Tuesday, September 30, 2008

fashion and fibs

reality tv is all lies?!

well, i already knew this (which is why generally i HATE reality shows), but i was a little surprised to find out that the one show i do watch, project runway is also somewhat deceptive. since i'm back in the states, i've been catching up on my season 5 episodes and found some videos on youtube of the final collections at new york fashion week. there are only 4 designers left on the show as of the most recent episode, but 6 showed collections in bryant park (supposedly only 3 get to show collections).

hmmm, i wonder how that all works. i guess they do it so that no one knows who the final 3 are and/or who the winner is.
so do they take a couple months off to create the collections then resume the normal competition or do they narrow it down to the top three and then ask the runners-up to design collections as well to keep everyone guessing? i don't know but i do know what i think of the big finale:


so here's what i would say if i was one of the judges:

my bottom three:
jerel: some of the bodices were way too big and the collection looked kind of grungy and incohesive to me. a lot of stuff really didn't fit right
korto: a bit of a yawn and kind of cliche african style (predictable)
suede: it is very 'easter egg' but it doesn't look barbie. barbie has more class. this collection belongs on the dollar-store-barbie-wannabes that have been abandoned on the shelves since the 80s.

my top three:
kenley: even tho she's a whiny little brat, i did enjoy the collection. anything that alludes to alice in wonderland makes me happy.
leeann: very cohesive and classy. not my personal taste or color palette but it looked nice, and reminds me of mermaids for some reason.
joe: he was the most casual but i liked the all-american inspiration. i think this was the closest to something i would actually wear

so joe and suede have been auf'd and there is one episode left to find out who the top three are. if i had to predict the winner now, it's kind of a toss-up between leeann and kenley. since i have a feeling kenley will be nixed on the next episode, i guess i'll have to go with leeann as the winner.

sidenote: overall, i think some of the challenges this season were cool and creative but i didn't like a lot of the designers. too many undeserved egos, not so much innovation and a lot of bad executions. and, the christian-wannabes annoyed me too (i.e. the licious-ness and talking in 3rd person).

*sorry for everyone who has never seen the show and has no idea what i am talking about lol

Saturday, September 27, 2008

scnadanavian randomness

here's a few other random things i discovered during my scandanavian holiday.


bike seat ad in stockholm


ice cream bird carved out of wood (at the nordiska museet) in stockholm


moose shop window design in bergen, norway


apparently you can only cross the street in style in bergen
reminds me of the blues brothers

ice bar

one of the coolest bars i've ever been to. literally. it was -5 celcius (23 fahrenheit) and the entire bar is made of ice. even the cups you drink out of are made of ice. mm and i visited the one in stockholm.

the original bar is at the ice hotel in jukkasjÀrvi, way up in the middle-of-nowhere in northern sweden. the hotel is redesigned every year after it melts in the spring. it's been added to my list of places i have to see at some point.



absolut vodka has sponsored all the ice bar locations including the aforementioned two in sweden, one in london, tokyo and copenhagen. they are frequently redesigned as well.
you get to wear these sweet thermal overcoats and gloves. the only thing i'm not a fan of is the pricy entrance fee and sitting on reindeer skins.



very appropriate and creative concept from absolut. you are literally immersed in the brand. check out the website links - they are pretty cool.

car cookies

ok i may or may not have bought these snacks in norway just for the packaging. i know you're not supposed to play with your food, but i've never heard of any rule against playing with the box it came in. if you know norwegian, you can find out more on their website.
they kind of taste like graham crackers.

