For the Holidays, a crack team of Struck commandos was dispatched to concept, write, illustrate and print these ferocious cards based on the classic Eastern European tradition of St. Nicholas and the Krampus. While jolly old St. Nick would reward “nice” children with gifts and sweets, the Krampus—Santa’s evil counterpart—would roam the streets with rusty chains, threatening to capture the “naughty” ones. They’re digitally printed with gold foil stamp—and they’re totally sick.

Happy Holidaze to all you Struckers out there, young and old.

Wanting to support a couple of our favorite things (aside from raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens) Struck approached client Ski Utah to update the design on the Ski Utah Cycling Team uniforms. They gave us to go ahead and even let us sponsor the jersey. Check out them Hammers! Let’s go ride a bike! (Up to the highest height?)

My oh my… How this ever slipped through the cracks is a mystery. Can we blame the tardiness on sweeping political change? A recessed global economy? Maybe a sugar stupor is more appropriate… (Get to the point already, please!)

Struck PDX loves cereal. Loves it with frosty milk of all varieties—2%, whole, skim, organic. So, a few weeks back, we treated our hardworking selves to Cereal Day. Which led to cereal week. And there might even be a handful of Cocoa Puffs sprinkled across my desk right now. Cuckoo…

The lineup:

Part of this complete breakfast (Reese’s Puffs… so so so so amazing):

So we had track suit day at struck. No big deal. We are already over it. Actually this wasn’t a themed day of any sort. just a wednesdee at noon at struck. What?

Salt Lake City. November 5th, 2008. Stop
2 full feet of snow in the hills in the last 48 hours. Stop
No signs of stopping. Stop
End communication. Stop
Stop. Stop

EXHIBIT A: Dudes and Shawtees at Struck dominating Halloween. Just a little sprinkling of how we roll here at Struck when it comes to All Hallow’s Eve. On a side note- My Parents ended up getting their “dress-up” on this year. Let’s see…. MY mom was a mummy. My dad was a Werewolf… ummm man, i think that’s about it.

We’re not quite sure how it happened, but there’s a dog roaming the hardwood in PDX today. His name’s Wily Mo, but you can call him Willis. At first we were afraid he’d hamper our typical off-the-charts productivity. Turns out this Pug can do work.

Thanks to our friends at Skiing Magazine for calling out some of our Ski Utah work:

See the sticker as illustrated by HabbenINK below:

london, england: been there

amsterdam, netherlands: done that

freiburg, germany: gotcha

berlin, germany: yup

munich, germany: uh huh

budapest, hungary: check

vienna, austria: got it

innsbruck, austria: oh yeah

venice, italy: ok

florence, italy: and, … check

hey everybody, i’m finally staying at a hostel with free computers and wanted to give you some updates on my travels. from the above list, you can see that i have made it to 10 cities in my first month and have no intentions of slowing down. well actually, i do. nick, you were right and my rail pass is running out quickly. any whosey-what’s-it, i wanted to tell the tale of the travels with a few photos from my last few cities.

the wilten basilica

this big guy was really impressive. towering above the innsbruck landscape, this building was built in the 1650’s, and more recently, in 2008 it served as a beautiful backdrop for a picture of brandon knowlden.

wow, how cool is this?

so this picture is of an art installation slightly off the beaten path in downtown innsbruck. apparently, the bulbs of large stadium jumbotrons have pixels the size of a three month old baby (its a fact, google it). so whomever said artist of this piece is, they took said jumbo pixels and arranged them much closer to humans than ever needed, hence the level of excellence demonstrated above. the piece changes colors and pulsates like digital raindrops.

venice is everything you think it would be

i left from innsbruck, austria south for venice, italy the other day. the ride was amazing and the train went through the heart of the bologna wine country. mile after mile of buildings forcing themselves upon the rugged landscape only to be confronted by acres of aspiring grape vines. i got to venice as the sun was going to sleep and immediately hit the town. as you can see, venice is amazingly beautiful. its difficult residential lifestyle is evident by it’s population of only 60,000 (compared to its 7 million visitors per year. wait, correction, 7 million + 1).

some fresh ass wine son

so i heard italy was known for great wine and great food, not true. its known for slap you in the face, knocked that touristy american smirk off your face kind of food and wine. case in point, the image above. i met a few australian girls in the supermarket and before our picnic in the parco de publica (public park), they took me to the little gem seen above. tip for travelers, in venice, when you see a store filled with awkward casks and tubes, its typically a fresh-wine bar. this man and his shop represented a vineyard from the bolognese region of italy. the great thing about this wine is that it is never bottled until you get it in your hands, so no preservatives or sulfates or anything. the large casks are different varieties of the freshest wine available. sure it isn’t mature, but it tastes like squeezing heaven into your mouth. and best of all, its only €2/bottle (about $3 USD).

don’t mess with mythology

the first picture in this post is from atop the duomo in florence, italy. if you ever have an opportunity, its one of the most impressive things i have ever done. the cattedrale (cathedral), built in 1296, boasts a 463 step walk up a narrow winding staircase to an inspiring view. the cathedral was designed to be so impressive that the massive dome was ignored during construction because the technology didn’t even exist to construct it. but on to the picture above, the perseus statue. this 18 foot statue was artfully constructed by cellini and depicts perseus slaying medusa and standing on her contorted body. the wings perseus is known for (can be seen on his feet and head) are a constant symbol in greek mythology. and although it is based on the goddess nike, greek mythological wings are the interpretation in the most recognizable lgoo on the planet, the nike swoosh. its called knowledge son, get some.

so goodbye for now, until next time my friends.