STUNT and Vote on Cars (VOC) announce the 2011 Sub $17K Compact Smackdown — a unique crowd-sourced approach to crowing the very best budget car on the planet. Unlike awards given by conventional automobile magazines, STUNT / VOC doesn’t employ professional drivers, automotive journalists or industry “experts” to scrutinize vehicles. Matt Klein, owner and lead “stuntman” offers, “Most people today don’t care how fast a car can go around cones. They want to know how a car’s going to make their life better. That’s our focus.”

Vote on Cars employs a combination of crowd-sourcing (votes collected from people already shopping a specific type of vehicle) and what they call “gang test drives.” Klein stressed the importance of getting input from the right kind of people, “When it comes to entry-level new cars, we think twenty-something’s would rather get the take of their peers than a crew of ex racecar drivers who’d really rather be driving their personal BMW M3. And that doesn’t just apply to grads — it applies to everyone, shopping nearly every automotive segment. Think about it, how many moms do you think want middle-aged, buff-book writer picking the best minivan for her growing family — none.”

The Sub $17K Smackdown takes place in five phases:

1. Choosing the Field — Competing brands include (in alphabetical order) Chevrolet, Fiat, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Jeep, Kia, Scion and Toyota

2. Play-In Voting — A handful of automakers offer more than one vehicle in our price range. To level the playing we ran a 24-hour play-in vote through facebook and email to identify one vehicle to represent each brand. In the end, we collected nearly 500 votes — not too bad for our very first venture into voting

3. The Field of 12 — The result of our play-in is a filed of 12 bright and shiny new cars, all with designs on the ultimate prize — billing as the best new car for less than $17,000. Through a combination of online voting and street teams, 500 people will examine three de-badged images and the price of each competitor. The top 4 vote-getters advance to the finals

4. Gang Shopping — A more in-depth test, Vote on Cars sends shopping team — each representing people actually shopping the segment and offering a unique buying perspective — to shop each vehicle at a dealership

5. Awards — In addition to crowning a winner, VOC hopes to give each vehicle some kind of award to celebrate whatever it does best

Stay tuned, it promises to be a fun, vote-filled summer!

Here they are!!! The first batch of If Ifugao Films Shirts are ready to stuff into envelopes and travel to our supporters. If you bought one, THANKS! If there’s enough of a demand, we’ll fire up the press for another run — just let me know.

Welp… I cannot resist any longer. Enter the Annoyatron! Nine box tops and a tongueful of envelope adhesive later and a shiny new pair of Annoyatrons are on their way. If you don’t already know, the Annoyatron is a small electronic device that beeps intermittently. Hid properly and they’re almost impossible to find — and guaranteed to annoy the snot out of almost anyone. So, what happens when one unleashes such a device on a particularly high strung co-worker? We will see. Yes, we will see.

Quite possibly the highlight of 2010 the my return to Palm Beach Atlantic College for my 20-year reunion. While we were there we couldn’t resist participate in the Great American Bug Race — and pull off a bit of a STUNT. Is it wrong to fabricate a lie to the TV news? Long live Evel Bug Knievel and his professional breeder and trainer Mack Line .

For those interested in a little back story, here’s the initial email Jack sent me about the Ifugao trip. It’ll give  you a bit of the back story. I’ll post more information as I get it…

“Hey Matt,

As you are looking forward to the year coming, if you’re up for a missions trip to the Philippine rice terrace country let me know. I wrote you a long time back about it but I still need to get a good video made for an indigenous ministry there that is one of the most effective and well run ministries I have worked with in my 25 years of missions involvement. They have no ability to raise money themselves and I am looking for a way to produce a video to use in the USA/Europe as introduction and information about them. I’ve worked with them for almost 30 years as the missionary that started it became a good friend and mentor of mine (now passed away).

These folks have about a dozen or so full time teachers that travel a circuit teaching bible in the public schools, they have 7 full time church planters/evangelists that ride a circuit of 103 or so small churches and then run a huge VBS program during the “summer vacation” (late spring for them) that will see thousands of children. They have, over the years, garnered such a reputation that they get requests to bring in their school program from all over the Ifugao province where they are located and from neighboring provinces, many of which they turn down from lack of resources. Most of their travel is by local “Jeepney” transportation and on foot. My church bought the evangelists motor bikes last year to allow them better coverage of their churches. They have no website or any real presence to raise money from and just rely on God’s grace to supply, mostly thru the support network of the original missionary. As most of that support network has aged into retirement or passed away they need some help to establish a newer network of friends. It really is an amazing ministry and an amazing place to go….it would be a fabulous “missions vacation” for you and your wife!!

If you think you might be interested I have an old video on VHS that was produced 15 or more years ago that I would love to get converted to digital as a stop gap and I’ll send it to you so you can get a feel for it. It is fairly well done for an amateur but you will quickly see the value of having some pro creative folks talk a crack at it…. And ES3 has the best in the business.

