A Camera Like Your Eye

Don't know much about Leica, but I want to know more after watching this.

Fall in New York City

I know it's winter now, but I love Matte Stephens' depiction of Central Park in the fall. I know I've written about his work before, but this is one artist that keeps on "wow"ing me. Super unique work that takes me back to an era in which I never lived.

Always Snowing in Philadelphia

The First Snow, Canon 7D from Reid Carrescia on Vimeo.

Perhaps my favorite aspect of the broad term "social media" is that everyday people can share their God-given talent with the world on such a broad scale. Even ten years ago this wasn't the case; Only a small percentage of mankind's talent was ever really shared with the greater whole - and those folks probably just got lucky.

I love when I come across projects like this one; an aesthetically stunning video, impeccably edited, and paired with an original soundtrack. I congratulate you, Reid & Allen Carrescia, on a job well-done.

A Note On Originality

I like the thought process here - gives me hope that I'm not the only one who feels like I'm lacking in originality. Long live creative inspiration.

Time Travel - Lessons From The Past

Why are we so obsessed with the idea of "vintage" & "retro"? I'll admit it, I love the Mad Men-esque 1960's styles that are so prevalent in today's pop culture. But why is that? Are we intrigued because these are times in which we never lived?

Whatever the reasoning, I love this find via @aestheticapparatus - This alphabet series was created in 1954 for CBS Television by artist Jim Flora. Beautiful "retro" work, wouldn't you say?







Images from Aesthetic Apparatus

Two of My Favorite Things

"Helvetica & The New York Subway System"


This amazing project by lettering artist, type designer, teacher, design historian, and all around type nut Paul Shaw, has recently come to fruition, and is an incredibly detailed history / type design case study for the ages. I don't profess to know much about type or this Paul Shaw character, but I would love to get my hands on this book! The type / lettering design of each different subway stop has always fascinated me. This beauty of a book contains a lifetime's worth of research on why things look the way they look today in the oft-times grimy underworkings of NYC. Astonishing work. I'm glad people like Paul Shaw exist to bring us treasures like this.









Images from the MyFonts Blog
Buy the book here for a meager $85.00 plus shipping (someday...)

Gap-Side Down

Very clever.

Round Two: New Orleans

Fifty People, One Question: New Orleans from Benjamin Reece on Vimeo.

Space Chair Project

Innovation. I like the "push the limits" mentality. Why not send it space?

Snuggie?

Clever.

"Planning" too Vague?

Account planning is fascinating. But is "planning" an appropriate title? I know a lot of agencies throw "strategic" or "strategy" in there somewhere... What is it really though?

Who Reads Anyways?

Exquisitely designed hardbacks for the bookshelf.





Designer: Coralie Bickford-Smith, senior cover designer at Penguin Books.

Let's Be Cultured: American Poetry

I don't know if it's the rich culture of New York City or all of the rain we've been getting lately, but I found this poem wonderfully inspiring - and I'm not one to love poetry!

The Rainy Day

The day is cold, and dark, and dreary
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.

My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the mouldering Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
And the days are dark and dreary.

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Retro: The New Vintage

As I'm always on the prowl for killer design, I was pleased to find this amazing collection of classic design work from the 1950s-1970s and contemporary designers that draw inspiration from that time period, called Grain Edit.

Here are some samples I particularly like from an artist named Matte Stephens:

How to Grasp the Concept of "Now"?

I always love these kinds of things; statistics that boggle the mind and make you say, "wow!"

I also love how this ad totally legitimizes Twitter as a *real* form of communication, up there among the ranks of email, text message, phone call, YouTube, Google, etc. Congratulations, Twitter, and welcome to the big leagues.

Reeses

Never underestimate the power of a :15 second TV spot. Simple, clean art. Smart copy. Good ad.

Tribute to Pinback: Loro

What If You Could Wake Up Anywhere Tomorrow?

I found this little video surprisingly moving... and I'm still not sure why.?

Maybe it's the fact that New York is so full of diversity and people's interesting stories that I'm anxious to get there and participate in the culturally stimulating movement. Or maybe it's the cool videography/music combo on the streets of NYC. Whatever it is, it's cool.

