Forever and a day

My father's new painting: 5x7 feet. Wish I had a chance to be alone in front of it. Interesting piece about the importance of that experience.

Dreams & everything in between

I had a huge Little Nemo book on my Pop's yellow coffee table (usually placed right next to our miniature turtles that walked along plastic palm trees and hills in a make-shift tank) and I would lose myself in his dreams. I feel like I am stuck in between zones right now - on the cusp of change but not knowing what yet.

Aid, charities and...becoming sensitized.

Getting people's attention or striking a chord when it comes to charity work is no easy feat, which is why NGOs are so adept at 'striking communications' (see World Vision's water video below).

While working with the European Commission's Humanitarian Department to raise awareness of their work in Water, Food Aid and Disaster Prevention amongst university students, I came to really appreciate the challenge of creating emotional relevance to a somewhat disengaged or apathetic audience...

All good things...

I had my last writing class last night. It was a great three months - it's funny how just when everyone is most comfortable with one another, the course comes to a close (or rather as one of my classmates put it - 'when people finally feel comfortable enough to be assholes' (regarding critiques). My final project involved a series of 10 poems (one below), now I just have to create the right themed glove for them to fit in...

Sisyphus

Rocking Stones on fucking repeat
no no no
hey hey hey
perpetual yearning
a DEMANDING
tearing out your hair
crazed look occupies eyes
scratching through surfaces
to reveal caramel, mushy, nebulous clusters
of nothingness
too many substances rolled up into one
drop forever out of reach
golden carrot shining, gleaming at the end
of a knarled, tattered, old beat-up stick
chasing running hamsters on wheels
light brown abstractions float,
but speed by hastily, movement in shadows
the roundabout quest
searching like bounty hunters
big beasts parolling highways
flourescent stripes
emulate concrete skunks
the more they find,
the more slips from their grip
and
d
r
o
p
s
as they fall and tumble downwards
hands grabbing at clumps of air
arms held put
expecting everything
but left with empty fists

Copy, Form & Pancakes

Spotted a great campaign for Lurpak butter by w+k. I love the way the copy creates/plays with form. The content is really engaging, like someone is talking directly to you about something very important - breakfast. Breakfast is a long, protracted, leisurely morning meal, which signifies the weekend - time that truly is your own (a cause for celebration!) and the weekly ritual (using Lurpak) because Saturday is Breakfast Day).

Projects, plans and possibilities

Feeling a wee bit overwhelmed these days. Like I am swimming in an underwater version of Dorothy's tornado. Bits and pieces of memories float around me, twisting around things to do lists and random dream particles. I just finished both classes - creative writing and graphic design (non-computer) and have been working religiously (okay not quite but hard) on the final projects. It feels like I am ending a cycle or phase in my life, from classes to work...

My design project was an exploration into the personality of typefaces. I took a typeface and grew a character out of it; creating 10 character types.

Choice

This...



Or this...


Blessed generation are we - we have information and data at our fingertips, anything you want to find, discover or unearth, can be easily done on the web. This however leads to the problem of choice. Too many follows, way to many songs on my iPod (12,000 perhaps is a bit ridiculous)...

Those people that help make sense of the 011011011 overload will be adorned with Hawaii garlands and pirate bounty. Seriously, aggregators, creators and those that create the perfect union between the two will be viewed as valuable service providers.

Do you have examples of aggregators, creators or sites that encourage the fusion of both?

Mac Mayhem

My world is crashing...repetitively. Both Macs in my home are suffering different fates but meeting the same end - hiccups, freezes, and fumbling systems leave us feeling pretty disconnected and frustrated. How long will it take to get an appointment at the Genius Lab? Life is being relegated to the physical.

Creator or Curator (or both)?

There is no in between space on the web. No one is on their way to somewhere or in between doing something. There are no breaks, no sighs, no pauses. No room for interruption, no negotiation for freely viewing a website (at least yet).

People search with purpose, for form or content, or perhaps most importantly, we search for community and conversations. With the proliferation of content online, a few create and some curate, assembling what they discover (sometimes this is done on an individual level, but mostly on a mass scale), and yet others repurpose/remix content and ideas, uniting several different elements, be it music, video, or words to form an entirely new experience.

