On Cuprocking

The new graffiti?

http://kopiforphotography.deviantart.com

Nowastewednesdays.com

Cuprocking, created by Andy Uprock of Australia, is being hailed as the new street art. Basically, the artists just jam coloured plastic cups in wire fences in order to create intricate designs. I love this so much! It's beautiful and not as permanent or damaging as graffiti. And the cups can be reused :)

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

On a Green Pedestrian Crossing- Making the Ordinary Extraordinary

Thisiscolossal.com

DDB China, working with the China Environmental Protection Foundation, created this beautiful campaign on 132 crosswalks across China. The point was to create a striking visual impact about the environmental benefits of walking- and the results were stunning. Afterword, the printed posters were used as billboards across the country.

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:

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

On Pancake Pillows!!!

Check out these pancake pillows!! They look so fluffy and fun. I want a stack of them in every corner of the house. You can find them at Unica Home. Mind you, at $600 each, maybe I'd be better off trying to make them myself...

On Genius Design... Why Can't I Think Of These Things???

Yes, there are a TON of these types of invention collection pages swirling around the internet. I just have here a collection of my favourites. :) I'm always amazed when I see ideas for inventions like this - I realize they are such easy answers to things that have bothered me and yet they have somehow never even occurred to me. Like having a velcro place on the wall for your keys, a pair of scissors for your pizza (OF COURSE!) or a cup holder on your bike. I can't count the number of times I've been frustrated by having nowhere to put my drink on my bike. 

AAANNNDD my top 2 favourites....

And you can find tons more at sites like dumpaday.com and wahfunny.com

On Escalator Marketing

Why escalator marketing you ask? Because it's so easy! Marketing that's dynamic and full of movement gets attention, and escalators are moving anyway, so you may as well just put some stickers on it. Plus, it's definitely under-used and full of creative opportunities. Unfortunately, 99% of this kind of marketing lacks any kind of creativity- mainly just companies making a picture with the front of the steps, or pasting an ad on the side. But here are a few who are being a little more interesting:

Source: Trendhunter.com

From 2008, this guerrilla marketing campaign for Juice Salon was a fun way of using escalator steps- each step had a different hairstyle matching up with a fixed face on the bottom. It's a shame that this idea really couldn't work for a female ad (at least, not a very diverse one), but I know it would still get my attention.

Source: Gabriel Russo on Behance.net

Awesome idea for advertising for the Simpsons Movie. Unfortunately, a quick poke around the internet shows nobody seems to have actually seen this escalator in person, so I'm not sure if it's just a concept. Either way, it would be fun!

Source: adsoftheworld.com

There's something about really big replicas of little things that always entertains me! Maybe I'll do another blog post on it. Oh also, using colours/lines that already exist in the environment (in this case the lines on the escalator steps) is another sure-fire way to get me interested- I think it's something to do with connecting the impossible and unusual with the mundane.