Friday, September 19, 2008

its good to be on top


so for this post i want to highlight a classmate of mine who is quite possibly one of the most creative and talented people i've met yet (wrote the ambiguous title just for you, dev lol).
devon hong just finished his third quarter here at MASE with flying colors (and 5 gold stars and a 'top dawg' award, basically the best student in the school). he's already had some cool experience doing set design and is originally from canada.
here's some of his stuff from this quarter, and i look forward to seeing much more where this came from :)


cd design & beyond


screenprinted poster
(i have an autographed original print. be jealous.)

oh yea, and thanks for the t-shirt! maybe i will absorb some of your creativeness whenever i wear it

sidenote: i'm gonna be in hiatus for the next week, traveling the motherland (aka sweden and norway). but, since mm is going with me and i'm pretty sure she is like the only person who reads this blog, i think everything will be ok.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

c+m+y+k

the first thing i am going to do when i get back to the states is buy these books. the four book series features a graphic design & illustration using only cyan, magenta, yellow or black. i might even buy it on amazon now so it will be home waiting for me. i don't know.
anyways, here are the books and a few examples of what you can find in them:

sports stories

i was introduced to one of the commercials for nike's new campaign featuring female athletes and strange commercials to go with them. i tried to visit the website nikewomen.com, but the landing page informed that i didn't have the latest version of flash, so i clicked the link they gave me and d/l it, and now the website still doesn't work. so that is kind of annoying, but i still enjoy watching the commercials and learning about the athletes.

Originally a hurdler, Nicola overcame heartbreak and injury, injury, and has risen to become a formidable sprinter and a Beijing hopeful. Among her many accolades, she won silver in the 2007 World Championships and became European Indoor Champion, both in the 400 metres. Last August she was also named British Woman Athlete of the Year. She says her strength has always come from maintaining her sense of humour and listening to her body.


Despite growing up in a family of sports enthusiasts, Nicola had no designs on becoming a professional athlete. Yet as she found herself wanting to push her physical limits, she fell in love with the triathlon. To Nicola, the harder the race, the bigger the rush. This mentality has served her well as she has succeeded in becoming Junior European Champion, Junior World Champion, 3rd in the Elite European Championship, and is now ranked 6th in the world. If the physical exhaustion of being a professional triathlete ever starts to feel too easy, she has a second career as a law student to fall back on.


"They" love her one day and hate her the next. Glorify her, then vilify her. Yet despite the naysayers, critics and cynics, Maria thrives. 18 WTA and three Grand Slam titles later, she continues to be rewarded for listening to no one but herself.


Only after a schoolyard race did Simona start to see the value of her too-long legs. It sparked a new interest in the track where her parents trained and she soon discovered a passion for jumping. She went on to compete as a triple jumper in the Olympic Games in 2004, the World Championships in 2005, the National Championships in 2006, and she's now training to qualify for Beijing.


Delphine attributes her success as a judoka to everything from cross training, to perseverance, to dreaming. Despite the combative and demanding nature of her sport, she remains true to her femininity and even her oh-so-girlish indulgence of shopping.

this campaign hails from wieden & kennedy amsterdam. most of the videos were produced and directed by paranoid us. there are a ton more amazing videos on their website. the video featuring delphine was created by stink digital. i don't really like the last one except the end when the judo outfit turns into a dress. i think i relate most to the first video since i used to be a 400m runner as well as a hurdler. it really takes a toll on your knees.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

filmfest hamburg: the saga

i found some trailers for past h-burg filmfests, and they are amazing.

2007
this one is closest to my personal style
2006
this one reminds me of sin city
2005
reminds me of saul bass

these spots were done by sehsucht, appropriately a hamburg-based design company. their website is pretty cool, too.

i asked a few of the native german speaking kids in my class what this name means. 'seh' means 'to see' and 'sucht' means 'addcition.' so basically their name means 'a seeing addiction,' which makes sense when you read their website.

clearly i am somewhat addicted to their work (for the hff anwyays).

