Whenever I see another toothbrush redesigned, or a men’s razor again claiming it’s the most closest shave ever, now with 4 blades, embedded shaving gel, light titanium handle, magnetized head and revolutionary anti-slice technology, I think why? Simultaneously, I am also continuously amazed at the progression of knowledge and innovation in regards to these and other products, which each year seem to emerge with yet another amazing break through. In this film, via treehugger, this panel of designers, thinkers and business people, debate the question, ‘How do “our own growing individual needs for self-actualization and meaning” affect how we consume? Design is responsible for meeting the needs of consumers in the world. It follows therefore, that designers carry an immense responsibility to identify and design what products and services we need, and the impact they have on the environment in which they are made from, used and disposed of. It’s great viewing for entrepreneurs, designers, brand managers, product designers, environmentalists, businesses and consumers alike. Check it out after hours tonight.
Monthly Archive for February, 2008
conscious capitalism.
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Fluttering into our city this week is the 13th annual tour of Flickerfest, Australia’s largest and only Academy accredited short film festival. Hosted by Dendy George Street, the programme will feature a cross section of short films, including live action, animation and stop-motion, sourced from Australia and the rest of the world. This year, Flickerfest has travelled to more locations than ever before including Noosa and Broome. After Brisbane, the next stop for the Flickerfest tour bus is Western Australia, then onto Tasmania, ACT and finally Melbourne. Continue reading ‘tickets please.’
understanding how to understand.
Image: Emmanual Tonggun, age 15, Uganda
When I was a little school boy, oblivious to cars, cooking, continents and climate change, the term Greenhouse Effect, was used to describe the warming of the Earth’s atmosphere due to heat bouncing off ’something’ and becoming ‘trapped’. I understood the process, accepted its occurrence and then went and played handball. Combined with the hole in the Ozone Layer caused by the use of CFCs, and I knew a little bit about the beautiful blue sky above my head. Some time in my early twenties I suppose, the term Global Warming, replaced The Greenhouse Effect in my consciousness, and related to me, the warming of the earth. Wikipedia frames it right here. “Global Warming” was then widely replaced with the term Climate Change, attributing the concentration of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere causing climate variations to both anthropogenic (human) behaviour and Earth’s own dynamic processes. Climate Change was also believed, by some, to be integrated into the global vernacular, as a marketing strategy (the term Climate Change is less alarming than Global Warming) Continue reading ‘understanding how to understand.’
Since coming back from the UK, I have been regaling friends and family with stories of the fashion forward city of London. From Oxford Street to Portobello Road Markets to Covent Garden to Brick Lane, there’s always something new and exciting going down in London Town in terms of fashion and footwear. It’s been tricky keeping up-to-date on what’s happening fashion-wise over the other side of the world, as magazines and shop websites tend to offer a limited, stylized view of current trends, so I was very excited to discover London Street Fashion. Continue reading ‘london street fashion’
Got emotional baggage to dump? For a hypothetical national campaign to inspire positive thinking, designer Stephen Woowat, proposed people dump those bad and negative thoughts in special bin bags. The “negativity refuse bag” comes with instructions that say “we encourage you to dispose of your pessimism and mental demons in a physical manifestation, to help purge your mind. So throw away that photo of the ex, or that poor performance report and forget about it. Important: Do not re-open after sealed. High risk of emotional relapse”. This idea won the 2005 Student Roses Awards, and is one of many fun, imaginative things worth seeing in his portfolio. View it here.
art in a can
Red Bull doesn’t just give you wings. It gives you art. Since 1997, the Red Bull Art of Can has been running open exhibitions for people to build, sculpt, glue, hammer, bend, fold, and tape their cans into clever artworks. It’s travelling around the US and registrations are open for the 2008 Houston exhibition. Have a look at the past exhibitions and you’ll be amazed at the diversity and the craftmanship. The artworks range from using just one can to hundreds of them, and it sure makes you look at those slender silver and blue cans in a new light.
reflections.
