Darkness...

The Caster & Momander blog posted this wonderfully twisted reflection of the apple logo. Quoted with the pic is the words: "Am i the only one who sees the boogeyman?"

You can't say that again...

Big asss smart, oh sooo smart companies..... global companies... multibillion dollar corporations, powered by thousands of hyper intelligent and super ambitious workerbees....... Focus groups, marketing ploys, viral this and guerilla that... Academic super powers combined with fat ol' white men behind every stubborned dollar. Wellll....

None of that "shit" matters when you end up being a dumbass. The question is: Does anyone really care anymore? Apparently not.

I have no clue, who the f### came up with this insanely stupid name for a hygiene product. This is really sooo lame, because they're obviously not doing this because of it's amazing funfactor. They chose the extremely anal route hinting a cleaner use of retardation. And noooo... a neat ad with some hipsters swapping saliva doesn't make up for it!

Well, let's make some cleaning products instead. Let's give it an awesome name, let's really nail it this time. No compromises, no funny business... just pure branding. Ok? But let's spend the money on tv advertizing only and then later not care about how this word also appears online. Yeah?

Well... if they only made cleaning products uniquely for glass and named it Glass Sex, it would have been awesome, fun and memorable atleast. Really, it would!. But, they didn't. Soo...

Let's just skip to someting entirely different. Let's brand some electricity. Better yet, let's even sponsor the Danish national soccer team with our wonderful name (because they never travel abroad.. wink wink). Let's make some international noise!

Yes, i know i am reading alot into that. But seriously, repressing the fact that one has heard of that word in another more inappropriate context, doesn't make it less dumb.

Apparently bad "ideas" can never stop dumbass people from making money. Soooooo, what are you waiting for?

You fat little piece of.... Oups...

Today Engadget just confirmed what looks to be yet another possible dent in the armour of a company gone wild. Yeee.... the white Iphone 4 is finally here...... crowd going crazy.... shops going $$$$$$.... though.... just one tiny problem: It's not the same size as the black iphone. Essentially we're only talking about 0.2-0.3mm, but issues might still be lurking just around the corner. If that's the case (ahhhh), we're looking at several iphone vendors getting screwed, since they're waiting to serve and protect every iphone out there. Soooo which case will fit? Well, i guess you gotta try your way.

Read all about it over at Engadget.com

Sony goes head on in tablet war.

Over the last few months we've seen almost truckloads of tablets and tablet minded hardware. Not much stands out and it's a tough game, a brutal.... at times even deadly game. Yet, there we have it, here comes Sony once again. Prancing into the whole thing like it was a way overdue drunken birthday party, with Sony being one of the more sober latecomers. Vaio is an amazing brand, one of the best laptop brands out there, you get good design, quality hardware and specs in a package worth mentioning more than once. Hopefully this overall feeling will enhance Sony's gameplay on the tablet scene. What better what to do it, than with a spanking super sexy playstation certified Android tablet like the Vaio S1?. Yummy!

The Vaio S1 sports a tilted 9.4 inch screen (like a Notion Ink Adam) on top of a Tegra 2 processor. It will feature a "Quick And Smooth" (lame name) UI implentation, a more or less Windows Phone 7 tile like experience as an alternative to the stock Android Honeycomb (Android 3.0).

Sony also hinted an S2 dual screen pocket tablet. This video you should reveal it all.

Official press release can be found here: Presscentre Sony.

Different, Part 3.

just to sum the situation with this one. Back in 2004/2005 Muse actually thought they sorta "discovered" the band and were kinda doing them a favour by "not covering" but re-living their Dracula Mountain song riff and have some good ol' Muse live fun with it. Lightning Bolt fans got really pissed and rumours at the time were that Lightning Bolt (or the fans) did not want Muse to do this. Equally Muse fans started dissing Lightning Bolt fans, stating that LB fans should shut up because the Muse "version" and the band overall was better than LB. Anyhoooo.....

A great quoute from the Lightning Bolt boards: "Lightning Bolt isn't fucking Tinkerbell. They do not grow stronger the more you clap for them and rally behind them. Neither are they weakened by the message board opinions of Muse fans" - By DIN.