2008 filmfest hamburg

i first saw this trailer when a bunch of us went to see the premier of 'the dark knight' at the english theater near jungfernstieg a few weeks ago. i probably would have understood it sooner if i understood german, but nonetheless it is a really cool video. embedding is disabled, but watch it here on youtube.


this is their official website [in english].
i really like the posters i've been seeing around hamburg as well.



i'm going to try to check it out before i leave germany on the 1st.

the king and the jester

i love family guy. and i love burger king (they have the best fries and they have veggie burgers). so naturally i love these new short films from burger king and seth mcfarlane called the seth macfarlane's cavalcade of cartoon comedy. so random. so funny. the first ones were released last week (thanks to mm for alerting me to these yesterday):









what does cavalcade mean again?

cavalcade: n a formal procession of people walking, on horseback or riding vehicles.
ORIGIN late 16 cent. (denoting a ride or eaid on horseback): from french, from italian cavalcata, from cavalcare, 'to ride,' based on latin caballus 'horse.'

there's also a sweepstakes to 'buy seth dinner.' interesting.

so of course i entered but it doesn't matter b/c i'm pretty sure there's like a 1 in 1,000,000,000,000 chance to win. lol

however, not everyone is as excited as i am about this partnership. here's an article i found that is very pessimistic about the idea claiming it will 'cheapen the dignity of the king.' umm hello? it's fast food, not mercedes or rolex. i'm pretty sure the majority of loyal family guy-watchers and burger king-eaters overlaps alot (i.e. 13-30 year old guys). and cp+b already teamed up with x box, something else the aforementioned target spends alot of time with. i'd say they're pretty much 'on target' (pun intended).

AH! i can't wait to go to this agency!

Sunday, September 14, 2008

seinfeld + microsoft = ???

i don't quite know what to think about the new microsoft ads featuring jerry seinfeld and bill gates. they are pretty random and funny - very seinfeld. i guess cp+b is setting the stage for something more to come...




i think ad age agrees with me.
i guess we wait to see what happens next...

size matters


another ad from berlin. nothing spectacular design or creativity-wise, it's just really big! it's very good placement considering the area is a huge tourist attraction in a huge city.
i couldn't get an exact translation/meaning, but i think it has something to do with 'unter den linden' (under the limes) which is a famous street nearby that is lined with lime trees.

converse centennial campaign

i saw this really cool ambient-type ad in a berlin train station this weekend. it's pretty cool. you are pretty much fully immersed in it. it matches the brand and the city very well. and from what i've seen, converse is really popular in europe anyways, especially with creatives.






the ad tells you to go to a website, www.converse.de, so that's what i did. it starts off with this little dude the welcomes you to the site.


converse launched this 'connectivity campaign' in july of this year to celebrate their 100th anniversary. it features lots of of all star-sporting pop icons including sid vicious, MIA, dwane wade and a posthumous james dean. it's a global campaign launching in over 75 countries. it was created by new york city-based agency anomaly, and it has some great, original art direction.



the best part of this campaign is this really cool song collaboration by santogold, julian casablancas and NERD (produced by pharrell) called 'my drive thru.' you really have to watch the music video for it; amazing:


almost makes me want to buy a pair of chuck taylor all stars...
WOW i JUST noticed that everyone is connected by their shoes. even cooler!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

my brand book

too many hours to count, 188 euros ($265) and 52 pages later, it's done! (actually, they are done - i got two copies).
for my design influences class here in hamburg, i had to do a very long and detailed yet still pretty fun project...

i had to pick two traits about myself >>> create a brand and logo based on those traits >>> create an ad campaign for the brand >>> create a book with pretty much all my work from the quarter, documenting the evolution of my brand >>> pay lots of money to get it professionally printed and bound.

my traits were random & dynamic. the only thing i could think of that was both random and dynamic is the weather. weather comes from the sky. thus, skynamic was born.

basically i tried to experiment with lots of different elements, techniques and mediums including: photography, typography, hand drawings, gradients, colors, layouts, patterns, etc.



i created and designed everything from scratch and took all the photography, except of course for the pics i am in; props to hayo and ming-mei for the help :)

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

one year later...


