to announce that Butchershop Creative was nominated for best SF nightlife photography at the 2012 San Francisco Nightlife Awards and Anniversary Celebration by California Music and Culture Association because of our own Misha Vladimirskiy. It’s pretty cool to be recognized for hard work. And Misha is one of the hardest working and best in the business. His career spans over 12 years as a photographer. He is out and about seven nights a week clicking through the scene, capturing one fantastic moment after another.

He always strives to capture the music scene in San Francisco through his unique perspectives, as well as his personal and professional relationships that allow him uncensored access to all major venues, clubs, artists, and parties. Whether it’s in Butchershop Creative’s weekly column on 7x7.com or our national features for Life & Times and Billboard, Misha pushes the limit and promotes one of our main beliefs here at the shop: content is alright, great content is king!

Please show your support on May 31st at Mezzanine and vote for Butchershop Creative and Misha Vladimirskiy.

Get tickets here.

So the hot topic this week is Facebook's purchase or Instagram. Mike Barash from Knock2x Public Relations up Butchershop Creative to be a part of CBS News segment that aired last night. Who better than to talk about photography and marketing than our very own Misha Vladimirskiy.  He discussed about it from a creative/photography point of view in the context of business which is still a little open-ended and unknown to the public. Check out the video of Misha talking to John Blackstone about image rights and the future. How do you feel about the recent acquisition? Will you still use instagram? What do you want facebook to do with it all?

Thanks to everyone who came out for the fourth installment of our Jackalope Sessions, #JS4 on Tuesday, February 28th at Butchershop Creative. This was our largest turnout yet, and far and away our most intriguing and diverse crowd. Our goal is to create a re-engineered meet-up, with people from a variety of backgrounds and professional industries bringing great energy to a fun evening.

A quick recap: Provocative conversations were had, and connections made - both personal and professional. Maybe it was the fifteen cases of Black Star Beer and two cases of Astrale e Terra wine combined with plenty of Golden Boy Pizza (our sincere thanks to all who sponsored), but the evening had great movement.

If you want to let everyone know you’re a Jackalope, pick up a super-soft Jackalope t-shirt. Not only do you get a sweet design on a super-soft shirt, but you’ll be supporting our efforts to put the Jackalope Sessions together. We promise to keep making them awesomer.

Pictures of the most recent event can be found on Facebook and please tag yourself if you made the cut. We love to see faces to names.

To track all things Jackalope, follow @JackalopeSF where we’ll share cool stuff from time to time.

A quick shout out to all Jackalope hosts, Butchershop Creative, Knock Twice PR, and Irontree Consulting.

If you know anyone that would like to attend please share www.jackalopesessions.com, where people can request an invitation. Until next time, keep on Jackalopin’...see you at #JS5 on April 19th @ 6PM at Butchershop Creative.

I got to sit down the other day with Terence Clarke, a writer for the Huffington Post. We peeled back some layers and got down to some of the philosophies, principles, and values here at Butchershop Creative. I certainly am proud of this house we built and it how much I enjoy that it is perpetually a work in progress. It is always growing and evolving. Since the brother's Vladimirskiy and I started this place over three years ago, Butchershop Creative has inspired me so much to constantly be pushing the limits, turning passion into profession which was the basis of my conversation with Tery. Misha and Aleksandr and I created a partnership to create great things for our clients, bottom line. No bull shit. We have much more work to do and we are just getting warmed up. Thank you to Terence Clarke for sharing a conversation and writing such and honest article. Cheers.

Here is an excerpt from Terence Clark's piece that was published to the Huffington Post on Monday March 26, 2012, titled BUTCHERSHOP CREATIVE - YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF THEM -

Butchershop was founded in 2009 by Trevor Hubbard and brothers Aleksandr and Misha Vladimirskiy. I spoke with Hubbard recently, and asked him to elaborate on a remark he had made, in a previous conversation over coffee, that was almost a throwaway. Yet I had never heard it before, and wanted more detail. He had mentioned the importance of "passion and profession."

"When you're young, it's everyone's goal or dream that, if you do what you love, you'll have a life. Do what you love, and the money will come. But we were sold a little short on that, because it doesn't mean you can sit back and relax. Doing what you love involves great participation, and to the degree that we participate, we formulate our values ... our principles, and we find the things we love. And equally important, we find what we don't love."

If you'd like to read the full article on The Huffington Post site

Austin, Texas - I love working with some of the world’s most amazing musicians. It’s one of the things I bring to Butchershop Creative that our company has made a key ingredient to how we see the world and service our wonderful clients. 

Staying connected with the beat (pun intended) of the music scene and the industry is very important to us. Everything has a soundtrack. Every moment and story told can have a song in mind. We exercise music in everything we do. It drives things and inspires us to be better and capture a moment or a feeling. I think at the core of it all, SXSW gets that, which is why it’s a big deal. It brings the life of music and the creativity of innovative technologies and brands together because at the core of it all they all tell stories.

