nude no more

if you know me at all, you've probably seen me wearing and/or talking about threadless t-shirts. threadless's novel concept is an online, community-based t-shirt company. anyone can join and submit designs for free, which are then scored by other threadless users.

if your design is scored high enough within 7 days, it is produced and you rake in the rewards; $2,000 in cash, $500 in gift certificates and $500 every time your design is reprinted (not to mention a well-deserved sense of accomplishment and bragging rights). you also earn points (which translate into dollars towards free shirts) for participating in street team activities.

but don't get too excited yet, it's not as easy as it sounds. you have to think of a great concept and execute a great design that appeals to a wide and varied audience.
basically, i am obsessed and will have one of my designs produced...someday.

here are some of my fav's:

time wasters

parking perfection
here's a game that captures all the excitement of parking a car. apparently its popular enough to have two sequels! i crashed after 6.1 seconds, and didn't bother trying again. valet, please!


typing master(bubbles)
discover how fast you can type by pressing the letters on your keyboard as they appear in bubbles. random fish float by to keep you company. funner than i was expecting, but not much.


critter cannon
a cute and cuddly game, except for the blood spatter. peta would not approve.


big red button
all you need is a finger. no brain function required.

side dish

here it is! the product of a quarter's worth of planning and about 14 hours of shooting last sunday/monday. it was genuinely interesting to learn about everyone and everything that goes into making a single commercial from start to finish.

here is the cut our class (kind of) agreed upon on wednesday during our field trip to markenfilm.

and the director's cut.

and all the credits...pretty much all of us worked for free:

Client: NOAH
Production company: Markenfilm
Creatives: Devon Hong & Christian Warnke
Producers: Claudia China & Hellen Baier
Director: Benjamin Brettschneider
DOP: Eike Zuleeg
Production Manager: Yannick Fauth
Production Manager Asst/Food Styling: Sandra Nicolas
Production Manager Asst: Savina Mokreva
Focus Puller: Michael Goljanek
VTR Supervisor / Driver: Max Schippmann
VTR: Mcdonald Predelus
Sound Recording: Thyes Ruete
Sound Asst: Kunal Kshirsagar
Sound Asst: Xuxu Hoang
Grip/Set, Stage Manager: Andreas Kleinmann
Gaffer: Steve Thompson
Lightning Technician : Rolf Volkmann
Art Direction: Nina Manthey
Art Direction: Ioana Lahr
Styling: Celeste Van der Spoel
Styling: Laura Hoffmann
Make-Up: Diana Ramovic
Catering: Felipe Chulam
Catering: Andre Kaze
PPM Booklet/Food Styling: Miranda Peterson
PA: Hannah Ziegler
Food Styling/Shooting Board: Sophia Halamoda
Shooting Board: Ann-Christin Mueller
Claim: Vlad Boerean
Claim: Roberto Dona
Casting: Mirja Thomsen
Post Production: Sebastian Odenthal
Client Rep/Behind the scenes Documentation: Timm Paulick

Man: Fred Lobin
Woman: Simona A. Kern
Waiter: Theodor Reichardt
Extra 1 (Waiter): Ann-Christin Mueller
Extra 2 (Waiter): Kunal Kshirsagar
Extras: Sophia Halamoda, Roby Dona, Filipe Chulam, Nina Manthey, Celeste Van der Spoel, Miranda Peterson, MacDonald Predelus, Xuxu Hoang, Ioana Lahr, Andre Kaze

Location: Spiegel Kantine, Hamburg, Germany
Note: This video is not to be copied or reproduced for profit or public use.
No sea creatures were harmed during the making of this video.

interesting tidbits: we had to dub over the main actor's voice with kunal's because his english grammar wasn't correct. 'der speigel' is german for 'the mirror,' which is a famous magazine in hamburg. their canteen, our shooting location, has remained pretty much the same since the 1970s.

dear design

i am really a big fan of amanda bynes' new clothing line called dear. the clothes are comfy, colorful and the best part is everything is under $20 b/c the line is sold exclusively at steve & barry's. i love the website design, simple and my favorite color combo of black, pink and white. there is even a fun closet where you can browse all the clothes and put together outfits. check out the videos, they're cool too.

fun with germs

FINALLY! now you can have the pleasure of cuddling with your favorite germs, bacteria and fungi! (like the ebola virus, dust mites, e. coli, the flu, athlete's foot and even chlamydia.)
giant microbes makes a wide variety of plush microbes that you would normally need a microscope to see. why there's a microbe for everyone and every occasion!



and apparently every microbe has its own font.
long-awaited sequel to the beanie babies craze, perhaps?

jem now & then

ok this is not a normal miranda-song, but i totally love it. enough to post it on here. i've definitely heard it in a movie or on tv somewhere...