Lightning Bolt - Dracula Mountain (Original) 2003.


Muse - Live 2004.

Also check these links for some good fun:

lightningbolt.proboards.com
http://www.muselive.com/forums.php

A non-ugly iphone.

Well... Apparently it´s custom and it´s gonna cost ya. Some dude is selling it on ebay, check it: here . Shame that this isn´t how they would have made it look from the beginning, cause this actually looks good.

The Fictional Bears Blog

I also have another blog "The Fictional Bears Blog" running over at fictionalbears.blogspot.com , in case you hadn´t guessed it... It´s about fictional bears. It is getting harder and harder to find them, but they´re out there. Check it out if you need some updates on the bears in your life.

Different. Part 2

Tom Waits - Dirt In The Ground (Original) - 1992.

Kellermensch (Denmark) - Dirt In The Ground - 2009.

http://www.myspace.com/kellermensch

Time/Me/Other/News

Yes, completely true, i have more or less been ignoring this place. I did claim (probably still do) having better things to do (on/off). That said, i´ve decided to try and see if i can revive this place, so if anyone is still out there listening, watching, or just eavesdropping.... Here´s what´s up.

For a couple of years now, i have been working my a$$ off, in a place i did not belong. I have now quit said place, in order to go out and claim what i think can be mine, or merely part of it. Yup, I have stuck it to the man, ready to live on my ass doing all the things i love the most.

I wanna get back in the game where i blog more, play more music, draw more, create and invent all the things that i have had in the back of my head these last 2 "strange" years. Not that i haven´t been productive, but.... generally speaking/thinking : I want more!.

So in order to boost myself and my self esteem, i´m just gonna start off by doing some posts about what i´ve been up to. They absolutely double as excuses for me not blogging. :)

Early 2010 - Graphic Design for Danish band The Kissaway Trail: Including Lp album cover, Cd cover, 2 x vinyl single covers, Posters, Shop decor, T-shirts, Banners, Backdrop and more.

May 2010 to current time - On the more "bloggy" side i´ve been busy with a photo project entitled Homes And Homage. A Copenhagen photo documentary about "vandalism". So far i´ve taken over 600 photos of inner Copenhagen graffiti vandalism. Nearly 300 of them are displayed over here www.homesandhomage.com . 500 of these photos will make it to a book coming out in the spring of 2011.

Here´s a sneak peek:

More excuses later.

7 is the new 1.

No doubt that Microsoft is upping the ante when it comes to Windows Phone 7 and their overall portable devices strategies. A great example of how that direction is mindblowing beyond the better and best, is this 4 part in depth video tour of Windows Phone 7.

I myself am absolutely blown away by these videos. (Don´t mind the fugly Samsung prototype.)









Awesome!

Different. Part 1.

Carter Family- Single Girl Married Girl (Original) Circa 1928.


Promise And The Monster- Single Girl Married Girl- 2007.

http://www.myspace.com/promiseandthemonster

Apple... Who are you? Part 4 of 4

In 1958, designer Paul Giambarba was hired as a freelancer by polaroid, in order to revitalize and polish up polaroids brand. Giambarbas work over the next 25 years was to become some of the most important work polaroid could ever attain. As polaroids plastic fantastic wonderland invaded supermarket shelves everywhere, no eyes went unhypnotized by these delightful dazzling striped packages.

The original 5 rainbow stripes of polaroid met consumers for the first time already in 1968. Wrapping itself around, not just film packages, but also camera packaging. It was to become nothing less than a one of a kind commercial revelation beyond comparison. A simple concept of razorsharp honest appeal, that within a multifarious 1960´s and 70´s design revolution, still managed to both hug and smash consumer familiarity in its tiresome face (simultaniously).




In 1969 a 6th color/stripe was added to the Polacolor and Colorpack range of polaroid. Like seen here on the Polaroid Colorpack II camera packaging.


The sixth color also made it to the front decor of the Landcamera 1000. (1976/77).


According to Paul Giambarbas own blog (and several other sources), the golden years of Polaroid stretched from the years 1958-1977. It has not been possible for me to discover when Paul left Polaroid and where the Polaroid brand really went from there.

