Envelope Art

I bumped into this recently through a lovely NZ mate of mine at work: 2008 Art of the Envelope AwardsI never thought I’d be that interested in envelopes… however, coming into contact with a spot of DM at work every now and then changed my opinion of the humble envelope. I realised that you can make it incredibly dull or you can do what some of these guys do and make it more like a work of art.

This is just one of the many cool entries for the Envelope Awards on the site, the concept; “To communicate hot beverage offerings an ice cube like box with the message ‘We always deliver icy cold refreshment’ was filled with coffee beans with the message ‘Now we’re hot too’ “

There are loads of other cool ideas on the site…so if you’re in the business of sending out Jun… sorry, Direct Mail and you’re in need of a bit of inspiration check out some of this stuff.

Banksy hits the streets of NYC

The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill in New York is Banksy’s latest offering (open until 31st October). It has caused some controversy, a lot of conversation but mostly intrigue. When I stumbled upon the website for The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill some of the footage that awaited me within was actually quite disturbing. Like the animatronic rabbit who appears to be putting on make up, the big cat (which from a distance looks scarily real) who turns out to be a coat and of course the chicken nuggets who look just like little chicks…hmmm food for thought.

Banksy’s written explanation of the installations was this: “New Yorkers don’t care about art, they care about pets. So I’m exhibiting them instead.”

This may be true but if you only scratch the surface a tiny bit you can see that this installation is looking at issues such as animal testing, hunting endangered species for fashion and even food manufacture process. Maybe this explanation is not referring to New Yorkers and their cats or dogs but maybe the artist sees their pets as their possessions; the fur coat, the immaculate make up, the top class restaurants they enjoy. I don’t know, this is just a thought.

There has been quite an outpouring of debate over TVPCG…some say Banksy is selling out, some say he can’t possibly work alone and some have even said he’s becoming mainstream. What? The controversial nature of what Banksy does in terms of his art is only half of the appeal…the other half comes from the not-knowing. The enigmatic nature of Banksy makes his art all the more appealing because there are questions we can’t answer…such as how does he do this without being spotted, what does he look like, how old is he, does he really work alone etc? Let’s face it, in these times of financial crisis, for all the people who think that Banksy is ‘selling out’, maybe it’s time he did get something back for entertaining and surprising us for so long.

As human beings the more we don’t know about something the more we want to find out. It has become a game of hide and seek and this is what really holds our interest in what this incredible artist produces…sometimes more than the work itself.

The $100k experiment

I recently bumped into this and I really liked it. The reason being that this is an excellent observation of human beings. Watching the different reactions to a glass box containing $100k is fascinating. Not only are people mesmerised by the box of cash, we are also observing a bunch of strangers who would never normally talk to each other interacting with one another over common ground. Money. In the current financial climate, this may come as no surprise…what did come as a surprise to me, and also brought slight disappointment, was that this commercial is for TheLadders.com. What is TheLadders.com? It is the world’s largest community catering exclusively to the $100k+ job market and $100k+ job seekers.

Of course, the ad itself is intuitive and interesting but I wished it had been for something else, like a charity or something less capitalist. I wished there had been a message there that would maybe have made people think rather than want.

It has been a while…

…I have been meaning to get on here for a while and write up some of the interesting things i’ve been bumping into recently. Time doesn’t seem to have been on my side in the past few weeks, so this weekend i’m hibernating. Autumn is here, it’s cold and miserable outside so I thought today would be a great day to update. Here goes…

What can you see?

Recently I’ve been seeing images in the most mundane things. Like, I was sitting outside my local pub and it was dark, apart from the streetlights, and I kept seeing shadows that looked like things. For example, I was sitting there having a conversation with someone but was distracted by what looked like a mini pair of trousers hanging on a washing line…of course it wasn’t that at all…it was a prong sticking out of the wall casting a shadow. But that reminded me of this photo I took last month on holiday:

I see rabbits hanging on the line…but they’re obviously just pegs. I think my point is that we’re all so busy running round from meeting to meeting, social event to social event that if we stopped to look at the little things in life we might see something different, something new and just for a moment we might escape to another time and place. Try it, see what you can see, it’s fun

Inspired: ‘Animus’ by Seonna Hong

I received this little book in the post last week from my brother. I wasn’t sure what to make of it at first. It’s like a pop up book I had when I was a child. However, this is slightly more profound and very beautiful. The illustrations are unusual and the moving pictures are gorgeous. It really took me back to my childhood. The words are minimal until you get to the end when you’re greeted with one of the loveliest pieces of writing I’ve read for a while. It made me smile, so I thought I’d share it with you.