For whatever it's worth, check out this video and make of it what you will. Where would you wake up tomorrow if you could wake up anywhere?


Fifty People, One Question: Brooklyn from Fifty People, One Question on Vimeo.

Asics Origami

Origami In the Pursuit of Perfection from MABONA ORIGAMI on Vimeo.
Aesthetically stunning & awe-inspiring all at once. For the first time in my life I sincerely wish I owned a pair of Asics. God bless the power of advertising. I love how simple the concept is; it's all about telling a story and playing with the emotions of the consumer. Well done, Asics.

John Mayer on "Conscious Composition"

I've been following John Mayer's "Battle Studies" blog, covering the process of recording his new album. Fascinating stuff–it's the future of recording music. Stars coming down to the level of the consumer. Atta boy, John.

So, as an advertising person I'm always in the process of looking for ideas. How to be creative, how to get a great idea, etc. It can be extremely frustrating! I really like Mr. Mayer's twist on things–he calls it "Conscious Composition". Of course he's relating it to making music, but I think it can be tweaked and applied to the creative process in general. The moral of the story: the creative process is hard!

JOHN ON CONSCIOUS COMPOSITION

One of the focal points of my approach to songwriting these days is something I've come to refer to as "conscious composition".

Conscious composition is composing not only chord changes, say for instance a 4-chord progression in a pop or rock setting, but also thoughtfully writing the lyrics and melody line above it. It's the exact opposite of "get in a room and jam." Sure, I could pull together a drummer, a bass player, an organ and a trio of background singers, but without the time spent investigating lyrics, ideas, note selection, etc, all I'm going to have (at best) is a groove that underscores nothing but very basic ideas. Even if I'm able to turn it into something sophisticated, that's still because I was thinking back on a past moment in my songwriting that was fully conscious, except I'll remember it as having come up with it "on the spot"... When there aren't enough of these conscious moments of songwriting to draw from, the creative energy of making music is lost.

Even going into the studio with a guitar and a microphone and singing and strumming until I get something worthwhile isn't conscious enough, because my mind still knows that there's somebody engineering the recording session and my performance brain will take over and make sure I don't sing or play anything embarrassing. The work has to be done alone and ahead of time.

Undoing self-consciousness and bridging into creative consciousness has been and still is a very daunting process. There's nothing new about the template; guy puts everything he has into making music, music rewards guy with everything he has, guy forgets how to make music like he used to. But there is a way to use all that music has given me to dig even deeper than I have before. I'm glad that I've had as many years playing guitar under my belt as I did before I became successful, and I'm glad I have the resources to do whatever it takes to stay focused in that place I know so well.

It's easier to end the day early and go to dinner, but it gets nothing accomplished in the way of answering the question "and why are you taking up space here on Earth again?"

I'm not saying I won't someday go through musical menopause, it's just not going to happen yet. It's being a conscious composer that's going to keep me relevant, and it's refraining from believing that I can jam for 2 months and make a record that's going to return the favor that success has given to me.

Remind Me: Röyksopp

Remind Me from Röyksopp on Vimeo.
Interesting find by @bowenarrow (ScoBo).

VW: Advertising Legacy

From "Think Small" til now, Volkswagen are advertising geniuses.

Here's a few of my favorite TV spots from the last 15 years or so.

Da da da

Synchronocity

Pink moon

Night drive

Beautiful work

UTAH TAP

I'm so proud to have been a part of this awesome movement to provide children around the world with clean drinking water.

Mad props to everyone (not me) who put their blood, sweat & tears into making this TV spot a reality. Proud to have been associated with you and this project!


Utah Tap TV Spot from Mike Morris on Vimeo.

(courtesy of Mike Morris - www.blog.morriscreate.com)

Noble Beast

Andrew Bird's new album Noble Beast was released earlier this year and so far has yet to disappoint. I'm a big fan and am hoping to attend his show in late February at the Murray theater.

