trees are people too

Yes, that’s right. Another year, another uncompromising fountain of inspiration to be spewed forth from this blog, which I promise to dedicate my full attention too. You’ll be pleased to know I have been thinking long and hard about all manner of thrilling, captivating content that might just…could maybe….perhaps would save….oh wait, what was I saying?

Oh yes, welcome back, dear media consumer, confederate spy or simply bored punter. And my sincere apologies to all two of you, my avid readers, for the lack of updates. You know how December is. It starts off with an innocuous drink and before you know it you find yourself waking up from a drunken haze to the dulcet yelps of children in the local park, discovering you are securely wedged under the see-saw wearing rabbit ears and no shoes and smelling mysteriously like talcum powder. Or is that just me?

But we’re getting back into the swing of it. Enjoyed a lovely xmas break before some idiot decided we all had to go back to work (I mean really, who does that?) And here we are. Second week into the second decade of the new century with all of our hopes, dreams and potential alcoholism stretching as far into the future as one can see. General consensus is that 2010 will be a good year, but I have concluded that this is simply the reason we all get so hammered again and again at each and every new years – so we can trick ourselves into believing this completely ludicrious notion.

For me it will be a busy year, and so I have only set resolutions I can keep – try to drink more, diminish my work life balance and spend more money on useless consumerist crap. As you can probably imagine, I feel quite positive about these resolutions, and so thought I would start the year on a peppy (but gentle) list of current favourite things. I hope you like them too.

Favourite artist of the month (and very possibly the year) is Moki, discovered in the fabulous The Upset

Favourite example of ridiculously apt timing and misfortune (you don’t want to laugh, but you do, don’t you?)

Favourite January sound (old now, but still achingly good)

sound

Favourite new toys, the Doppelgangers (Yes, they stack. Yes, that’s all they do.)

Favourite interior design recreations of some of my most poignant childhood fairytales, the Moomins (by the lovely Maria Yasko)

And one of many favourite items found on one of my new favourite blogs, found magazine.

A nice collection of dreams, beauty and ridiculousness with which to start the year. So many good things do I have to share. And on that note, I hope to be writing here much more, spreading joy and jubilation to readers near and far. You better accept that as your apology, cause it’s the best you’re going to get.

Oh, how I wish I could have made this. :sigh:

Simply delightful.

I’m not a huge fan of Tom Waits, but even his dulcet gravel tones are endearing as the soundtrack to this awesome animation by Fluorescent Hill. Thanks ANY. I have been busy working, but have been lamenting getting creative (some work-in-progress to come, but I have to display it at the work exhibition this week, so can’t reveal it til then). Still, I am adopting a new mantra for summer:

Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

There’s a lot of clever advertising out there. Snappy punchlines, cool camera angles and sexy people (c’mon, you know that is damned clever). But there’s clever and then there is clever. The latter is that type of advertising that sneaks up on you, usually so well camouflaged that you don’t realise it’s an ad at all. By the time you’ve clicked and recovered from your embarrassment (especially you, adland people), you then spend the next week nonchalantly mentioning it to friends as if you’d pretty much come up with the idea yourself, but couldn’t nail it because conservative clients had legal teams that had put a stop to it.

Think something like coca cola’s recent campaign for their new grip bottle that used velcro posters, a concept that literally stuck with consumers (although, as some pointed out, one that had potential to end in disaster). Using the same concept, Unicef spread a message about landmines, and then there is my personal favourite, a guerilla campaign for television series Dexter in Portugal, which literally scared the shit out of people to build awareness about the show. Each campaign worked hard to use a conventional space creatively and unconventionally, and although ROI is harder to measure, I have a pretty good idea how much attention I would be paying if the toilet I was using suddenly gushed with blood.

Ambient and experiential advertising seems to push these boundaries the hardest. Perhaps it’s because they have the tools to do it – we now have bus shelters that can emit smells, outdoor signage that can dispense samples and even advertisements that can recognise your response and react accordingly. But it doesn’t take crazy technology to make the smartest ads. It’s just a matter of thinking a little more imaginatively.

But how can digital advertising achieve this? How can we create something that is tactile, that elicits an uncontrollable reaction, that excites and inspires, that makes people want to reach out to the screen and touch it…(is it something like this, perhaps?) Digital suffers many of the same limitations of TV and video – we can show moving picture and sound, but we cannot create smell, taste or feel – but we have one huge advantage. We can interact with audiences.

