About Plastic Hassle
People often ask us, “What the hell is a Plastic Hassle?” Yes, we know it’s a pretty unusual thing to call ourselves but we’re a pretty unusual studio with a pretty unusual ethic. If you’ve seen the movie “Psych-Out” you’ll remember a scene where Dave (played to trippy perfection by Dean Stockwell) talks about the “straight” life, telling (Jack Nicholson as) Stoney, “That whole scene is just one big plastic hassle, man,” and “The games have got to go.” While we don’t necessarily endorse going about in togas and headbands or spouting psychedelic jargon from rooftops, like poor, addled Dave, the sentiment of his life philosophy is what we are all about as creators.
Sure, we could take our years of experience and skills into the mainstream marketplace and expend our creative energies designing homogenous websites for run-of-the-mill people and companies. But then we would be just another boring studio cranking out mediocrity with an “outside the box” flavor and who really needs that? At least for us, the game of watering down to suit the lowest common denominator is what has to go. Creative people need equally creative promotion.
Conventional wisdom dictates that promotion and marketing must be broad-based, general, and appealing to a dizzying span of people to be successful. Fortunately, Plastic Hassle is anything but conventional. We firmly believe that achieving success is a matter of reaching the right audience and appealing to their particular tastes and sensibilities. That’s why we specialize in developing websites and content for creative people and companies who are not interested in conventional “web-based solutions” to communicate with their audience. Your work is a reflection of your individuality and its promotion should highlight it, not dim it out of misguided ideas of accessibility for every sentient being with an internet connection.
If there is one consistent ethic we bring to every project, it is the focus to tailor your promotion, whether a website, portfolio, print piece or collateral, to reflect your individuality, your image, your audience, not our egos. Unlike many designers, we want your input. We desire your feedback and opinions. You know your audience better than anyone and our primary goal is utilizing your knowledge to craft promotion that will captivate the attention of that audience, the one most likely to appreciate your work.
Plastic Hassle Creative Studio is the collaboration of partners Jim and Mich Fisher.
Jim Fisher has been a web and graphic designer for over ten years, with comprehensive experience in both web and print design and production. He’s worked for design studios, corporate advertising and marketing departments, e-commerce retailers and a wide variety of freelance clients. His extensive portfolio includes web design, Flash, presentations, print advertising and digital art. He’s adept in HTML/CSS, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, PowerPoint, InDesign and Quark.
Mich Fisher is a graphic and web designer, copywriter, and illustrator with an extensive background in sales, marketing, and high-end design. Her over twenty-year career has included point-of-sale and web-based retail, trade, and B2B marketing strategies, branding design and implementation, project management, catalog and collateral concept and design, product design, sales, and residential and showroom design. Her independent projects portfolio includes recent works in web and graphic design, copywriting, and illustration.
In addition to client projects, Jim and Mich keep themselves out of more serious mischief by working on creative projects of their own. They are currently in the process of consolidating their portfolios into a fresh, new version of PlasticHassle.com to include a variety of content features and silly animated fluff they find amusing. Also in the works is Cherie Bombe, an online interactive comic book that brings together Jim and Mich’s shared love of storytelling, desire to create 21st century entertainment, and funky geekdom in one fun, snarky, rollicking package.