this week at Plaid (on tour version):

Here's what happened this week at the world's most Plaid design and branding firm:

This week's post is dedicated to the Plaid tour. If you haven't already read, we're in the midst of a three week tour from NYC to Dallas, visiting clients, prospects, and interesting things along the way. Here are some of the highlights:

Kicked off in NYC, and met with Sony Music. Loaded the van with promos. And a fresh new project! Left for Long Island.

Stopped by Iron Horse Bikes, and discussed the design of two new websites. And saw their new 2008 bikes. (Which include some plaid graphics!)

Drove to Rhode Island, where we met with Foster Grant - specifically the Brand Manager for two of their coolest brands, Anarchy and Angel.

We also met the crew at Leedom, and shared some sweet Plaid-style branding ideas. Because we're nice like that.

Then we sped to New Hampshire. (Giuli was driving, I believe.) We made a surprise visit to Segway, and ended up chatting with their Direct Marketing Manager. Really cool people. And DAMN, I really want one of those Segways.

While feeling all geeky, we introduced ourselves to MobileRobots. Possibly the smartest people in all of New Hampshire. They've built and engineered some amazing robots, and produced some intense software apps to make them do whatever you need. We were unsuccessful in talking them into a robot race with the Plaid van.

Thursday we had a busy day in Massachusetts, with visits to Digitas, Etonic, and Digital Influence Group. Really great to meet other creative people, while on the road. And many bloggers, to boot.

Friday was a great close to our first week, where we met the infamous Joseph Jaffe. I felt like I was meeting David Bowie. Here's a blogger/podcaster/indie businessman/thought leader that I've been following forever. Meeting him in real space (not that there's anything wrong with Second Life) was a blast. Check out his post about the Plaid van.

Of course, you can follow the entire tour as it happens on the PlaidNation tour dashboard. Enjoy the blog, twitter, Flickr, and YouTube feeds. We even have a live webcam and GPS to tell you where the van is at.

It's hard to sum up a Plaid week with one photo - but I think that Soooper 8, pictured above pretty much does it. Sooper.