Nike & RZA – Next Level Hip-Hop Advertising

I Love This. It’s a cool mix between hip-hop, basketball and the samurai/kung-fu/manga history which threads through the Wu-tang clan’s, and particularly RZA’s, career history. The music, the manga comic look and the story and tie in very well to the brands values. Mostly I like it because it all just works so well together.

Putting RZA into the mix definitely makes the entire messaging of the ad and the look and feel absolutely surreal but consistent and understandable given the target market which Nike wants to target. I wouldn’t say it was much of a risk, or at least Nike had mitigated the risk fairly well by tying in Basketball into the mix which makes perfect sense in the context it’s playing in the ad itself. basketball has always been involved with Hip-Hop, and this is just a very, very cool remix to drive home the point… along with some Confucian, self-exploratory, kung-fu philosophy thrown in for good measure.

The Idea of Disruption

You cannot outperform a marketplace if you adhere to it’s conventions. – Jean-Marie Dru, CEO TBWA\

Generally when you think disruption… you think destruction, a break that isn’t supposed to be there. I keep thinking of teacher reports saying that he/she’s ‘disruptive in class.’, etc.

So I’m at TBWA/LONDON.  For those who don’t know… they’re an advertising agency, and a pretty good one at that (They have the Apple account, so that says a lot already). Apple’s advertising is brilliant. Well these guys make it. Great, you get the picture.

 So how does Disruption tie into all this?

Disruption is TBWA’s raison d’être. A philosophy integrated into everything about them. So I learnt about this while I was there and I thought it was the best idea I’ve heard in ages.  It’s not a new idea, but I like the packaging, it makes it easier to understand and embrace… here we go…

The Model of Disruption

Disruption is the art of asking better questions, challenging conventional wisdom and overturning assumptions and prejudices that get in the way of imagining new possibilities and visionary ideas.

Disruption is a system for people who hate systems. Similar to the concept of open-source software development, Disruption has evolved and matured as communities around the network use, adapt and reinvent Disruption tools for specific market or client needs.

Thinking differently (There’s Apple again), outside-the-box (cliche), etc. Most of all I like that it’s a process… you have to understand what the prevailing conventions and status quo is before you can move BEYOND it, before you can CHALLENGE it, before you can CHANGE it.  Finding its borders and knocking down the walls. DISRUPTING the underlying patterns and CREATING something new.

So there we are…this is the idea I embraced as one which I will adhere to and act on in everything I do.

<To what end I will apply this process to is another question all together and another set of blog posts. We’ll get to that later.>

Tags: Disruption, TBWA, London, Great Idea, Change, Philosophy

Design Remix: London Underground

A brief has been put out to redesign the London Underground, specifically the fabric on the seats. Compared to it’s counterpart in New York, the London Underground has generally always tilted a little bit more toward providing some sort of palatable colour and design to enhance the experience of the 3.5 million commuters.

The Underground’s Design history includes Edward Johnston’s sans serif font, Harry Beck’s map and Paul Nash’s fabric.

Wallpaper explains the brief…

The colours should respond well to natural and artificial light (there’s even a pantone reference wheel allocating percentage allowances), the pattern must wear and tear well and the fabric must be comfortable and durable. This might sound fairly restrictive but entrants are also encouraged to challenge convention where possible, being mindful not to create a repeat pattern that’s too small to ‘dazzle’ the 3.5 million commuters who will see it each day.

The competition ends on September 14th. More details may be found here.

Designers Get on it! w00t! :)))

(via PSFK)

Technorati Tags: London, Underground, Design, Competition, Remix

Modern Urban Street Art

It seems one of the things I haven’t kept my eyes on lately has been that of Art of any form (although I did attend the National Art Gallery which was interesting in its own way but I find some the art REALLY BORING.) So here’s some examples of modern urban street art.

This is by Aakash Nihalani and if you look at the NYPD cop car in the background, you can see that he hails from New York! Simple and Brilliant.

via LikeCool
And… more technologically advanced and making gangs look all the more cooler –> LED Spray Paint!

While there are more than a few exceptions to the rule, most graffiti is nothing more but lame, self-serving tagging. But combine simple signatures with LEDs and slow shutter photography, and the genre is born anew:

Halo is a concept by French designer Aissa Logerot. Shaped like a bottle of spray paint, the LED light can change colors on the fly and while it’s powered by an internal battery (that recharges with a simple shake of the can—a cutesy but awesome idea).

Combine this LED light with slow-shutter photography and you can freeze light graffiti in thin air without ruining a facade in the process. Of course, that non-destructive practicality probably eliminates any incentive for about 99.9% of graffiti enthusiasts.

