Monday, 17 January 2011

The most awful olympic logo ever?


Everybody agrees that Otl Aicher is an impossible act to follow, but the British attempt at branding the Games really is surprisingly poor. The jagged lines and cross style look undeniably like a swastika - if you can't see it just close your eyes a little. I've even read somewhere that some people see Lisa Simpson having sex; I can't imagine what made them think of that, but I can see it (with a little bit of imagination). The point is, with the huge excess of incredibly good, appropraite design, why is this the best we could do? I think it's a little bit embarassing for British design.
They typeface is equally awful.

I suppose the good thing is it will only be around until 2013, after which it will be decidedly out of date.

Urban Interaction



This is a quick timelapse I made for Abi's architecture brief. The photographs are a little jumpy because I didn't have a tripod with me but we were more interested in trying out the idea rather than getting the editing perfect.

Thursday, 9 December 2010

Jesse Zanzinger


Can you believe this short video involves only water, oil, a glass and a canon 5D with a zoom lens. It's like an awesome digital lava lamp. No surprise its got over 100,000 views on Vimeo.

British politics is so demure


Just bumbling around the Internet when I happened across this distressing picture. How did I miss this?


I'd rather watch that awful video of Gordon Brown singing nursery rhymes to confused children like a giant gorilla in a playground a hundred times over than ever have this gun totin' psycho messing around in government. Why did McCain choose Palin?

BANG


Everyday I walk past a bus shelter with this poster for the new Marc Jacobs fragrance (shot by Juergen Teller, I believe) and it only occurred to me recently how utterly repulsive and ineffective I find it as a piece of advertising.
Firstly, Jacobs' move from utter geek to creepy Italian model in about 5 years annoys me. I used to like him for being the quiet chubby wallflower who rejected the blatant sex appeal of his fashion colleagues. Lookin' fine for 47 though, even if he does sport a spongebob tattoo.
Secondly, the image reminds me of the overly greasy, cheap and clichéd campaigns that have been around ever since Steve Meisel thought he'd shoot soft porn for Calvin Klein and got away with it.
Lastly, and I have done no conclusive research here but, does this kind of advertising actually appeal to the heterosexual male?
Why is it so hard to come up with new ideas? I suppose the success of this campaign may be in the fact that every time I see the poster I can't help staring at it, even if it fails to be appealing.
Also, Tom Ford for Gucci anyone?

Civil Unrest


I have to say I was a little surprised that the inflation of University fees to a bank fucking £9,000 did actually happen today. Certainly ain't Keynesian economics. Labour's 'every dumb kid should get a chance at further education' sure lasted what, 8 years? I'm also gonna jump right in there and point out the probability a new educational hierarchy - polytechnics now reach the range of 'just affordable' while Russel group universities will be able to charge crazy amounts of money to posh kids.  
I think, as a student, I am probably completely justified in hating the government at the moment. To be honest I'm not totally in disagreement with the student finance reforms, it's more that they have taken the opportunity to portray us once again as a blundering bunch of mindless fire-starting delinquents.

What I'm listening to, right now

Monday, 29 November 2010

Mert & Marcus for Vogue Nippon


Raquel Zimmermann for Vogue Nippon, July 2009

Very refreshing. I'm in to minimalism. And cubic haircuts. Together they just make the most fabulous combination.

I've always thought that by the time I'm thirty I'll only be wearing black and white, a sort of clean-cut declaration of Japanese minimalism and sobriety against the LSD infused colouration of style - but that's when rainbow tie-die returns, in about 17 years time. I envisage a very confused version of the future.