When I applied for an internship at Lean Mean I wanted to send something that was weirder than a c.v.
I saw a conker on the street that was the perfect shape of E.T's head. I drew E.T on the conker, sent it in the post along with a link to my website and now i'm a Junior Creative here at Lean Mean.
Earlier this week I got published in a book called New Graphic Design: The 100 Best Contemporary Graphic Designers, and the ET conker made it into the book.
Weetabix: Mary Swanson, aged two, morbidly obese: "I fucking love this product! Back in the day, I used to hide chocolate up my anus so Mum wouldn’t suss me – now it’s hidden inside freaking Weetabix! And Mum buys this shit! No questions asked. Adults are fucking mugs. LOL!
"This ad hit all the right buttons: it was fast-paced and exciting. I did at some point have a couple of heart palpitations but, thankfully, the antibiotics in the processed meat hidden inside the crust of my pizza calmed me down."
Reebok: Gerald Lind, 42, drug-dealer, High Wycombe: "In ’83, I used to hide skunk in my Reebok Classics. But, back then, any running we did wasn’t to some nightclub in Heaven, like in this ad, it was into a friend’s Mini Metro to skin up and listen to Haircut One Hundred.
"I doubt anyone who made this ad was alive in ’83. If they had been, they’d know that street kids were nowhere near as fit as they’re portrayed here. Most of the ones I knew had a 20-a-day Curly Wurly habit – and that’s on top of all the dope! But I suppose that’s advertising: the past ain’t what it used to be. Which reminds me: my old teacher had an orthopaedic shoe. We used to say she was wearing Reeblocks. I still think that’s the most memorable thing I’ve heard about Reebok."
Vision Express: Tom Longly, 45, unemployed: "They say never hit a man in glasses. But this didn’t stop my ex-wife. Or her son. But I feel better for seeing this ad. I liked the music and I shouted out when I spotted that famous cook – I would have liked a bit more of him.
"The other day, I was on my bike listening to Anthony Robbins’ Personal Power and I ran into the back of a parked car. I hit the floor and, as I patted the ground for my glasses, a shout echoed through my ears: ‘Should have gone to Specsavers, mate. HA HA HA HA.’ I held up what was left of my glasses and saw that it was a police car leaving me in its dust. I don’t think this Vision Express ad will penetrate the social consciousness to such a degree."
Virgin Trains: Lisa Lovenut, 16.75, head of Digital Acceleration and Integrated Inspiration 3.0: "Here we see the new appropriating the old, but not being as inspirational or integrated as the old. We need to ask: should we be advertising at all? Or should we be making things worth advertising?
"Let’s forget for a moment that the trains are the product and need advertising and, instead, bring some Nike+ to the situation. Regardless of the problem, what product doesn’t earn advocacy via creating another product?
"Content drives brand advocacy – are we getting any of this with a poster? Will anyone having to stand on a train even see this? But I bet we could hit them with an app! We should really look into what we can do with Friends Reunited and build some ideation buzz here. Maybe crowdsource something. Then add some storytelling. These ads do look nice, though."
The Sunday Times: Michael Meadows, 28, care worker: "I don’t read The Times and I don’t really like fashion. But that image of Kate Moss as the Queen – well, I’ve always said, when pushed, that I’d shag the Queen. What man wouldn’t? It’s the Queen! So this poster is every man’s fantasy in one image. All it needs is Mirren’s tits."
There is the man who on Sunday morning refuges in his house's basement, trying to repair with his rusty tools all the objects that went broken during the week. And then you have the man who refuges on a room, away from the rest of the family, to read magazines and books.
And then you have Zimoun, in between the two men mentioned above.
Zimoun is a sound architecture and on his working place has thousand of mechanical tools maniacally arranged in a perfect order together with paper and sketches. He builds projects displayed at the Nam June Paik Art Center in Korea; bitforms gallery of New York; Kunsthalle Bern; Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein; the Contemporary Art Museum MNAC Bucharest; Museum of Contemporary Art MSUM, Ljubljana; Seoul Museum of Art.
His research moves around simple solutions and complex behavior. Using industrial materials like wires, plastic bags, small motors and screws, displayed in an obsessive way he generates platforms of sound.
Zimoun explores and investigates sound giving to it a physical shape just like a sculpture does with marble.
Zimoun : Compilation Video V3.0 | Sound Sculptures & Installations, Sound Architectures from STUDIO ZIMOUN on Vimeo.
Zimoun : Compilation Video V3.0 | Sound Sculptures & Installations, Sound Architectures from STUDIO ZIMOUN on Vimeo.
One of his project has an organic feeling and sound: he amplified with a microphone the sound of woodworms eating a piece of wood.
