LONG LIVE MOTOR CITY

AUTOMOTIVE - Whilst in New York I had the pleasure of traveling upstate to check out the annual Rhinebeck Car Show. The cars were an amazing sight to be seen, they were weird, wacky and wonderful. It was a peek into real American culture, that I had never had the privilege to see before. Detroit really knew how to make a car and the American people still know to pimp them.

You have to check out the Flickr page which has all the images [click here].

joes[a]fiend

EXPENSES EXHAUSTION

PUBLISHING - Anyone else now utterly devoid of care for the ‘expenses scandal’ still being discussed by the media may delight in the witty cover of the latest issue of Private Eye [Issue 1239, 26th June 2009). The printed version allows some of the original masthead to show through the masking. joes[a]fiend wonders whether this removal of identity is something of a first for the world of [relatively commercial] magazines?

Also worth checking out is the magnificent archive of covers from the previous 1238 issues.

Bill Freeman

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

ADVERTISING - Regular readers of joes[a]fiend will know that we're big fans of interesting advertising. Especially campaigns that play with the size and dimensions of billboards.

This campaign for Lowe's the American home improvement store is a particular favourite of ours at the moment [created by BBDO New York].

joes[a]fiend

SMOKING MAKES ME SICK

"Cigarettes. Just looking at them makes you sick."

"Cigarettes. Just looking at them makes you sick."

ADVERTISING - These anti-smoking posters by JWT, Brazil do something really funny to your eyes and stomach. Let’s hope they haven’t put any of these on billboards near fast moving traffic.

joes[a]fiend

THE AMERICAN PACKAGING MUSEUM

PACKAGING - I read about it, I collect it and now I blog about it. Packaging is one of those things that has the ability to define a point in time as does fashion.

So when I stumbled upon the American Packaging Museum site it was like all the bank holidays rolled into one convenient package. Be warned, you will end up browsing the site for a while. Probably best to check it out on your lunch break. It's a shame the photography is pretty poor.

joes[a]fiend

LONDON PSYCHO-GEOGRAPHIES

Tower Bridge

Piccadilly Circus

Theses fantastic illustrations by Lizzie M. Cullen depict how intense and almost psychotic London can be at times. To see the rest of Lizzie's illustrations of London click here.

joes[a]fiend

WHAT THE PUBLIC REALLY NEED

Austin is home to a marvellous-minded design group, Public School. There are six of them [and a dog]. One of them is called Jay, and Jay has recently completed a series of Public Service Announcements titled, “Tie Your Shoes”.

In an age of terrorism, swine flu, Gordon Brown and all-inclusive impending doom, this is what the public really need; beautifully composed, typographical wit.

The first run have gone to print and will be in their e-store by next week.

Click here to see the full range of posters

J [L] Allan

TUBE STRIKE? ON YER BIKE!

The RMT strike that nearly brought London to a standstill over the last two days inspired joes[a]fiend to get on its bike. Not wanting to contend with the walking pace of the overcrowded bus we sought out some wheels to zip around the city.

Delivered to your door by the cheerful proprietor, Wojtek, Dutch Bike Hire is the first service of its kind in London. Despite a couple of minor quibbles [‘that doesn’t quite look like the bike featured on the site’/’ah, the bell only works when stationary’] we loved the hassle free set-up and beat our colleagues to work by two hours.

Bill Freeman

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST? [UPDATE]

We thought an update was necessary when we heard the news that The Chap magazine had been saved from closure by donations from its readers. It's heartwarming to see that a publication can be saved in such a communal manner.

Is this the start of a new, more honest and transparent approach to publishing? I’m guessing if Maxim had asked its readers for help, they would not have been so quick to put their hands in their pockets. Mainly because they were too busy... sorry, childish.

Click here to see the full story from the guys at The Chap

joes[a]fiend

GOING TO THE CHAPEL AND WE'RE...

... all sick of pop-up retail, I wish they'd just pop-off. Grand Opening is an innovative retail space in New York's Lower East Side that is always morphing into something new and exciting. The space has been a drive-in movie theater, art gallery and table tennis club.

This incarnation of the space sees it turning into a wedding chapel. The way G.O. is funding this venture is an interesting one. They are using a website called Kickstarter. The site allows artists, computer programmers, film makers, musicians, basically anyone with an idea/product that wants to kickstart their project and get funding for it.

The site allows you to tier the level of pledges, so with G.O. for example:

"PLEDGE $1 OR MORE: Have your name placed on the list of donors for the wedding chapel. Your name will be displayed on the wall in the chapel. Tell your friends to come by and witness your generosity, on view for the summer! The larger your donation the larger your name will be on the donor wall. $1 = 24 pt type. $5 = 120 pt type."

With various other offerings leading up to:

"PLEDGE $500 OR MORE: Reserve Wedding Chapel for a 1 hour wedding ceremony followed by a 1 hour reception with a DJ and photographer. Receive a CD of images and choose 5 8" x 10" prints"

However, if you don't raise the level of funding you set and the beginning of the process you get nothing. In G.O.'s case they are aiming to raise $3,000, if they raise $2,999 tough luck and they wont receive a cent!

Kickstarter is a greater way to gain funding for a project for while away few hours finding all sorts of interesting projects/people/ideas. Check it out - www.kickstarter.com

joes[a]fiend

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST?

Biannual mens magazine The Chap has found itself in financial difficulties, in these credit crunched times it is no surprise to hear another magazine is facing closure. Remember, we have seen the final issues of Arena, Maxim and Portfolio.

The Chap is taking a novel approach to the doom and gloom and has asked its readers for donations to help save the magazine. Although I am not the biggest fan of the publication I do feel the need to donate a few pounds to the cause.

If you too would like to help save The Chap click here and go to their donations page.

Good luck boys!

joes[a]fiend

WIKIPEDIA PRINTED

If you printed all 2,559 of Wikipedia’s featured articles this is what it would like. Graphic designer Rob Matthews collated this printed version of Wikipedia for his graduation project, which amounts to 5,000 pages of printed pages. Check out his website [www.rob-matthews.com] for me examples of his work.

It was so surprise to find out that Rob studied graphic design at the University of Brighton, who seem to be producing the cream of the crop when it comes to British graphic design talent.

Click here to see the work from this years graduating class in graphic design from the University of Brighton, you wont be disappointed.

joes[a]fiend

THE ADIDAS STORY

The story of Adolf Dassler or more commonly known Adi Dassler, founder of Adidas is an interesting one. From watching this video I learnt a lot about the brand but also remembered that I really like the brand.

In recent years it would be fair to say they have barely even competed with Nike but the current crop of campaigns and marketing initiatives are putting Adidas back on the map. The first thing that pops into mind when I think Adidas is the amazing house party they threw in Berlin where they turned the No. 74 concept store into a house for the brands 60th birthday and threw a house party in the converted store.

Click here to see images of the store

This 2minute 56 second video really captures the essence of the brand and kindles a feeling that makes you want to be a part of the brand and it's heritage.

joes[a]fiend

[We are in no way, shape of form, affiliated with Adidas]

OLYMPIC DESIGN AS IT SHOULD BE!

We all know how terrible the logo for the Olympics in London is, but nothing drove the message home more than when we saw this artwork by Alan Clarke.

Looking at this minimal, timeless design really shows just how visually repulsive the London 2012 logo is. We don't blame Clarke's decision not to include the monstrosity in his proposed artwork. Click here to view the logo, the 'design' is too awful to be featured here!

joes[a]fiend