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DC steps up with a brand new collection in collaboration with Lyon based Sixpack France. Dubbed ‘Non Merci,’ the mens premium footwear and apparel collection ‘draws from inspirations that cross political borders, embrace impossible love and yet harbor deep feelings.’ Included are two DC LIFE silhouettes (Xander and Sector 7), a lambskin leather hooded jacket, Illusion reversible pullover and MCP zip hoodie, all of which are available now via DC flagship stores and select boutiques worldwide. For more info and images hit up the official web site here.
We happen to know that Mr Kanye West is a frequenter of the CR blog and has linked to some of our choicest bits via his excellent site. So it's nice to be able to return the favour with these mock-ups of what you can expect to see if you have tickets for Kanye's European tour. We're guessing keywords in the brief for the stage set may have included "gold" and "shiny"...Â
And just in case you thought he couldn't pull this off (it could very well play havoc with his ankles) here's a shot from a recent rehearsal, which he's blogged about, here.
The Economist is to debut a new commercial on 3 July which seeks to reach out to a younger potential readership. Red Wires, from agency AMV.BBDO and directed by Tom Carty (he of Guinness Surfer fame), stars wire-jumper Florent Blondeau walking through a city on a series of red wires.
The film is somewhat reminiscent of Carty's earlier Rush Hour spot for the BBC. According to The Economist, the spot "marks the beginning of The Economist talking to people who might not yet consider themselves to be Economist readers through its marketing and advertising. It was sparked by research undertaken by the magazine last year which discovered that, because of the rise in the number of people going on to university, there are now over 3 million people in the UK whose interest in world affairs, travel, news and politics suggests an unconscious affinity with what The Economist reports on every week."
In that respect, it follows from the AMV print campaign that we reported on last June, which was also targetted at a younger audience than the traditional white on red ads that are held in such reverence by the industry. The Economist says that the “Let your mind wander†endline is "a metaphor for the inherent pleasure in connecting different ideas, and how this is reflected in the wide-range news and analysis available in a copy of The Economist".
In a somewhat shoddy move, the promoters of Michael Jackson's planned London gigs are offering to send fans a souvenir ticket in lieu of a refund. A ticket that, we are told, was designed by Michael Jackson himself
"The world lost a kind soul who just happened to be the greatest entertainer the world has ever known," said Randy Phillips, President and CEO of the promoter, AEG Live. "Since he loved his fans in life, it is incumbent upon us to treat them with the same reverence and respect after his death."
Apparently, this 'reverence' manifests itself in attempting to persuade concert-goers to forego getting their money back in favour of being sent the tickets that they would have received anyway.
There are eight variants (shown above, copyright AEG as you can see). According to the promoter's website "The tickets, printed with the special lenticular process, were inspired and designed by Michael Jackson for the fans attending his shows." Given the tragic state Jackson was reportedly in before his death, we're not sure what exactly his involvement in the design would have entailed – we're not imagining him slaving over PhotoShop for too long, to be honest.
The tickets are sized 82mm x 186mm. "The front of the ticket is the lenticular image and the reverse side is the standard ticket detail including the performer name, tour name, show date, venue, section number, row number, and seat number," says AEG, before adding this spectacular piece of emotional blackmail "His hopes were his fans would want to keep the special ticket as a reminder of the memorable evening that they would share together."
As my colleague Gavin just pointed out, they look like the kind of thing you'd expect from a particularly tacky West End musical.
Huckgee gets mad stripey with the latest release in his MADL line. This time the famed designer drops a winged 10†Striped Skullhead MADL in a limited edition of 10 pieces. Anyone wanting in on the action should hit Huckgee on eBay July 3rd 2009.
The first edition of the Trilogy Project, featuring collaborations between Asics, Ronnie Fieg of David Z. and Cultureshoq is this particularly awesome Asics Gel Lyte 3 done up by Cultureshoq. Expect to see more from this project in the not too distant future.
If the underground restaurant known as Charlie's Burgers departs from the norm in part through its secrecy and its constantly changing venue, Open ChefAMe is in some ways its opposite, featuring instead the creations of different aspiring chefs at each of its well-publicized monthly events.
It's not hard to see why aspiring chefs would want to cook for an Open ChefAMe event, since the opportunity would provide both exposure and a chance to try their hand at cooking in a commercial kitchen for a real crowd. For consumers, though, the potential benefits are equally compelling: fabulous food, creatively conceived and delivered; a novel, one-of-a-kind experience sure to inspire status stories aplenty; and the chance to be able to say, "I met [insert chef's name here] back before she was famous!" Hospitality entrepreneurs: a concept to try out in your hometown?