Hope you have a great reunion….it really is fun to catch up with folks.

Jack

P.S. if you’re not up for it but know someone who is feel free to pass on my contact info.”

Nearly two years ago, my friend Jack Joyce invited me on an adventure — to travel to the Philippines to make a movie about a ministry to the children of the Ifuago people. While I was excited about the opportunity, the craziness of work and life “king of the mountain-ed” it from top of mind. January of this year, Jack re-upped the invitation and Carrie and I jumped at the opportunity. Look for details about the trip in future posts — and details on ways you can support us in this mission.

As you probably guessed, funding a film-making trip halfway around the globe isn’t cheap. Add in the equipment we’ll need to produce our film (a new camera and mic) and you’ll understand the reason for the Ifuago Films fundraising T-Shirt. These one-color shirts are printed on high-quality, super-soft, American Apparel garments. These over-priced ( ) shirts are for sale for $25, with almost $19 going to the project.

Here’s what your donation will go towards:

• $2,800 Plane Tickets
• $1,200 Traveling Expenses and Love Gift to the Mission
• $1,000 HD Video Camera and Shotgun Mic

Thanks for checking in and feel free to leave a note if you want to purchase a shirt and join the cause. Oh, and please leave the size you’d like

At STUNT, we’re big sports fans — especially when it comes to the teams we print gear for. To prove our fanaticism, we like to strike a fun deal with our teams, “Win your division and we’ll equip your team with free championship shirts.” And, while it’s no way to get rich (if that’s possible printing t-shirts), giving away free shirts is certainly is a lot of fun.

The first recipients of the STUNT Championship Challenge T-Shirt is Rochester Hills, Reuther Middle School 8th Grade Boys Basketball Team. With a record of 8 wins and 3 losses, the Reuther boys took home the city crown. To celebrate, we designed a two-color shirt on Reuther Royal Blue Gildan Ultra Cotten T-Shirts — nope, we didn’t go the cheap route. We were proud to deliver the team and coaches with their prize at their awards banquet. Can’t wait to give away our next Championship shirts!

When it was time for Coach O (or as we like to affectionately call him Coach O Cinco) to pull the trigger on new wrestling gear, STUNT was ready and excited for the challenge. During our start-of-work interview I mentioned that I thought last year’s shirts looked great and wondered why he didn’t do another run with his previous supplier. His response surprised me — “Yeah, but the wrestler looked all “roided-up.”  What a response. It told me right away that Reuther Wrestling wasn’t about win-at-all-costs and big-time wrestling stereotypes, but student athletes practicing a modern spin on an ancient sport — and “doing it right”

For Reuther Wrestling, we created a three-color design featuring the Reuther Crusader mascot and a fresh, modern typeface. In addition to T-Shirts and Hoodies, we also broke out our first-ever sweat pant design. Together we, and the entire team, were very proud of how they turned out. And, in addition to quality work, the team benefited from STUNT Gives Back (10% in free garments for kids who can’t pay) and free shirts for the coaches.

Here’s how they turned out…

The cobbler’s children have no shoes… the mechanic’s cars are broken down… the laser hair removal technician has… well… I guess I’m running out of analogies — but you get the point. Anyway, It would be equally easy for the the screen printer to have no custom gear — and that was the case up until just recently. Introducing the first run of STUNT Gear.

For the design, I deconstructed the STUNT logo, pulling a touch of Evel Knievel to the chest and splashing our word mark to the back. For garments, we pulled from the American Apparel catalog — California Fleece Track Jackets and a pile of their extra soft, modern cut t-shirts. We’re really proud of how they turned out and they’ve received lot’s of, “hey, can I get one?” requests from friends and fans. Stay tuned for your chance to win some free STUNT gear.

60 2-Color Long-Sleeeve Bowling Shirts

For 2010 ES3 stowed the black ties and little black dresses once again and traded a stuffy holiday dinner for a raucous bowling party. In addition to getting treated to a memorable afternoon of fun competition, great conversation and prizes, STUNT further elevated the experience with custom long-sleeve t-shrits. Instead of jingle-belling-up the design and making it a holiday shirt, the ES3 team chose to create a theme that could be worn throughout the year.  The shirts were commissioned by Elisa Clos who recently took the baton as ES3′s team “fun-maker.”

ES3 Bowling Shirt Design

The shirt design was a combined effort of the spectacular type styling of ES3 Designer, Tom Jambriska and a pin-splitting STUNT graphic. It was printed in two color on a Sport Gray Gildan long-sleeve Tee.

It was STUNT’s  honor to be a part of making the event fun and memorable and look forward to the next ES3 / Stunt creative scheme.

STUNT Gigantic Rice Krispy Treat Bowling Trophy