"they" by jem
and i definitely had the 'totally outrageous!' gem dolls when i was little:

oh hell yea! i found the commercial for it!!! awesome!!!

model behavior

since i am doing a photoshoot for a friend tomorrow, i thought i'd get in the spirit with a model-themed post...
so that's how they stay so skinny...
these self-cleaning toilets should be in every public bathroom in america (and germany now that i'm here)
wow, interesting:
Advertising Agency: Jung von Matt/Alster, Germany
Creative Directors: Hans Weishäupl, Willy Kaussen
Art Director: Kim Ney
Copywriter: André Hennen
Production: FilmDeluxe, Berlin

models can also be quite entertaining off the runway:


and some random pics of my favorite model, alessandra ambrosio.

beat the bloat

this commercial for beat the bloat is a perfect example of slice of life advertising. and it's funny too. every girl has felt like this once, usually at least once a month.

as for the product it sounds almost too good to be true, but i think it kind of works for me. i also recommend a good pair of sweatpants.

carfun footprint

and sooner or later, you'd expect some agency to get ahold of this carbon footprint idea and apply it to something they're advertising. well this is what bssp (butler, shine, stern and partners) in sausalito, california have done. read more about the up coming campaign. and don't forget to take the quiz to figure out your "carfun footprint," which measures how fun your car is to drive as well as how environmentally friendly it is. (again, i don't have a car, but i based it on silver bell, my trusty mustang, who i drove until i moved to miami).
i love the simple design and the classic announcer's voice!

carbon footprint

i found this quiz that measures your carbon footprint through an email i got from the earth day network today.

so all you do is create an avatar and answer some questions about your lifestyle. according to the website, this is how your 'carbon footprint' is calculated:
" Ecological Footprints can be calculated for individual people, groups of people (such as a nation), and activities (such as manufacturing a product).

The Ecological Footprint of a person is calculated by considering all of the biological materials consumed, and all of the biological wastes generated, by that person in a given year. These materials and wastes each demand ecologically productive areas, such as cropland to grow potatoes, or forest to sequester fossil carbon dioxide emissions."

because you can only choose the us or australia as your place of residence, i took the quiz based on my lifestyle in miami. i think my footprint is probably at one of the lowest points it will ever be since i lived in an apartment, used public transportation, didn't have a car, am vegetarian and i tried to eat organic/local foods. i only wish my stupid building had recycling.

the dark knight

...was pretty much the most amazing movie i've seen in a while. it completely lived up to and in some ways surpassed my expectations, including heath ledger's performance of the joker. i finally got to see it last night because even though it came out about a month ago in the states, it just came out in germany. fortunately we found a theatre that played the original sans dubbing and subtitles.

anyways, i liked the fact that i didn't notice that much product placement in the movie, other than the standard luxury cars (lamborghini, bentley) and of course the mysterious cell phone that morgan freeman had in hong kong. i decided to investigate and found a whole website called brand cameo that tracks product placement in all the new movies coming out. their archives date back to 2001 and they are a sub-site of brandchannel.com.

here's a list of the brands that you may or may not notice throughout the movie: Armani, Bang & Olufsen, Belstaff, Bentley, Dodge, Ford, Harris Bank, Lamborghini, Magnum Products, Mercedes, MV Agusta, Nokia, Powerball, Scottrade, Volkswagen Beetle.

Apparently the cell phone is the new touchscreen model by nokia, which isn't even in stores yet. It's the Nokia 5800 Tube, clearly hoping to compete with the iphone. i guess it's a cooler way to introduce a new product rather than just the standard print/tvc/internet campaign.

i also really liked the creative newspaper/movie poster give-aways. they are placed at the theatres like a normal newspaper you would find on the streets of gotham city and on the inside it folds out to become a movie poster. simple, yet genius. (the one i got last night is extra-special because it's in german).

all sorts of random

i'm in a strange mood...yea...enjoy this late-night, random you-tube find:

whaddaya know, gummy bear is from germany. gb history courtesy of wikipedia.

reminds me of the holly dolly song, which i first heard/saw while shopping at american eagle with allison a year or two ago:

learn more about holly dolly, who was born from loituma girl.

