MURKETING

Pictures of Stuff, cont’d: house stuff; sneakers

Via The Design Cubicle

Via The Design Cubicle

Both from this post (artists not named). Pictures of Stuff is an ongoing series.

Linkpile

• Hurricane imagery in New Orleans: “Though the storms have always played a role in the mythology of the city, hurricane imagery increasingly has part of what defines New Orleans. I’ve spent quite a lot of time there recently, and I can attest that the hurricane is everywhere: in jewelry, in art, and on bodies, for example.” That’s someone’s claim. Thoughts, New Orleans people? True or false? Examples?
• Really good fakes: The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction — is a tourist draw! “Replicas made with a palette of high-tech tools are changing the way tourists see art. [T]hese faithful fakes are the work of Madrid-based Factum Arte, a company that employs high-resolution 3-D scanners of its own devising to reproduce artworks.” Speaking authenticity and art: good story about the Rogue Duchamp Urinals.
• Gentleman’s bulletproof pocket square: “Reykjavik designer Sruli Recht is selling a limited number of these kevlar pocket squares made from “military grade lemon aramid” fiber.”
• Silence & Deafness: Disquiet previews “In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise” by George Prochnik, which sounds quite interesting.
• The most useless machine ever!
• Google Ads Will Now Follow You Across The Web: “Launched what it calls ad “retargeting.” If someone visits a page on an advertiser’s own site or YouTube channel, Google can now show a related follow-up ad to just that person when they visit another site which shows Google ads. Since there are millions of sites in the Google Content Network, chances are Google will see them again.”
• Fast food logos unconsciously trigger fast behaviour: “Subliminal exposure to fast food symbols, such as McDonalds’ golden arches, can actually increase people’s reading speed. Just thinking about these foods can boost our preferences for time-saving goods and even nudge us towards financial decisions that value immediate gains over future returns.” Via the invaluable Mindhacks.

These links compiled via delicious, and repurposed here with plug-in Postalicious. Not enough stuff? Not the stuff you wanted? Try visiting unconsumption.tumblr.com, murketing.tumblr.com, and/or the Consumed Facebook page.

The idea of the book, cont’d: Edible

“Booklava,” by Chuck and Cara Matteliano, the winner at the 2009 Western New York Book Arts Collaborative Edible Books Contest

More on Edible Geography. Via @nicolatwilley.

“Eating Words – Winston Churchill,” by Richard Kegler, 2009 (wafer board, chocolate, Twizzlers)

Much more at the Edible Books Gallery.

Pictures of stuff, cont’d: The back of art

This is a departure for the Pictures of Stuff Series, but having just posted those images of stuff shot from underneath, this seemed worth mentioning: Artist Simon Menner would like to do a series of images of the backs of famous paintings, like the one below. But as his statement explains: “Unfortunately it is almost impossible to get any permission to take such pictures. So I will see if this project ever continues. I haven´t lost my optimism yet, so currently I still say that it is ‘in progress.'”

By Simon Menner: The back of Salvador Dali's "Portrait der Madame Isabell Styler-Tas," 1945.

Via Junk Culture.

The idea of the book, cont’d: As planter

As planters.

Assessment: “Here’s a line of brilliant eco-planters: recycled book pots from Italy’s Gartenkultur. The concept — old books with holes carved into the middle to accommodate soil and a small houseplant — is simple enough (perhaps even enough for a DIY job) and quite beautiful.” Via.

In The New York Times Magazine: Why Starbucks can’t duck the gun controversy

–> Hey! Consumed is back! It’s in tomorrow’s issue of The New York Times Magazine, so go buy the paper, even though you can read the column below.

CROSSFIRE
Starbucks would prefer to be left out of the latest gun-rights debate. Here’s why it can’t.

Drawing a line between official institutions of lawmaking and the daily sphere where citizens move about is not so easy. And one thing the pistols-and-Frappuccino moment has demonstrated is that this is acutely true for a business with an image carefully devised to blur the line between public space and commercial space.

Read the column in the March 28, 2010, New York Times Magazine, or here.

Discuss, make fun of, or praise this column to the skies at the Consumed Facebook page.

Graphic argument

Maybe you’re aware of the controversy about this map. If you’re not: What does it communicate to you, visually? Does it look like a graphic from some movie about a violent assault on the United States? Or just a mundane political-strategy graphic?

If you are aware of the controversy, then you know that’s pretty much what he controversy boils down to. The full map below was published on Sarah Palin’s Facebook page, and critics say it’s sending a dangerous visual message in a moment when lawmakers are reportedly receiving death threats about their positions on health care reform. Palin, I gather, says such critics are making a phony argument and the imagery is benign.

