ERROL'S BLOG

Rice field as media by Greenpeace

I saw this in mX, a free evening commuter paper a few weeks ago. 

It's a Greenpeace ad made by growing different coloured rice plants in a rice field in Thailand.

When I got off the train it struck me how inventive this idea was in comparison to most of the outdoor ads I saw in the station. It brought home a couple of points very clearly - that strong innovation was vital to stand out in the blur, and that the competitive set for ads in every market can include the best from the rest of the world.

Empty building as media

This is a great use of an empty building. Brands could do this. Pick a disused office block or other kind of building, pick a theme, commission some artists - pop-up art for the people.

Visual art

From Coolhunting.com - Leo Villareal creating light experiences. He says in the film that he tries to find the essences of things, the rules that govern things a lot of which involves setting the initial conditions and letting things happen within a certain framework. 

and Jason Young using curling stones, flame throwers and paint on polished aluminium.

Education shift happens - more from XPLANE

This is an old one from 2006/7 so viewing it now means you just know these numbers have only got bigger. Reminds me of a Chinese proverb; 'If you are thinking of one year's time, plant a seed. If you are thinking ten years time, plant a tree. If you are thinking 100 years time, educate the people.'

New Did You Know? from Xplane - convergence and how the internet is changing our lives

via PSFK.

Culture stuff - the great Gibson Les Paul

I was listening to community radio here in Sydney 2SER 107.3FM running programmes on Les Paul, inventor of two phenomenal things that changed music forever - the Gibson Les Paul solid body electric guitar and also multitrack recording. All fascinating and good to hear early recordings of twiddly Bert Weedon-esque 50's twanginess by Les Paul, the talented multitracking guitarist. 

The Les Paul goldtop is a big icon in the guitar world - that and the starburst finishes are timeless standards - from Paul Kossoff in Free, to Jimmy Page and later to Thin Lizzy and Pete Townsend and many others. For me though, the quintessential Les Paul experience turns up on the genius debut album by Boston. 

'More Than A Feeling' is the complete crowd pleaser - but for me 'Hitch A Ride' has the brilliant soundtrack of great things to come feel. Download 06 Hitch A Ride Fabulous how a technological revolution in instruments of human expression in one decade, can move people generations later in ways the inventor could probably never have imagined.

Semiotics of beer bottles

Pour it into a glass and it's a pale yellow fizzy liquid that smells of pubs. Stick it in this bottle and it's a work of dedication, the love of artisan made real in form of robust homespun humility and industry to be savoured. Semiotics says check the symbols for meaning. So all the obvious stuff is there to connote authenticity and people who care. Scrolling text, earthy solid colours and bottle weight and shape - it's something you have to properly hold suggesting weight and substance - not to be taken lightly. It's all very obvious but it works. All very natural and solid - kegs, sketchily illustration style, big caps for no-nonsense, and scripted name of brand for family owned. 

Does it make a difference? Yes, as obvious as the brand behaviour might be, it works to convey a tone for the brand - implying a character and personality. The bottle makes an impression the product can't. It's not just packaging but the managing of subtle messages in the design of graphic design and form. Object as media because everything is media - often overlooked in communications is the power of semiotics to hep us figure out the science of deciphering what culture means in the way it behaves.

$8bn gets clean water millennium target for the planet now

If this is true and feasible its fantastic. 

Surely the world's water companies would be interested in doing something about making clean water available to everyone? - What a legacy - 2009, met the millennium target and stopped half the people on the planet getting sick and dying from drinking dirty water. 

It will cost $8bn according to Michael Pritchard. 

Please pass this or the TED link on to a water company near you, maybe they'll decide to get together and do something about it, here's hoping, wouldn't it be great if they did? 

Thank you Michael Pritchard for figuring this out, and thanks to TED, and you if you send this on, for sharing it with the world.

Elephant - a new magazine for 'the enthusiastic and curious'

The owner of Magma bookstores, Marc Valli, has created a new magazine called Elephant aimed at people he describes as being 'enthusiastic and curious'. This is a link to an article in Creative Review about it.

He says in the article that he wanted to create, 'the kind of magazine a group of beat friends would have done in the 50s, before the art world became the art world, and the creative industries took over, a time when artists didn’t measure the worth of their work according to auction prices, but by the opinion of their peers.'

The content and design looks interesting. It replaces a previous magazine, Graphic, that was themed based. Colors, made by Benetton and edited in the 90s by Tibor Kalman, used to be a good theme based magazine. It was a good source of interesting facts and figures and great images and was a design studio must have. 

Elephant looks like another good aggregator of interesting things in culture, like Monocle and Wallpaper, set to do well. Valli says that while books sales are down, magazines seem to be thriving. Elephant will have global distribution in stores and newsagents.

This is an old Colors cover. The magazine was printed in French and English which gave it both a graphically interesting and continental feel at the same time. It was a fascinating read and a great example of a very subtly branded content.