The Obama campaign picked up the Titanium Grand Prix at last week’s Cannes Lions advertising festival, and was praised in particular for its integration of digital into a traditional approach. Speaking yesterday at Fallon advertising agency in London, Thomas Gensemer of Blue State Digital, the company behind mybarackobama.com, explained how the website contributed to Obama’s success.
Gensemer opened his talk by acknowledging the unusual nature of the Obama Presidential run, commenting that “if we had done Hillary or anyone else it wouldn’t have worked. It was because of the lack of baggage Barack Obama had and the newness of the campaign structure.†This is borne out by the enormous figures that the web campaign achieved, with over 13.5 million people signing up for email updates on Obama’s progress. Two billion emails were then sent out, although Gensemer stressed that this email content was carefully managed, with individuals targeted with different ‘tracks’ depending on their circumstances and whether they had already donated to the campaign. Instead of simply rejoicing in the numbers of people expressing interest in Obama, Blue State Digital worked hard to turn this interest into donations and also to utilise support on the ground, and by the end of the campaign the website had mobilised over 3 million people to contribute over $500 million online.
This was achieved in certain ways, many of which, now that the campaign is finished, seem simple and obvious, yet are rarely implemented in digital advertising. Firstly, the audience were treated with respect, both in terms of the type of email they received but also in the amount of time that they would be willing to devote to the campaign. Emails were short – never longer than 300 words – and never anonymous, there was always a consistency of voice and tone. Obama and other key figures in the campaign also contributed emails to be sent – “Michelle wrote her own emails,†commented Gensemer, “and more people opened those than her husband’s†– giving the campaign a personal touch and authenticity, rather than the impression of being simply churned out by the PR machine.
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Unusually in such an enormous campaign, the digital team were able to respond quickly to events, and once sent out an email within half an hour of an attack by Sarah Palin on Obama and his campaigners, which led to $22 million in online contributions. The team also had the flexibility to roll with events as they unfolded in other ways. One instance of this was when an Obama supporter contacted them to find out the pantone colours used in the Obama logo, as he wanted to paint it on his barn. Inspired by this idea, the team encouraged other barn-owning supporters to follow suit and eventually 1,500 barns were painted, strengthening support for Obama in rural communities.
Allowing such flexibility in a campaign is rare – especially if it is undertaken by a corporate client – but it appears to have been hugely beneficial to the Obama campaign. Gensemer did acknowledge that these new developments were often tested on a small group first however, before being sent to a wider audience, allowing a certain degree of control.
Finally, the campaign also set out to galvanise supporters to interact with it, either by sending in photographs or video footage, or by sending in their own stories online. This content was very carefully managed, however, with the team having defined a clear narrative that they wanted to tell about Obama, and only using user-generated content that fitted with this message. Gensemer commented that he realised during the campaign that “the notion of user-generated content doesn’t really work – the role of editors and brand managers in creating a narrative is necessary. It seems user-generated but in fact it’s very controlled.â€
The Obama story is of course an exceptional one – to get such a groundswell of support and interest with little cynicism for a brand, for example, would be a difficult task. Yet what is interesting about the story of his digital campaign is the way in which digital was integrated fully into the Obama campaign, rather than been seen as an additional extra. What was revealed is that if technology is used correctly to harness interest, it is clear that the results can be huge.
MTV launches a spanky new look as of today – as its international brand refresh rolls out across the company's network of 64 channels, created by MTV's creative directors from around the world in collaboration with UK-based studio Universal Everything...
We use the word refresh rather than rebrand as the MTV logo is still recognisable - the new logo (above) is, in fact, the old logo - but in MTV's new look, the logo remains black on a white ground - no colour, pattern or texture will ever adorn it - which is a change from MTV of old where the idents were based on the logo being played around with.
"Now the logo is sacred," says Roberto Bagatti, Vice President of Creative for MTV Networks International and Creative Director of MTV's World Design Studio in Milan, who oversaw the project.
So if the logo's the same, what's new? MTV Networks International now has a new flexible typographic navigation system for displaying onscreen information. The MTV logo remains in a fixed top left position onscreen at all times and acts as an anchor for the new system of information display - with the title of the current programme always appearing immediately to the right of the logo in a blue progress-bar so viewers can guage where they are in the current programme. To the right of this info is where viewers will occasionally see information in yellow text boxes: yellow denotes what's coming up next on the channel. And to the right of this, appears what's coming up later - always in a pink info box. The typeface used for this primary information is Pharma Bold Condensed by Swiss type foundry Optimo.