But none the less- As i stated in my part 3 of "Apple: Who are you?"- The Polaroid camera was indeed the ipod of the 60´s and 70´s. A statement that i cant spare reinforcing with the quote from Grafik magazines John Weich in his article on polaroid in 2005- "Like Apple today, Polaroid supplemented its superior product with superior branding. . . .". So i guess this means that polaroid and apple fairly obviously share more than just a simpler side of consumer electronics.

Remembering last weeks post on polaroid and apple packaging. Heres the deal: As Polaroid rode out its final years of "bigger" wave of godliness, late 1970´s (presumably around 1976/77). California based apple computers brought out an rather interesting new logo in about the same time, to be exact- 1976. Aside from rainbows being somewhat popular back then, what possessed a "simular" thinking company like apple to use the exact same amount of stripes, within the exact same colorrange, just a year after (or same year) Polaroid ends its official hotstreak?

Let me show you. Here ive taken the exact colors from the Giambarba polaroid logo, made them run into the first "official" brand Apple logo.


So from all of that trouble, all of that fuzz.... them doing what they do best. What am i getting at? Well, my philosophy is that Apple design appeals to us thru Deja Vu. You might not know its origin from the first moment you cast your eyes on an Apple device, but none the less- they have managed to replicate, parallel and concentrate all the greatest actions in design history and squeezed it in to one little affordable dream. A dream we all partially used to recognize fragments of growing up. A dream that today is the very pinnacle of our very society, not just as consumers but as developed consumers. The dream of being able to afford it, understand (without understanding) and live a nice and neat life (without having to pay too much for it).

And my god, we all succeeded.

Could you repeat that please...

Just stumpled upon this interesting observation from the Wall Street Journal. It really blew me away. I guess it is virtually impossible, to judge modern day consumerism by its cover anymore (whatever cover that might be). I wonder whats next? IKEA becoming the world´s biggest potato distributor because of their instore restaurants? Humor me. Anybody got some great suggestions?

A breather, a moment...

Hello again.... Ohh so youve noticed the blog hasnt been that active lately. There are actually a couple of interesting and somewhat interesting reasons for that: foremost, of somewhat interesting nature, I myself, have been extremely busy working and attending my musical/artistic/other enterprises. Second: The blog has been undergoing a great moment of self evalution, regarding how and and when to expand in a better manor, none the less- "right way". So far im getting a couple of more contributors onto the blog joining the dream of trying to make an even more interesting (still fascinatingly quirky) blog. Beyond that, the whole blog is currently undergoing the process of getting a personalized domain, including a nice new makeover and more. I will be posting more on these developments and/or expansion claims within the month. Also i will be posting regularly again, very soon. (dont forget my last chapter of Apple: Who are you?).

See you soon.

Apple... Who are you? Part 3 of 4.

Believe it or not, being minimal, and straight to the point via package designs, is a very rare thing. And being unique.... rewards. Its no secret that apple over the years have won alot of admiration (and awards) for their absolutely minimal and yet stylish packaging. Often apple packaging, especially for ipods, show the item in hiding, by a 1:1 scale around the outside of the packaging. Like seen here with the u2 5th generation Ipod.

Front. Actual product size on the outside of the box.

back and side.

Most significant and greatly typical for apple packaging is also, the actual size of the complete box, compared to the item inside. Especially with apples ipodline, its crucially important to underline the evermore smaller sizes of their devices, so they limit the packaging to being not much bigger than the products itself without too much glorification involved on the outside. What you see is what you get!. A very admirable "marketing strategy", that absolutely (unlike mcdonalds menus) radiates an honest image of the object in question. Isn´t that something even the dumbest consumers appreciate? honesty and trust?. And, yes! i personally agree- Apple makes trustworthy products wrapped in honest "no nonsense" packaging. So, lets conclude that all our mommies were right. Honesty does go along way.

Oddly enough another trustworthy yet fashionable company had a simular concept during the 70´s and 80´s. The Ipod of cameras- Polaroid. Like seen here on the box of a Polaroid lightmixer 630.

Front. Actual product size on the outside of the box.

Back. Same thing.

