There’s an array of ideas of what makes for a vibrant, thriving community but derelict buildings and dirty streets rarely feature highly.
Taking a simple yet innovative approach to unused spaces, car lots and factories - Tony Goldman partnered with Jeffrey Deitch to create the Wynwood Walls project in 2009. In essence the project uses community spaces as a live canvas, inviting artists to create murals in areas that could more than do with a lick of paint. Since then the project has gone global, attracting high profile artists such as Shepard Fairey.
HCTN have recently launched a docuseries archives the transition of a neighbourhood; “exploring the power of Public Art and innovation to uplift and revitalize urban communities.”
Hopefully this regeneration concept really does catch on. With the global economy as it stands, approaches like these could help arrest the decline of communities everywhere.
Guitars, synths and sunshine. Calming blue sea and MJ in his prime. Don’t try and tell me that your day doesn’t feel just a little bit better after five minutes of this. Mine certainly does.
What’s that saying; two things you can be sure about in life is death and taxes. May I suggest that the other inevitability is change.
Civilisations come and go, fashion and cultural trends rotate and someday we’ll all turn into robots. In the mean time, the global economy is imploding and the 99% are voicing their opinions on an economic system that has a few inherent flaws.
So where does this leave advertisers? Well it’s clearly not a time to only ‘sell’. One good and jolly sensible reason being that there’s generally less money flowing in the 99% sphere. This means an opportunity for communications that engage and create dialogue.
Inspired by some art house sensibilities, Motorola have started the conversation with a series of ads that pose an existential question of ‘What does Abundance mean to you?’.
Featuring a range of Japanese creatives and thinkers, each one in turn answers that very question. An interesting and innovative strategy that proves particularly poignant given the Japanese peoples’ attempts to recover from national and personal tragedy.
In times of uncertainty, nostalgia is often the prescribed remedy. An alignment with an audiences real concerns though, has to be the future. I’m not sure how radical the ‘brand message’ will get over on this side of the pond, but the consumers appetite [and taste] is slowly changing; becoming just that little bit more discerning.
Leading brands of the future will have to extend the idea of purpose to more than CSR policies, making them integral to their brand values and indeed communications.
Join me on a journey to the underside of a well used frying pan.
Photographer Christopher Jonassen’s startling scorched surfaces bear more than a passing resemblance to imagery taken from the Hubble Satellite. Even if we never leave the confines of the kitchen, we can still visit the stars.
Like me, you’ve probably fallen asleep in an auditorium or two. Luca Zanier’s photography brings about a sense of drama sure to keep us all awake, with colours that really pop (as Steph would say), thus bringing about a real sense of drama.
You can almost feel the tension as a hashed together EU bailout plan loosely comes together. Could the real Greek Prime Minister please stand up.
Public unrest at the role of ‘the corporation’, bailed-out banks and company CEOs still pouring bonuses into their pockets, juxtaposes with the the nigh on beatification of Steve Jobs. These really are interesting times we live in.
Occupy Wall Street protestors have captured a portion of the headlines recently – much in the same way as our own St. Pauls brigade. The arguments for being there however, haven’t captured the headlines in quite the same way.
If you were having problems understanding the nature of the argument amongst protesters who are – contrary to mainstream media outlets – indeed part of the general public, hopefully David McCandless‘ broad info-graphic brush strokes will have made things that little bit easier to digest, despite being very hard to swallow.
