We’re doing our part to put South Florida rap and hip hop scene on the international radar. What have you done lately?

Let’s give it up to Nylle Thebes for this dope freestlye on this week’s episode of Freestyle Friday! Be sure to follow Nylle Thebes on Instagram to help get his name out there!

If you possess lyrical skills to compete with the best then hit us up to be featured on the next Freestyle Friday. If you aren’t a lyrical wordsmith but do appreciate artist profiles and spotlights on local talent, then subscribe to our Youtube Channel. We add fresh, original content weekly and just relaunched the ongoing Dailies series with brand new episodes, which now invite you to experience life at C&I Studios.

Putting the South Florida Rap and Hip Hop scene on the map!

We have studio locations all over the world, from Los Angeles, New York City, Washington, D.C., London and Fort Lauderdale. Our main headquarters is our Fort Lauderdale office so we have a deep bond with artists in the area. Whenever we aren’t working on projects for our clients, we are doing whatever we can to help other artists build up an audience. Freestyle Friday is one of these intitiatives.

So far, we have worked with some of the best South Florida rappers, like Sam Stan. In fact, Sam Stan was recently a guest on #UNCREATIVERadio talking about the release of his new album, Happy Campers. You should definitely check it out!

Freestyle Friday features the best of South Florida rap music!

Give Marnino Toussaint a hand for turning up on this week’s episode of Freestyle Friday and be sure to follow him on Instagram.

If you possess lyrical skills of your own, hit us up to be featured on the next Freestyle Friday. If you are not a lyrical wordsmith but do appreciate artist profiles and spotlights illuminating local talent, then subscribe to our Youtube Channel. We add fresh, original content weekly and just relaunched the ongoing Dailies series with brand new episodes, which now invite you to experience life at C&I Studios.

Putting the South Florida rap scene on the map!

We are passionate about helping other artists wherever we can. Since our headquarters is in Fort Lauderdale, we focus a lot of our attention on South Florida artists–musicians, models, poets, and creative entrepreneurs (to name a few). Freestyle Friday is our way of giving South Florida rappers a stage to share their talents and establish South Florida rap music as an elite micro-genre.

We feel it’s important to give artists a place to grow their audience; to market themselves beyond the scope of their network. In fact, that is literally what #UNCREATIVE is all about! If you’ve never checked out our blog, you’re missing out. There is a ton of awesome content to inspire your craft.

You should definitely follow our Youtube Channel, too, if you want to see more original content. Oh, and if you are an artist looking to be featured in an upcoming series, don’t hesitate to reach out!

The Many Hosts of Respek the Mic!

We change up our hosts from week to week. Many of our hosts are a part of the Arts Prevails Project right here in South Florida, like Darius Daughtry. You can check out Darius’s artwork on #UNCREATIVE. He shares a poem you’ll definitely want to listen to.

If you want to attend our next open mic night, check out the event details on Next Door’s Facebook. You can also catch the vibe on this video recap.

BTS with Sabela

A Live Performance of “Love Jones” at Artwalk

We were the original pioneers of the first Fort Lauderdale artwalk. You know, the one in FATVillage. We established this event because we wanted an outlet where we could show the community what we do when we aren’t working with clients. Every month, we create cool exhibits centered around art, technology, and good friends. Some of the exhibits are designed for the community to participate, like C&I Storm, while others are for their entertainment, like this performance by Sabela.

Most people think we only do client work. But that isn’t the case. Not at all. We are constantly doing our own thing; making cool art to enlightment our generation. There aren’t many agencies creating the type of content we release every week. For instance, we have a series called Dailies, which we release Mon-Fri, that shows exactly what life inside the studio is like. There’s no sugar coating. It’s just us… beautiful, unedited, unscripted Us. If you like this video, you should check it out.

Also, click the button below to see more of Sabela’s work. We created an artist profile that speaks to her many talents.

If you can’t invite your peers to appreciate something you made — something you believe is beautiful — then you’re missing out on an invaluable connection.

That’s one of the reasons we helped establish Artwalk 10 years ago.

For a short time, though, it felt like we were losing out. Artwalk seemed detached. It was lacking a certain emotion — a degree of thoughtfulness that has always been trademark to what we do at C&I.

Fashion shows, live hair cutting performances…they’re good entertainment, but they just aren’t exactly who we are. 

