The Society Of The Spectacle

Great title, but alas, it’s not my big world critique moment on the state of advertising, (I’m sure that will rear it’s head at some point) This is in fact a rather strange, but perfectly formed Flickr album of missing ads spaces, culled mainly from London Underground, but also the odd billboard or bus adshell. The blurb says there aren’t photoshopped, which we will have to believe, for they illustrate two things, one how the lack of visual stimuli (or annoying interruptions depending on your point of view) greatly affects our perception of the space around us, and also act as a weird mausoleum to a rapidly mutating communcation form. If they say the art of print is dying, then these represent the real live representation of that change.

Or they could just be waiting for the poster guy to come round and slap another Danny Dyer film poster up.

Whichever, it’s a funny old set. Take a look.

Some friday inspiration for you from the guys at Creative Social. If you don’t know what it is, then the easiest way to explain it is that it’s a bit like the NBA all star game for the interactive advertising community. Looks like I’ll have to get practising to get into the next one… But I digress, what I found really inspring and I must say, quite jealous about this was the quality of speakers they had at the last one in San Francisco (Pixar heavy with Brad Bird and the composer of the ‘Up’ soundtrack Michael Giacchino) as well as the collegiate atmosphere of these gatherings. An acknowledgement that the work we aspire to create should not only do a job for our clients (otherewise we’d all be out of jobs pronto), but as much be aspire to be a part of culture, not a leech, as well that a spirit of entrepeneuralism and vision will go a long way. That spirit of thinking was captured in the most recent Creative Social blogpost, from Saatchi NY Interactive CD James Cooper, (Worth a follow on Twitter @koopstakov) with his concept of Zero Waste Creativity. An embryonic idea that seeks to eliminate waste in the creative process by actually structuring the brief, setting clear goals and effectively putting in real hard work at the front end, to minimise the waste at the back end. Have a read (and the excellent Edward Booches comments over at PSFK), but it stands that Creative Social is a place where these ideas are given center stage, and as such should be treasured even by those outside the small gatherings themselves.

These have been about for a while, but as a set they are deceptively simple, and are worth a share. Shot for Film Four, they do two things simultaniously. Cement Film Four’s credentials as a both a producer of films (Jude Law, Kristen Scott Thomas, Daniel Day-Lewis, Tilda Swinton and Bob Hoskins help with that) while also neatly dovetailing with a seriously heavyweight Hollywood cast. But, what’s great about these is that the stars don’t get in the way of the stories, these are personal recollections on film, the process of making, and the satisfaction in creating art in ones craft. Add to that a fine editing style, and simple and effective Art Direction, a very familiar piano piece, and you have a lovely little set of ads. Check ‘em out.

25 hours of YouTube video are now uploaded every minute to the site. That, is alot of video, and let’s be honest, YouTube isn’t exactly the greatest website for finding content you like. While this doesn’t seem to bother the guys at YouTube too much, it leaves alot of the legwork in finding this stuff up to you, and as the guys at Devour put it; good luck trying to find something decent in your lunch hour.

That’s where Devour steps in, a curated and constantly updated website of YouTube’s best memes in waiting, as well as creative delights, oddball time capsules, and I guess anything else that is deemed suitable for their rather fetchingly designed site (simple, but I love the type over the screengrabs, seems to make them more important somehow). It’s one to bookmark, (or subscribe too) and visit with yawning regularity.

I can across this very interesting project a couple of days ago, and thought it was worth a share. It’s the Dollar ReDe$ign project. Running for a few years, the project is a response through design to the ongoing economic woes that plague the United States. Now admittedly, the scope of changing the Dollar design is dwarfed by the various stimuli that have been undertaken by the Federal Reserve in the last few years, but it does present an interesting Design Project, that therefore deserves more attention.

The initial design that drew me to the site was this set by Dowling Duncan, this US/British Design Studio’s approach is brilliantly graphic, with strong hints of Swiss Modernist design running through them, but they have a real freshness to them, really unexpected and bold, what you imgine the best of the USA to even in the way they have been shifted 90º to a portrait style which adds gravitas to the imagery selected, and works much better as a ‘set’ (however unrealistic that might be in practice.)

