Foam City, Sony ad, agency: Fallon London. Production company: HLA. Director: Simon Ratigan
Fallon in London has come over all foamy for its latest spot for Sony, directed by Simon Ratigan, which sees white bubbles released over a city, whose people seem remarkably happy to receive them.
With it’s slow-motion feel and sparse soundtrack, the ad has strong echoes of the Fallon’s earlier Balls spot for Sony Bravia, but this time without all the colour.
Penguin Books has commissioned Shepard Fairey of Obey to create two new book covers – for two George Orwell classics: Animal Farm and 1984.
Peyote pinhole camera
For those of you who are fans of both old-fashioned camera techniques and origami, Corbis have created a website that might have just the thing for you.
The website has a number of camera designs that can be downloaded as pdfs and then printed off, with full instructions how to turn them into the workable pinhole cameras. Here is a selection of the designs, which were created by Fwis design studio especially for Corbis – we think they’re rather nice. Visit corbis.com/readycam to join in the fun.
Last year Tony Chambers went from creative director to editor-in-chief at Wallpaper*, but now art director Simon Esterson’s gone one better and is the new co-proprietor of design magazine Eye, after a decision by Haymarket to release the magazine to its editor, John L Walters.
Eye will now be managed through new company Eye Magazine Ltd, established by Walters, Esterson and Hannah Tyson (business director at Esterson Associates and now managing director of Eye), and will be run out of offices adjacent to Esterson’s studio in Hoxton.
If you thought the doodling of illustrator Jon Burgerman was just confined to two dimensions, then think again. His first series of multi-coloured sculptural pieces can be seen in a new exhibition at the Concrete Hermit Gallery in London. Pop Idle opened last week and follows on from Burgerman’s shows at the ROJO Artspaces in Barcelona and Milan.
The Aeron chair – a triumph of empiricism over aestheticism? No design studio is complete without one: Daniel West traces its history
Of the fourteen composers whose work was played out during Marina Frolova-Walker’s talk at the British Library last month, only one warranted the garish accompanying graphic to help describe his peculiar artistic condition. In A Revolution in Sound: Russian Avant-Garde Music of the 1910s and 1920s, Frolova-Walker described the work of the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin and played a section from his Prometheus Opus 60 (written in 1910). It began, as we heard, with a very mysterious chord; one that Scriabin could have no doubt described in some of the vivid colours featured on the keyboard above. Having a form of synaesthesia, what Scriabin wrote in sound, he saw in colour. It was this that drove him to try and create what would have been one of the most adventurous multimedia experiences ever performed…
For anyone who loves going to design conferences, we live in remarkable times. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of them. A design conference always seems to be just starting or finishing somewhere in the world. It would be quite possible to make going to conferences into a full-time job and some of the more in-demand and tireless design conference speakers appear to be doing just that. When do they get their real work done, you might wonder? The answer is that they do a lot of their thinking in transit, at 30,000 feet, or in the away-from-it-all, vacation atmosphere of distant hotel rooms paid for by conference organisers who are thrilled they are willing to appear.
Artist and illustrator Jonathan Farr spent much of last year perched on various balconies and fire escapes at some of London’s landmark buildings – in order to draw city scenes using various implements from dipping ink pens to charcoals and acrylic paint…
Happiness video, Goldfrapp, directed by Dougal Wilson, production company: Colonel Blimp
For your Friday pleasure, here is a selection of great new videos we’ve spotted recently. First up is another gem from Dougal Wilson, his second in a row for Goldfrapp. This one’s for new track, Happiness, and, appropriately enough, is pretty much guaranteed to make you smile. Unless you’re a commentator on Antville, where the video has caused rather a storm of debate. A quicktime of the video can be viewed here.
T-shirt featuring a QR code. Snap it with a internet-enabled camera phone and be taken to
the wearer’s website of choice
Quick Response Codes (those square pixellated barcodes that, when scanned by a camera phone, bring up information or link to a particular website) have moved into the world of bespoke fashion. Emma Cott, a Munich-based clothing label has launched a new collection of t-shirts enabling users of social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace to take their profiles to the street, sporting an abstract code design on their chest. Visitors to emmacott.com can generate their own QR code (that links directly to the website of their choosing) and add it to their choice of t-shirt. It’s self-promotion made very simple.
Paul Arden died yesterday after a long illness. As executive creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi during its heyday, Arden was responsible for some of the great campaigns of British advertising, including British Airways and Silk Cut. But he will also be remembered as one of the great characters of the industry
Brands are saying sorry at a more rapid rate than ever. CR’s advertising columnist Ben Kay delves into why sorry is no longer the hardest word and whether this is an effective strategy for winning audiences
By loosening its approach to advertising, and engaging with its audience directly, the drinks brand has transformed with the times and won a whole new set of fans
Kelly Grovier’s new book charts the artist’s persistent dialogue with classic and contemporary art
We speak to Lego’s VP of global brand development Alero Akuya about the brand’s rare ability to straddle the physical and virtual worlds with ease – whether through its immersive new art exhibition in Paris or collaborations with Epic Games and Nike
The Pentagram partner has created the titles for the acclaimed new Netflix show, which reimagines the Greek myths in a contemporary setting
A new book from Reel Art Press collates the first comprehensive history of film posters. We explore why they remain an underappreciated area of cultural design
The Autumn 2024 issue of Creative Review looks at the brands and individuals who are pushing creativity forward on their way to the top
Mark Sinclair talks to the artist and designer about his new book, Lost Ordinary Magic, and the importance of recognising the power of simplicity and the everyday wonders that surround us
We explore how the 90s, an era the UK looks favourably upon for its thriving culture, are continually inspiring a stagnated creative industry
The band’s surreal new album visuals explore a darker, more grotesque side of romance. We speak to the creative team behind the campaign about challenging the visual tropes of rock music
As the &Walsh founder launches her agency’s new offshoot Type of Feeling, she discusses why typography’s ability to evoke emotions makes it one of the most powerful tools at a brand’s disposal
Kinda Studios is tapping into the emerging field of neuroaesthetics to help creatives and brands make more impactful work that benefits people’s wellbeing