An interesting design-interpretation disagreement. And one that seems pretty hard to hash out, because it’s hard for any observer, I suspect, to separate what one sees from one’s politics.

In defense of “how it looks”

Raise the subject of aesthetics when you’re wondering aloud about design, and somebody is sure to pipe up and say something along the lines of “Design isn’t how it looks; it’s how it works.” This is true — but false. True: A great-looking product that does not work is indeed Bad Design and will fail in the marketplace. And yet: Please show me a product or object hailed by the design elite as Good that doesn’t just so happen to be aesthetically pleasing. (To the design elite, anyway.) “How it looks,” in other words, matters, both to the critics and to the market.

Julie Lasky has an essay on Design Observer, Superbeauty, that is very much about “how it looks.” She contends that “beauty” has made a comeback in the 21st century, and evidence can be found in the design world; the essay is in connection with an exhibition called The State of Things: Design in the 21st Century, for which she co-curated a set of objects under the heading Super Beauty:

The category is based on the premise that nothing in today’s domestic environment is too modest or obscure to be prettified: sink strainers, dish soap packages, extension cords, humidifiers, radiators, computer components, fire extinguishers. It is as if contemporary designers have vowed to make an utter sweep of domestic inventory and leave nothing unpleasing to the eye.

The rest of her essay is here. I can’t speak with the sort of authority that Lasky can about this subject in the broader context of design and art criticism, so I was interested to get that perspective.

For what it’s worth, since the early days of Consumed I’ve addressed how I think “how it looks” makes a discernible difference in the marketplace. Please continue…

Welcoming the new Unconsumption Tumblr contributors

The recent call for new contributors to the Unconsumption Tumblr has yielded some very fine results: Joining Steve Chaney, Tom Hosford, Brian W. Jones, and myself are:

• Clifton Burt, graphic designer in Portland Oregon. His site is here.
• Chelsea Rogers, art and design enthusiast and brand researcher in New York, NY. Her site is here.

They’ve already started adding items, and good ones, too.

Still sorting through some of the other replies and deciding whether to add one or two more folks, but I’m thrilled to be off and running with these new volunteers. As always if you have feedback about the Unconsumption Tumblr — what it needs more of, or less of — speak up. Below or at unconsumption @ gmail.com.

Linkpile

• The Social Media Bubble: HBR blogger takes a business view on “thin relationships” online: “If the “relationships” created on today’s Internet were valuable, perhaps people (or advertisers) might pay for the opportunity to enjoy them. Yet, few, if any, do — anywhere, ever. Conversely, because those “relationships” aren’t valuable, companies are, it is said, forced to try and monetize them in extractive, ethically questionable ways.”
• Talk Deeply, Be Happy?: “People who spend more of their day having deep discussions and less time engaging in small talk seem to be happier.” Implications for social media version of “conversation”?
• Defictionalized Goods: Examples; clever term. Via @muzellec.
• YouTube your way to college – latimes.com: “Students’ ‘infomercials’ are the latest way to say ‘pick me out of this crowd, please!'”
• Haul videos: Slate piece. Interesting how much attention haul videos are getting. For what it’s worth I talked about them on Marketplace Money a few weeks ago, but that was their story, I’ve never written about the phenomenon.
• Curious Sound Objects: “A detergent bottle gains theremin-like capabilities, a simple canvas shoe amplifies the sound of foot-tapping by tenfold, a messenger bag becomes a cavern of echoes.”

These links compiled via delicious, and repurposed here with plug-in Postalicious. Not enough stuff? Not the stuff you wanted? Try visiting unconsumption.tumblr.com, murketing.tumblr.com, and/or the Consumed Facebook page.

The idea of cassettes: Quick rewind

Okay, so, I think I’ve more or less fully updated the monster post on The Idea of Cassettes, with the many, many suggestions and tips from readers. (Example left.) Probably I’ve missed some stuff.

Quick notes:

It looks like someone has started a Facebook page called Cassette, that seems to have been inspired by the post? I’m merely a reporter. But if you’re a cassette fan, be A Cassette Fan.

Also: It was great to see the post get noticed by MetaFilter, and Coudal (“Now that’s a blog post”), but for some reason I was particularly amazed to be noticed by Fark.com. Needless to say I was ID’d as “Some Guy”:

Also needless to say, the post was not a “history of the audio cassette tape.” But I’m thrilled to see it tagged “interesting.” Zero complaints.

Anyway there are a crazy number of additional items and links added to the original post. But I recommend just perusing the comments and reading what those who didn’t have a link, but had something to say. It’s really amazing, I think, how evocative the cassette clearly is to many — memories, romance, nostalgia. All from such a crummy hunk of mass-plastic!