Side.

Hey wait a minute....... what am i getting at?.

To be honest theres absolutely nothing wrong with being one of the few companies that like and adore polaroid cameras. Everyone loves polaroid cameras. So lets just leave it at that. But have in mind for part 4, that Apples Senior Vice President of Industrial Design- Johnathan Ive was born in 1967. So he was a teenager in the late 70´s into the 80´s. Wouldnt it be plausible that he (and/or his co-workers) had a big crush on polaroid already back then?........................ Well, more about that very soon, so dont miss out of the final chapter of "Apple: Who are you?". The chapter where i will take one last big bite at the apple of ive. (let me give you a hint. "North west" ).


Chapter 4 of "Apple: Who are you?". Coming soon.

Apple... Who are you? Part 2 of 4.

1970´s was the beginning of the consumer electronics ecosystem . The remnants of revolution along a "healthy" appetite for a new decade, left alot of artists ( not just rockmusicians), designers and engineers hungry for more than just the popular shapes and colors of the 1960´s. With the first home video tape recorder coming out mid 60´s, public color TV transmitions hitting Europe in 1967, and personal computers like ataris claiming livingroom space globally from 1973. The foundation was set for alot new creative influences aiming to retrace design inside the home. With mentors like danish furniture designers Verner Panton, Arne Jacobsen and last but not least finish Eero Aarnio setting the pace. Alot of consumer design evolved into more than just a comfortable vision of the future.


Eero Aarnio´s Ball chair, also known as the "Pod chair". The Ball chair was exhibited in 1966 and became a huge commercial hit thru the 70´s. Together with Arne Jacobsens "Egg chair", the ball chair is one of the most popular and desired objects in design history.

Companies like German Telefunken, which in the beginning of the 60´s engineered the standards for European analogue televison PAL* ( *Phase alternating Line), quickly became one of the more popular affordable tv set fabricators, adapting fractions of the very same bold shapes and rich contrasts of Scandinavian furniture design. Even down to the trumpet feet details.


(ads courtesy of Gizmodo) Another significant detail about Telefunken tv´s, which tech site Gizmodo also pointed out two weeks ago, are the black trimmings around the tube on telefunkens Pal series tv´s. These trimmings are not a just a one time design fluke, no...


The very same type of black trimmings, also assisted this classic Brionvega Doney win the Compasso d'Oro (Italian industry design award) aldready in 1962.

"Thee black trimmings"- A fascinating phenomenon which ever since, strangely enough have become a semi-must within the more luxurious television design communities. A simple search on the phrase "design tv" on google images will emphasize my point, by showing not just retro noname italian travel tv´s, telefunken highlights onto newer Jvc 2005/2006 series, but also point out german Loewe (who are quite known for their know how) with their "black trimmings". Like on this late 2006 Xelos series.



What your search on google wont show, is computers (mostly because you searched on tv ofcourse), or computers that look like fashionable tv´s (both of the past and present). Computers like the 2007 Imac creature. A creature that just like all other creatures in its brand family, had its edges shaved off.



Yes, Inspiration (and trendy design) is a constant fleeting moment. In times like the late 60´s and 70´s where global consumerism got its very first technologically enhancements like cheap synthetics (for mass production) and television marketing, designers and companies faught each other greatly with loads of fun games such as: "impersonate this, impersonate that" and "I did this...Oh, me too". Both vast games of great corporate stamina, that obviously reaches far into the predetermined freedoms of the very simular future which is today. A today where quality design, originality and modifications there off, dominates discount outlets of every streetcorner, of every city, in every country. At very affordable prices. So.... Yeah baby, cheap shiny fascinating white plastic, black trimming remnants, retro design and globalization, can co-exist together in eternal harmony. Its just a matter of.....eh.... inspiration?

Part 3 of "Apple: Who are you?" (and 4), coming sooner. Believe me.... You aint seen nothing yet.

Apple... Who are you? Part 1 of 4.

(photo courtesy of jcdecaux)

"Silent Bob here's an electrical genius. He won the science fair in eighth grade by turning his mom's vibrator into a CD player using some chicken wire and shit.The mother fucker's like MacGyver. No, the mother fucker's *better than* MacGyver." (Quote from the movie "Mallrats" by Kevin Smith).

