I was out walking around, snapping some photos, and this guy shouts to me “i’ll let you take my picture if you give me a quarter.” An odd request… it confused me at first, and took me a second to realize he was just asking for money. It turned into a fifteen minute spur-of-the-moment photoshoot. And a talk. he was an ex bank-robber, spent time in jail in california, etc. His father teaches painting at one of the Cal State schools and is an exhibiting artist. Interesting conversations. Also interesting is what can happen when we pull ourselves away from our treo/crackberry/sms-enabled mini-computers that pull and tug at our connections to the real world.
Macy’s (whose commercials I rarely - if ever) notice, has created a bit of buzz with their series of holiday commercials. They’re typical department store commercials, but all have different covers of the Beatles song “From Me to You.” Impressive remixes/covers turned mediocre tv spots into something interesting and impressive.
I’ve had a bit of difficulty finding out much information about them… AdTunes has a thread going about them, in which one user theorizes that they’re all music-house produced, which seems probable. Let me know if you know anything more. Either way, interesting stuff, and interesting use of music. Almost as interesting is the YouTube comment buzz and the buzz on AdTunes.
does it work? Now that the term is done and I have free time without any real constraints, I’m stepping back and looking at how I think.
Inspirational professors like Deb Morrison and awe-inspiring artists like Duane Michals encourage and push exercises in creativity - forcing the mind to work when it may or may not want to. I’m trying to remember if anything truly great came from those exercises. I’m not sure… It goes back to the ultimate question that some ask: where do great ideas come from? But that’s not what I’m asking. I just want to know how to think.
I’ve been doing a great deal of thinking about what my mind is calling “forced creativity.” The book/professor/advertising genius telling you to go be creative. and exactly how to go be creative. Does it work? Is it beneficial? or does it produce more problems? I’m not sure… I haven’t thought it out that far. I just need to dump this thought off… more will come shortly.
I’ve been spending a good deal of time thinking about this very question. I love my new, man made, designer crap just as much as the next person, but I’ve been looking into more of the recycled fashion stuff - be it designer tables from ancient hardwoods salvaged from a hungarian church or shoes made from old car-seat leather.
People are talking more and more about our resources being depleted and running out of materials. Hawking is still preaching that we’ll have to colonize another plant to survive. It’s interesting to see what some designers and environment-concious companies are doing with recycled materials. Check out Terra Plana for some interesting shoe designs (and see what the folks at inhabitat have to say).
and I must say, I’m not impressed. I’ve seen all the hubub about it and all of the different applications of the logo, but for some reason, I’d still been excited about having my very own redesigned VISA logo’d card. And then I opened the envelope.
It got me thinking about logo redesigns in general, and the importance of logos / identies. check out Identityworks.com.
