I must have seen every photograph of the Trinity era experiments and their offspring in the following decades. Except for a few famous photos and films, like this sobering clip of the 50 mt Soviet Tsar Bomba test: it was nearly all American footage.
What’s different about that photograph above? It’s late 60’s French vintage. Amazing. The images are scans from hardcopies taken by the French Army during a series of tests codenamed Canopus in French Polynesia. Four images in the set.
1967 had a pretty good read on 1999. Which naturally leads one to think about what 2039 might have to offer the home of the future (hopefully an ice maker). If the unending cycle of retro-to-cool rebirth continues unabated, it’s a fairly good bet that 32 years from now, 20 year olds will be wearing the clothes we buy next year. The coolest among them will shop vintage, by standing in front of the holographic projector mirror in their closet, which presents them with outfits that hover in front of their bodies like paper dolls.
Now if we could just figure out a way to get those future vintage Rock and Republic jeans delivered via the Home Post Office featured below…
I’m involved in the advertising and marketing industries, so I pay attention to the ways that companies market their products. Figuring out the formula for successfully doing so on the internet is where a lot of the action is right now. Google hit it big with the text based “relevant advertising” model that proliferates the side bar of properties like search and Gmail, and rich media ads are starting to come into their own with the more widespread adoption of broadband. Taken together though it’s all very old school “advertising” rather than anything resembling the modern version of “branding” that’s being done. Most branding has been left to the companies websites and micro-sites.
Viral marketing holds promise online - especially as it relates to video. BMW created a series of films with high profile names to pimp their brand, delivering it through their own website. It made a lot of noise at the time, although I’m not sure how it affected sales, it surely helped shape the brand.
So how about skivvies? You can advertise them the old school way… like really oldschool… pitch them as the perfect Mothers Day gift (even the dog is in on this one), or the new “internet way” as Google does (if you click the skivvies link, you’re guaranteed to be served underwear related ads on the sidebar of Urban Dictionary site).
But what about branding, and online viral video marketing?
UK boutique lingerie house Lascivious has teamed up with motion shop Wyld Stallyons to create a campaign meant to both sell some delicate unmentionables and raise the profile of the design studio. The result is a short film called The Doll which has just been released. (NSFW if you work somewhere where people care about that type of thing)
As of right now it’s got about 1300 views on YouTube. It will be interesting to see if this combination of slick editing, nice effects work, scantily clad ladies and the promise of violent lesbian robot sex will “go viral” as they say. Are you kidding me? With all of those geek sex credentials and a nice behind the scenes flik as well, it’s hard to imagine how it won’t have hundreds of thousands of page views in the next week or so… but will it sell the underpants? For $100 a pair (and way up), are you in?
So the computing division of Microsoft finally comes up with a product that has the potential to reposition the brand as a market leader instead of just the leading developer of bloatware, but the marketing department designs, approves and releases creative that resembles stock video clips for a prescription drug advertisement with copy and voice over as soulless as a stripper’s eyes. Their initial market for Surface is obviously high end hotels like the W that are very concerned with design and “hipness” and this is what they decide to go with? Really?
Likely from the same minds that decided to call the Zune file sharing feature “squirting”.
Perhaps a Google search is in order next time?
The art of folding paper into beautifully intricate shapes is intrinsically tied to Japanese culture in my mind. Hear the word origami, and immediately think of the quintessential crane - you know the one, no need to provide a picture
Richard Sweeney out of the UK is pushing and pulling paper in an entirely different direction. Admittedly, his work owes as much to structural design and architecture as it does origami (likely more), but his creations elicit a similar feeling - awe, at the elegance and seeming impossibility of the creations.
I used to be a 3D modeller. I worked in Alias Studio on an SGI back when the idea of layers in Photoshop was unthinkable. The idea that we would all soon be able to use our laptops to run high end animation software to make our own movies was ludicrous… But here we are.
I’ve never been a fan of the big Hollywood animated feature. I’ve never seen Toy Story or the sinister Toy Story 2, Finding Nemo or the majority of the genres œuvre, but for a long time I was still “wowed” by CGI in a technical sense. That one concession ended a while back though. We’ve reached a technical plateau in the sense that the visuals being presented aren’t compromised by the softwares inability to deliver, aside from those projects which try to achieve human realism.
For these reasons and countless others, I champion projects like those below. Please, isn’t there a single director in the Hollywood system with the tenacity and resources to make a sci-fi movie the old school way? Where is the next generation Ridley Scott? Somebody bust out the glue and make some goddamn miniatures. I’d put 2001 or Alien up against any CGI malpractice from the last decade.
If you are going to be at Coachella next weekend - be sure to stop by and visit the latest Global Inheritance initiative :: The Energy Factory. We worked with a group of architects lead by Juan Azulay in designing and developing the structure and exhibits - which all showcase alternative and renewable energy sources in fun and interesting ways. It’s worth your time - and if you’ve ever been to Coachella before, you’ll understand how valuable a little bit of shade is. The Energy Factory provides it in abundance through the innovative use of industrial shading fabric for the roof of the structure. Stop by and see us, and sign up to help out with future initiatives.
My design firm, eyerus propaganda is responsible for visual identity of the project.
So I’m reading some recent posts on Matt Yglesias’ eponymous blog tonight and he mentions a new book that he’s been working on. Apparently the legal working title for the as yet unnamed project is, The Untitled Matthew Yglesias Foreign Policy Project. Through a Jonah Goldberg mashup of sorts, Matt produces the subhead, A Very Serious, Thoughtful Argument that has Never Been Made in Such Detail or with Such Care. Funny.
A few lines down in the comments, readers Jackmormon and JP link to a conversation that suggests the best title ever. Seriously, game over - the search is done. Mr. Yglesias you have your book title, and I’ve taken the liberty of creating the dust jacket for it. Let me know where to send the artwork
It perfectly sums up the unrewarding work the country faces in the post Bush era.
Considerably more ambitious than the standard plywood sheet nailed to a strong branch, no? An inspired designer on Vancouver Island is manufacturing these candy-like orbs of sitka spruce…
Aesthetically, somewhere between Sid Mead’s work on 2001 and the forest moon of Endor, these spheres are certainly visually striking. The high end Eryn models are crafted from bent laminated spruce wood that is layered with woven fiberglass, covered in epoxy and finished with luxuries like a cast bronze door, and the trappings of a motel kitchenette. For the budget minded, a cast fiberglass version is available sans amenities.
Speaking of budget, expect to part with $150,000 to live amongst the trees in luxury, or $45,000 if you’re not keeping up with the Jones’. Seems expensive until you consider real estate prices in LA. Although with a 126″ diameter, when you consider square footage - that probably is LA prices… Better still for $150 a night ($275 for 2 nights), the Eryn Sphere is about as much as decent hotel room - with a better view.
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