UNIVERSAL ADAPTOR

Get a world view. Read The Economist.

ADVERTISING - This billboard for The Economist by BBDO, New York, no doubt resonates with the readership and reflects the global nature of magazine's editorial content.

Thumbs up from us.

joes[a]fiend

I THINK YOU'RE WONDERFUL

GRAPHIC DESIGN - The good things in life are not free, they actually cost £1 and are designed by Supermundane and if the postmen decide to do some work one might well drop through your letterbox (provided you are wonderful, obviously.)

The postcards are available at Present Joys - if you email them the details of your suitably fantastic recipient and the message you wish to communicate with them, they'll send the little beauty for you. Perfect for all those lazy buggers out there.

We wont take credit for finding this gem, Fever Zine gave us the heads up.

joes[a]fiend

BOUNCE TO POGO

MUSIC - The first time we heard Pogo's mesmerizing beats we were in awe. Pogo makes his beats by 'recording small sounds from a single film or scene and sequencing them to form a new piece of music.' In essence a simple idea, but the execution is anything but. The tracks are emotionally filled masterpieces with hooks, melodies and riffs that get your head nodding.

If you want to give it a go the equipment Pogo uses is 'Adobe Audition for sampling, FLStudio for sequencing and Sony Vegas for video editing.'

It's no surprise that the film and music industries have taken offence to the inspiring aural and visual creativity of Pogo. Sony Pictures Entertainment contacted the artist claiming that 'Bangarang', a rework of the Steven Spielberg film 'Hook' with some added bass and cymbals, was an infringement of their copyright.

You should check out his YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/Fagottron. Our personal favourites are Alice [featured above], Expialidocious and Bangarang.

ENJOY

joes[a]fiend

IT'S NICE THAT ISSUE 2

PUBLISHING - Despite all the problems with the Royal Mail at present they delivered the new issue of It's Nice That's bi-annual on time yesterday. Perhaps they realised the brilliance that was enclosed in the thoughtfully stamped brown box?

A real treat for illustration fans with not only a beautiful Rob Ryan print slipped inside the front cover but also a cracking Tom Gauld postcard, complete with hand written thanks from the It's Nice That gents themselves.

The issue acts as a great reminder of the service that It's Nice That provides - similar to the Now That's What I Call Music albums during the early nineties - but all killer [design] without the filler.
Bill Freeman

PIZZA HUT HATE LATE!

ADVERTISING - When a brand makes a promise, it's nice to see them show that are trying to stick to it.

Pizza Hut in the Philippines, with the help of advertising agency BBDO, placed large LED timers on selected delivery bikes to draw attention to their 'on-time delivery promise'.

Going back to our 4 key traits of a successful advertising campaign; this one ticks all the boxes. In case you've forgotten them they are as follows:

1. Simplicity
2. Reflective of the vales of the brand and/or product
3. Memorable
4. Fun

We'd love to know what happens if the pizza doesn't arrive on time? Does the bike explode?

joes[a]fiend

KITSUNÉ POPS INTO TOWN

FASHION – If there were any brand I could take out on a date, it would be the Parisian beauty Kitsuné. After numerous outfit changes I would still feel inadequate. When I finally managed to put something together and catch the tube to a suitably hip location I would be drenched in sweat.

The point I’m trying to make is that Kitsuné has got it all, with a minimal cherry on top. If they aren’t busy releasing their Kitsuné Maison compilations they’re creating a stellar clothing range and collaborating with the best designers in town.

Tonight sees the launch of their ‘Boutique Kitsuné Maison’. The Shop at Bluebird will host the French foxes from the 21st September to 12th October 2009, make sure you check it out. If you can’t make it to the London location the store will be heading to various cities worldwide soon enough.

joes[a]fiend

A MIGHTY MIGHTY GOOD MAN

PUBLISHING - We were delighted to see the A/W09 issue of Fantastic Man hit the shelves this weekend. It doesn't disappoint with the usual blend of handsome layouts, intelligent colour palettes and witty writing.

Of particular note was the extensive preview [or 'issue zero'] of Fantastic Man's much anticipated sister/girlfriend mag, The Gentlewoman - no doubt this will be a hit when it launches officially next spring, bringing some much needed quality to the women's market.


Also of enjoyment was the seasonal crossword, 'Utterly Unrecommended' [a scathing review of a cafe in Russell Square by James Anderson] and musings on how we will live in 2019 by Gilbert & George.

Bill Freeman

WE LOVE A GOOD CENTRE FOLD

ADVERTISING - We love a good bit of creativity in print; this campaign by the Grey Group, Hochiminh City, Vietnam for Nha Xinh is one of the best we've seen recently. Like any good campaign, it should be [in our opinion]:

1. Simple
2. Reflective of the vales of the brand and/or product
3. Memorable
4. Fun

Four out of four for this one.

joes[a]fiend

THEY DON'T MAKE THEM LIKE THEY USED TO...

