The new graffiti?
Nowastewednesdays.com
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Showing posts with label art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
On Cuprocking
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
On Dirty Car Art- Making the Ordinary Extraordinary
And here's a little Dirty Car Art from Scott Wade. Because I love this too. Here's to finding beauty in everything from wire fences to dirty cars!!
Dirtycarart.com
Sunday, October 28, 2012
On Painted Pigeons- Making the Ordinary Extraordinary
One of my favourite types of marketing and art revolves around taking ordinary things and making them extraordinary.
People tend to overlook the mundane things they see every day, things that have become familiar and don't need to be recognized as new stimuli anymore. According to Claudia Hammond, author of Time Warped: Unlocking the Mysteries of Time Perception,"we use the number of new memories we form to gauge how much time has passed". That means that the more routines and familiarity in our lives, the more likely we are to coast through and the faster time seems to go by. I know that the first time I drove a familiar route and couldn't remember the drive at all ("How the hell did I drive here?!"), it scared the crap out of me. Our minds are lazy; they don't want to register everything in our world. No matter that everything that surrounds us, from potholes to lamp posts, has a design and some type of beauty to it.
SO. I love shocking people out of their familiarity. Reminding us that we're alive and the world is dynamic.
And so, I give you:
I'm sure artists Julian Charrière and Julius von Bismarck (I'm seriously jealous of this name) had similar trains of thought when they, in conjunction with Venice's Architecture Biennale Exhibition, airbrushed pigeons in tropical colours and let them loose in Venice. Without delay, there were outcries about the lack of "respect for defenceless animals" and whatnot. But really, the airbrushing was harmless for the birds, and people get away with this garbage all the time.
People tend to overlook the mundane things they see every day, things that have become familiar and don't need to be recognized as new stimuli anymore. According to Claudia Hammond, author of Time Warped: Unlocking the Mysteries of Time Perception,"we use the number of new memories we form to gauge how much time has passed". That means that the more routines and familiarity in our lives, the more likely we are to coast through and the faster time seems to go by. I know that the first time I drove a familiar route and couldn't remember the drive at all ("How the hell did I drive here?!"), it scared the crap out of me. Our minds are lazy; they don't want to register everything in our world. No matter that everything that surrounds us, from potholes to lamp posts, has a design and some type of beauty to it.
SO. I love shocking people out of their familiarity. Reminding us that we're alive and the world is dynamic.
And so, I give you:
Venice's Painted Pigeons!
loststateminor.com
Ok. Pigeons are gross. They're "rats with wings" and they poop on everything. But what if they had beautiful plumage, like the birds we admire and photograph? We might not love them, but we'd certainly not be able to re-classify them in the "mundane" category.I'm sure artists Julian Charrière and Julius von Bismarck (I'm seriously jealous of this name) had similar trains of thought when they, in conjunction with Venice's Architecture Biennale Exhibition, airbrushed pigeons in tropical colours and let them loose in Venice. Without delay, there were outcries about the lack of "respect for defenceless animals" and whatnot. But really, the airbrushing was harmless for the birds, and people get away with this garbage all the time.
Latitudenews.com
Ffffound.com
Friday, October 5, 2012
Friday, December 16, 2011
On The Beauty of City Design
I love love love picturesque old cities. I love small winding roads and cobblestone. I love uncertain, unplanned meandering rows of houses. I love asymmetry. I love curved and crooked alleys.
The robotic straight grid design of new North American cities is grating on me. Urban planning can be beautiful.
Fortress Bourtange, the Netherlands
Built to be ultimately defensible by cannonballs. The corners and perpendicular walls meant that each wall was covered by fire from the walls next to it.
Also, the star design is amazingly gorgeous.
Bern, Switzerland
Can't you imagine yourself there, walking down the street in the dying sunlight? The way that the rows of houses flow organically, mimicking the shape of the river.... I want to go there so badly!
Mont Saint Michel, France
More of a commune than a city I suppose, with a whopping 42 inhabitants. But I couldn't help but include it here. The way that the 11th century monastery rises above everything... it proves that beautiful design isn't just about the lines of the streets, but about having a wonderful skyline and view as well
I'll continue to add to this beautiful city design list :)
The robotic straight grid design of new North American cities is grating on me. Urban planning can be beautiful.
