Frankenstory is a bit like consequences, or exquisite corpse (the old surrealist game).
It is a writing game you play with a friend - collaborative stylee. We (me, Tone and Mike) have just made it and have put it out there ont’ worldwideweb in it’s embryonic form to see how it grows up with the help and input of you lot!
Go and try it out for yourself and if you have any youngsters who have yet to get excited about writing or English in general then let them try this out.
I’ve just been published in the highly acclaimed art magazine Hot Rod which is based in Oslo. This issue was presenting hot new talents from its native Norway. The samples here is part of the presentation of the talented musicians Mungolian Jetset.
Norwegian art magazine Hot Rod
I’m currently collaborating with Amsterdam based Appostels on Android and iPhone applications.
Check them out,
More bragging, although my Saturnine nature never lets me truly relish this kind of thing.
I am going to be listed in The Observer as one of the UK’s rising talents, I am now officially part of The Future 500 network which connects people who are best in field whether that be in design, art, business, technology or whatever. So best in field is where I’m at. I’m literally all over that!
Pass the Courvoisier as Busta might say.
In the ‘Website - Content and Design’ category http://www.bima.co.uk/bima-award/020E131703/bima-awards-2008/awards-winners/
This is a project I art directed and designed as my parting shot at magneticNorth. It was built by the talented team at mN in partnership with the BBC. I did all the art direction, concept sketches, the little character and the landscape, I chose Danny Brown to do the gorgeous generative flowers and he duly did some magic voodoo.
I have resisted bragging about all the awards it has won but it was such a labour of love I may as well list them all here as a kind of payback for the sleepless nights. So in no particular order: FWA, Pixel Awards, Adobe Y, IVCA Clarion and now a BIMA. Other stuff I do wins awards… maybe I will post that (one day when I can be arsed).
Here’s a pic of the work… you can also see it in action here http://www.bbc.co.uk/bloom/flash.shtml
And remember kids climate change is for life not just for Christmas.
My site has crashed into the Top 40 of the Design Charts, it’s great to be in such illustrious company as Jonathon Harris (disclaimer - the charts change every week so I might not be there anymore when you look).
Also another boast is that I’m going to be speaking at Liverpool Design Symposium, brought to you by D&AD and some other folks. For all interested parties Matt Pyke from Universal Everything will be there also.
It has come to my attention that the title of my blog does not really describe the content, so I’m about to make an effort to address that before Trading Standards pop round.
‘eat me’, ’shake me’, ‘hello, I am made of lovely juicy good stuff’, ‘ooooh I am sweet and funny’, ‘put me in the recycling please, as I’m just a little harmless product’.
Yep we’ve all heard it, we’ve all smiled inside at the innovative and engaging ways brands are talking to us now, happy to be a part of the new world consumer order. Low impact? High enjoyment? We’re all friends together, you and me. Me the fab cool greenish product, you the smart moneyed consumer.
But something is sticking in my throat today… something not quite feeling right. When I read those words on the websites, on the products, on the hidden surface of the thing I’ve just bought, telling me how much they ‘loved’ making this thing something feels wrong. What that thing is I’m going to try and set out here because for me the end of the nicey nicey brand is looming large on the horizon. I have been wrong about a lot of future trends (the coolness of comic sans being one) but I think this one is only a matter of time.
There has been a massive increase in this general niceness on the part of brands for the last 5 years, with probably Ben and Jerrys being the ancient precedent for this current vogue of all copy written like a cosy exchange between two happy people. Would you like a nice cuppa? Oh go on then you harmless git.
The happy friendly copy was a breath of fresh air for me especially in a world where we are cowed and swayed by names and corporations barking their messages in the manner of machismo, professionalism and science. The nicey nicey was a bit of light relief in the everyday, conversational and warm, making me feel a little bit closer to the lost past of local shops and local produce that I don’t think I ever really knew.
I liked the charm, and the idea that the people who made the product were all thoroughly decent people who care about me.
But now as the clouds of recession loom on the UK horizon and as we wish that Kirstie Alsop had been a doctor instead of a fffffing presenter we begin to understand that property is not property but in fact peoples HOMES, we begin to understand that credit is not credit but in fact DEBT, and we begin to understand that the climate is not warming up our summers a bit but generally wreaking havoc worldwide. Ahhhh when I was a wee lass we actually had discernible seasons, when it was cold in Winter and hot in Summer instead of perma-April.
So in my current headspace if someone is going to tell me they made something with love, that something better not be a soft drink or a disposable razor or a 2.zero web offering for better networking - what it better be is something a little bit more important.
But brands have never really been the answer to environmental and financial disaster but when the UK populace is edgy, nervous and skint it annoys to have this cloying familiar chat from brands who are without a doubt part of the problem. When the reality bites I can’t abide those who continue to harp on about ‘loveliness’ when I know only too well that I only believed in their loveliness when my life too was lovely. Now I find it all a bit tired, irrelevant to my life, like reaching adolescence while your parents still pat your head as you think “Don’t they know the shit I’m dealing with, why can’t they see what the world is like”.
I’m not advocating branding like Death cigarettes here, but if brands are to have any resonance with the people their message cannot be one of unending niceness and childish talk. If I see one more ‘ooooooh hello’ on a bit of packaging I will light the bonfire.
We all need good companies to make stuff that is worthwhile but don’t lay it on too thick folks because we know you still live or die by your bottom line and this time our bottom line is really at the bottom.
For me and my current work on tone, brand messaging and communications in general I’m going to reign back from the baby talk and remember no-one likes a Polly Anna, if you want to come over as out of touch and oblivious keep on speaking to your customers like they are two, if you don’t then straighten up and fly right as Bob Fossil might say.