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If there is one thing that has dominated the myriad of conversations in marketing and branding terms the last year or so, it is the idea of online collaboration. Crowdsourcing, Crowdfunding, there seemed to be alot of talking about what it might be, but very little getting involved and experimenting with it. I would readily admit that I have been one of those people. Until last month, when I got invovled with my very first Crowd-Funded project. I became a part of the Bucket Brigade, a collection of the super smart thinkers and doers from around the world who have come together to help create a book. One month in the experience is as fascinating, and potentially exciting as anything I’ve found and done on the web yet. Big words, but I’ll explain why I believe in them.

First, a bit of backstory, this project is the brainchild of Bud Caddell, current Strategy Director of Victor & Spoils, and the writer of ‘What Consumes Me’ (read the breakdown of the evolution of the Old Spice/W&K work and you’ll get the idea that it’s a pretty smart site) About a month and a bit ago, a tweet from Bud popped up on Tweetdeck, it was a link for the Bucket Brigade (working title) the rather charming codeword for what is was a crowdfunded, and collaborative experiment in writing a book. Bud was using Kickstarter to raise the funds. Kickstarter is still relatively new to the ‘crowd_____’ scene, but has generated alot of good press with it’s perky attitude, the ease with which you can kick start projects, and it’s transparency (Don’t raise the amount? All money gets refunded) Disapora was the first real hit off the site gathering over $200,000 dollars of funding in just under a month. Bud’s original target was for the relatively modest sum of $5,000. 372% funded and $18,591 later, 212 backers from all different job backgrounds and locations later are now Bucketeers, joining Bud on his journey.

There are a couple of things here that reveal the best of the collaborative web. Firstly, we now trust our networks to such a degree that we are more than willing to put down a fair wedge of $,£,€ to fund a project by someone who I have never met ‘in person’ and I would guess, neither have two thirds of the rest of the group. Secondly, how websites like Kickstarter have created a tone and attitude to their brand that takes the sting out of the concept of ‘crowdwhatever’, this is a much more than just spec work. Instead (of a perception) of many doing the heavy lifting for the few, there is a genuine exchange happening of skills and insight here. You feel like you are leaping off the edge of the poverbial cliff with the money, but the strength and trust in your network, gives you a reassuring foundation to the financial commitment. Conversely, once you’re into the commitment, the more you feel you have something useful to contribute, maybe not all the time, but enough for both the backers and the funded to gain out of that expertise. You achievements, the milestones become shared. This helps explain the colleigiate tone that has so far guided the project. (I sit in the second ‘tier’ – the editoral board, range of interesting people in this space is IMMENSE, and we get to see all the emails and questions arising from the project)

Personally, I hope to gain valuable experience across all these fields, and from all these people, that will help me become better at what I do. This sounds selfish, but what I find very engaging is that I gain, and the collective gains from this shared knowledge, and Bud gets to write a book that he is genuinely passionate about. It’s about as close to a win-win-win as you get. Already the quality and depth of the conversations has at times enlightened me, and others bamboozled me. If you want to stretch your brain and see the web not just as a marketing or branding tool, but as an innovative and definitive orgainsing principle for companies around the world, then it looks like this might be the spot to do that. The project mirrors some of these embryonic principles. I’ve put together a Twitter list of the editorial board, while @Malbonster has another bigger list here. I recommend that you follow these lists, as the smartness you will accrue is worth the effort. Finally, here’s to all my fellow Bucketeers may we enjoy the journey, and be proud that we have kickstarted a potentially great project, and by doing that, bought a little bit more awesomeness to the web!

