insights, ironies and idiosyncrasies in communication and design

from the wide, wide world and the world wide web

Tuesday 22 March 2011

Just shit.


Iran might think the 2012 Olympics logo represents a veiled pro-Israeli conspiracy in support of the installation of Zion, but Britain’s dislike for the pink jagged design, even after three years of getting used to is simple: the man on the street just thinks it’s shit – as he has now expressed graphically with bill posters around the capital.


Via Crackunit.

Sunday 20 March 2011

Ugly is the new Biutiful.



Through largely dropping his now trademark interwoven, non-linear syuzhet and wiping all but a hint of the familiar counterpoint of the American dream from the script (mere talk of a ski-ing holiday in The Alps as opposed to a model career, middle-class family planning or adventure tourism), Biutiful is a leaner and also meaner Alejandro González Iñárritu film – more visceral and possibly more disturbing than any other.


And this shift is not, it seems, an anomaly.


Even this year’s Academy Awards – the self-congratulating farce that they are – featured a swath of bleak contenders. With Black Swan, Blue Valentine, Rabbit Hole and The Fighter there is a discernable move towards the raw, the mournful, the fierce and the vulnerable.


And A Winter's Bone is still yet to come to my local screen.

Friday 11 March 2011

Not all white.



Seemigly bound so securely by the artificial nationalism of Thaification, caught up in the wave of now rampant fanatical patriotism and oblivious to the frailty of the once disparate fragments that comprise the modern-day nation-state of Thailand, Bangkok-based advertiser Oishi saw it fit to castigate it’s own sisters (and brothers) in public.


Playing with the mechanics of such (BTS) signage that suggests you give up your seat for the handicapped, the old and the ordained, the banner ad read, quite shockingly, (in translation): This seat is reserved for white-skinned people. The desired effect of the pink Oishi amino drink was to appeal to the believed widespread desire to attain bright, glowing white skin.


Fortunately, a large enough proportion of the population are happy with their skin as it is and via a local online weboard community successfully petioned to have the offensive banner removed.


Image/graphic via TMRC.