Top Left: Vulcan Spring website. (Click the play button for the demo and the Mars story.)

Vulcan Spring makes the finest springs in the world. Some push candy to the front of candy machines, some open truck doors, and some go to Mars to pop up antennas. Along with turning out springs, Vulcan doles out support — the company has always been very philanthropic, and one cause especially close to CEO Scott Rankin’s heart is high school robotics. Scott’s keenly aware that the U.S. is falling far behind other countries in engineering, science and math — with dire consequences, given so many economic and environmental challenges ahead. Vulcan gives its springs freely to any school that asks, and even funded the entire robotics lab for one school not far from its corporate headquarters. 

Recently, Vulcan wanted a :60 spot to run on the big screen at The FIRST Robotics Competition in St. Louis. We were asked to highlight the amazing kids who have a real passion for engineering and science, and what drives them. I wrote and directed the spot which we produced in-house, with the addition of a custom score by Chuck Butler at Monster Tracks. 

So, what’s a robotics championship? Students spend all year designing a robot that goes head-to-head with another school’s robot in a ring. Robots have to out-muscle, outmaneuver and outthink their opponent. (One task is throwing in a three pointer from mid-court, all net. One after another.) It’s intense, crazy and absolutely amazing.

The Rocket Video:

This is just general silliness. One summer we got an RFP from Pilot Freight, who ships large items by air. To give our response a little glow, I thought maybe we could send it back, by air. I’ve always been a model rocket freak, so I built a rocket that had a camera on the side, and then me and a few of the guys stuffed the RFP in the rocket, headed to the park, and sent it back (more like blasted it off) to Pilot Freight.

At the bottom: 

A print advertising campaign and Brand ID package for Matcor, specialists in corrosion protection, and a fun postcard for Clean Earth – a company that comes in and cleans up nasty, contaminated, hazardous stuff.