Zimoun : Compilation Video V3.0 | Sound Sculptures & Installations, Sound Architectures from STUDIO ZIMOUN on Vimeo.
Some social gems that tickled us recently.
Facebook have announced the ‘Facebook phone’ – or rather a set of apps, called Home, which can be downloaded on to Android phones to put the social network at the very heart of your device. It launches on 12 April, alongside an HTC phone which will come with Home as standard. http://ow.ly/jLKxc
Custom audiences allow Facebook marketers to enter data collected offline about their target markets from various CMS systems– be it phone numbers, addresses or Facebook user IDs – as the target for their ads on the network. Facebook then match up the data with their user database, ensuring that ads are accessible to a wider range of marketers, regardless of their prowess on Facebook. It’s expanded and more open to third parties than ever. http://ow.ly/jLLpe
If Home wasn’t enough, you can also make video calls through the Facebook Messenger app over WiFi. It’s a completely free app downloaded from iTunes, and just requires your call buddy to have Messenger open somewhere on their device. http://ow.ly/jLLVi
Google Keep has officially launched, providing an integrated note-taking function into the Googlesphere (i.e. Drive). It works in a similar way to Evernote, syncing as you jot things down. http://ow.ly/jLMfD
Twitter have taken their Cards feature to the next level, allowing app developers to bring their product to their audience directly deep-linked within the tweet. It could be a moneymaker in the future, if the app makers are charged for clicks gained from their tweets. http://ow.ly/jLMGC
Arguably something all of Ad Land should apply to, Camp Grounded is a summer camp for technology-fatigued adults who want to take four days off from the digital world and get back to basics with nature. Activities include archery, yoga and marshmallow roasting. http://ow.ly/jLOUf
As it is announced that libraries will be archjving the web, the British Library have curated a list of their top 100 websites. It’s a fascinating mix that pits giants like eBay and Amazon against more niche gems like Shit London and The Dracula Society. http://ow.ly/jLN84
Louboutin have enhanced their social offering specifically for their ecommerce launch in China – they’re now on Weibo, Tudou and Youku. http://ow.ly/jLPpQ
Are you a part of The Fox Problem? It’s the first ‘TV’ series to be streamed out of a Google Hangout. Tune in on Tuesdays from 7.30pm. http://ow.ly/jLPBu
If you ever smashed an iPhone, this one’s for you. Your device may learn to shift its mass mid-fall, saving its soul from shattering. http://ow.ly/jLQ4K
Game is a form of play or sport played according to rules and decided by skills, strength and ability.
This one will be a considerable definition to help you classify a game, but what Space of Play, a Berlin based game studio creates for different console game platforms, challenges every time this definition.
PROTEUS
Proteus is a meditative game, about exploration and listening. There’s no action, no monster to kill or princess to save, but as one of the Space of Play founder said at Resonate Festival, Proteus manage to gets you engage for at least 45 minutes.
Play with Proteus feels like walking on a musical piece, you are not going from A to B but you are hearing where you are going.
Could it be called a game?
Yes, because you are an avatar, you have a starting and ending point and you constantly adjust yourself based on what you have listened or discovered, realizing about the structure behind.
B.U.T.T.O.N.S
Buttons is a physical game, where 4 players challenge each other on taking control of the consol.
The game starts with simple actions like
1 put down the controller,
2 take 5 steps back
3 do something stupid like "the first player who pushes 30 times the button wins"
Could it be called a game?
Again, yes because even if the system doesn’t track the players they adjust and control each other becoming the system. The players create the structure behind the game that control if rules are respected.
THE STANLEY PARABLE
It’s an experimental first person narrative game that explores the concept of obedience, free will and decision.
When we play games we don’t question the mission: we accept rules like “kill the monster to save the princess” or “jump to earn money and jump higher to earn more money’.
In the Stanley Parable something different happens: player don’t accept the mission and don’t obey.
How? - The narrator voice tells you what you are going to do before you actually do it. Playing on the illusion of having a choice put the player in the position of breaking from the narrator will finding his own paths in the story. The funny thing is that actually there’s not a different path.
Could it be called a game?
Once again, yes, because the player continuously adjusts himself and takes decision.
The game becomes the area where the player moves while challenging the concept of existence of the game on it self.
Nappa's Game Talk: The Stanley Parable from ThePutzCast on Vimeo.
The work of and especially this last example of interactive storytelling moves the question from "How do we define a game?" to "How video game are helping us on understanding human behavior?".
Isn't the Stanley Parable a modern tool for a psychological essay on behavior and control of a behavior.
Remembering the "Milgram experiment" studied at school (where one of the element that Milgram found was that there is more obedience with proximity) I wonder what will happen if we add another stage - the virtual- social community presence?