– Gizmodo

By far one of the coolest mash-ups of Culture, Technology and Design I’ve stumbled across on the net. Love it.
Technorati Tags: Cool, Urban, Street, Art, LED, Gangs

Yeah Baby! Social Media is the New PUNK ROCK!

I’ve always seen Punk as a philosophy rather than a once off bunch of noisy kids with spiked hair and bad attitudes. It was about standing up to the establishment, breaking the rules, going against the norm.  They are the ultimate modern form of talking straight back with their own interpretation of how to talk back in the first place.  Hence, the below video, is a bit misplaced with comparing punk rock only to social media… it’s bigger than that.  The philosophy, I believe, transcends all media because it addresses the underlying intentions behind WHY we communicate.

So if you question the norms, don’t agree with them and voice your opinions with any media whatsoever… you are a PUNK.  Word… Enjoy the video :)

Technorati Tags: Punk, Punk Rock, Music, Philosophy, Social Media

The Tarantino Mixtape by Electic Method… WHOA!

Eclectic Method – The Tarantino Mixtape from Eclectic Method on Vimeo.

This is the Best Damn Thing I’ve seen all Year. Wow. Bloody Hell, that was a trip.

Technorati Tags: Tarantino, Mixtape, Music, Movie, Eclectic Method

The Accolade: Saudi Arabia’s All-Girl Underground Rock Band

As Taboos Ease, Saudi Girl Group Dares to Rock – NY Times
Taboo breaking takes a new form in Saudi Arabia, something that should be expected in all repressive societies. Human creativity can never be stifled.

The have the lyrics of their first song, “Pinocchio” on their Facebook page and you can hear it on their MySpace Page.  Read below for the story behind their creation. Awesome.

In a country where women are not allowed to drive and rarely appear in public without their faces covered, the band is very different. The prospect of female rockers clutching guitars and belting out angry lyrics about a failed relationship — the theme of “Pinocchio” — would once have been unimaginable here.
…
“The upcoming generation is different from the one before,” said Dina, the Accolade’s 21-year-old guitarist and founder. “Everything is changing. Maybe in 10 years it’s going to be O.K. to have a band with live performances.”

Dina said she first dreamed of starting a band three years ago. In September, she and her sister Dareen, 19, who plays bass, teamed up with Lamia and Amjad, the keyboardist.

They were already iconoclasts: Dina and Dareen wear their hair teased into thick manes and have pierced eyebrows. During an interview at a Starbucks here, they wore black abayas — the flowing gown that is standard attire for women — but the gowns were open, showing their jeans and T-shirts, and their hair and faces were uncovered. Women are more apt to go uncovered in Jidda than in most other parts of the country, though it is still uncommon.

“People always stare at us,” Dareen said, giggling. She and her sister are also avid ice skaters, another unusual habit in Saudi Arabia’s desert.

The band gets together to practice every weekend at the sisters’ house, where their younger brother sometimes fills in on drums. In early November, Dina, who studies art at King Abdulaziz University, began writing a song based on one of her favorite paintings, “The Accolade,” by the English pre-Raphaelite painter Edmund Blair Leighton. The painting depicts a long-haired noblewoman knighting a young warrior with a sword.

“I liked the painting because it shows a woman who is satisfied with a man,” Dina said.
…..
Dina held out her cellphone to show a video of the band practicing at home. It looked like a garage-band jam session anywhere in the world, with the sisters hunching over their instruments, their brother blasting away at the drums and Lamia clutching a microphone.

“We’re looking for a drummer,” Lamia said. “Five guys have offered, but we really want the band to be all female.”

The Accolade Facebook Page
The Accolade MySpace page

Craziest/Scariest/Coolest Jack-o-Lantern Pumpkin, Ever.

This guy has skill to carve out a Halloween pumpkin to resemble the “Alien”.  Freakin Creepy.  Damn that’s skill.  I don’t want to look at it… but I do.

Link

Magazine Ad- Just Do(uche) it…

This is an interesting concept and funny as hell.  An international magazine (anonymous for now) is running a promotion utilising the picture above.  Here’s what Adrants sources had to say about the promotion…

“We prefer to keep the publication anonymous for now but this will be going to print in the very near future and we expect it to provoke some discussion and probably some threats of legal action.”

No shit, I don’t think anyone at Nike will sit by while an ad takes a dig at them with “Just Douche It.”

Duality of Humanity Exhibition

Obey has this cool new exhibition in the spirit of Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket i.e. the peace sign with “Born to Kill” next to it.

The title of the show is the picture above called “Duality of Humanity” of a kid soldier with a flower in his hat.

Very interesting imagery and something I love… Artistic criticism and commentary, all in one. The website looks pretty cool too :)
: Art, Activism, Obey

Next Page »