Knowledge is a sword,

but it’s also protection.

For what is important,

and this should be mentioned:

 

It’s not the sharp words,

the claws or the fangs,

It’s what we do to ourselves

that causes the angst.

 

There are few happy endings,

all tied up in bows.

A full life is marked

by the highs and the lows.

 

And maybe it’s just about

finding our way

Through all of those wonderful

shades of gray.

Sexy, provocative, emotional, honest – Live Unbuttoned

The new Live Unbuttoned ads from BBH for Levi’s rock. I’m not going to say too much, have been meaning to post this for a while. They’re all about living for the moment. Will you be going unbuttoned?  I think I might Won’t say anymore you’ll just have to watch…

The Lure of the Orange Light

I am fascinated by my reaction to orange lights on taxis at the moment. It appears to provoke a feeling within me that seems to be getting stronger as each day goes by. I don’t know if anyone else feels like this but, living in London particularly, there just seems to be something about that orange taxi light that makes my tummy feel funny. Excited even.

Maybe it’s the old chestnut of when you want an orange light you cannot, for the love of god, find one; especially when you’re soaking wet, feeling like a drowned rat and the only thing you need to get you from A-B is that orange light.

It happened to me on Friday evening, again. It wasn’t late, I was heading towards Oxford Circus tube after having a lovely time in Soho with my pals. Having made a pact with myself earlier that evening that I would not get a cab that evening…I would in fact get on that tube, damn it, and get home for £1.50.

Alas, this was not to be. As I walked past the very funky man playing upside down plant pots (and he was really very good) outside the tube station something weird happened to my feet. They kept walking. Past the plant pots, past the tube station and hooked a right on to Regents Street. What am I doing? I thought to myself…I’m heading in the right direction for home but I’m walking. What? Then I saw it, an orange light in the distance. Excitement. I waved and smiled. The cabbie pulled over and the next thing I knew I was walking through my front door with a slightly lighter wallet. I then had a bit of a guilt trip about it, which dispersed quickly.  

So, what is this all about? 

A little research shows that:

Dark orange can mean deceit and distrust.
Red-orange corresponds to desire, sexual passion, pleasure, domination, aggression, and thirst for action.
Gold evokes the feeling of prestige. The meaning of gold is illumination, wisdom, and wealth. Gold often symbolises high quality.

I think maybe the orange taxi light takes elements from the ‘Red-orange’ and ‘Gold’ descriptions; a thirst for action? A feeling of prestige? However, this is my thought on the orange light: on traffic lights it signifies that you are going to take a risk, if you’re that way inclined, and see if you can get through it. On my laptop it means that my wireless connection is switched on and I have a plethora of knowledge waiting to be tapped into at my finger tips. When flying over the world in the dark orange street lights remind me that there are other people and communities living down there and I wonder what they are doing and what kind of life they have.

I guess the orange taxi light for me signifies the unknown a little bit. You don’t know what route your cabbie will take, you don’t know if you are going to have a deep philosophical chat about life for 10 minutes or just a silent ride from A-B. You sometimes don’t know how you’ll feel when you reach your destination. But what you do know is that you were the lucky one who saw that orange light coming towards you to take you to a different place than the place you were previously in.

RedFraggs is rockin’ on…finally!

Hello World!

It’s taken a while but I’m finally up and running with my sparkly, spangly, brand spanking new blog. RedFraggs is all about bumping into interesting things. It’s about Marketing, Publishing, Research, people, situations, fun, observations, London, life… It’s about asking that all important question: “Why?”. We’re all a bit obsessed these days about human behaviour and how it comes about, especially us Marketing folk. There are many theories about why people do the things they do and behave in a certain way. I’d quite like to have a go at collating my observations, thoughts and ponderings on this stuff and just see where it leads me. To see what other people think of these musings would be really interesting to me and to check out whether there is something lurking beneath our everyday observations and behaviour or whether I might just be a little bit barking. Anyway, we’ll see how it goes… :-)