movie dubbing

since i'm in germany, i've kind of gotten used to american movies dubbed over with german voices. but i've never heard of dubbing an english movie with english voices - until last night. julia, muffy and i rented notting hill (ok wouldn't be my first choice of films - but i was in the mood for anything) and hugh grant and julia roberts' voices were dubbed over with different british voices. and they were bad too - both of them sounded like they were hopped up on helium.
i just don't get it. especially when hugh grant already has a british accent! and i think some of the minor characters got to keep their original voices as well. strangeness.

a peek into windows

so, now we know cp+b's big advertising plan for microsoft. well, kind of. according to this article, they are going to feature jerry sienfeld and bill gates. and the tagline is going to be something like "windows, not walls." i'm excited to see these ads when they come out in september!
it's gonna be hard to top the mac vs pc ads...
speaking of which, here is the newest one:

"come eat me! i'm a delicious pizza!"
hahaha

commercial emmy nominees

yay! two days ago, the 5 nominees for a commercial emmy were released.
The five nominees are: Hallmark's "Brother of the Bride," Leo Burnett, Chicago; FedEx's "Carrier Pigeons," BBDO, New York; Travelers Insurance's "Delivery," Fallon, Minneapolis; Coca-Cola's "It's Mine," Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.; and Bud Light's "Swear Jar," DDB, Chicago.
you probably remember several of these debuting at the superbowl this year.
of these, my favorite is the tarveler's insurance spot. it's so cute!


the winner will be announced sept. 13 in la at the creative arts emmy awards.
last year's winner was this american express spot featuring ellen denegeres with practically a whole zoo by ogilvy & mather, ny.

in a perfect world:

ok random, but we all know this is where i could live for the rest of my life. not particularly that amazing of a spot (i think they could have done much more with it, visually), but it really makes me want ice cream now. cute points go to zimmerman advertising, inc.

one...update

i totally remember seeing this video in the states a few months ago.
if celebrities (and goodby silverstein & partners, sf) are telling me to do it, then it must be something worth doing...

amsterdam's best agency

our guest speaker at school today was johan kramer, co-founder of amsterdam-based agency kesselskramer. i decided to check out the website because a lot of the kids were saying they have amazing work, www.kesselskramer.com and was thoroughly confused. everytime you click on the link, a different, crappy-looking webpage appears with random bits and pieces of their work scattered throughout them. and it really annoys me that you can't click on most of the 'buttons.'
and their work is just as strange as their website, i think. but, i guess that's what you would expect at an agency in amsterdam, lol.
i guess their style distinguishes them from pretty much every other ad agency out there, but its not really my personal taste.





i have to admit, i kind of like this 'unique design' print series.

one...for what?

last night was stay-in-to-watch-movies-and-eat-ice cream-night. at the movie rental place, i discovered this new flavor of ben & jerry's called 'one cheesecake brownie.' sounded/looked good so i decided to try it (and i am glad i did - sooooo good).
on the 30% recycled pint-size package, B & J themselves tell you that they've teamed up with google to "spread the word about ONE, the organization commited to making poverty history." the website is also all over the rim of the lid. so, i decided to check it out.

i added my name and email to the list. i don't really know what that accomplished. apparently i am supporting "a new effort for Americans to fight the emergency of global aids and extreme poverty."
one way you can do this is to buy white wristbands that say 'one' on them, but the minimum amount you can purchase is a pack of 10 for $10 (didn't i used to have one of these in yellow?). you can also buy all white tshirts that say 'one' on them. am i having deja vus, or wasn't this attempted a few years ago with another color (red)? i guess it counts as a new campaign if you simply change the color.
from what i can gather, their main goal is to spread awareness about global aids and poverty, and unless you are living under a rock in one of those poor, third world countries i am pretty you know these problems exist. a valiant attempt at a noble cause, but i feel like it's mostly talk and they haven't really accomplished anything yet.

michael phelps is my hero!

it's a little difficult for me to follow the olympics in beijing right now, but i do know that michael phelps won his 8th gold medal yesterday! this breaks mark spitz's former world record of winning 7 gold medals in a single olympics in 1972.
well, mr. phelps never has to worry about money again. his brand worth just skyrocketed and he is going to get so many more endorsements it's not even funny. i mean, before he even debuted at the olympics in athens 4 years ago, he already had seven advertising deals totaling over $1 million with huge companies like visa, omega watches and AT&T wirelss. it's interesting to read this article from usa today talking about phelps 4 years ago. wikipedia estimates that he's already made over $5 million from endorsements.
and, speedo is now due to pay him an extra $1 million bonus for winning those 8 golds. dare i say he might even replace tiger woods as the sports phenom endorsement king.
here are some ads that already feature phelps for your viewing pleasure. (my favorite is the powerbar one)



sportscenter ads from this summer


nbc olympics promo spot circa summer 2008


visa ad from this summer w/ morgan freeman narrating


powerbar "power to push" tvc circa summer 2008


phelps talking about the powerbar campaign


of course you gotta have a speedo commercial in there

and here is my favorite from the last summer olympic games in athens:

Find more videos like this on www.truveo.com.

