trees are people too

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.

Just a quick one, for I have been frantic at work and at play. I have delved into the criminal world, built and ingested colourful things and started on slightly more academic indulgences (that’s right, I be book learnin’) as the winter months creep in.

But it was only recently that I discovered a new favourite blog – the fabulous photographic witterings that persuade me to look at this fucking hipster. I was always taught that looking smart is about possessing style, not being fashionable (of which I am neither, not fashionable nor stylish, in the conventional sense of the word) and so this website has brought me endless hours of pleasant bemusement and bewilderment. Is it cutting edge style? Victimless fashion? Do people truly have time to look so incredibly hideous?

Simultaneously, as I continue my quest for a more profound and precocious blogging style, it was with some delight that I discovered this story about the success of blogs being turned into books… one of them being my new found and fabulous documentation of hipsterisms. After long analysis of the development of print into hypertext and beyond, the communication of ideas and stories through digital platforms such as blogs, we often circled back to the question – could a blog be produced as a book… and would it work?

The general consensus was that as a book, blog content lacked all the qualities that made it so very intriguing – its ability to be conversational, easily disseminated, accessible, interactive, media rich and transient. But perhaps blogs that are predominantly image-based are different stories (pun intended). As mentioned in the article, we also have blogs such as the famous stuff white people like and the tasty this is why you’re fat being translated to print, perfect for bedtime reading.

It will be interesting to see what else transpires, and whether we might soon have Boing Boing: An Unabridged Directory, or Dlisted: True Tales of Horror. After all (and as the creator of latfh.com pointed out), why wouldn’t people want to buy a book of images they can get online for free??

The possibilities, it seems, are printable. Now please excuse me, I need to go and reserve my copy asap, for the eight copies of this will surely sell out fast.

What a fabulous concept and website this is from a digital agency that has just come to my attention, based in Sweden and known as Daddy.

Combining a beautifully designed website with all the things that are exciting about digital: interaction, discovery, accessibility, reach, integration, strategy and conversation… not to mention the inclusion of some of my favourite things – small trees and big words.

I am a little slow on the uptake (I missed the experiment, afterall) but needed to give props for such beautiful work. These are the kind of ideas and executions I want to be working with… Why must all the good things come from Sweden??

I am not sure such an accomplished digital agency exists here in Australia, but I am searching for it. Meanwhile we will continue to tinker with overworked web developers and under resourced digital strategy departments… sigh.

Big props to crackunit for bringing this lovely job to my attention. And for his unrelenting advocacy of the importance of digital. It feels good.

Following on from the theme of Advertising 101, another humorous analogy of what is now my everyday life. :sigh:

With thanks to a fine new blog I have discovered, Insights and Ideas which is written by a young man named Tim who lives locally and whom I hope to meet some day.

Perhaps everything would be alright if I just had one of these:

Although it seems to be missing the actual time display, which brings its functionality into question. I guess it wouldn’t really matter. You’d be so busy transforming you would lose all sense of time anyway. Courtesy of the ever inspiring Toxel.

The japanese are the best purveyors of quirkiness. And frustration. I bought a birthday present for madcaow, but it wasn’t until we got it home that we realised you had to assemble it yourself… And thus, our friday night was made. Felt rav tbh. I think we did ok, for a first attempt. (No bloggers were harmed in the making of this series).

The production line had it all – disgruntled and embattled workers, harsh employment conditions and even some bloodshed. I am surprised there wasn’t calls for a union to be formed (must have been the ready supply of wine), but to our astonishment the final product somewhat resembled that which appeared on the box. It was a short moment of great pride. And then we found this:

Yes. It is true. Thank you for raising the bar, little brown bird’s dreams. I bow down to your felty goodness. (In our defense, she is from Singapore, which is closer to Japan than here). I feel there may be more inspired felty treats to come…

I have struggled a little this week, and so I went trawling the internet for some inspiration. Unfortunately I found some…

An inspiring place to work…

An inspiring piece of work… (although not unlike a hallucinogenic experience I had once, which makes it also somewhat alarming)

An inspiring diatribe on why you must keep creating….

And an inspirational artform (thankyou to the beautiful Sophie)…

I am trying to keep these in mind, and my inspiration alive, in this first week of dreary winter in melbourne… more to come.

Pardon me, but this is so fucking cool.

Yes, as indicated it is a Wes Anderson Film Festival. Currently only in conceptual stages, but I see no reason why it couldn’t be.

Props to you Alex Cornell. I only wish (like with so many things in my life) that it wasn’t hypothetical. Take over the world with well designed words.

Not particularly long ago very dear friends of mine bought me a book called Face Food, Christopher D Salyers book on child-like naivete. My favourite type of naivete.

The book documents the visual creativity of Japanese bento boxes, beautifully crafted artistic masterpieces composed of rice, nori, bread, vegetables… absolutely anything edible, really. While the artistry is certainly outstanding, what touched me most about these bentos was the stories behind them. Mothers arising at 4.30am in order to prepare these boxes for their children. Children who could not eat their food were it not shaped into their favourite anime character. And the desperate yearning I felt for the sort of joy that one might get receiving your lunch packed liked this, carefully assembled with the sticky glue of affection and devotion. I have since endeavored to pack my lunches in this fashion, but have miserably failed. It truly is a form of art. So beautiful.

Also looks alarmingly appetising. nom. I miss you :(

I can’t say I am a huge fan of Kanye West. Which is a shame, because he is probably quite a talented artist (sans autotune). But I am a fan of his blog posts, and the repercussions they inspire.

First there was operation humble kanye, orchestrated by the inimitable Steven Colbert (my hero), and now Kanye Webst Week, a homage to all 2.0 related madness by the great man himself. Now, one may argue that Kanye is just misunderstood genius (in fact, i think he argues this all the time), but even he has alluded to the fact that his ego needs to be reined in somewhat. It’s nice to know that all egos are susceptible to audit. Especially as I now work with some particularly big ones. The power of the web will potentially render all as equal (you can’t win, Kanye).

Can’t we all just be nice and polite, people, and don’t you know that TYPING IN CAPS MAKES IT SEEM LIKE YOU ARE SHOUTING?

In other genius, remix and rap related news…

Probably better than Kanye. Yes, I went there.