There are limited examples of online advertising that really interact with the viewer. Somewhat surprisingly (considering the capabilities of the medium), the majority of concepts choose to go with the same stock standard banner ads, pop up displays and adwords. As the internet becomes more cluttered, however, there is going to have to be a shift in thinking. We’ll have to think outside the screen, so to speak. Beautiful websites just ain’t gonna cut it anymore, unless they are capable of something really cool. People will want to be surprised, delighted and intrigued; they will want tools and tricks that allow for this. Here’s our chance to make an online experience that is more than just beautiful and user-friendly. It can be memorable.

Alternatively, we’re just going to have to be really, really f*@cking funny. Either will require innovation.

Let’s get to it. And apologies for the use of italics, I was feeling overtly emphatic today.

When you think about it, a day in the life of the internet really equates to an eon in real life. This means that I am figuratively years behind in bringing your attention to mystery google, but what the hell. I like it so much I am going to talk about it. And then probably go and play with it some more.

Mystery google is a search engine that mysteriously takes you to the search results of the person who searched before you. Now, I enjoy this concept for a number of reasons. Not only do you not really have to think about what you are searching for, but you also rescind pretty much all responsibility for what your search results turn up. Yes, admitedly it could get rather frustrating were you actually trying to search for something specific, but for a mindless jaunt around the internet you can’t really go wrong. Also not a bad place to look for creative inspiration – who knows the gems you might uncover.

A little more risky is the concept behind Ogori Cafe, a Japanese eatery where you are served whatever was ordered by the person before you. Only adventurous eaters need apply (and probably best avoided by anyone with allergies) but the same kind of enchanting disengagement from control can be expected. This got me thinking about where else this abandon might be enjoyed – what if you were sold an item of clothing the person before you chose, or your latest book purchase was dictated by the last customer. A  train ticket that takes you where someone else wanted to go… even a job that someone else applied for. Impractical? Yes. Somewhat exhilarating??  Undoubtedly. Of course, not everyone is as decisively challenged as me, so I guess the novelty might wear thin. After all, how often are you really ‘feeling lucky’?  (Thanks to mashable for the heads up.)

In other unassociated news (probably deserving of a witty segue, but it’s too early for that shit) recent reports have placed Australia at number three in the world’s top twenty countries, with the USA coming in at eighth and the glorious motherland holding a miserable 17th place. Norway and Iceland top the list, and with my new found interest in Scandanavia (thank you, Steig Larrson) I have decided to acquaint myself with all traditional Norwegian dishes and dances in the hope of relocating there in the future.

Crispy weather, clean streets, perfect healthcare system and… lots of cabbage. A match made in heaven, really.

When I was young and things were rad, I once was lucky enough to attend the royal melbourne show. Everyone knows that the only good things about the show are the llamas and the showbags, and not only were both plentiful, but in the glory days of my youth the bounty of a good showbag cost only a couple of dollars. Inflation is a cruel thing.

My absolute pride and joy was a Shera, Princess of Power showbag that I purchased containing a set of cuffs, a sword and her magical headress. Never ever will I forget how much I adored the costume in that showbag, and so it was with delight that I discovered He Man and the other masters of the universe reinvented for the new millenium, set for a night saving the world donned in fresh kicks and the latest high street fashions.

Heroes then, hipsters now. And Skeletor – just as endearing as ever. Looks eerily like an old manager of mine. Fortunately, it seems like they are in the process making the movie, so we kids of the 80s can be reacquainted once more. Hurry up, I say.

Thank you yet again, NFG.

not a very long time ago I read a rather entertaining book by a charming young man called joshua ferris called then we came to the end.

A rather biting satire about the self importance of the advertising industry and its inhabitants, the book tracks the employees of a chicago ad agency who struggle with the burden of saving the world daily through careful choice of prose and font and the irresistible addition of 10% lactic acid to any product in order to boost sales. The book turned out to be a fortuitous introduction to what was in store for me in my new career.

I was fondly reminded of the book when I more recently stumbled upon the glorious business guys on business trips. Luckily my new work place is nothing like this, but it brings back vivid memories of those that have been. Something for everyone, I am sure.