In Sydney, acceptance and ignorance walk hand in hand. Suits walk beside the shirtless; gays and lesbians walk hand in hand; and spreading into the West, through Parramatta, Bankstown and other postcodes, an assortment of cultures live as neighbours in an area described by one to me the other day as “not Australia”. Sydney accepts all, and segregates all. In some suburbs thanks to government housing policies, the rich and poor are separated by nothing more than ten metres of tarmac, challenging concepts of community and identity. In 2006, as part of the Art & About festival, The City of Sydney commissioned the photography of 3500 people from several suburbs, aging in range from two weeks to ninety two, to explore social preconceptions. The images were then refined to 1400 images, to match statistical, cultural mosaics of the suburbs, and then using digital image technology, were merged layer upon layer to form a male and female face representing specific suburbs. The result was the creation of a person who had never existed, but who represented both statistically and visually, the typical demographics of a particular area. The project divisors have since compiled 47 portraits of communities across Australia, taken from 6000 photographs. In 2008, their aim is to eventually compile three faces for every state and territory in Australia, representing an urban, regional and rural community. These portraits will then be overlaid to produce the overall Face of Australia. Hopefully I can bring it to you when revealed.
amazing electric tiger land
It continues to amaze me how brands develop inventive and original ways to reach their consumer. Onitsuka Tiger, by shoe giant Asics, reached the height of its fame when Uma Thurman played a yellow-clad assassin in Kill Bill by wearing ‘those yellow shoes’. Ontitsuka continued on the creative path with short film Running Fish Gutter in 2006, which profiles the life a Japanese Fisherman. More recently the Onitsuka Tiger Electric Land forms the centerpiece for Tiger’s new ‘made in Japan’ campaign. The electric shoe is one metre long and is incredibly intricate. Miniature highways packed with mini Toyotas are surrounded by high-rise buildings, there are Japanese market signs in the toe, a vending machine selling miniature Onitsuka Tigers in the heel and there is also a hidden Ipod dock which plays lazy beats through camouflaged speakers. Continue reading ‘amazing electric tiger land’
Two of us are up at a reasonable hour, the third one sleeps on. We take a leisurely, if not slightly scruffy, wander down the road to the newsagent. It’s a glossy mag for my housemate and the weekend paper for me. We shuffle home and watch music videos in between mouthfuls of toast and pondering over our reading material. And so, my Saturday morning ritual unravels. Continue reading ‘weekend rituals’
Before going to Piaf at Southbank on the weekend I was told by a few of my friends to ‘get the belly pork – you have to have the belly pork.’ Maybe because everybody told me I ‘had to have the belly pork,’ I didn’t get the belly pork. Instead I indulged in a petite steak on a bed of mash potato and I sampled a friend’s serving of belly pork. Usually after eating steak, I am sent into some sort of food coma but Piaf specialises in smaller servings, where the last thing you remember is not how full you are but how good the food tasted. The menu is a combination of rich French flavours with the clarity and freshness of Asian fare. For anyone venturing to Piaf, my last words of advice – ‘you have to get the belly pork!’ Honestly it’s delicious!
Shop 5, 182 Grey Street, Southbank
got art?
Here is an opportunity for a local artist to get their name, or at least their artwork, up in lights! Australia’s largest billboard, located at the Creative Industries Precinct of QUT Kelvin Grove, has vacancies for artists who would like to develop work for the site. Measuring 47m x 9.4m and parallel to the busy Kelvin Grove Road, the billboard (and potentially your work) will be hard to miss. Artworks are displayed on the billboard for periods between 3 and 4 months. During this time, it is estimated that between 50,000 and 70,000 commuters will pass the screen twice each day. What an impressive audience number! Applications are open now.
Corio Railway Station is the latest four-piece phenomenon to come out of Victoria. Their debut title ‘We had to know’ is an eclectic mix of brassy trumpets, soft percussion and angelic voices. Actually, before I go on, this is my first attempt at making a Flickr CD cover meme. Thanks to Bishop there’s only three simple steps that could potentially rocket you to music fame.
1. Follow the link to Wikipedia – this is the name of your band.
2. Follow the link to ‘quotations page’ – the last four words of the very last quote is your album title.
3. Follow the link to Flickr’s most interesting photos from the past seven days and the third one will be your album cover.
Who knows what will happen next. See what you come up with and let us know!
Ben Johnson (Joseph Mark) and Amber Marshall (Wolfbyte) take a moment to ponder the heavens at the recent Sounds Boutique extravaganza at the Tivoli. If you’re looking for a bit of entrepreneurial goodness this weekend, you might bump into these cats at the Do Well conference at the Brisbane Powerhouse.
sunday culinary adventures
Getting up early on a Sunday morning is not high on many people’s lists but in light of map’s eat/drink awards, I was inspired to get out and about to try a few new places on the Brisbane eatery map. So early Sunday morning, I rolled out of bed and zipped through the empty streets to West End’s The Gunshop Cafe.