NOSTALGIA - 'This poster was produced in 1943 to promote the Airgraph service. It shows how 10 times the amount of mail could be sent using the service, resulting in significant savings for the Post Office.'

Whilst browsing Flickr we stumbled upon the British Postal Museum & Archive's photostream. It has some real gems, one of our favorite sets is the Museum Collection Guide.

We wont give it all away, you have to take a look for yourself!

joes[a]fiend

G MARKS THE SPOT

ADVERTISING - There is nothing that needs to be said about this campaign, it was amazing and still looks fresh, six years on. Although the plug socket should have been dealt with... and that jacket is suspect.

joes[a]fiend

WIRED FOR A TREAT

PUBLISHING - It's an interesting time for the publishing world, only the best magazines will survive the cull we have seen recently. This is driving some creative developments within the industry. This newsstand differentiation is one of our favorites of recent time. The brief was to create a graphic device that would help Wired stand out from other tech magazines on the newsstand.

The execution by David Styler of Art Center College of Design aims to 'reinforce the brand's connection with technology, making consumers aware that it is more intellectual as opposed to other techie magazines which are mostly just informational'.

Does it do this? We think it does, and does it well. Thumbs up from us.

joes[a]fiend

LIFE IS JUST ACE

GRAPHIC DESIGN - During a recent clear-out at work I found this little gem in a box destined for the recycling bin. This beautiful piece of graphic design is a press release we received for the Ace Hotel in Portland, Oregon. I'm sure you'd all agree this is beautiful. 

Those of you who work in PR and read this blog, take note! This is the level of detail that you should be putting into every press release you send out. 

joes[a]fiend

ELLE CELEBRATES 25 YEARS OF LONDON FASHION WEEK

FASHION - It's not often we pay ELLE much attention, yes we know how that sounds. However, when we stumbled across their project to celebrate 25 years of London Fashion Week we were really impressed. The fashion publication has commissioned 25 pieces of artwork to be displayed across the London Underground network.

Our personal favourite is by the Glaswegian artist David Shrigley for Pringle of Scotland [above]. Click here to see all 25 posters, where you can download all of the posters in high resolution.

Let us know which is your favourite and we'll tell why you should have picked the David Shrigley effort.

joes[a]fiend

WHAT IF? WHY NOT? HOW COME?

This part of the blog will be a collection of thoughts, free to be stolen/re-appropriated or called your own. It's all about product ideas that aren't in existence that we think should be.

FASHION - If open source and collaborative culture is the future of the creative industries why is the fashion industry lagging behind? Shouldn't fashion be leading the way? People may argue that fashion is about a singular vision of a creative person. For one moment lets forget this assumption. Lets imagine the creativity of a group of people could surpass the talents of one fashion designer.

Imagine if Comme des Garçons added another brand to their range, I understand that currently Comme des Garçons encompasses 14 brands which includes the newly launched Dover Street Market clothing range. This range however would not be controlled by Rei Kawakubo or Junya Watanabe but the members of a Comme des Garçons network of interested and interesting people. The members of this community could submit designs, vote on the best designs then release a range based on crowd sourced garment designs. This model could allow total freedom from what a clothing brand 'should' produce. One collection could be solely t-shirts then, the following collection could be a wider collection of garments.

To me this idea feels inline with the Comme des Garçons brand ethos and would offer something new and exciting to the industry.

It's worth bearing in mind, that with community/crowd sourced projects the make or break is the 'quality' of the community. If no one updated their Facebook profile it would be a dull place to be with no one worth stalking.

Here's a few interesting examples of crowd sourced in action:

Threadless.com - Similar to the idea outlined but deals solely with graphic tees
Quirky.Com - Social Product Development

I know people reading will be thinking, but what about Threadless! It's a step in the right direction, but they are prints on t-shirts. I want to see more than that from a creative community. The community could be a close community where only people who are invited are allowed to join, much like Luxury Society, the private networking site for luxury professionals.

We hope you enjoyed the first of these little rants. If you have an idea you want share, pop us an email. If it's good enough we'll put it up. Let the debate begin...

joes[a]fiend

GET YOUR [BLUE]TITS OUT FOR THE LADS

PUBLISHING - We are delighted to hear that Manzine have released their second issue. The first was a hotchpotch of diy store reviews, bicycle geekery and psychogeographic porn. We hope for more of the same. Magculture have posted a few pics and until we get our mitts on a copy we shall say no more.
Update to follow...

Bill Freeman