The Shoreditch Slasher

Someone is chopping the heads off posters in the Shoreditch area. Check out the decapitators set here

Vikesh Bhatt
Posted on Friday, 4th of January 2008 Permalink

Guerilla Activity

It was 40 years ago this week that Ernesto Che Guevara was executed by the CIA and the Bolivian Army. As a tribute to the man and a protest against his assassination, Jim Fitzpatrick, a young graphic artist from Ireland, produced the ubiquitous high-contrast drawing (above) from a photograph by Alberto Korda. With the intellectual copy rights being waived by both men the image became, in essence, the first piece of viral imagery with the intention of getting “the broadest possible circulation”. And subsequently became an icon of revolutionaries, freedom fighters and Marxist students worldwide.

Oh, and of course Madonna.

Nathan Usmar Lauder
Posted on Thursday, 11th of October 2007 Permalink

uʍop ǝpısdn

˙looɔ ʎʇʇǝɹd sɐʍ ʇı ʇɥƃnoɥʇ ı ʇnq ǝuoʎuɐ oʇ sı sıɥʇ ǝsn ʇɐɥʍ ǝuıƃɐɯı ʇ,uɐɔ. Link

Gary Butcher
Posted on Tuesday, 17th of July 2007 Permalink

The 1000 Journals Project

Someguy is some guy working across the studio from me who has turned an fascination for bathroom wall graffiti into one of the most engaging collaborative art projects I’ve seen. Back in August 2000 he distributed 1000 blank journals around San Francisco, leaving them in bars, on the bus and handing them to friends and strangers. Inside were instructions to contribute something to the pages of the journal and pass it on. The journals made their away around the world, like some sort of global ‘exquisite corpse’ they became a product of the groups collective consciousness. What has happened to the journals is as compelling as the content found therein. They’ve been stolen at gunpoint (#949), taken to remote mountaintops (#323) and in journal #587 someone wrote a heartfelt apology and sent the journal to the friend they had wronged. The apology was not accepted.

The journals are catalogued online at 1000journals.com and in a book. If you’re not fortunate enough to find one or be passed one then that kind Someguy has created 1001 journals just for you.

Gary Butcher
Posted on Tuesday, 8th of May 2007 Permalink

NYC’s True Graffiti Problem

Guerilla marketing is in the spotlight lately thanks to the Boston Police overreacting (?) to some viral ads for Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

Earlier this year Graffiti Research Lab together with The Anti-Advertising Agency went guerilla to tackle what they see as a corporate sponsored graffiti on the streets of New York by masking the omnipresent advertising video screens with stenciled messages. You can debate whether or not their reaction is effective or justified but I can’t help but fall in love with how nice that type looks with abstract video playing within. Link.

Gary Butcher
Posted on Thursday, 15th of February 2007 Permalink

Typecast

Not only is this viral from HP for graphic designers only, the title is a typeface in-joke – Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk becomes Berthold’s Grotesk Akzident. How many of us have at some point threatened to throw the printer out of the window?  The styling of the fey Euro designers in this is perfect. (via Adrants)

David Rainbird
Posted on Monday, 16th of October 2006 Permalink

Dances With Elephants

How do you turn a backpacker into a brand icon? Stride Gum took Matt, a 29 year old deadbeat (self-confessed) from Connecticut and asked him to travel the world doing his thing – which just happened to be travelling the world and – dancing. In 6 months he travelled through 39 countries on all 7 continents. In some countries his moves were clearly infectious in others, not. He obviously learned them in some very crowded clubs that serve up a mix of trip hop and hoedown. Above is his 2006 dancing film for Stride, his website also has his original 2005 film. (via Advertising Design Goodness)

David Rainbird
Posted on Wednesday, 9th of August 2006 Permalink

If You Squint…

Reading the previous post about Becks ASCII art music video (ASCII Nicely) I was intrigued as to whether the great maestro had been inspired by an internet viral link from the past which I have traced for your viewing pleasure. (Link)

This is the entire movie of Deep Throat (1972), all 61 minutes, reduced to retro coloured ASCII art and if you squint (or move about 8 feet from your monitor) you can just about see the hardcore action. This movie was the first porno film to be shot with something resembling a real budget, $24,000 over a period of six days. It began the phenomena of porno chic and made going to the movies to watch hardcore porn acceptable for a short period of time. It is reported to have grossed in excess of $600m.

If you manage to sit through the whole movie I would suggest a visit to your nearest optician, for obvious reasons.

Nathan Usmar Lauder
Posted on Wednesday, 7th of June 2006 Permalink

Spot the difference

Fallon’s Bravia ad was surely one of the best and most original ads of last year (although I wonder whether José González sold more albums from it than Sony sold TV sets) so we shouldn’t be surprised to see Clemmow Hornby Inge’s excellent Tango spoof. The Swansea location isn’t quite as iconic as San Francisco but the fruit bounces well enough. Originally intended as a viral movie complete with an angry Swansea resident’s website, it’s so good that it’s going to be shown on TV. Not many viral movies can claim that.

If your wondering why Fallon and Sony have allowed this to happen, here’s a clue: our friend Jim Gilchrist – a former Fallon-ite, directed it. Link

David Rainbird
Posted on Friday, 19th of May 2006 Permalink

Don’t Believe The Type

Typoglycemia is the lighthearted name given to a purported recent discovery about the cognitive processes behind reading written text. The name makes little sense as glycemia is the concentration of glucose in the blood. It is an urban legend/Internet meme that does have some element of truth behind it.

The legend is propagated by email and message boards and demonstrates that readers can understand the meaning of words in a sentence even when the letters of each word are scrambled. As long as all the necessary letters are present, and the first and last letters remain the same, readers turn out to have little trouble reading the text.

In actual fact, no such research was carried out at Cambridge University. It all started with a letter to the New Scientist magazine from Graham Rawlinson in which he discusses his Ph.D. thesis. Wtrie yuor Tmylyieogpcc msegesas hree.

Vikesh Bhatt
Posted on Friday, 7th of April 2006 Permalink