As well as the main programme info, more playful messages will appear in the lower third of the screen - and for this text, there is a collection of secondary brand typefaces to choose from, depending on the mood of the message. The eight secondary typefaces were selected for their expressive or emotion-inducing nature - and to add an element of fun to the onscreen identity of the channel.
The faces, shown above, are American Typewriter Light Italic, Balloon Bold, Bigcity Maxi, Cozzap Open, Flash ND, Futura SB Bold Italic, Sahara Bodoni and Signpainter House Brush. Here's an example of how these will be used onscreen:
The first six new channel idents make it clear beyond doubt that MTV is sporting a slick new look - based on an idea of "pop x 1000%" which was, says Bagatti, "the rebrand project's title and mantra."
Regular CR blog readers may recall us writing about Universal Everything's Advanced Beauty project in which UE's Matt Pyke collaborated with his sound designer brother, Simon (Freeform), as well as a host of hand-picked film makers to create motion graphics pieces or "sound sculptures". Well, the new MTV idents look and feel like an extension of this project - perhaps unsurprisingly as they've been created similarly – with Matt Pyke commissioning films from filmmakers he admires with his brother Simon working on the soundtrack for each ident. However, each of the MTV idents has exactly the same 2/2 time signature – a heartbeat-like rhythm to which the MTV logo always pulsates. Here are all six of the new idents so you can see how they look:
Pop-up hotel rooms and luxury camping are both concepts we've written about on numerous occasions, but it wasn't until recently that we had seen a variation on the theme designed specifically for stargazing. Sure enough, French tourism company Bocages has created a pop-up cabin for four that features a transparent dome in the roof, a telescope and a sky observation kit.
Durable and malleable, leather is an ideal material for reusing and upcycling. Seizing that potential, reMade USA just launched a line of stylish handbags made from used and scrap leather. reMade's bags were initially made from leather jackets found in charity stores, with details based on the original garments. The company now also gets cast-offs from the furniture and automotive industries.
reMade has around 10–15 different bags available for order on its website at any time, currently ranging in price from USD 125–365. If they'd like to breathe new life into a garment they no longer wear, customers can also supply their own leather jacket and request a design based on one of reMade's models. Hand-crafted in San Francisco, stamped with its own unique serial number, and lined with a recycled silk scarf, each bag is inherently unique.
reMade isn't the first to make leather jackets into bags. But as planet-friendly products jostle for attention, it's not enough just to be green. How to stand out and create a sustainable business on top of a sustainable product? reMade's founder, Shannon South, demonstrates the importance of building a brand: using good design and photography; showing the process and telling a story; and adding charming and recognizable details like a silk scarf lining. (Related: Luxe upcycling: from cashmere sweaters to (very) soft toys — From 1950s pommel horses to 2008 gym bags.)
Icograda is to stage its biennial World Design Congress in Beijing this October. Speakers include Jan van Toorn, Sol Sender (of the Obama campaign), Troika and Michael Rock of 2x4
The Congress will be hosted by Beijing's Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA, shown above) and have over 100 speakers over its five days, from October 24. This year's theme will be Xin which, acccording to the organisers means message or letter, but is also, apparently, a popular girl's name menaing beautiful. In any case, Icograda is promising that its Congress will provide "a chance to look at the energy of design, to share design experiences, and to restore our confidence in overcoming the challenges of this difficult period".
The full line-up is:
Keynote speakers: Jan van Toorn (the Netherlands) Sol Sender (United States) Patrick Whitney (United States) Kohei Sugiura (Japan)
Parallel session speakers: Huda Smitshuijzen Abifares (Lebanon) Studio Pip & Co/Andrew Ashton (Australia) Peter Bankov (Russia) David Barringer (US) Ruedi Baur (Switzerland) Pierre Bernard (France) Brian Collins (US) Sheila Levrant de Bretteville (US) Base Design (Belgium) Kiko Farkas (Brazil) Peter Hall (US) Dan Hill (UK) Zuzana Lednická (Czech) Laurence Madrelle (France) Victor Margolin (US) Achyut Palav (India) Peet Pienaar (South Africa) David Pigeon (Australia) Rick Poynor (UK) Qiu Zhenzhong (China) Dexter Sinister/David Reinfurt (US) Michael Rock (US) Helmut Schmid (Germany) David Small (US) Hilton Tennant (South Africa) Troika (UK) Michael Vanderbyl (US) Yao Dajuin (China, Taiwan) Yoon Ho Seob (Korea)
If a Twitter user tweets, but no one is following them, do they really tweet at all? Aiming to make such philosophical gymnastics less necessary, Tweet My Bumper helps Twitterers recruit new followers by targeting one of life's few remaining captive audiences: drivers in traffic.
