Dylan Messaging

Independent Record Shops vs The Internet

This is something that really gets my back up, the decline of the independent music store. Now i know it's not entirely to do with design but there's a relation to marketing strategy here. Seeing my friend's independent record store go under at the beginning of the year wasn't nice, especially as he had it for over 15 years and had become a bit of an institution in Lincoln. The fact was he just couldn't keep it afloat in todays market. People just aren't buying CD's and Records anymore, it's all gone digital. I know as a designer i shouldn't be all for technology, and to an extent i am, but it's sad to see things disappear after being around for such a long time because people prefer to use technology to get what they want and need. I know this may be evolution etc but what's a faceless download on your computer compared to holding something that shows design that is so often beautiful and innovative and has been lovingly created by someone just like you. Physical CD'S/Records aside, it is a shame that so many record stores are disappearing, nobody wants to actually go out and buy things anymore. Fopp, the largest independent music retailer has recently gone into administration. Fopp was loved by many for it's low prices and simple retailing. So what happened? Is this the work of the downloading culture? Or simply poor marketing/business management on Fopp's part? If things carry on the way they are going HMV and Virgin will probably be next. It's got me thinking about what could be done to market/advertise independent music to consumers, that would appeal to them over downloading and buying from the internet. It'd be challenge considering all the pro's of downloading and the con's of buying from a store.

Vinyl Revolution

Working in shop over summer which specializes in records as well as clothing i have seen first hand the rise of the record. It's definately making a comeback, parents are blowing the dust off their old records and their kids are starting out building a collection of their own. So why have records persisted in staying around for so long? With records, you feel like you're getting more for your money. Playing a CD doesn't compare to watching a record spin round. Vinyl is now being revamped using innovative design. Vinyl is being produced in a multitude of colours and different effects such as marble and glitter. Vinyl is also being etched, beautiful illustrations are being etched onto the surface of vinyl making them not only functional but decorative. It's nice to see that even when given the option of downloading music, some consumers are still choosing to invest in a work of art!

Walkers Crisps

Has anyone else noticed the recent re-design of the Walkers crisps packet. I know it's a boring subject but it really got me thinking about how a simple change to a design can change consumer behaviour. Working in a bar this summer there hasn't been anything for me to eat during me shift except Walkers crisps. Until recently i never ate them thinking they were too unhealthy to stuff my face with, but being such a porn to things such as advertising and aesthetics i've starting eating the odd bag (or two), and it's all down to the typography used on the packet cover. The old font used to tell us the flavour was bold and quite a heavy font. However they've now changed it to a much lighter font not too dissimilar to the font used on 'light' versions of the snack. I wonder if Walkers knew what they were doing, a clever piece of re-design making people think they are eating a lighter snack. Are they trying to save themselves in a market where health food reigns supreme?

'Tryvertising'

Leading on from my post about the Pay per Blog scheme and it got me thinking about the lengths advertisers are going to because of the state of the consumer market. Advertising has been sneaky in order to infiltrate the market. Agencies such as Taxi Promotion UK use civilian's to spread their word, giving them the chance to try something out first then promote it to others. They take cabbies on free holidays to Las Vegas and Thailand in the hope they will talk to their passengers about it.
Scottish and Newcastle the brewer that brews Kronenbourg and Fosters, are currently going into 6,000 pubs across England to buy customers free drinks whilst asking about their drinking habits.
Another amusing bit of advertising took place a couple of months ago in Covent Garden, London. The company Carbon Marketing deliberately jackknifed a lorry spilling thousands of boxes of Nestle(their clients)chocolate bars onto the street. Up to 70,000 passers by picked up a chocolate bar to sample not even knowing that they were taking part in a 'free trial'. This so called 'Tryvertising' works particularly well with children willing to put up with adverts bombarding them in return for free stuff. It certainly works for the company Blyk a new mobile phone company who offers teenagers free text messages in return for being regularly interrupted by adverts. Teenagers are only too happy to accept this.
The fact that it shows consumers are willing to put up with being advertised to, and also promoting to others, in return for freebies shows that 'Tryvertising' may be the new thing in a world where we really don't want to be told what to do and buy. Conventional advertising isn't enough nowadays.

Pay per Post

www.payperpost.com is a website where you can sign up to get paid for plugging certain brands and services on your own blog. Advertisers are also invited to join the scheme on the sites homepage in the hope that their product/service will reach a broader consumer market through blogging. The average pay out per mention of a brand is about £6 and some blogers are earning up to £300 a month doing this. Personally i think it shows how desperate advertisers are becoming for their brand to be picked up by consumers. People don't like being told what to buy nowadays and this is a sneaky way of advertising to people in a way that means they don't even know they are being targeted by advertisers. Is this ethical or just the next step for advertising to take, necessary in an age where consumers are clued up, more cynical and are exposed so often to the internet?
Maybe we should all sign up? It'd be funny to see how each of us would try and sell the services of 'OpticsPlanet.com' Online binoculars shop where you can get free shipping on all items! (I'd get paid £5.15 for that!)

