Cricket Calling

Cricket called on the Cultural Engineers of Seattle-based strategic non-traditional marketing and events firm NEVERSTOP to craft a unique campaign leveraging the creation of the world’s largest fully functioning cell phone. The campaign will included pop-up retail stores, inconspicuous wallet drops containing cards, coupons, and sometimes cash to drive traffic to the official campaign website. Commuters who spot fellow commuters reading green newsprint featuring the letter “K” and containing the campaign URL will be rewarded with Cricket-branded free subway or train passes. http://www.getsomerespekt.com

The Cricket pop-up boutique with the world’s largest cell phone will be active March 6th through 15th in Chicago. The campaign will launch in Philadelphia on March 20th.

Thanks Cosondra!

Merry Christmas!

This is the Theater District Business Center building in Chicago. The front of the building facing Randolph Street contains a number of colored lights running on a pattern loop behind semi-opaque glass. For Christmas, the pattern was modified to include a number of traditional Christmas themes.

Trick 17 Best Picture

Intervelometer from Team DAK just won 'Best Picture' at the 2nd Annual Trick 17 Stop Motion Animation contest. Teams were given 52 hours to create a 1-3 minute film. Team DAK is made up of Deniz Merdanogullari, Aparna Kapur and Kunal Sen.

Mad Skate

Tim Nolan of Poke and Marco Cigini of McCann Erickson have created a skate club for the Ad industry set and have dubbed it MAD SKATE, naturally. How's it work? Join the group on Facebook here. Each member will be asked to fork over a bit of cash to help rent a park such as the The Autumn Bowl in Greenpoint, Brooklyn or the Shield Skate Park in New Jersey. Any left over money will be donated to charity.

via Agency Spy

Theo Jansen

Theo Jansen's amazingly creepy mechanical creatures were unveiled at last year's Ted conference in Monterey California.

"Since 1990 I have been occupied creating new forms of life. Not pollen or seeds but plastic yellow tubes are used as the basic material of this new nature. I make skeletons that are able to walk on the wind, so they don’t have to eat." Over time, these skeletons have become increasingly better at surviving the elements such as storms and water and eventually I want to put these animals out in herds on the beaches, so they will live their own lives.
-Theo Jansen

via Wooster Collective.

Unbranding 101

Burger King Studio: Wicker Park, Chicago


Quarter Pounder: Shibuya, Tokyo

On oct. 12 BK Studio opened in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood at 1904 W. North Ave. A kind of artist's loft/think tank/art space blah blah etc. packed with things the kids are supposed to be into these days like DJ's, silk screen T-shirts, and sneakers. Noticeably absent, were actual Burger King burgers. Now comes word that McDonald's, not to be outdone, has opened "Quarter Pounder," in Tokyo's Shibuya neighborhood. The ultra modern eatery is almost entirely devoid of McDonald's branding even going as far as serving traditional McMeals in unbranded packages. The whole thing smacks of a "Denny's All Nighter" debacle. More information on Mcdonald's Quarter Pounder can be found courtesy of Neil Duckett in Tokyo.

And to Think I Saw it on Sampsonia Street

The Making of Street With a View

When I first learned about Street With A View it reminded me of one of my Dad's favorite books, the Dr. Seuss classic, And to Think that I Saw it on Mulberry Street in which a rather mundane street becomes the scene of an unbelievable impromptu series of events. In this real life Mulberry Street, the street is actually Sampsonia Way in Pittsburgh and the medium is Google Street View.

Happy Halloween!

Crimewave-(Crystal Castles vs. Heath)

The Simpsons Go Mad

For The Simspson's 19th annual Tree House of Terror Halloween special, Springfield gets swapped for Mad Ave in the Mad Men inspired opening credits. See more stills from the opening credits here.

Via Best Week Ever.

Who is Dick Whitman?

A special episode of Jeopardy featuring an entire category devoted to the AMC show Mad Men will air tonight so cancel dinner at the club and pour yourself another old fashion. Can't wait until tonight? Play the online version here.

Also, check out today's feature on Wired.com Real Ad Men Talk About Mad Men, in which Anthony Young, Benjamin Palmer and others, separate fact from fiction in today's ad industry.

