ERROL FLANAGAN

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 '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 for brand faith

This is a revisited post from some time back.

I've added to it a bit in this relook at my old blogsite at www.errolflanagan.com

It's a post about the power of semiotics and how they are useful to brands that want to create a resonant and believable position with consumers through a well managed, considered behaviour that has an eye for detail.

Like most markets, in the beer world semiotics are essential. Pour it into a glass and the pale yellow fizzy liquid bubbles and becomes anonymous. In its bottle though it's a work of dedication, the product of an artisan's love made real in form of a robust homespun humility and natural industry to be savoured and considered.

Semiotics is to do with deciphering 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 - this beer is clearly something you have to properly hold suggesting weight and substance to the product - it's 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 choreographed in the design of graphics and form.  The object as media is a big opportunity because everything is media. Often overlooked in communications is the power of semiotics to help people decode culture, and for brands to create culture. Semiotics in the right hands helps us understand what the stuff around us means, or what it is trying to mean, in the way it is, and the way it does what it does.

While getting the semiotics right can help a brand standout, the most important use of it is in making sure the total brand behaviour rings true.

Mies van der Rohe said, 'God is in the details'. Semiotics helps out the fakes and more deeply appreciate the complexities and subtleties of brands that are powerful and real.

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

If this is true and feasible it's 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 is printed in French and English which gives it both a graphically interesting and continental feel at the same time. It was always a fascinating read and a great example of a very subtly branded content.