Women in Revolt, Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey

Women in Revolt, by Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey is a satirical look at feminist revolutionary groups. A twist to the film is that all lead 'women' in the film are actually played by transvestites (some more convincing as women than others!) It's filmed in a very haphazard way, the sound quality is awful, acting is dire and camera footage is jerky. This was intentional however and and is characteristic of all Warhol's films. The concept and hidden meanings behind the storylines are what Warhol wants viewers to focus on. Slightly pretentious but a welcome change from the polished look of Hollywood cinema.

Drury Lane architecture

Being stuck back home in Lincoln all summer working has meant i have, at times, found it hard to find inspiration. All i had to do though was to look right on my doorstep. My parents house is in the center of Lincoln, an historic city built on Roman foundations. My street is a mixture of old and new houses and it certainly doesn't have any rhythm in terms of architecture. It's a jumble of grand manor style houses, quaint cottages and ultra modern town houses. Here are two houses that for me really stick out as being unique. Although not the most attractive designs they are doing something different and create an interesting contrast with the 1000 year old castle they are built right next to.

Magnetic Calender

I came across this calender in Bruge, Belgium. It was being sold in an interior design shop. It's very clever how it can be used for every month. Obviously you can't write things down on it like you would a paper calender with separate months, but it's meant to be more of a decorative wall hanging. The calender uses a black magnetic shape that can be moved over the red design to create numbers up to 31. This is not the most practical and functional of calenders but it is simplistic and combines knowing the date with having a piece of art on your wall.

Wild Beasts Video - By Nick Scott

I first came across this video when completing the Digital Motion brief last year. I love how it uses stop motion combined with an innovative use of photography. The jerky movements and bold primary colours reflect the rawness of the track.
It was created by local Leeds graphic deigner Nick Scott (he also designed all the artwork for the band The Cribs). Simple stop motion is used in parts, however Scott also took multiple shots of the band playing then used the actual photos to create a sequence giving the effect of moving film. It's not a complex, amazing feat design but it suits the track perfectly and grabs the viewers attention throughout. The music is based on rough basic elements, so too is the video.

Pompedou Centre, Paris

Just been to Paris and whilst i was there i visited the Pompidou Centre. The Centre was designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano, the British architect couple Richard Rogers and Sue Rogers, and the British structual engineer Edmund Happold. The project was awarded to this team of relative unknowns in a design competition, whose results were announced in 1971. The Pompidou revolutionized museums and in fact how buildings were created. It turned the rules of architecture on it's head. What is normally hidden within the walls of a building is externally presented in a muddle of pipes and external elevators. The characteristic piping is colour-coded according to the contents: yellow for electricity, red for heating, blue for air, and green for water.
I wouldn't go quite so far as to say the building is aesthetically pleasing but it is a great feat of engineering and certainly eye-catching. It's had people talking since it was built and no-one seems to be able to decide on whether it's good piece of architecture or not.
The way the interior has been laid out means that this is totally different museum experience to any other. The whole building combines fine art, film and design in one and uses huge floeurescent typography to guide you through the different levels. A ride on one of the outside elevators is breathtaking as you see right over the city.
Some say it's ugly but if you're looking at it from a design perspective it's innovative and unique.

Ashkan Sahihi

Ashkan Sahihi is an Iranian photographer known for his unique photographic projects. At first glance at his pictures reveal simple portraiture photography, however it's the story behind the pictures that make them really interesting.
His photography is usually divided into different series. Amongst the series he has created, there is the scream series (volunteers screaming), the hypnotised series, the cum series (hilarious pictures of quite conservative people with semen splashed on their face) and my favourite, the drug series.
Sahihi gave illegal drugs to a number of volunteers who had not used drugs before. They had to sit in his studio until the drugs wore off. The photographs he presents in this series are the pictures he felt best summed up the experience of the volunteer. Apparently the photoshoot, at one point, turned nasty when the female volunteer who was given crack got agitated and almost violent when she was told she could not have any more!
Visit the website www.ashkansahihi.com to see his full portfolio of work.
(the woman in the picture above is on ecstasy)

Album artwork by Love Police.

I've had the album above for quite some time and if i remember correctly the reason i bought wasn't for the music but because i fell in love with the artwork on it's cover. The bright colours and psychedelic patterns are delicious! This band obviously wanted to present and package their music in a visually stimulating way. The artwork is by a design group called Love Police. They are also major band and event merchandisers and tour promoters. Formed in 1996 by a designer, a music industry worker and a psychic dog handler(?!) they wanted to bring colour and vibrancy back to the music industry in the post grunge era. Their website is pretty impressive, good use of animation and navigation through visual props makes a really fun website to look through.
www.lovepolice.com.au/

Sam Scorer

This building is near Newark, about 10 miles from where my parents live, and it has caught the attention of many drivers on the A1 i'm sure! It was built in the 1950's by the architect Sam Scorer who incidentally was one of my parents neighbours until he died a few years ago. It was originally a petrol station, but is now, horror of all horrors a Little Chef! A innovative, remarkable piece of architecture that is being wasted somewhat!

