On Being Proactive

No, I'm not talking about that acne blasting crap on the infomercial.
I came across A Brand For London which has been set up by Moving Brands.
Very cool idea... It's an excellent insight into the building of a brand and it rather cleverly gives Moving Brands a bit of authority, maybe even a degree of ownership over the redesign.
It's a pretty sharp way to get the inside track.


It's also a useful tool for anyone without an understanding of the design process to see the work that goes into creating a brand that represents an entire city, especially London.
It's much easier to elucidate the value of design to people, when they can see the work that's gone into it. This would avoid the public backlash that is generally associated any time a major, justifiably expensive branding exercise takes place (See: City Of Melbourne rebrand/London 2012 ID), which often stems from a lack of understanding of how a brand has been developed and the rationale behind it.

Anyway, I'm meant to be doing work related things, but was quite impressed by this.

Oh, by the wya... Frigging weekend, people!

Beyond coincidence

With the AGDA For Love or Money event coming up next week, I've spent the last month or so doing a bit of a push to a bunch of online media people to see if we can get word of the event spread around. I even got to set up a blog for it, which is cool...

It's been pretty successful... Managed to score some posts on some cool blogs and sites, as well as a bunch of Twitter retweets and mentions, which is handy. Seems like the various social platforms work well for promoting these kinds of events...

Anyways, I'm sure that's boring for everyone.

The point is, frigging check this out:
It's a screenshot of part of an interview I did for The Vine
Note the last of my responses in the bottom of this picture.
Then look at the Bankwest ad on the right....

What are the chances? Seriously though, what are they?

What are the chances that 1) Some idiot makes a reference in an interview to a pet rock that grows grass for hair and 2) The website this interview sits on then randomly generates an ad which contains a pet rock that grows grass for hair whilst aforementioned idiot is viewing it?

Effing slim, I say.

And that, good people, is all it takes to blow my feeble mind.

Go to bed Jeremy

Have been finding myself up late a lot recently...

Busy organising online things and other stuff for the AGDA student council's First Five Out event (Come check it out, 3rd September, it's going to be awesome), which is good fun.
Also sorting out some freelance stuff which is about to ramp up very shortly.
Plus, I've got neglected school stuff to get on with, sport to play, dinner to prepare... So on and so forth.
Can't say this is a complaint though. I'm at my best when I'm busy. Although I am very much looking forward to sleeping in on Saturday. Hells yes.

And here's some quick, Twitteresque reviews to give this post some kind of purpose:

District 9 - Brilliant. Avoids the stereotypes of the genres it treads and is thoughtful, open-ended and intelligent all at once. Plus it has a fighting robot, which I'm a sucker for.

Coraline 3d -Awesome. I heard Tim Burton designed the characters... It looks like it. With Neil Gaiman writing, the story is very clever too. And dark. Dark like a shadow's beard. Definitely worth checking out.

People who suddenly stop in the middle of the footpath for no apparent reason - Terrible. I hate you. No stars.

Panama Dining Room - Fantastic food, great service, relaxed but classy atmosphere and desserts that I'd walk the Arctic Tundra to get to. Oh and the arched windows look out over the city skyline, which is pretty ace.

Mountain Goat Brewery - Awesome warehouse setting, tasty pizzas, relaxed crowd and good beer. My pick of their beers last Friday was their stout which had been filtered through fresh hops flowers and coffee beans.

And with that, I'm calling it a night.

State Of Design Opening Night

Went along with some AGDA peeps tonight to the State of Design opening preview.

Was really good... Some great stuff from the Design:Made:Trade exhibition preview with an interesting mix of conceptual stuff and crafty odds and ends.
My favourite was the kit studio from Arkit. Very smart and sleek and it's classified as a shed, so you don't have to get council approval top erect one... Super cool. There was also awesome cards and assorted tat from Able and Game and some wicked jewellery from one of the coolest collective nouns going around : A Skulk Of Foxes

Anyways, no photos allowed inside, but here's some pics I took around the place and on the walk home:

Charcoal. Not just for digestion.

Just when you think you're getting good at something, go check out But Does It Float and eat a fuck-tonne of humble pie. Seriously talented people.

A favourite:
Robert Longo working in charcoal

Also, this is some of the most stunning animation I've seen in ages... Simple drawings plus mega-skillful rendering...

Clockwork from David Prosser on Vimeo.

Makes me think I've got hells long way to go...

Feeding the nostalgia.

Ah, nostalgia. It's so fashionable these days.
I'm watching Big Trouble In Little China. Kurt Russell delivers dialogue like an underpaid pizzaboy and terrible Asian stereotypes abound.
It's amazing.
John Carpenter is some kind of genius.

Also, this Flickr set makes me want to sit in front of the stereo and put together a whole bunch of mixtapes. Awesome.

Rolling Wines

My flatmate's girlfriend brought around a bottle of Rolling Shiraz for dinner.
I was struck by the awesome illustrated label which is quite atypical for a wine bottle, but is definitely eye-catching and works really well. Kind of reminds me of the illustration in some of the old books I read as a kid.
Coincidentally, the Shiraz is a brilliant vino as well. Yum.

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