The Most Entertaining Man is...

Dos Equis has announced that it has tapped legendary underground Ring Master, Jim Rose of the Jim Rose Circus for it's new "Most Entertaining Man" campaign. On the heels of Dos Equis "Most Interesting Man" ads, Jim Rose has signed on to perform a number of exclusive performances in bars and clubs around the country. Can the same man who brought us Mr. Lifto and Enigma (no pictures, this is a family blog) and who was a staple on the live music scene way back when Lalapalooza was still a rock festival, put the rebel back into beer? Lets hope so.

Sagmeister Talks to TED

Moscow's Burning

Federation Tower from Januk Latushka ACIDBURN on Vimeo.

Videoinstalation on the last floor of Federation Tower, the highest skyscraper in Moscow-City.

via Design You Trust

BMW Intsallation

BMW Welt in Munich is a mechatronic installation by ART+COM, the Berlin-based interactive media company. The project uses 714 metal balls that are individually suspended on barely visible strings, creating an seemingly weightless, amorphous mass. Each ball lowers and retracts independently, which allows them to approximate almost any form.The installation moves through a cycle of classic and contemporary BMW car shapes from throughout the company's 90-year history. In between cars, it goes through some impressive routines, showing the creation's versatility.

via Cool Hunting

Green Screen

Emily Grobeille & Theodore Watson

Debuted at the Cinekid festival in the Netherlands, "Funky Forest" is a green inspired interactive exhibit that allows users to experience how their actions affect a digital Forest. Add trees to the Forest and divert river water to nourish them and the Forest and it's inhabitants thrive, misuse the resources and the Forest declines. The brain child of designers Emily Grobeille and Theodore Watson, the installation was created with OpenFrameworks.

Happiness in a Can

McCann Worldgroup wants coke to conquer China. How do they do it? A fully integrated campaign aptly titled 365 days of Happiness. This 7 minute video shows how a concept, even something as ambiguous as "happiness" can encompass just about every media known to man and some previously undiscovered media like magnetic LED lights.
Via Virtual China

360 Degrees of Separation

October 31st Tokyo Japan

Mitsubishi Electric has created a new panoramic display system consisting of a 2-meter tall, 7.5-meter diameter screen surrounding the user in a nearly 360 degree virtual display (340-degrees to be exact, with a 20-degree gap for entry and exit). The 17 separate 67-inch panels has a 27 million pixel resolution and was built specifically for an undisclosed client. Mitsubishi plans on selling the system as a virtual reality display for public use in the coming year.
via Iza

Beyond Thunderdome pt.2

Today is the entry deadline for this year’s Cut&Paste tournament. Entries are in and the judges have been announced including…

Andrea von Bujdoss – Art Director, Mass Appeal Magazine
Jose Cabaco – Creative Director, Wieden + Kennedy
Michelle Dougherty – Creative Director, Imaginary Forces
Justin Fox – Designer, Australian INFront
Futura 2000 – Graffiti Artist
Motoko Mizoguchi – Designer/Founder, Mo’Design
Simon Needham – Co-Founder, ATTIK
Saber – Graffiti Artist
John Trippe – Founder, FecalFace
Annie Wong – Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather Hong Kong

Check out Cut&Paste for more information on cities and dates.

Beyond Thunderdome: Cut&Paste 2007

It's that time of the year again! Cut&Paste returns to NYC, Chicago, LA, San Francisco and two new cities this year, Portland and Boston. The entry deadline is July 17th with a whole host of new prizes from Adobe, Wacom Technology, IdN and Wired Magazine. So come out, make lots of noise and drink overpriced drinks...why else would graphic designers go to a night club? We had a hell of a time last year and we're looking forward to this year's event. Check out the 2006 Cut & Paste Chicago below...

No Sleep Till Bushwick Pt.1

ADHOC Gallery presents "No Sleep Till Bushwick" Thursday, June 14 6-10pm Bushwick, NY. Some of the most prolific street artist in the last decade will be showing work including CHRIS MEDOZA, BAST, FAILE, AIKO, & SKEWVILLE. I'll be in attendance so Ill post a full review of the show next week but I thought I would do my part to promote it.