Finally: Disquiet, which played no small role in inspiring this whole thing, happens to have a great post up that notes this cassette discussion and segues into some great info and observations about other music-object events and insights of the moment. Recommended.

Thanks again.

Pictures of stuff AND the idea of books, cont’d.

Randy Ludacer/Box Vox points to the work of Brock Davis, which includes some really great pictures of stuff taken from below. (“In designing packages,” Ludacer writes, “we usually think in terms of how a product will look “on the shelf” — but this is surely an unforeseen angle.”)

By Brock Davis; click pic for more.

Apparently Davis set out to do “One piece of creative work made every day for 365 consecutive days,” cataloging the results here. A mini-series of shots-from-underneath is just one of many ideas he explored; if you check out the full results search for “under” to see more of these. But check it all out while you’re there.

By Brock Davis. Click pic for more.

I had to include coffee mugs. And of course I have to throw in one more, since it involves books.

By Brock Davis. Click pic for more.

The idea of the book, cont’d: DIY book-page wallpaper

Click for more details

This series of posts started with book wallpaper; now Design*Sponge notes this DIY tutorial on how to make your own. Ruche explains: “We picked up some used cheap paper back books at the thrift store. You don’t necessary need old antique books, just books with pages with a yellow tint. (If you’re wondering, we used Secret Garden, 3 Ninjas, and some other one. haha) We used a paint roller to roll “Sta-Fold” (liquid starch that use for iron clothes) all over the wall, stuck old book papers on wall, and rolled another coat of “Sta-fold”. Work one section at a time. Wait for it to dry..and TADA!”

The D*S post notes the use of this look in a fashion shoot for a clothing brand (below).

By Stephanie Williams. Click for more details.

Linkpile

[I’m bringing this back on a Tuesday/Friday basis. Thoughts?]

• • When Good Companies Choose EVIL Names: “Did the founders of these businesses neglect to do a quick Google search before setting their names in legal stone, or did they hope to capitalize on the intimidation factor of naming their companies after sinister fictional corporations?”
  • Green consumers’ dirty little secrets: “New research suggests that those who make “green” purchases are subsequently more likely to behave selfishly, cheat and steal.” Similar: Goodies behaving badly: “Being virtuous is wonderful thing, but feeling virtuous is a shortcut to vice. That seems to be the moral of a fascinating piece of research by two Canadian psychologists, which suggests that the greener people are, the more likely they are to lie and cheat.” Somewhat similar research discussed in Buying In — “the licensing effect.”
  • The Digital Surplus and Its Enemies < Columns | PopMatters: Rob Horning reviews Jaron Lanier’s book.
  • Raiding Eternity: As part of a series called “Memory Forever,” Gizmodo has a rather fascinating piece of writing by Joel Johnson. It deals with our digital legacies, I guess you could say. His approach is unusual, and made me want to read more of his work. Via Listenerd.
  • Product Displacement: Glady Santiago posts a video from an Australian show called Hungry Beast on the topic that she’s been more on top of than anybody. It’s interesting to hear the guy talk about how product displacement (using props that look like a known brand, but aren’t — like UDS instead of UPS; see Santiago’s blog for more) can actually help the real tweaked brand. The idea is that it “engages” the consumer.
  • Will Your College Be Covered in Virtual Graffiti?: “Sophisticated new phones can sense their locations, so people are starting to use them to create a new layer of content mapped to specific places on and around campus. These digital sticky notes can share everything from official tours to student mischief.”
  • Terra Nova: Virtual Goods at GDC: “Virtual goods now a $6b business. … Rumor that US states will begin charging sales tax on virtual item sales within the year.”
  • The revolution was not tweeted – The Irish Times – Sat, Feb 20, 2010: “The Iranian Twitter Revolution meme is thoroughly debunked in Cloud Culture , a new study examining the impact of social media on the way we live our lives. It reports that a third of Iranians have internet access and the number of Twitter users in the country during last June’s unrest amounted to just 0.082 per cent of the population.”

These links compiled via delicious, and repurposed here with plug-in Postalicious. Not enough stuff? Not the stuff you wanted? Try visiting unconsumption.tumblr.com, murketing.tumblr.com, and/or the Consumed Facebook page.

The idea of the book, cont’d: Converted to purse or wallet

Stendahl's novel as handbag, by Rebound Designs. Click picture for more info.

To go with necklace and ring?

Via Slog, where you can see a wallet made out of a “damaged paperback.”

(Thx: Andrew W!)