It’s taken me a little while to learn, but the beauty of an ending means that it always precedes a new beginning. I’m endeavoring to approach all endings with this attitude from now on. Good luck to me.

Today marks the end of an era for me (unfortunately a relatively short one) at my first job in the way out world of advertising. Turns out it was not all that way out, but it is certainly turbulent.

Tomorrow I start my new job at interactive agency Visual Jazz, possibly one of Melbourne’s best interactive agencies, and I am terribly excited. For this reason this post shall follow a theme of things that are fresh, clean, new and good. And so they shall be.

For instance, how about a fancy new pair of chopsticks that double as weapons. Or perhaps some fresh insight into the lyrisicm of hip hop. I have even found a new found respect for the latest ghetto names.

A new method for finding stolen bikes, a new found aversion to tweeting too much, and a new love of cats (and stick figures).

Here’s to new beginnings, new journeys, new people and new experiences. I’m excited. Stay tuned for the next episode…

I may or may not have a touch of the SADs. Winter has been comparatively mild this year, but oh how I wish it would end. It’s not that I have anything personal against you, August, but the grey, wind and rain can fuck right off. It’s hard, I find, in the muted colours of winter to find perspective, hope, humour and light. And so it was fortunate that this came to my rescue.

The passive-aggressive (and just plain aggressive) notes website is run by Kerry Miller, with examples contributed by readers worldwide. Many are simply enchanting, especially at a time when my own relationship with work places (and the outside world in general) feels a little strained :cough:

To top off this brighter day, via her website I also discovered some fine apostrophe abuse, the thoughtful Ironic Sans and the outstanding cake wrecks (which I had forgotten the wonders of). Thank you Kerry, and the lovely We made this, for the fix.

After an epic cycling adventure on the weekend (with epic = horribly unfit and adventure = getting lost), on Sunday I came down with a lovely case of something nasty. As a result, I have spent some time on the internet looking for self-help remedies. I am all for self diagnosis (aided by the internet, thank you very much), except that to my dismay I discovered that my symptoms meant I had contracted strep throat, pneumonia, depression and TB, not to mention swine flu and bipolar. I am sure to die. But  in my quest for the antidote, I stumbled upon some help – and these beautiful pieces.

Beautiful design combined with minimal bullshit and pretense is what I love best, and so this made me feel slightly better. These guys have it all. A crisp and ergonomic website, appealing ethics and ideology, and gorgeous, tactile packaging that makes me wish that advertising was more integrated with the appearance of the final product. Simply browsing the website improved my health no end. Yes, the content may be a little cad (witty, dry product banter is getting hard to sustain). And yes, it probably won’t change the world like some other things I have seen this week. But it made me feel happy, even for just a moment.

After all, sometimes even superman loses his super, and needs a little help.

Oh ever so busy. Busy at work, busy at play, busy on bikes and busy drinking booze. Yes, some things never change. But winter is so fabulously frantic that it is nearly half over, and soon it will be spring again and time for parks, sun, wine, cheese and grassy rashes.

Work has been absorbing and exhausting, not just because they threw us an end of year party (aka we-found-some-left-over-funds-at-the-end-of-the-financial-year party) complete with kegs of cocktails, but also because of the buzz that is the Cannes Lions, the importance of which would have eluded me just over a year ago, but now has some significant relevance (or so I’m told) due to my new choice of career. While the majority seems to be industry-indulging bollocks, occasional gems are worth their weight in…uh…gold lions. Such as this spot from Tribal DDB Amsterdam.

(much better quality here).

Winning awards seems to be quite important to our agency, despite some views to the contrary and our seeming inability to do so (this year, at least). But it also serves as a valid excuse to take the time to seek out and peruse the most innovative and fabulous work from around the world. Images that disarm you, media placement to delight you and innovation that leaves you breathless (not to mention petrified).

But in the end, it is still far away from the commercial and capitalist world that the most wonderful art is occurring; incredible music, magical imagery (below, and courtesy of Mark Sartain), and fabulously pertinent writing.

It is digital expeditions that make discovery all of these treasures possible, not TV or press or radio. I am enchanted without being sold ideas, persuaded without being told what I need. And sometimes, just by chance, you stumble upon something that is all sorts of wonderful.