...and a really hot picture

coolest camera yet

the nikon p6000 camera has a built-in gps receiver in it that tracks the longitude and latitude at which you took each picture. and apparently, if you upload your pictures to their website, it shows where they were taken on a global map! want!

mp3's for mermaids

well, not exactly. speedo just came out with practical and decently priced waterproof mp3 player. it's called the aquabeat (kinda cheesy) and it retails for about 150 bucks. it floats, holds a whole gig and fits around your swimcap. design-wise, i love how the play button is the speedo logo. very innovative, even if it's for a pretty specific target. i wonder what the advertising for this would entail...

in an absolut world

absolut vodka has a pretty cool campaign going on right now - and a cool website to match. i like the design with all the interactive boxes and clouds! i think tbwa/chiat/day has the absolut account, but i'm not 100% sure.

apparently anyone can submit their vision of 'an absolut world.' they started the campaign with celebrities, comedian owen benjamin, celebrity blogger perez hilton and the ultimate in self-centeredness, kanye west. it is so like him to say in an absolute world anyone could be him. hey kanye, i would NEVER want to be you!
sorry about that- lol. anyways, now i need to get to thinking about what my absolut world would be like...other than a lifesize version of candyland.

the [type]face of change

ok i couldn't resist this one last post... for one of my classes, i had to find a design piece that i liked and research what the font(s) is/are and who designed them and what they mean. well, i struck gold when i stumbled upon this article posted on the time magazine website on august 4. it's about what went into designing the obama brand, most specifically, the logo.

so, to fulfil my assignment the prominent typefaces are:
(1) gotham, which is a sans serif based on helvetica by american type designer tobias frere-jones in 2000 in new york city.
(2) perpetua, a serif designed by british sculptor, typeface designer, stonecutter and printmaker eric gill between 1925 and 1929.

i'm not pledging my vote or anything, but obama does have the best and most originally designed campaign. there's even a whole website where you can customize the obama logo for yourself and display it on your myspace, facebook, blog, etc.

monkey business

bbc sport picked an interesting way to promote it's olympic coverage. the whole thing really seems to be targeted at kids, starting with the (however well executed) monkey movie.

ah! i knew it! when i was watching this, it reminded me of the animation that 'the gorillaz' always do for their music videos. and i was right! damon albarn and jamie hewlett created a chinese opera called 'monkey: journey to the west.' it debuted at the spoleto festival in charleston, sc in may (wish i'd have known that before) and was at the royal opera house in london last month. it was supposed to appear in berlin as well, but has been cancelled (crap-so close!).

according to wikipedia, journey to the west "is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. Originally published anonymously in the 1590s during the Ming Dynasty, and even though no direct evidence of its authorship survives, it has been ascribed to the scholar Wú Chéng'ēn since the 20th century."

anyways, on the bbc website, you can download desktops and masks of the characters and take quizzes and see how the whole monkey saga was created.
and i thought this was just a random commercial for the olympics/bbc sport...

sidenote: i figured they picked a monkey because maybe it's the year of the monkey according to the chinese zodiac, but it's actually the year of the rat now. also interesting, i was born the day before the end of the year of the rat, feb 2, 1985.

dead, dead & dead

this company, skelanimals, makes some of the cutest little critters around. i've only ever seen them at hot topic, which would make it appropriate that they sponsored the warped tour this year. they had a booth at the event and did photoshoots with a lot of the bands on the tour. including one of my favorites, family force five.

but, they support more than just music. they are also co-sponsoring a campaign with peta2 called 'fur is dead.' i think of them like anti-beanie babies and their slogan is 'dead animals need love too.' as of now i only have a sticker of kit on my laptop, but hope to expand my collection when i get back to the states. don't you just love a socially responsible company?








and i posted my favorite songs from ff5's latest album. it's called 'wake the dead' and as usual it's about dancing and having fun. its on their next album 'dance or die' which comes out august 19. i classify them as 'crunk rock' and they are self described "kountry gentlemen" from atlanta. (and i think they are also technically classified as a christian band.) i love their high energy songs and blending of genres. no other band sounds quite like them.