I find all of this fascinating. Especially when it comes to advising brands on when to join, participate, create, listen or inspire - by giving people tools to create stuff on their own.

Here are a few examples of creators, curators and remixers.






BackThatThangUp -Vanessa Saba from Digitalia2009 on Vimeo.

Character Types

I'm entering the final stretch of my graphic design (non-computer) class. It was really fulfilling to learn about things that really interest me with a group of like-minded folks (if not in style than in purpose). I'm debating if I should take another course - drawing for beginners? Digital design?

Anyway, my final project is also on the horizon and I decided to explore the personality of typefaces by creating characters based on a given typeface. I'm thinking of either creating a box of ten cards with letters on one side and the voice/story of the typeface on the other side or maybe make an accordion type paper document with the same composition - each letter will unite to spell: CHARACTERS - ten character types.

Here's one...

The Moving Ad?

I wrote a post a week ago about moving image graffiti on the D train and just found an interesting Japanese launch campaign for a new Lancome mascara product that features a vibrating application.

Lancome came up with an in-train campaign using electronic paper and lenticular lens technology. The cosmetics brand took over an entire Tokyo Metro train running on busy lines, placing electronic hanging posters that show a moving image of the oscillating brush – the first time such paper has been used in a transit poster. This was supported by print elements in lifestyle titles showing the product under a lenticular lens to create the impression of movement.
Quoted from CMD

Not exactly what I was referring to (the graffiti was inside the subway tunnels), but an interesting way to get people's attention while demonstrating the product's benefits.

Character Types

I'm working on my final project for Graphics class. The only guideline for this project is that we have to create a multipage document, a series that marries form and content. After much thought (I was almost sure I'd work on the relationship between words/copy and imagery/visual to communicate meaning/experience), I decided to explore character sketches/development through typeface. I may expand this to include imagery as well, but for now I am concentrating on content and form (typeface). I've written 5, and I have 5 more to go. A teaser/taster below (I'm really into /slashes/ today).

REMIXES & MASH-UPS

Culture is a living, breathing, evolving phenomenon. In the digital age, we can piece together the past, present and imagined future; we can share, exchange, reuse, remix, borrow and knit together plenty of ideas, sounds and images to come up with something entirely new and different. Mash it up selecta.


"Sleepyhead" by Passion Pit from Barker Gerard on Vimeo.

Random bits of London

It's strange how a camera can help you see. While walking around revisiting London with the in-laws, I found signs and random paraphernalia:

The Space in Between

I like this Ad - a little anti-climatic once you realize it's for condoms (no pun intended), but quite moving (no pun intended again - I'm on a roll here).

It's almost like a film short; and advertainment and captivating content is where it's at...

Hard candy rocks...

Well the sweet buzz has certainly been rippling across the web after Skittles turned its site into a social media channel, revealing conversations happening on Twitter, with a rotating landing page that will point visitors to information about the brand on consumer-generated media sites such as Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and Wikipedia).

This is a bold foray into consumer-constructed branding in the social media space (people have been building brand value for years but this is the first time a consumer-facing brand has loosened the reins to this extent in the digital arena).

Perhaps this is exactly the move this magical, young, and adventurous brand should make to stay relevant amongst its core demographic. But how will Skittles further spur the excitement and conversation after the initial buzz dies down? How will it help keep the dialogue alive? Hummm...a brief I'd love to have.

Interesting times. We'll see whether this tactic bolsters the bottom line for Skittles, whether it comes to sales or brand equity, but it feels like the right experimental approach that can work in this space (I'll be watching it;).

Although this Tweet was quite amusing (I suppose Skittles is open to it and the vast array of other profane uses for Skittles). Indeed tweets like this may add more fuel to the chat fire.

Next up: Facebook becomes the new home page...

Sticky stuck

I have two final projects for design and creative writing class...thinking of merging them. Feeling stuck like maple syrup on brunch tables.

Have to find a theme, a rhythm, a story told both through the visual and copy.

Lots of thoughts about themes from messages, to signs to colors.

I'm vacillating between signs and messages.

Maybe messages and signs. All the ways in which we try to get through to people; all the random messages that surround us.

Need inspiration and space.

Got room?