Twitterers seeking followers need only visit Tweet My Bumper, enter their Twitter user name along with the usual other basic information, and Tweet My Bumper will print and ship them a bumper sticker that shows their Twitter name along with the tag line, "Follow me in traffic. Follow me on Twitter." A standard bumper sticker—which also shows the Tweet My Bumper URL—is priced at USD 5; without the promotional URL it costs USD 6.
A few years back, we covered ride-sharing site Hitchsters, which matches travellers to help them cut down on cab fare to airports in New York and San Francisco. Now, in the UK, Luton Airport has now joined forces with ride-sharing enterprise Liftshare to connect commuters en route to the airport.
Interested passengers and airport employees can register to access a database of other commuters, dropping a line to those heading to the airport at a similar time. The site never reveals the user's email or other contact information, and suggests that ride-sharers meet in a public place for the first trip just to keep things safe. The program, which is the first of its kind in the UK, is a smart move by Luton Airport. Not only does it improve its less-than-stellar transportation links to London, but it can ease its negative impact on the environment by helping to reduce the numbers of cars on the road. Key, of course, will be to make it easy and safe for travellers to share, and targeting frequent flyers seems like the way to go. Other airports to follow?
InterAccess Toronto presents Trivial Pursuits: Mass Distraction, the 9th Annual Emerging Artist Exhibition, opening on July 10th. Six Canadian artists trivially navigate their quasi-virtual existences: Roja Aslani, Erin Gee, David Han, Beatriz Herrera, Steve Shaddick, and Blake Williams. Trivial Pursuits focuses on the phenomena of digital distraction in new media art. Blake Williams’ Hotel Video projection portrays the dreamlike slippage between the interior and exterior. Beatriz Herrera’s blue-faced, walking, talking hexapod Trivia Monster robot blurts useless information in user presence. Meanwhile, Erin Gee’s Formants, a double-headed interactive sound sculpture, asks viewers to play. Combing of the hair on each head triggers operatic feedback, invoking strangeness about gendered technological desires. Roja Aslani’s autonomous self-inflating Breathing Wardrobe and Steve Shaddick’s repeatedly crashing interactive video, Restart, withholds efficient pre-visualization that interactive users are commonly accustomed to. An infinite regress of manipulated self imagery, David Han’s Glass Looking Through is a site-specific installation posing as a dysfunctional interactive mirror. A viewer’s presence triggers audio-visual feedback that eventually degenerates irrationally.
Illustration by Elisabeth Manus, Communication Art & Design, RCA
The Royal College of Art's SHOW TWO is on until 5 July, featuring work from the Animation, Design Interactions, Products, Textiles and Communication Art & Design courses. We had a look around the latter – here's what caught our eye...
Page Tsou's illustrations of toy guns are well worth seeing in the flesh. They're also huge. The Gift That Keeps on Giving (below, top) is actually about six feet across and made up of nine meticulously detailed panels.
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Lottie Crumbleholme's Lost Skills Depository publications offer tips on mending old clothes.
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Povilas Utovka's typographic work is really strong – his Code Share work for CAC Vilnius (below top) and the Office of Real Time Activity (below, bottom) are collaborative efforts with coursemate Alistair Webb.Â
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Illustration work for Marina Warner's short story, The Different in the Dose, by Zoe Taylor. (The ahem 'bottom' image might require a second look).
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Some great type from Alistair Webb in his While the Things of The World Still Do Not Move catalogue (designed for Anne Harild) and two posters for an RCA typography exhibition.Â
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David Fulford's portraiture feature in the shortlist for the BP Portrait Award in 2006 (see the untitled portrait of his mother, below). At this year's RCA show he's exhibiting more abstract pieces from his Family Portrait series (below, top).Â
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Monika is a new magazine written and produced anonymously, not a byline in sight. We do know that Povilas Utovka (see above) worked on the typeface though. More on Monika, with images of the inside, in an upcoming post...
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Eva Kellenberger and Sebastian White often work together and created the Design Interaction 2009 catalogue. The design plays on the notion of the 'green screen' – where imagined environments are created to house particular objects.Â
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While the above is just a selection from the Communication Art & Design work on show this year, there's also the Design Products, Fashion, Textiles, Design Interactions, Animation and Industrial Design Engineering shows to check out as well.Â
Most have their own dedicated website – see Communication Art & Design's for every graduate of the course – and some, it seems, may owe a little of their inspiration to other sources. : )
Have a look at the site for Open_Sailing, an innovative marine architecture project that also features at SHOW 2.
SHOW 2 runs until 5 July (closed 3 July). Exhibitions open at 11am, closing times vary. For address details, see rca.ac.uk/.
