THESCRAPBOOK

DesignBoom has a nice article about the design and evolution of the #1 Foam Hand, made by Geral Fauss, one of the most popular pieces of US sports merchandising.

‘I saw the students in the stands holding up an index finger, and shouting ‘we’re number 1′ at the playoff games… Students rallied around the team and kept a fevered pitch during the playoffs. I knew that they wanted something ‘big’ to show their spirit…..so I thought , why not a large hand sign.’

Genius. Read the full article here or visit Spirit Industries, Geral’s company.

i’m a big fan of toy cameras, and this new one performs well outside its price bracket and has bags of character… got it in the post today for £4.99, that’s a ridiculous eBay bargain!!!:

You may remember the Lomo Diana which was posted about a couple of times:

Diana photos

Lomo Diana

the results i’ve seen with this one look surprisingly good. there’s a flickr pool dedicated to the vivitar wide & slim here.

i’ll report back when i’ve had a few rolls through it!

Spotlight Ideas have a list of the top 100 branding, design, SEO, strategy, marketing, PR, media blogs. Totally based on their own opinion by the way, there’s no data or rigour behind it, and indeed some are more interesting than others, but it’s a good selection for all of us in “media land”, whatever your discipline. It is perhaps focussed on those who use words and phrases such as ‘marketing mix’, ‘integrated’, ‘holistic approach’, ‘communications’, ‘brand conversations’ or something equally appropriate for the 2008 version of Bullshit Bingo!

TOP 20 BLOGS

• PSFK - Cultural and business trends
• Seth Godin’s Blog - Branding / general business ideas
• Branding Strategy Insider - Branding: general
• Russel Davies - Account planning
• Jaffe Juice - Marketing: general
• One Degree - Digital marketing
• Micro Persuasion - Digital trends
• Pronet Advertising - Online marketing
• BannerBlog - Online advertising
• AdRants - Advertising news
• Search Engine Land - SEO and affiliate marketing
• Richard Edelman - PR: general
• PRBlogger - PR and technology
• Social Media Explorer - Social media: general
• Centre Networks - Social networking
• ProBlogger - Blogging
• Copyblogger - Copywriting
• David Airey - Graphic design
• Logic + Emotion - Design: general
• Ads of the World - Advertising ads archive

The rest are available to view here though I warn you, I steal many of my entries for TheScrapBook from these so it kind of undermines my postings… ah well, in the interests of the new media age and all that!

It’s been a long time since anyone put any sneakers up in TheScrapBook… which is not only telling, given all the fashion trends we’ve brought to you etc, but it’s a bit strange since it was one of the things that got us all together as mates (along with many other fine things, but kicks is certainly strong!)

These new dunks from Nike absolutely steal the show though. Taken from stills from the Beautiful Losers film releasing very soon, this collection of Dunks is, in my humble opinion, stunning.

We mentioned Beautiful Losers before, but it’s a collection of artists that have been put together, curated along the lines of their “anti-art” backgrounds, their skate or music influence, or the way they influence the world. You’ll be familiar with them, perhaps - Kaws, Obey (Sheperd Fairey), ESPO (Steve Powers), Twist (Barry McGee) to name a few.

Supertouch has the low-down on the Beautiful Loser Dunks:

“Presented by NIKE SPORTSWEAR, the film chronicles the lives and creative process of artists including Shepard Fairey, Margaret Kilgallen, Mike Mills, Barry McGee, Jo Jackson, Chris Johanson, Harmony Korine, Stephen Powers, Geoff McFetridge, Thomas Campbell and Ed Templeton, among others, whose DIY attitudes informed the aesthetics and ethos of their generation…

To further commemorate the film’s release, Nike’s Sportswear’s JESSE LEYVA has also created a series of 22 Beautiful Losers Dunks emblazoned with iconic stills from the movie using the company’s new high-resolution digital printing process. Says Aaron Rose of the project, “We went back to the documentary and pulled frame stills of what we felt were key moments in the narrative. We used these moments to tell the Beautiful Losers story using the shoes as a medium, with the end result being a collection of works of art.” Viewed together, the shoes reflect the overall narrative of the film, and after being exhibited at the NYC and LA “Make Something!” workshops, two sets of the shoes will be auctioned off with proceeds donated to the Children’s Aid Society.”

The MAKE SOMETHING! workshop schedule, if you’re in NYC looks interesting too:
255 Elizabeth Street
August 8: Zine Making with Aaron Rose
August 9: Cinematography with Tobin Yelland
August 10: Character Design with Kaws
August 14: Animation with Todd James
August 16: Photography with Cheryl Dunn
August 17: Design with Eric Elms
August 18 Tattoos with Scott Campbell
August 21: Painting with Eric White
August 22: Sneaker Design with Jesse Leyva

The new Beijing Olympic Pictograms reminded me that there’s a load of really really nice images over at the Otl Aicher pool on flickr. Otl pictograms from the 72 munich olympics are the ones above obviously…

Wow. Sky News has brought something rather “impressive” to light: The Olympics fireworks display was faked… Read the full article here, but here’s the bottom line:

“The global television audience of more than three billion people watched in amazement as a series of giant footprints outlined in fireworks proceeded through the night sky from Tiananmen Square to the Bird’s Nest stadium - except they were watching a computer animation.

Even the giant television screens within the stadium itself broadcast the fake images.

Stunned viewers thought they were watching the string of fireworks filmed from above by a helicopter, but in reality they were watching a 3D graphics sequence that took almost a year to produce. It even included a ‘camera shake’ to mimic the effect of filming from a helicopter…

…Organiser said that the footprint fireworks were there for real, but thought it unsafe to try to film them - so they recreated them instead.”

More photos of the ceremony can be found on Flickr.

Axel Peemoeller’s design and graphics site is crazy, but the application of visual dimensions painting in a practical way is rather a genius move. What’s the name of the artist that developed this perspective art originally? Anyone know?

More images of the car park here

I’m sure that there’ll be less articles on TheScrapBook about new clothes and things, and perhaps more about the effects of the credit crunch on marketing and design, as time goes on. Here’s my first!

Contagious has an interesting article about recession marketing that mentions Nike’s new Zoom Victory shoe. Not only is this a great technological innovation in the construction of the shoe, but it’s a way for their business to retain some money otherwise spent in production.

Fast Company magazine examines the emerging innovations related to the Olympics, and mentions particularly the Nike Zoom Victory. By dispensing with the elements previously needed to hold a sneaker together (stitching, material) in favour of a ‘flywire’ suspension bridge design with merely a coating of fabric, the shoes weigh in at less than a chocolate bar. What’s more, because the design is so pared down, the Nike team can use rapid prototyping to design and manufacture unique versions in a fraction of the time that it would take to knock up a regular sneaker.

What this means is that the Zoom Victory’s cheaper production process could enable Nike to shift some of its manufacturing out of China and back to its home in the United States, thus creating jobs in an otherwise exhausted marketplace.

Any business opportunity for a client that not only cuts costs, but potentially earns them an income and revenue stream is surely onto a winner.

For more on Credit Crunch marketing, check out Contagious’ other article on how consumers might act in a recession and what the opportunity is for us - most notably, apparently, for packaging designers!

Read At Work:

Dont Click It

Two great websites that deserve to be here on TheScrapBook. Play with them yourself to appreciate what they’re all about!

Have we posted this before? Can’t remember! Click the images to view the film

It’s in the same vein as Designer Slash Model