So what did I do?
Well, it was a world wind of shows, parties and events centered around music discovery and innovation. I usually head to SXSW without an agenda and get hired by different brands like Billboard, Spin, Red Bull to shoot shows and parties. But this year I was a little more pro-active and hit up my friend Michelle Wang and she got me in touch with Jay-Z’s Life & Times Project. After simply sending a little note with a link to my work at Butchershop Creative, I luckily got a call back and they asked me to do a portrait series of some of the bands. I got some intimate portraits of Skrillix, A$AP Rocky, A-Trak, Kendrick Lamar, Of Monsters and Man, and Zola Jesus to name few. You can check out the post on Life & Times . If you don’t know about that blog then you need to go there. It’s a pop culture creative beacon on the interweb these days.  

I was also one of the official Soundtracking ambassadors during the festival and posted some pics and music using the Soundtracking app to their SXSW blog.

Nike had an experience that was an amazing display of what money can buy. One of my only criticisms and pieces of advice for brands that want to head down to SXSW and be apart of things is this - it doesn’t cost as much as one would think to do something cool and memorable as a brand for the audience down in Austin. You’re team just needs to get creative and know some folks.

I got to hang out with Butchershop Creative and mine, Todd Palmerton of Red Bull. It is always a great time with him, but those stories don’t belong here. I also got to run around with Michael Kiwanuka at a church with the fellas from Mumford and Sons. That sounds like a vivid dream but it’s all true. It was their showcase for Ben’s party and label called Communion. It’s amazing.

Also got to drop in on our long time friends, local San Francisco band, The Two Gallants for their live streaming performance at Google Play, a live stream. I ended up having to be an extra hand, but that makes this all very interesting. It’s also good to note that Butchershop Creative is working on The Two Gallants new album artwork which drops very soon. It’s amazing. We’ve heard it.

The Fader Fort presented by Converse was consistently cool. I was able to get a couple portraits in the can there.

I ran around with people from The Gap (yes, clothing brand) and indie record labels all at the same time. It was interesting.

Austin is a small place so I ran into our office mate Mike Barash from Knock Twice Public Relations.

Another highlight was geeking out with the Neon Trees again. Another bonding session. They gave me some swag headphones from a gifting suite at the Skype Party and I was very appreciative.

The party at the Mohawk presented by A.M. Only, the Gansevoort Hotel Group, and Mophie for the showcase party with Skrillix was really great. It was a mad house. I couldn’t get into the fucking thing even-though I was working. It was a giant rave. Kids in dark rooms chasing ghosts, kinda like pac-man.

Warby Parker sunglasses threw their party at a beautiful estate. It was very tasteful, elegant, and juxtaposed to the normal SXSW Austin experiences. Definitely a nice change of pace from all the madness.

I ate at a place called Lamberts in Austin and it was the only real meal of the week. Other than that it was just street food and food trucks. It was everywhere and it was great.

Hit me up here at Butchershop Creative if you want to do something impactful and relevant at SXSW next year. It’s already time to start thinking about it and leverage some awesome things you may already be doing and thinking about. We’re strong advocates of having our ear to the ground and some insights and perspectives that may be helpful.

David Foster Wallace was a magician. His ability to soothe, even flatter the reader, allowed Mr. Wallace to make arguments through osmosis. Arguments so hidden, the reader essentially failed to realize they were absorbing them in the first place.

Unlike Mr. Wallace, our sources of daily news have a way of hiding the fact that the world we live in is beautiful. This isn't entirely the news' fault. The news takes what it is given, and dispenses it in the most accessible way it sees fit. Stories of tornadoes, heated election campaigns, and financial struggles litter our daily dose of information provided by local, and national, news outlets.

In February of this year Aaron Lewis* created Current Events Poetry. A blog dedicated to telling unusual Bay Area news stories through poetic prose. Since its inception the blog has focused on an array of stories from a man arrested for eating cats, to the breakdown of Larry Flynt's Hustler Club's Stripper Mobile at the intersection of Kearney and Geary. "I started writing poems on strange news stories because I enjoyed the grace of rhyme and meter transposed onto the weirdness of the Bay Area.  I suppose I decided to publish them to the web in the name of 'zaniness appreciation.'  I hope it helps readers take a moment to consider the amazing happenstance, proud culture, and significant problems we have in our midst."

Even at a creative ad agency, such as Butchershop Creative, work can at times feel tedious. It is because of this that we wanted to give a brief shout out to Mr. Lewis and his quirky project. Thanks for keeping things fresh and inspiring. So inspiring that a couple of the poems come from one of Butchershop's very own. Check it out, we promise you won't regret it.

You can follow Current Events Poetry @news_poetry

*Aaron Lewis is a student at UC Hastings Law School and upon completion of the bar exam this summer will work as an attorney for a coalition of social justice and economic development nonprofits.