Pretty impressive. So... in that case, what came first?- Silent bob the original thinker, or Silent bob "the guy who got inspired by the right thing, in the right place, at the right time" and then... Cdplayer!. Its a tough one. The movie makes it seem like, that even the most common pothead (as Silent Bob) can modify/engineer cool things, with a little inspiration. Well ofcourse, Kevin Smiths character in the movie Mallrats, is just as fictional as a 20$ Hummer. But the essence of the situation comedy film quote in the beginning of my post, is absolutely relevant when it comes to me attempting de-bunk the grey areas between infinite layers of corporate inspiration, original thinking and re-invention. Again, theres a long walk from a sexual device (such as a vibrator) to a real functioning cdplayer. But having that walk in mind and putting fiction aside. I wonder..... How easy would it be for a reasonably intelligent well travelled designer (or company), to convert a basic, but wellknown shiny "pictureframe" design into an "original" mobile phone design? Well...

First of all lets focus on fx. Milan, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, London, Sydney, Oslo, Chile, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Malmö... and the many more cities, that Jcdecaux, a world wide outdoor advertizing company are present with their products (and have been for years). To narrow it down, lets lock on to the french town of Plaisir, a city not far from Versaille. Here you will find the Jcdecaux designers who are responsible for the neat worldknown looks of the "Paris 3".



Yes, it is indeed an outdoor display with very smooth looks. A simple square, with nice rounded corners, cool chrome finish... all of it together, almost too classy, for being a passive display. I really wonder how this french design would look if it was to be the size of a hand. "A tiny billboard in your hand" (or pocket). A tiny chrome square, with oh so cute and shiny corners. That would be kinda cool. Hmmmmmm... (thinking).






Part 2 of "Apple: Who are you?" (plus 3 and 4), coming soon.

The eerie stills... of the Southland Tales trailer..

A dedicated user over at richard-kelly.net named Gunji, took a closer look at the yahoo high definition version of the Southland Tales trailer. He kindly spent his latenight going thru the trailer with keener eyes and... posted his findings in the forum (in 1024x768 resolution). "I watched it frame-by-frame and was even more impressed by all the stuff they put in. Now it's almost 2 o'clock at night here and I gotta work tomorrow, but here are some hidden stills I found!" - Gunji. Here are some of the Eerie stills he found burried in the faster transitions of the trailer. Click the images to see bigger versions (in new window).






If you wanna see, hear and discuss more about this film, i can definently recommend heading over to richard-kelly.net (signup required). Lot of nice people over there, and Richard Kelly himself drops by and says hi once in a while. Great work Gunji. Nice stills.

Southland Tales trailer, finally here...

After a good... hmmm... weeks, months, well.. almost a year. Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly finally got his ultimate doomsday movie thru what apparently was channels, heaps, and furthermore, a bit more than just months of re-editing and bargaining with the man and his bright red tape. Sci-fi weirdness, massive blimps and Atomic bombs, along side: Justin Timberlake, The Rock, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Sean William Scott, Kevin Smith and more. Not to mention wonderkid Moby doing the official soundtrack. Who wouldnt wanna see that?. Yes, there you have it- A genuine preview of what to expect in cinemas everywhere the 9th of november. The official Southland Tales trailer is finally among us.



You can also watch the trailer in HD at yahoo. Click here

Zune party?

This post have been removed - since i was encouraged to take it down. Fair enough. I was a bit to fast on the trigger there, sorry. Anyhow, it was a pic given to me by a friend, who claimed that it was a live zune 2 in the wild at a Copenhagen party (at some office). To describe the pic: A guy and a girl was posing together, with some people in the background. The guy was showing of a videoplaying zune (i presume) in his hand, towards the camera. Though the pic was very small and not that good. I could not quite determine if it was real or not. But i was encouraged to take the picture down, so i did. The reason why i think it was a zune, was because the concept of it, very much looked like the zune 2 i posted about last week. That zune i recently discovered was a genuine fake, because it was entered as a part of the "design a zune" competition on engadget last year. Hopefully another "real" pic will manifest itself soon.