My early bird friend and I were met with a rustic interior of exposed brick and intricate lantern-style lights that threw patterns of light onto the roof. Bench seating stretched down one wall, complete with a mish-mash of cushions to customise your seat. Service was prompt and wait staff were chatty and unobtrusive. The slightly darkened atmosphere and quick turnaround on coffees provided the perfect antidote to a late Saturday night. Continue reading ’sunday culinary adventures’
We’re up early, it’s wet and rainy in Bluefields and conditions aren’t ideal for sailing across the Carribean. At the dock, we take the advice from locals to use the boat that was leaving after lunch because it was safer. Once we make it on the boat we are delayed again, only this time to be held up by a truck full of coconuts making their way down about 10 sets of hands from the truck to the boat. An island without coconuts – what’s going on here? Continue reading ‘an island without coconuts’
lighting up london
As you wander over the Millennium Bridge towards St Paul’s Cathedral with your scarf tucked tightly under your chin and your mittens jammed into your overcoat, you raise your eyes to London’s night sky and try to find the Orion constellation. You think you can make out a single star but it’s a bit hard to tell with the glare and pollution of the city lights in your eyes.
It seems that most Londoners are experiencing the same problem. When a cross-section of people across Britain were asked to spot Orion, Londoners couldn’t correctly identify through the pollution, which is caused by the excess lighting in the evening skyline. Continue reading ‘lighting up london’
whatever it takes
Want to eat off Nicole Kidman’s plate? Or drink out of a Foo Fighters’ mug? You can as part of the “Whatever It Takes” range created by the UK-based 21st Century Leaders in conjunction with Churchill China. They create products based on artworks from cultural leaders including royalty, movie stars, bands, Nobel Prize winners, fashion designers, and sports people. Each ambassador donates a symbol of hope, a self portrait and a message of hope for the future. The products (including tableware, wristbands, shoes, tshirts) are sold to raise money for charitable projects in developing countries to address issues such as poverty alleviation, child abuse and environmental conservation. In Brisbane, you can find these limited edition mugs and plates at the sparkling new David Jones in Queens Plaza. (image artwork is by the awesome band Keane).
holding the man
The term ‘holding the man’ is a move that incurs a penalty in Australian Rules Football. It is also the name given to the best-selling memoir written by Australian writer and activist Timothy Conigrave that tells the story of a fifteen-year relationship between himself and John Caleo, who met in the 1970’s at Xavier College – a prestigious school for boys. A tale of love and despair that ultimately ends in tragedy has been adapted for stage by Tommy Murphy and will be playing at Brisbane’s Powerhouse Theatre after sell out shows in Sydney and Melbourne. Ex QUT acting students Matt Zeremes and Guy Edmonds play Caleo and Conigrave respectively and brilliantly execute outrageously funny and tender scenes, which make the world in which they lived and died in completely real. The show will run from March 5 – 8 at the Powerhouse.
Continue reading ‘holding the man’
threadless
For some, tee shirts are those threads you throw on as you leave the house so you don’t get arrested for baring your chest, but for others tee shirts are an extension of themselves; a visual artistic, political or emotional statement they mightn’t express verbally. In December 2004, Threadless.com tapped into the individualistic and artistic cred of shirts and launched a site to encourage people on the street to submit their mind-bogglingly brilliant design ideas to be splashed on chests worldwide. If you think you’ve got a design worthy of serious critique, visit Threadless.com to submit your idea. The web community will critique and rate your design and if it wins enough votes, it’ll be available for purchase on the online store. For your creative genius, you’ll receive a wad of cash with more mulla to follow if a reprint of your shirt is needed. If you’ve got some time to spare, browse the site to explore the community, offering everything from photography, street sighting money-making opportunities, interviews with designers, and special deals to keep you thinking way too much about tee shirts!
merino makeover
The Australian Wool Industry (AWI) has suffered recently. Between the drought and an ever-increasing image crisis, it became clear that Australian merino wool needed a makeover. The AWI put their heads together last year and launched the Protege Project, as a way of bringing the product back into the global consciousness. The Protege Project matched five unknown fashion designers with five iconic designers as mentors: among them Karl Langerfeld, Paul Smith and Donatella Versace. These five proteges were chosen to design and launch a new, exciting and modern range of clothing that would change the world view of Australian wool. Continue reading ‘merino makeover’