The point of this post is to celebrate perhaps the most creative and interesting song lyrics I have come across in a long time. On the track Anonanimal, Bird creates an enormous play on words from the English language, meanwhile telling a story. And these aren't the typical "play on words" type words; I mean this is like hypercreativity and an overabundance of free time at their all-time high. But I think it's sheer genius. Take a gander:



Lyrics:
I see a sea anemone
The enemy
See a sea anemone
And that'll be the end of me.

While the vicious fish was caught unawares in the tenderest of tendrils
Underneath her tender gills

I will become this animal
Perfectly adapted to the music halls
I will become this animal
Anomalous appendages
A non-animal

Hold on just a second
Don't tell me this one you know
I know this one I know this song
I know this one I love this song
Hold on just a second
Don't tell me this one you know
i know this one I know this song
I know this one I love this song
I know this one

Underneath the stalactites
The troglobites lost their sight
Uh oh

The seemingly innocuous plecostomus
though posthumus
They talk to us
They talk too much

See a sea anemone
The enemy
See a sea anemone
That'll be the end of me
Vicious fish was caught unawares
In the tend'rest tendrils
Underneath her tender gills and

I will become this animal
Perfectly adapted to a music hall
I will become this animal

Anomalous appendages
A non-animal

Buy his new album! And his old ones.

Motrin...?

Apparently this ad sparked a lot of controversy and offended moms the world around. Nothing like a pharmaceutical company shaking things up a bit... Like I've mentioned a few times before, this motion typography trend is huge. I wonder how long it will actually last...

Life in Technicolour II

Love this new(er) version of the song. If you haven't heard it before check it out on the Prospekt's March EP that was released in late 2008. This is one of the more creative things I've seen in awhile. I love the small attention to detail.

Change

We salute you, Mr. President.

(image courtesy of droga5.com)

HBO: Voyeur

So, I've never seen the show, nor do I subscribe to HBO. But this is sweet stuff that ad agency BBDO New York did. This whole stunt wound up being the most awarded advertising sha-bang of 2008. Kudos to BBDO. Check out a small look back video here.

American-made: F-150

Not a big fan of the company, but at least their latest ads are cool. Motion graphic typography is so hot right now

Starbucks

Motion graphics are super in. I'm a big fan of the new Starbucks ads... the newest one is an interesting move by Starbucks in this new age of Obama.


Election day excitement:


Holiday cheer:

NikeID typography motion graphics

I'm proud to have been part of this collaboration. Although I give most credit to Mr. Michael Morris.

Go Cougars.

I like this look

I found this sample of an interesting motion graphic piece the other day. Ironically, I like the still image a whole lot more than the actual motion part. Check it out for yourself here. And here too.

Give a Coke to a stranger

So I didn't know exactly how to go about fulfilling this assignment: Give a Coke to a stranger.

I wish I had a really cool story about how I did some amazing good deed, but I don't. I actually sort of forgot to do it over the weekend, so I had to improvise.

I decided to buy a drink from the vending machine and then search for a deserving potential recipient of the free drink. Well, I didn't have to search very far! As I pulled my drink out of the machine, I turned around to find a nice lady talking on her cell phone. We made eye contact, and I new she was the one. I told her I had a drink for her, and she couldn't have looked more grateful.

She was extremely gracious and I think pleasantly surprised. I think I may just start doing these good deeds more often...

how to create?

I admittedly am a wannabe artist/designer. Not a day goes by that I don't wish I were a "creator" – that is, somebody that creates original things. A creative if you will.

So why do I feel a fear of creating?

The other day I went out and bought a sketchbook, some pencils and a felt tipped pen. Four days later I have yet to crack the book open and attempt to create anything. Why is that? What am I afraid of? My own inabilities? Probably. Maybe it's because I sincerely don't know what I am doing. Maybe not. But seriously, it's llike I'm afraid to touch pen to paper because I think I won't like the outcome. Have you ever felt that way?

In class the other day my professor brought up the idea that our minds are divided into two separate entities: the creator and the editor. Many of us tend to let the editor dominate. We are constantly correcting mistakes and second-guessing ourselves. Why do we do that? Why do I do that? I like how he introduced my mind to this notion of "kill the editor". Set your mind free, and create!

So here's my next question: When I'm in the "creation" phase, how do I just let my mind create? How can I be more creative?

Just some things to think about...