If you attended C&I Storm, you may have noticed that the centerpiece was a whirlwind of handwritten notes from our personal journals. Combine that fidelity with the openness of drawing and writing in front of a crowd…well, by the end of the night we had all shed a few layers of apprehension.

The coolest part of the night, though, was that our vulnerability was contagious. While we were changing roles, you all took to the drawing board to share your crafts, your thoughts, and your reflection of the night as it was still forming. It was awesome.

In one night, we had made up for so much lost time. It felt really good. Familiar even. We could tell you all enjoyed it too. 🙂

C&I Storm was just the beginning.

We had to take Artwalk back by storm to continue along this path of making good art and sharing it too.

So, we’ll see you at the next FATVillage Artwalk on July 28. This month Self-Projection will test your imagination and challenge the depth of your interpretation with living, breathing optical illusions created live. 

We shoot original photography because we take pride in our work

Using stock photography for a branding campaign is like using cliff notes. They’re cheap. They’re boring. And they devalue the integrity of the content.

Sure they sum up the message, but the fact that a marketing agency would even want to “sum up” their client’s brand is odd enough. They’re easy substitutes for good work. And easy is bad.

We strongly discourage taking such a shallow approach. Aside from the fact that stock photography is unoriginal… it’s boring. Way too boring for us to have any part in, at least. Stock imagery is just a generic approach to an idea or project.

Creativity will always have a place at C&I Studios

Like Leo Burnet said, “Curiosity about life in all its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.”

Couldn’t have said it any better. It’s true, too. Why would we cut our experiences short by eliminating creative vision?

Short answer: we don’t.

Take our recent branding campaign for Visbiome Vet – High Potency Pet Probiotics. This is a really unique frontier, and Visbiome is essentially pioneering this new industry. They’re disrupting standards on pet health in a really positive way.

We felt their branding campaign should do the same. So, we shot original photography to create a unique brand persona for their new line of pet probiotics. Our approach was designed to distance Visbiome Vet from the competitors, just as their product has.

Why?

In certain industries, it is common practice to use stock imagery. It’s an immediate placeholder, and saves a lot of time, money and resources. But really, it’s a substitute for hard work, and original ideas.

It’s an easy, lazy way of branding a product. We repeat, it’s boring!

The medical industry is one of the more obvious examples of this approach. The pet industry is also devalued by rampant stock imagery.

Visbiome Vet — High Potency Pet Probiotics is a combination of the two industries: pets and medicine.

We had our work cut out for us.

The Challenge

We needed to create original imagery that would be the face of this medical food for quite some time. When your product is lined up with 20 others on a store shelf this is really important.

Our challenge was positioning Visbiome Vet as the more advanced, effective solution to pet health. We needed to position their brand above the competitors in a way that was still approachable to consumers, while highlighting their primary brand standards.

So we did some hunting until we found the right pup. Let’s call him Rex.

Rex was unique. From the pattern of his coat, to his personality, to the color of his eyes. He was also very smart so we were able to take a lot of really unique photos for their new campaign. There was no way the competition could replicate the same feels.

And as it would turn out, they didn’t.

When Visbiome Vet showcased their new brand of pet probiotics at a trade fair that was attended by basically all of their competitors, they were the ONLY business with original imagery.

Every other competitor used stock photography (some even used the same stock photo!). It was a big win for their brand. And pretty funny for our team of professional photographers to witness.

The Results

The trade fair was a big success for Visbiome Vet.

Their original branding showed consumers that their product was, well, unique.

More importantly, it proved they truly cared about their business, and wanted to offer the consumer an experience that the competition couldn’t match.

In today’s age of rapid, cluttered content it is so important to invest in quality work. Your brand should never compromise on stock imagery because there is no way it will properly capture your brand’s intentions.

Check out our portfolio to see how we can elevate your brand with some cool, original photography.

We’ve been asking ourselves… what exactly will it take?

On Friday, the airport we frequent on average more than once a week, made us the most recent city to become a #pray for hashtag.  Five people were killed, six seriously injured, and countless people went through an unthinkably tragic trauma.

We have opinions–strong ones–about gun violence.  We believe that there are ways to mitigate the sheer volume of gun related deaths in our country.  We believe that innocent people should not be senselessly mowed down when waiting for their bags at the carousel.  We believe that some of this can be prevented.

