It's been around a while but I was recently reminded how much I like the bootleg objects idea. And it shows the value of a brand and a design ethos, that it can sustain this kind of tweaking. If only braun did it themselves.
« January 2004 | Main | March 2004 »
grey day
Today (Tuesday 24th ) is grey tuesday. The website explains it like this:
It's time for music fans to stand up and demand change from the music industry's copyright cartel.
Tuesday, February 24 will be a day of coordinated civil disobedience: websites will post Danger Mouse's Grey Album on their site for 24 hours in protest of EMI's attempts to censor this work.
DJ Danger Mouse created a remix of Jay-Z's the Black Album and the Beatles White Album, and called it the Grey Album. Jay-Z's record label, Roc-A-Fella, released an a capella version of his Black Album specifically to encourage remixes like this one. But despite praise from music fans and major media outlets like Rolling Stone ("an ingenious hip-hop record that sounds oddly ahead of its time") and the Boston Globe (which called it the "most creatively captivating" album of the year), EMI has sent cease and desist letters demanding that stores destroy their copies of the album and websites remove them from their site. EMI claims copyright control of the Beatles 1968 White Album.
Danger Mouse’s album is one of the most "respectful" and undeniably positive examples of sampling; it honors both the Beatles and Jay-Z. Yet the lawyers and bureaucrats at EMI have shown zero flexibility and not a glimmer of interest in the artistic significance of this work
Whatever the legal rights and wrongs a) it's a really interesting thing to listen to b) copyright legislation is going to have to change if the music industry is going to survive
the front nine at broomfield
Miniature Golfer (via things again) goes a long way to rivalling martin parr in being a simultaneous celebration of, and lament for, contemporary british life. Though that probably wasn't their plan.
(these fantastic shots are from the minature golfer galleries)
lost in marketing
Another great spot from things. The Park Hyatt in Tokyo is promoting the fact that it served as 'inspiration and backdrop' for the film Lost In Translation. I can do no better than quote 'things' : It seems strange to advertise the fact that your hotel was the central, defining element in a film about ennui, alienation and dislocation, emotions that were just as much a result of the Park Hyatt's globalised impersonal lobby aesthetic, all tinkling lounge singers, muted conversation and shiny surfaces, as by the soporific effects of jetlag.
mag cover design decline shock
There's a great little piece here (via things) about the decline in American magazine design. From the heights of Esquire etc in the 60s to the celebrity obssessed type nightmares of today. A good, quick read.
Not so sure if it's as true about British magazines. I'm not saying that Nuts and Now are great pieces of design, I'm just not sure we ever had an equivalent golden age.
positioning madness
I was loading the printer today, and I noticed what it said on the paper we have: 'multifunctional communications paper' Now I'm a big fan of the paper industry. Paper does not get the recognition it deserves. But this is positioning/marketing nonsense of the highest order.
nano branding
You don't need a lot of room to make a brand statement. Good language, surprise, standing-for-something, imagination and a little square of blackboard and you've got a distinctive brand.
This is both sides of barber's board on the eve of Valentine's Day. On a dug-up Kingly Street in Soho.
someone should be making cleap glass
it's clear, it's cheap, it's cleap
scarcity, mostly on wednesdays
This coffee shop in Soho reminded me of the days when shops used to have half-day closing. All the shops in Derby used to close on Wednesday afternoon. It would be a different day in different towns. And it get me wondering whether some of the current disatisfaction with brands is to do with their completely easy accesibilty. There's no specialness any more. Think about the shop Labour and Wait, half the intrigue in that place is that I can never work out when it's actually open. Same with the Rivington in New York. And it's not just about exclusivity, it's also about integrity. It's about a shop that's not just there to serve you. I think there's a difference between service and abject subservience. We respect brands that aren't all about us.
building opportunity
Here's a potentially lucrative consultancy niche. Look at this mess o' brands. Who do you actually talk to about this building? There must be money in being a brand consultant to the construction industry.