Fortress Bourtange, the Netherlands
Built to be ultimately defensible by cannonballs. The corners and perpendicular walls meant that each wall was covered by fire from the walls next to it.
Also, the star design is amazingly gorgeous.
Bern, Switzerland
Can't you imagine yourself there, walking down the street in the dying sunlight? The way that the rows of houses flow organically, mimicking the shape of the river.... I want to go there so badly!
More of a commune than a city I suppose, with a whopping 42 inhabitants. But I couldn't help but include it here. The way that the 11th century monastery rises above everything... it proves that beautiful design isn't just about the lines of the streets, but about having a wonderful skyline and view as well
I'll continue to add to this beautiful city design list :)
Friday, September 2, 2011
On Edmonton's Own Ad Scandal
So, the big news here in Edmonton is the below advertisement, from Fluid Hair Salon. It was actually created and launched a year ago, but was only caught by bloggers and made big in the last couple days. Since then, women's rights groups in the city have been up in arms, and it's not hard to see why.
A well-coiffed woman sits on a chair in front of a frightening Dexter-type man, sporting a nasty looking black eye. The caption "Look good in all you do" implies, sort of, that as long as she looks good eventually, with a shiny new necklace, abuse is just fine. It's a risky and dark ad, and I personally don't think that a salon should be touching this subject with a 10 foot pole, but that's just me.
However, up until now I'll admit that I wasn't that interested or insulted by this little controversy. It was a very misled "artsy" ad that never really got big before now, and in a way it actually does some good by bringing needed attention to the issue of domestic violence.
What actually got me intrigued is that somewhere out there, someone was mad enough to vandalize the salon. Here are a couple pics from CBC:
"This is art that is wrongly named violence; that was violence wrongly named art!"
It's sort of poetic.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
On Advertisements Worth Watching
It's time that marketing stopped interrupting people's entertainment, and instead became entertainment.
To stay relevant, marketing has to be something that people are interested in and willing to watch. Some marketers understand that, but most don't.
To illustrate the point I'm including here some of my favourite dramatic and artistic advertisements.
Launched in 2008, Go On Lad is an advertisement by the agency Miles Calcraft Birginshaw Duffy, made for Hovis bread in the UK. It's brilliance comes from its flawless phasing through 122 years of British history, through the gravity of the wars, inspiring speeches from Churchill, the devastation afterward, then each era of Brit fashion. Changing trends, clothing, technology.. it has it all! It is a beautifully made spot.
Balls, a commercial created by director Nicolai Fuglsig for the launch of the BRAVIA brand, did everything it was supposed to do. It captivated with the beauty of 250,000 real rubber balls bouncing down the streets of San Francisco. Plus, the song was perfect- Heartbeats, from José González's debut album Veneer. Some interesting practical points of the whole operation- it took 50,000 balls for the first shot, there was a team of 50 interns that had to gather up the balls for each retake, and there were a serious of golfball nets set up at the ends of the street to catch the extra balls. Yes the commercial was big. Yes it was expensive. And yes, it got the attention that the company needed for it's brand.
To stay relevant, marketing has to be something that people are interested in and willing to watch. Some marketers understand that, but most don't.
To illustrate the point I'm including here some of my favourite dramatic and artistic advertisements.
Launched in 2008, Go On Lad is an advertisement by the agency Miles Calcraft Birginshaw Duffy, made for Hovis bread in the UK. It's brilliance comes from its flawless phasing through 122 years of British history, through the gravity of the wars, inspiring speeches from Churchill, the devastation afterward, then each era of Brit fashion. Changing trends, clothing, technology.. it has it all! It is a beautifully made spot.
Balls, a commercial created by director Nicolai Fuglsig for the launch of the BRAVIA brand, did everything it was supposed to do. It captivated with the beauty of 250,000 real rubber balls bouncing down the streets of San Francisco. Plus, the song was perfect- Heartbeats, from José González's debut album Veneer. Some interesting practical points of the whole operation- it took 50,000 balls for the first shot, there was a team of 50 interns that had to gather up the balls for each retake, and there were a serious of golfball nets set up at the ends of the street to catch the extra balls. Yes the commercial was big. Yes it was expensive. And yes, it got the attention that the company needed for it's brand.
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