We don’t believe that this is going to go away (evil people will do evil things with whatever resources they have available). We don’t believe that everyone should turn in their guns (It’s called gun control, not gun elimination).  And we don’t believe that it’s easy to change anyone’s minds as it pertains to the second amendment.

But we’d like to talk about it.  We have charts that we’ve studied, we have read the actual second amendment, from “well regulated” to “not be infringed”.  We understand the argument from a federal power vs. states rights viewpoint.  The fact of the matter is that some states make it easier to purchase an AK-47 than it is to own a dog or sell milk.  That seems silly to us.

There are thousands of articles out there like this. Thousands of people spouting off these facts, and displaying these charts, and listing these victims, and pointing towards these petitions, and giving these Congressional email addresses.

But right now, we want to open a discussion.  Because we would rather there be a conversation than a one-sided diatribe.

If you are against strict federal gun control laws: Why do you feel that gun ownership should have a wide window of minimum requirements?  What happens during a firearm purchase in Louisiana is vastly different than what happens in California.

On a personal level, if you own a firearm, why? Do you think it should be easy to own one?

After 9/11, the federal government formed the TSA.  And yeah, it has caused headaches for all of us, but we are all behind it, because we believe it makes us safer.  So… what will it take for us to all get behind more thorough federal regulations of gun ownership?  If tragedy after tragedy in movie theaters, universities, grocery stores, nightclubs, churches don’t do it… If 20 first-graders don’t do it… What is going to do it?

So what is C&I?

C&I is a combination of fresh, incredible ideas, the perfect team—who fears no project or deadline, and a little bit of magic.

It is tough to describe what C&I means to us, because it’s more than a company. Being able to help business owners and corporations accomplish a marketing goal through storytelling is an incredible feeling, and we are addicted to seeing these campaigns work.

What we do is hard to replicate. You can’t hire an internal marketing team and achieve the same goal. We have the outside view, the outside opinion, the fresh perspective. We are thinking not only about our clients, but how our clients can be successful every single day. What we do at C&I is more than just a job to us. We were made to create, and we bring that passion to every single project that we work on. We package our creativity with compelling research and statistics to accomplish any goal.

The secret sauce of our company is its people. A team of selfless workaholics that aren’t satisfied with just being good. When we step up to the plate with every client, we never want a base hit, we want to throw our bat on the ground and watch the ball fly into the stands. We aren’t the middlemen, either. We are the men, we are the women, and we know how to take an idea straight out of thin air and technically execute it right in front of you.

We aren’t creatives, we are professionals. Creatives need to be inspired to take action. Professionals are so good, that they need to no inspiration to act.

These words have only tried to scratch the surface of what C&I is. Watch this video, and you’ll see what we mean.

For the Love is a true example of what happens when you manifest the hell out of your visions and dreams. C&I Studios and ExposedPR came together for a project that encompassed the love they cultivate for their community in a way that allowed everyone interested the ability to participate.

For the Love was built brick-by-brick and with the help of great and innovative sponsors. Over 30 bands played the festival and the provided Ft Lauderdale with the means to celebrate life, music, and our city; For the Love became a staple moment that was shared with everyone.

The band Kids explain what music means to them  show you what they brought to the table at For the Love Music Festival.

We met up with our long time friends Forlorn Strangers in Nashville to document what music means to their hearts and minds. Forlorn Strangers played the main stage at the For The Love Music Festival on February 7th, 2015.

Kyle Cox is from Fort Lauderdale and moved to Nashville to pursue his musical dreams. He performed on the main stage at For the Love. It was great working with Kyle Cox again for his Live @ C&I Studios spot.

Tennessee based artist Corey James Bost played the main stage at the For The Love music Festival on February 7th, 2015. Corey James Bost explains his approach to music and why its important.

BleuBird is a local rapper from Miami who came to perform for us on the main stage at For the Love.

This is a short clip part of a an initiative we took to film more. The best way to get better at anything is to practice, and since we’re always influenced and inspired by what most might pass of as mundane, we figured we could highlight parts of South Florida’s day-to-day in a mini-series we’re calling Slow-Mo Sundays.

The idea is to revel in activities we would otherwise overlook and really capture the beauty of movement, texture, color, and time. This is a shot we picked up while at Fort Lauderdale beach of some locals enjoying a quick pick-up game of volleyball.