Li Edelkoort / Trend Union 2009 Presentation

I had the great pleasure of attending the Trend Union / Li Edelkoort presentation at Parson School of Design's Tischman auditorium today. Very inspiring material for any free thinker or creative person.

Some of the main themes were that, after a period of living in a culture of fear, the world is now ready to turn the page, take a step back and take back their lives. To embrace happiness, warmth, family and living locally and ecologically inspired fantastic color and material palettes for which Edelkoort is widely known. Refocusing on positivity.

More importantly though, I think she is perfectly in tune with a desire than many of us have had for a long time but might not have yet realized. A desire to break free from traditional systems and society doctrines, and also to take a deep breath and stop chasing artificiality. Back to home cooked meals, cottage industry produced clothing, and getting back out to the country.

Also, Li Edelkoort invited co-founder of the Alabama Project, Natalie “Alabama” Chanin, to speak about her amazing work on that business as well as her current business, AlabamaChanin.

She is known for her resown t-shirt couture, and for using existing (human) resources as an alternative to outsourcing. An important re-envisioning of contemporary and future economy.

WHAT WOULD JESUS BUY?

"What Would Jesus Buy?" a documentary about New York anti-globalism-performance artist-activist Reverend Billy comes out in theaters today. Trailer is here.

I had the pleasure of experiencing Reverend Billy's "Service" in person at MASS MoCA a year or two ago. He is hilarious, and actually so funny in his exposing of the ridiculousness of todays giant corporate conglomerates that he is far LESS "preachy" than most "serious" anti globalists.

Also see his Starbucks protest in this Youtube Clip:

Name Letter preference - Newsweek Article

What struck me about this piece that was labeled "Science". Is that on the one hand it appears to be important information for marketers, on the other hand, it is largely useless. Even if you know this, you cannot tweak your product naming to appeal to people of all names. However, you could argue that if you want to market a product towards 20-30 yr old males for example, that you could pull the records and find out what the most common name for north american males in that age bracket is. Still seems like a lot of effort for some possible marginal result though.

From the Newsweek article by Sharon Begley
"Bizarre as it sounds, studies have documented what scientists call 'name letter preference' since 1985. People are more likely to buy brands that begin with one of their initials, so Tom is more likely to buy a Toyota and Larry to buy a Lexus. Even important choices seem to be shaped by this preference: Mildreds are overrepresented in Milwaukee and Dennises among dentists."

Die, Speech Bubble, Die! Via Eachday.com

For a while, I worked for a company that had various speech bubbles in their corporate identity, as well as in their main logo. For the longest time I didn't think anything of it, in fact thought they were somewhat engaging... until I came across this page. And I realized that I was rather culturally insensitive not to have noticed sooner.

Barry Deck Studio

Time to check out the new venture by "kid-design-star", template gothic creator and branding expert Barry Deck. After being a Creative Director for such industry giants as Ogilvy and Red Rockwell, he is now heading his own company again.

Check.

London 2012 Logo by Wolff Olins

Wolff Olins, the powerhouse branding agency, founded in 1965, is responsible for the identity design of the olympic Games in 2012 in London, UK.

The unveiling received mixed reviews and even outrage.


"It’s vital that we reach out to those young people in a language that they understand and in technology that’s familiar to them," London organizing chief Sebastian Coe said. "This brand is absolutely the world they live in."
(From the Chronicle article)

Now, first off, I am excited that a logo can still baffle, confuse and excite me. So major points there. However to style something that looks dangerously like eighties graffiti (I know a thing or two about that) seems like a misguided way to "talk the kids' language" and represent "The world they live in". I'm almost 32 myself and the logo feels nostalgic to me... aah those wonderful days of early hip-hop and spraycan art! More 1991 than 2007, no? To be sure, I don't even think this logo is ugly, wrong or inappropriate, quite the contrary. But I almost find it not forward thinking enough.

That said, how exciting that the IOC went out on a limb and let Wolff-Olins do something to shake things up in branding-world.


Apparently epilepsy patients would have suffered seizures from the animated version that has since been yanked off the web:

From the Housston Chronicle:
Epilepsy Action, a British health charity, said 10 people had complained about the animation and some had suffered seizures from watching images depicting a diver plunging into a pool.

The Olympic group said it has taken steps to remove the animation from the Web site and will now re-edit the film.

The design is made up of four jagged pieces that form the numbers 2012. It cost $796,000 and was targeted at young people. The logo was unveiled Monday, and within hours an online petition was established asking for a new design.

London's Design Museum founder Stephen Bayley said the logo was "a puerile mess, an artistic flop and a commercial scandal."

TV networks getting sneakier about commercials

It is interesting to see that the latest form of creativity in the industry today is about inventing new vehicles for delivery of advertising.

From an excellent story on cnn.com:

The Geico cavemen have become popular enough they've become the subject of a show.


Story Highlights:
• Viewers paying less attention to standard commercials
• Broadcasters trying new ways to attract attention
• Nielsen is starting to rate commercials

NEW YORK (AP) -- Some of the most creative thinking in television these days has nothing to do with comedy or drama. It's about the commercials.

Fueled by a growing sense of desperation, networks are inserting games, quizzes and mini-dramas into commercial breaks. They're incorporating more product pitches into programming. Two experimental programs without traditional commercial breaks will premiere this fall. NBC has even called on Jerry Seinfeld for help.

This is all being done to stop viewers with DVRs from fast-forwarding through advertisements, or to circumvent those that do. (Blog: All commercials, all the time)

Adding to the urgency, this week Nielsen Media Research begins offering ratings for commercial breaks, instead of just the shows around them.

"We all need to become more creative in how we incorporate sponsors into a program," said Ed Swindler, executive vice president for NBC Universal ad sales. "No one on the creative side or the business side wants to make commercials intrusive, but we do need to commercialize efficiently so viewers can afford to get free television."

Read the entire article on cnn.com

Brand Apart by Joe Duffy, Book party

Book Release party for Brand Apart by Joe Duffy

The One Club and AIGA invite you to a book party and signing for Brand Apart by Joe Duffy.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Presentation by the author at 6:30 pm.
Reception and book signing to follow.

AIGA National Design Center
164 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010

Free Admission

Call 212.979.1900

RSVP: rsvp@oneclub.org

JDK Featured in Fast Company Magazine

JDK is a very interesting firm to me, because they work on brands in every dimension; identity research, concept development, graphic design, product design etc. They are located off the beaten track up in Burlington, VT and are most well known for their X-Box and Burton branding. Another very interesting conceptual piece that is featured in the Fast Company Magazine article, is their Do-It-Yourself shoe, created for Patagonia.