Be sure to come back this week and check out the posts on apple, the iphone and where apple get "their" ideas. I tell you, it is gonna be good/serious fun.

Pod people got it!

So... there it was. Not one, not two... but three new ipods (3 and a half if you count the new shuffle). Am i impressed? Well, to be honest im having a hard time figuring out what the big news is. Apple relatives always inherit the looks of their socalled parents, meaning... the classic ipod white on their computers got dropped for silver. So, was it unlikely to expect anything less than silver on the ipod series (instead of white)? Apple recently launched a touchscreen device (iphone). Would one not assume that this technology would be transferred to atleast one of their new devices? Anyhow, enough biggering..... what im trying to say is- From a technological standpoint, i am so far, not that impressed with apples "newest" ongoing beatsaga. From a design standpoint... i simply cannot contain myself regarding the new nano. It is directly hideous. Too fat for its own good, an epic eyesore of wellproportioned dimensions. Sometimes apples obvious visions for "music lovers" remind me of washingpowder commercials and cleaning product promises over time. Because the powers or "technologies" for washing things whiter, is so much better today, than 20 years ago. Havent you noticed? Our clothes are so white today that its beyond white, because... washing powder just keeps getting better. Right? Or perhaps i could even stretch it so far and say that apple is the new gillette... they just keep adding blades on those damn razors, and everytime you sit there...infront of your screen, suckerpunched and amazed... thinking- How the hell do they keep having room for all those blades? Right? Well you shouldnt be. Ofcourse a 5 blade gillette razor will, without a doubt, always outperform a 1 blade bic razor (the yellow ones from the same company that also makes pens... yeah). But is it fair to compare the same simple razor to a nice new pimped out philips shaver? Well......... my general question is? Has the ipod really become that much better?

Ipod touch notes - 8/16gb: Yeah its thinner and absolutely begging to be bent the wrong way one day or another. The ipod touch appeals to customers who insist on using both hands operating, while proudly attempting to impress everybody else in their school/work lunchbreaks with its wauvfactor.... and since it appeals to mostly "i dont know much about gadgets or music, and i dont care, but i want one too" and their ways of encountering everyday life. The thin ipod touch is most definently to become a fragile sucker in the wrong (apple=right) hands. Design wise, the touch is sleek and clean... apples patented circles on squares. Simple to the core, but perhaps a little bit too blingy for its own good. An all matt black ipod touch would have been nicer. Who knows, an "a chemical romance" ipod might be lurking soon enough.

Ipod classic notes - 80-160gb: Not many changes here. The screen is as always, brighter. Always good. Design has been tweeked a bit with some slopes up and over, into the ipod front itself. Acceptable, but not an actual inprovement that really ads more to the simpler design. I guess they were aiming for a "thinner" look. The big news- was 160gb of room for the biggest ipod classic. Ok? Somebody humour me- Who the hell needs 160gb space for apple related content?

Ipod nano notes - 4/8gb: So the rumours were right. Apple brought a fatty into the camp. Looks as if though, they tried really hard to squeeze everything into place. Probably the most obnoxious of apple devices ever. Be pleased that it fits in almost every pocket. Keep it there please.

Yep. alot words in one chop.... anyhoo, be sure to come back within the week and watch me track down, uncover, and document where apple found their inspirations. Yes, it will all be there... Soon enough.

Cowon mockups...

Within the last month or so, a whole heap of interesting Cowon/Iaudio designs/mockups flooded the net here and there. I figured i would post the ones that wasnt shown too much. Apparently these pics tell the mythical tales of a new, smaller "colored" version of the x5, which Cowon fans over the years so proudly enjoyed to worship (for a good reason aswell). It pleases me very much to keep seeing consistent Cowon supporters (which i assume it is) creating a stir with their own designs. Good ones too if i may add. So no complaints here. Ufortunantly credible rumours of a future sibling to the x5, the x7 (or x8) are sofar non existent. So, youre gonna have to settle for these fake mugshots. Notice that the black design has X8 on its back, where the red and brown have X7.

Enjoy.






Thanks you David T. for the pics.