Soviet Snickers?

Soviet-esque packaging for Snickers bars at Walmart? Good write up here.

Buzzwords-I hate them

Cassie:Sometimes I sneak around and listen in Subways. Or I listen at soda fountains, and you know what?
Montag:What?
Cassie: People don’t talk about anything.
Montag:Oh, they must!
Cassie: No not anything. They name a lot of cars or clothes or swimming pools mostly and say how swell! but they all say the same thing and nobody says anything different from anyone else.

Cassie and Montag from Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451

Like the title says, I hate ‘em…I think, really though I think I am starting to realize that I don’t hate them that bad. Upon further introspection I learned that it is conditional, the hate that is. Naming is part of innovation and if the name becomes fashionable then it’s not necessarily it’s fault, and maybe people don’t like others using their words so they invent new ones. Then again it’s just a force of habit for some people, growing up my friends and I were always coming up with new words and names for things which was a lot of fun and we couldn’t stop.

Sometimes though it got old when the nerds (who were probably cooler than me) started using “our” words. It seemed like a violation and pretty quickly those words got retired. To keep the cup overflowing we introduced new words to the mix. Over the years the cycle continued and there were two major driving forces to our developing of new phrases, one definitely trumping the other.

What I don’t think works is when people use the words to try and be a part of something that they aren’t, like my above example, we were not cool with it and dropped the words. The words were starting to become contrived for those who hadn’t had our experiences and that’s what I think gives validity to new phrases and keeps them from falling to the eminent death of buzz. When we came up with words they always seemed to be in reference to funny things we experienced together or in reference to a personality of someone we all knew. Those elements gave it meaning, the meaning coupled with the fun we had using them gave it the allure. That equation is pretty organic, it’s rooted in common meaning then fed by successful communication finally creating the beauty and that’s what I think works.

What killed the words for us and what continues to kill words today is the lack of roots, when people reverse the equation and try to get in at the top knowing nothing of the groundwork. People want to be in and they want to be smart, who doesn’t deep down want the validation but using the words only provides the pretense of being in the know, and true colors will soon shine through.

When it comes down to it I still think buzzwords are cheap and yes embarrassing. I think they communicate to everyone that you don’t really know what you are talking about but are really good at copying. Followers are always there and I even find myself letting buzzwords slip here and there. Essentially I try to maintain meaning in my communication because otherwise I think I’m not really saying anything. So yeah, I slip, but if they have meaning are they still buzzwords?

Favorite Albums From Every Year of Hank

Some of you know I am a music fiend, in response to this I thought I’d make my own list of albums. I chose Albums that I was really into in that time of my life. Before I created this list I pretty much sumed up my music appreciation with two distinct periods: Metallica and Hip Hop. I pretty much listened to only Metallica until 1993 when I borrowed Enter the 36 Chambers from my buddy, a Pro Skateboarder and the 2005 eS Game of Skate champ, Jim Bates. Needless to say that album really turned my listening habits from pissed off rock to gritty Hip Hop.

The first few years of my life I don’t think really knew what I was listening to. That changed I think in ‘84 or ‘85 cause I had a pair of cargo shorts with zippers that much resembled those on Michael Jackson’s red space suit-esque jacket, those shorts were rightly dubbed my Michael Jackson shorts. I don’t know where that name came from but I do remember getting scared watching the Thriller video mostly at the end when you figured out who he really was…hows that for foreshadowing?

Anyways, I started listening mainly to Hip Hop ‘93 and I was so into Wu-Tang that my friends all called me WU. Well naturally as they got more and more brand recognition I had less and less interest in their new music and found that I preferred the grittier and more emotive nature of what was then called “underground Hip Hop”

Revamped Equalizer

Revamped Graphic Equalizer from Marcelo Costa on Vimeo.

Since I was really little looking at graphic equalizers on the various electronic devices we’d have at home I was hooked. So for fellow equalizer nerds this video is pretty great.

Dove: Onslaught

So yeah the campaign is nothing new but when I saw this morning it gave me the chills and I knew my life had been changed right there in the Los Angeles room at PC. This morning one of the master minds behind the project Brian Collins spoke to us at Portfolio Center and it was nothing less than spectacular. He showed us the above video that I believe was actually done by the Chicago office. but in any case the man was a joy to have at seminar and I was impressed the whole way through. In short it is time to get happy because the world is going to change for the much much better, if he has his forecasting right. And I think he does.

His focus on the bigger picture and the elements of change that we need to master to become agents of them are sound, simple and thus far very effective. I hope to in my own work follow this line of thinking because it makes so much sense and right now it’s what people need, people need to live confidently and not in fear of how they may not look feel or think. If you can dig up interviews or articles on this guy you’ll see what I mean.

***UPDATE***

Nancy Vonk and Janet Kestin, who run Ogilvy Toronto (NOT CHICAGO) did the Evolution and Onslaught Dove films.

Felt Pebbles

The set which rolls in at a big $92 is a little steep though the execution is quite realistic, I double took(taked?) before I saw the felted fibers. While I can’t say that these pebbles will be adorning my digs I can appreciate the form and the medium.

Kozyndan

I guess I have been really fascinated by illustrators lately. I read this blog every once in a while called nicef@%ckinggraphics. It’s run by a few people with great taste out of Mexico. they have a knack for finding some really inspiring work. i remember when I was really young, younger than ten probably going to the Thousand Oaks Library in Caifornia and getting lost in all the things happening on the massive wall there. The above pano is the same way for me in many of these works you get a “realistic” view of what life is like in these alter realities. I like the details like stickers and bills posted on the light posts etc. I love details like that. Another view worth checking out is the 360º view of the panos. Very cool.

Thinking With Type

Ellen Lupton wrote a wonderfully informative and enjoyable book about type and how it works so we can start thinking with type. She mentions on an SVA Podcast Video that she wrote the book because some of her students where lacking the fortitude to get through Robert Bringhurst’s Elements of Typographic Style. Bringhurst’s book is great and is one of my favorite educational books on type which also provides an excellent foundation on which, as he says to “By all means break the rules, and break them beautifully deliberately and well.” What I liked about Thinking with Type is that it said/displayed more by providing visual representation and less verbosely written examples. It was more easily digestible. Being the director for the MFA program at MICA helps her to know and understand what is on the minds of the curious at large. While the main body of the book was more of a figurative exercise in orienteering, her “free advice” section in the Appendix was the most fun to read and most widely applicable (i.e. for those not familiar or interested in typography). I don’t have very many gripes or criticism save for some of the student examples on type seemed to be snapshots of stock animation in AfterEffects and I don’t know if I am too sold on her idea that “Density is the new white space” being a good thing in the context of large amounts of information. Sure texture is important when dealing with large amounts if information but I still like white space vs. density.

Alberto Seveso

The other day I stumbled upon the work of Alberto Seveso, illustrator/artist from Italy. The way he works with the layers and coloring are really impressive and create and engaging twist on body art. There is a lot of energy in his work which is contagious and inspiring, I think that we could possibly see a wave of tattoo art referencing the Seveso style of illustration in the near future. All in all his work is definitely worth the check out, and if you are really into it he sells affordable prints at his shop*.

*at time of post the shop was down but I think we can expect to see it back up soon.

Inspiration

The other night at the Varsity I looked out the window at the at&t building and wondered if it had anything to do with the look of my phone.

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