happy [belated] anniversary to the sister and eventual brother-in-law.
if i find any cool euro-pez dispensers, i'll bring one back for ya, jason.

official pez site. i actually like the fall design in the background. ^-^

LOVE these mini pez dispensers from japan!




and some cool retro pez ads from retro planet



wow, i should really quit procrastinating now...

it's cantastic!

usually i just delete all the [usually tacky/cliche/meaningless] forwards that wander into my inbox. but, the last one my mom sent me was pretty cool.
the following pieces were 'canstructed' at the 13th annual NYC design and build competition in new york. architects and designers compete to create colorful structures which are donated to a food bank afterwards. everyone wins!




shut up and let me go

sorry i've been on hiatus from my blog (not to mention sleep) for the past couple days b/c it's the last week of school. here's a cool video.

i can't embed it, but you can view it here
"shut up and let me go" by the ting tings
somewhat reminiscent of the white stripes...but this girl can actually sing. lol

this song was first featured in an apple ipod commercial by tbwa this past april:


the ting tings are a couple of brits named katie white and jules de martino and this song is the third release from their debut album, 'we started nothing,' and is classified as dance-pop.

Accoring to wikipedia,

The music video for "Shut Up and Let Me Go" was directed by Alex and Liane for Factory Films. Filmed in one day, the video features the Ting Tings performing kung fu and uses a variety of hand gestures to transition from scene to scene. The video begins with Katie White and Jules De Martino arm wrestling in a black, white, and pink room. They are then shown in a studio fighting on a grassy set. Various scenes of White and De Martino in front of colourful backgrounds are intercut throughout the video.

Directors Alex and Liane described the video as "a bit over-ambitious" because of its fight scenes which "were just so time consuming to get right". The various hand gestures were inspired by the Neoist art movement.

The video debuted on MTV in the United States on June 13, 2008. It was nominated for 2008 MTV Video Music Awards for Video of the Year and won for Best UK Video.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

homage to toast and cereal


my favorite breakfast fare...you like my toast design? ^_^

meet the toast king.


originally from weebls stuff.

gotta love college guys with too much time on their hands...



This video goes way back to the 90's. It was also known as the first viral hit, right after the star wars kid. However the original site got taken down and the video got neglected. So after a few years, people of different races started making different versions such as "Asian milk and cereal". This video confused the public into thinking that was the original. So here is THE ORIGINAL milk and cereal.
Song by G. Love and Special Sauce

the toast song

This is Heywood Banks' live performance of "Toast" a hilariously funny stand-up comedy skit where he sings about the different types of toast and uses his toaster for drums. To say the least, it is just too much!


shiny shack


want it!


cafe press

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

got the blues

dear jet blue,
you have such creative ad campaigns and i've heard nothing but good things from my friends that you have accomodated. i checked your website and was excited to find that you fly to denver AND charlotte now, but you do not fly from charlotte TO denver. why do you tease me? i have so much traveling to do next month so for now i guess i'll have to commit to another airline. maybe one day we can be together.
sincerely,
miranda peterson
spartanburg, south carolina



a variety of spots by jwt


and it all started with the story booth in new york city, a collaboration with local projects.

and a random thing that i guess you would classify as ambient? lol

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

boards and boulders

i got the email today! i am going to boulder, colorado to do the cp+b greenhouse program next quarter!!! i'm so excited to be in a 'healthy city' (which i am expecting to be very vegetarian-friendly) and ride a bike and go snowboarding! oh, yea and maybe do some kick-ass work at one of my favorite agencies!

maybe i'll learn some new tricks. i remember i really liked this song and i used to play the game with my ex-boyfriend in rhode island.
i can't wait for next quarter but i still have so much to look forward to until then... exploring germany a bit more, traveling with ming-mei and allison's wedding to name a few.

one of my favorite movies. technically it takes place in alaska, but it's close enough. it also has a great soundtrack!


WANT! (but i'll probably have to wait til christmas)