JR - Taking art to the street

As an undercover photographer, JR transforms his pictures into posters and makes open space photo galleries out of our streets. An acute observer of our time, as comfortable in cozy neighborhoods as in urban ghettos, he questions pedestrians with the exhibitions he mounts on their everyday commutes.

He has exhbited artwork on the walls of the European Center for Photography and the square of the Hotel de Ville in Paris. He is always thinking of new ways of exhibiting his work, keeping in urban areas where the streets help reveal the meaning of the pictures themselves.

Where art is exhibited is hugely important in terms of how it is viewed and understood. JR is still creating after he has produced the artwork by cleverly placing his work in an outside environment. It's what stands him apart from other artists. He is questioning the boundaries of the public and private realms and changing how we perceive art. It also means people that would otherwise not visit a gallery get to view his art.

Maybe we should look at different ways of displaying our work this coming year giving more people the chance to view it. It would be break from the norm if our final year show was placed outside around the uni campus rather than in the school of design.

Bodysong - Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead)

The trailer for 'Bodysong' - Director-Simon Pumnel, Music-Jonny Greenwood
Year- 2002
Length- 83 mins


This movie tells the story of the archetypal human life using images taken from the last 100 years of cinema and from all around the world. Images span from those inside the body - moment of conception - charting the beginnings of the individual - the first cry of the newborn baby - then starts to capture humanity as a collective and certain aspects it, shown through acculumated footage of ritual celebration and the carnage of war.
The editing, music, and the narrative arc of the material is designed to take the viewer on a roller coaster tour of the human body and life cycle. Every possible depiction of the human life from microscopic medical to portraits and newsreels, from births to deaths, are cut to a powerful music track by Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead to create a powerful and highly emotional film, with peaks of ecstasy and troughs of despair.
The power of this film comes from the huge number of different faces, people, each body and each glimpse at anatomy. All are dignified and placed together in such a way that they are part of a flowing motion - a wave of humanity that makes us realise how big and important it really is.

The film is supported by a highly innovative website www.bodysong.com (click on the bodysong link on the c4 page). It uses a 3D interface to create an interactive website that allows users to truely engage with it and in turn the film. It allows the user to explore each and evry one of the images used in the film and discover the story behind. It's actually a clever piece of marketing for the film as it would generate much interest.

Banksy at Glastonbury

Once again Banksy's presence was felt at the Glastonbury Festival. The guerrilla artist has become a regular fixture at the festival leaving his mark through amusing little tags. However this year he really made a splash by erecting a replica of stone henge using portaloo's. The structure was placed right next glastonburys own stone circle and within the sacred space. It was a humourous take on these mysterious ancient structures using something that's synonymous with the festival, plastic portaloos. The 'stone henge', as the festival progressed was 'decorated' by festival-goers and certainly lost some of it's appeal. Nevertheless Banksy successfully managed to get into the public eye once again with this quirky piece. Whether you could call it art though is another matter. Banksy's 'Stone Henge'.... art or just a pile of s**t?

'I Count' campaign logo

I'm fresh back from the glorious festival they call glastonbury and one of the things that caught my eye whilst there (besides all the bands) was the logo for the 'I count' campaign. This is nationwide campaign that encourages people to fill out a pledge card. They must pledge to take a few simple steps to becoming greener. Thousands of people were filling out the pledge cards and taking part in this campaign. The strategy of this campaign is to create a feeling of inclusion, human nature means we like to feel a part of something. This logo is saying it will mean something if YOU take part in this, YOU are going to make a difference. Every little thing counts! The logo is visually shouting this message at you. It's simple, concise and has the ability to become instantly recognisable and familiar with the masses, which is obviously the objective of this campaign. The logo is also easily translated to a multitude of different media. For example it is featured on the glastonbury wrist band needed to be worn whilst at the festival. That's 170,000 people wearing the logo on their wrist, and many of the will still be wearing it therefore it is a constant reminder of the campaign. This campaign is particularly important to me as i feel very passionate about climate change and hope to look at the strategy's used by climate change charity's and pressure groups in influencing consumer behaviour for my dissertation. Do you think this logo is effective?


The pledge card used in the campaign.

Justice new video for D.A.N.C.E

Justice are a french Christian band creating, in my personal opinion some of the most exciting music around. I particularly like the video that goes with their new song D.A.N.C.E. It's a clever piece combining animation and real life action. The comic book style illustration has been used by Justice previously, on album covers and posters. Justice have used graphics that have come to be associated with the band in a new way that engage the viewer throughout the video. The use of bright vivid colours against a very dark backdrop means the animations/illustrations jump out at you and can be followed step by step. Overall this video captures the energy of youth and purveys the quirkiness of the music by combining vivid illustrations with fashion.
Video directed by Jonas and Francois