Pic from here…

No, this isn’t a new meme like DoubleLOLZKeyboardCat type meme, it’s in fact the new project from 2011 ANDY awards in collaboration with old faves (see my logo piece from last year) VICTOR & SPOILS (The Squirrel Fight is the name of their ‘non-ranked’ digital engine in case you were wondering). Last year, as many might remember the ANDY’s ‘crowdsourced’ their Jury. It encompassed hundreds of brilliant thinkers, planners and creators, from across the creative universe, generating tons of press, and sparked the usual debates over crowdsourcing. Beyond the rhetoric, this was a smart way on engaging new people with the Awards themselves, (certainly from this side of the Atlantic) and offered a chance for something different from an award jury. In 2010, the ANDY’s are back.

The idea is pretty simple, create the best call for entries, (judged by these guys) and the winner gets a seat on the 2010 Jury. With such a simple idea, it’s nice that V&S have done a good job of making the site, and the attitude of the experiment whimsical and fun. It sets the stage for people to get creative while enjoying the process, and the opportunity to win what is a pretty damn awesome prize, especially if you are just trying to break into the business. Nice work guys, now get creating! Deadline for entries is 31st August.

Yesterday I was sent a rather lovely film based around the relationship between image and words, WORDS is a disarming and gorgeous tapestry of human emotion, weaved together with care and love. I received another tweet this morning which help expand the backstory of where and who these people were. This film was from the website EVERYNONE. (Who turn out to be a pretty awesome NYC/LA Production company) One film in particular stood out, both for it’s content (A stop motion journey across America) and it’s beautiful marrying of image and sound. It beautifully captures the disconnect between much of America, how the sounds, moods and styles of places vary dramatically. The only consitent sounds are the sounds of the motel rooms that thread mainland USA. They are in fact, the spine of America and an unusual one at that. Here the visuals help paint a desolate, fractured world. Even though nothing ‘much’ happens, it’s a hypnotic journey and well worth the 12 minutes (especially in HD on Vimeo, trust me)

Google shut down the Wave last week. After much geek fanfare and frankly completely nutty clamour for Wave Invites (Yes, I was one of them I admit), Wave never really got off the ground, and accepting defeat with a good grace, Google closed it’s doors. I’m sure some of the learnings from the site will be put into a myriad of other projects that Google has germinating at any one time. Who knows? Maybe the next great Wave idea might spring out of the bizarre and the brilliant ideas that exist in the GOOLLERY. Here, all manner of strange and wonderful Experiments using Google brands and technology are curated. From the fascinating ‘Manhatta’ (Manhattan mapped from way back in 1609) to the ‘Revolving Internet‘ it’s a (literally) head spinning ride.

Check ‘em all out here.

I recently received a few invites for the new start up Pinterest. It’s not like there are a famine of start up invites, but this one caught my eye for a few simple reasons.

Firstly, the design is sparky and super clean. Following on from the top notch user experience that Tumblr provides, this felt (and is) super easy to use. Tonally it follows on from this clean design with a cool little tagline. “Catalog, create, share”. The actual experience of using it, felt much easier than using Dropular, or FFFFound. But obviously as yet, do not have the same cachet that these two do in the creative community. This brings me onto the final, most compelling point. While something like Dropular acts as self curated, but increasingly long list way of finding things that inspire you, Pinterest has the potential to make that process much faster. The ‘pin it’ button that you are encouraged to have on your bookmarks bar makes the whole process of ‘pinning’ something that much easier and behaviorally, more compelling. In sight, in mind as it were. The tagging system also has the hallmarks of Tumblr (e.g dead easy) and each pin is linked back to the original source. Providing a useful journey back through your pinning process, in the end, it feels and acts like a less tucked away version of delicious (which for me, serves more and more as a backup archive)

The ability to set up specific boards related to theme instantly created little micro communities of shard interest. Similar to the way Spotify Social now can create little sub groups of interest and passions, based around the music people love. It’s the killer point of difference, that I hope with a little tweaking (customised pin boards templates anyone??) Could be turn out to be a real treat. You can follow the Pinterest team at their Posterous here. (There was a meet up earlier this week at the Droog store for ‘Pinners’ as well.) I’ll be expecting one soon in London!

Thanks to (@lueni for the original invite)