London put a little thought into their Christmas light display along Regent Street this year, getting away from the ubiquitous Disney-inspired effort of recent years.
Not only do they look pretty damn cool, the lights are interactive, reacting to the movement of people walking beneath them via motion cameras, and change formation depending upon the amount of pedestrians in the street.
It’s a delicate science: politely informing a gift-giver that their gift isn’t to your liking.
On occasion, I suppose the recipient could just shut their mouth and act pleased.
However, keeping mouth shut means Oxfam gets the sweater, and I get nothing ’til next year’s ill-conceived gift.
So I spoke up. Receipt in-hand, I’m now certain to find something I like.
Two problems befell the gift I rejected. It was black. I don’t wear black. And it was made by Wrangler.
There are certain labels I won’t wear. I won’t wear Tommy Hilfiger because someone who just franchises out his name to garment-makers doesn’t deserve any kudos, nor therefore a place on my walking-advertisement-like-body. I won’t wear Burberry because in the UK and Ireland that sends out all the wrong signals. And I won’t wear Wrangler. Why? Because, in Ireland (my homeland), in my opinion, only farmers wear them. And I’m no farmer. So, I ask you, is this opinion shared, or am I the only one who holds this belief?
It took about five minutes to construct the subject line of this post.
You read correctly.
Introducing OhMiBod. WHERE is it all going to end?!
Lady users use the rhythms and beats of the tunes on their iPods to program how the OhMiBod… performs… when performing, and simultaneously listen to said tunes during said performance.
I’m calling for an immediate ban! There’s a video here, indicating how it might be used. Of course I didn’t watch it!
I bought a very nice overcoat yesterday. It’s not an overcoat I needed, really. I need a greater selection of trousers, and I could really do with a few nice sweaters. But it was an overcoat I walked out of the shop with, so… so be it.
I like it. I’m happy.
Today though, I read an interesting ditty…
It went like this: when economic downturns hit economies, the sale of all products slow down as people “tighten-their-belts” - this is to be expected - however, only one product consistently sells more in poor economic conditions than when the economy is good. What you ask? Overcoats. I kid you not. It, along with the skirt-length-theory-of-economics (which I’ll discuss another time) have been proven very accurate indicators of how an economy is doing.
So, I ask you dear readers: anyone else buy an overcoat recently?
I hate the smugness of Apple.
Yet, I do admire this clever advert on the New York Times site, linking-up and synchronising a super size banner and a skyscraper to tout their operating system over Microsofts. (Currently the advert is visible here, though I don’t know how long for…)
I design websites professionally. I don’t claim to be born for design, but 50 to 60 hours a week in the design groove gives me an understanding for it, and I have a good sense of what’s contemporary, and can therefore tend to output work that is right for now.
It’s accepted wisdom that those who design, and those who do business, don’t always see eye-to-eye. One may want X, the other Y. Whether the designer gets his/her X or Y by project’s end usually depends on how strong the designer is; how committed to his/her creation he/she is, OR, how much carte blanche the businessperson has committed to giving; how much the businessperson trusts the designer, or how little the businessperson trusts their own sense of taste (rare!).
(I once worked on a project where a senior director gave us his colour opinions, which varied quite a lot from the palette preferred by the designers. But as he was a director, we moved towards his colour choice, and up a cul-de-sac… only to learn afterwards that the director in question was colourblind.)
So, I had such a clash of designer v business this week, and the finished product isn’t to anyone’s liking. I proposed my design, it was rejected, and another proffered by client, which I initially rejected, but… because I’m not the paymaster, I felt I had to accept and produce (my bad!). So, though I’ve had a good week on the whole, in terms of new business, getting through backlog, and producing some nice stuff, this has left my week tarnished, as I sit here on this Friday evening, blogging about it all. (Yes, I’m going out for a few beers later!)
But I now sense a change. That change manifested itself at about 7pm on Thursday evening, when in pitching a new project to an existing client, I stipulated along with such mainstays as: client provides text, client responsible for staff photographs etc; the new, never-before-seen in any pitch I’ve issued stipulation: that I be given artistic autonomy, that I be allowed to make the call on what’s right and wrong. Sure, if I’m making such a fuck-up that it’s irreparable later, do tell me; but if it’s about the density of the background shading in the 10 pixel square area behind the letter P, then you’re micromanaging the work, I’m being paid as a monkey-do, and you’re forgetting to manage your own day-to-day.
This was a departure. It was also a bloody relief. Now, my client has yet to respond, I may be told to PFO given that they’re about to spend X thousand on this venture, with my design fronting the whole thing, but here’s hoping they don’t, and that for me this is a new dawn.
Interpol’s third album”Our Love To Admire” is a tough one to break, it took a good 10 listens to start humming along, but now, now that I’m on the 30th or 40th listen… song 4, “The Heinrich Maneuver”, with the lyrics “Today My Heart Swings” is an ABSOLUTE gem!
Did I mention the quality dress sense?
… it would take an individual with some guts to present himself dressed as follows.
But, I would respect the decision, greatly.
Announced just yesterday, H&M’s designers are creating a collection with Marimekko’s patterns from the 1950s, 60s and 70s for the summer 2008 H&M collection. The collection of some 50 products will be sold in Hennes stores from April.
The blah blah blah goes: “Our design team has long admired Marimekko’s vivid patterns and colours. When our designers came up with the idea of creating a collection with Marimekko patterns, it felt very natural and timely. The summer collection 2008 will be joyfully fresh like a vitamin injection,” states H&M’s head of design Margareta van den Bosch. *PUKE*
They’d better sort our some decent publicity imagery - look at the thing I had to publish!
The New York Times recently published an article about the absence of black models from catwalks in NY, LA, London, Paris and Milan.
“Although black women in the United States spend more than $20 billion on apparel each year” the article quotes, “it was hard to discern an awareness of this fact on the part of designers showing in New York, where black faces were more absent from runways than they have been in years.”
Pictured, Honorine Uwera and Quiana Grant.
The article goes on to say: “Agents blame designers for the current state of affairs. Designers insist agents send them nothing but skinny blondes. Magazine editors bemoan the lack of black women with the ineffable attributes necessary to put across the looks of a given season.” Read the article here.
I’m not an Arcade Fire cheerleader, like so many other indie fans are right now. But they, or their designers, have really outdone themselves here - this is a stunning web execution of an idea, simple, but SO effective. And the song’s not half bad either!
No, no I lie, that’s an amazing song - it took a viewing of the above for me to realise it.
I wonder if I had a pair of Oliver Sweeney shoes I’d be able to go trainsurfing too?
“A man should wear nothing to bed—what better place for disclosure? When he’s in streets a man should wear composure, as a tailored shirt fits close to the skin. Nobody admires agitation in another fellow. Assurance assures.“
Mordechai Rubinstein
Interesting character. See video here.
Is there a man reading this with the balls to wear this, from Cesare Attolini?
Past the first split-second reaction, I really like this.
Sweet design, each image (taken randomly from a Japanese website) links through to another randomly selected site, and the links change dynamically each hour.
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