The WWD accessories book came out – just the drug we needed to snap us out of our seasonally affected wardrobe stupor. And this one was AWESOME – a big bowl of I Want That (with convenient shopping details on every page). Below, the best of the best. We die.
Shoes
Sigerson Morrison, Roberto Cavalli and Louis Vuitton
I was browsing through the Shop Class page of the WWD accessories book, the one featuring chic woodworking for the well dressed – hey, that could be me! (?) – when I saw a clutch by Nada Sawaya. Intrigued, I went to her website and found the following internet treasure.
florence, da vinci and trevi
Nada calls her clutches minaudieres (that’s French for “small carrying case for cosmetics and jewels”… or candy and pills!). Her goal is to “penetrate an oversaturated market by creating a collection for people who had already given up on uniqueness in the fashion world, a collection with a strong enough impact to fascinate bored shoppers.”
positano, san marco and la scala
What I find personally fascinating are her references to vintage design and her supporting use of exotic materials. In these designs she uses stainless steel, brass, black shell, mother of pearl, bone, horn, python and wood.
renata, diane and moumou
You can check out the minaudieres in person at Jennifer Miller in Manhattan and Sarah Vicci in Brooklyn.
In preparation for his show at MoMA, we’re featuring a classic William Kentridge film, “History of the Main Complaint” completed in 1996.
His films are dark, dangerous and politically motivated. His technique is to photograph successive charcoal drawings on the same sheet of paper. Traces from previous drawings are usually still visible on the next frame, resulting in shorts that are powerfully self-aware.
History of the Main Complaint is the sixth film in the series and is based on twenty-one drawings. It was made shortly after the establishment in South Africa of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, headed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. It was set up to conduct a series of public hearings into abuses of human rights perpetrated during the apartheid era. The hearings, in which individuals told their stories of personal suffering, were held in order to make reparation for abuse and in the hope of creating reconciliation between peoples. The underlying theme of this film is a (self) recognition of white responsibility. This is played out through a ‘medical’ investigation into the body of Soho Eckstein, the white property-developing magnate and greedy-capitalist protagonist of most of the preceding films, which provides the starting point for a revelation of conscience.
“Designed in collaboration with Josh Tatarynowicz, these packages were for a handmade goats milk soap company. We created four intricate Mandala patterns based on the natural ingredients used in each soap flavour; like peppermint leaves, rose petals & lemon slices. The patterns are laser cut out of card and allow for the soap to be smelt through the packaging.”
Again, the simple lines and strong colors of these four packages remind us of the simple yet elegant lines of the Toulouse Lautrec lithographs. It’s almost as if the designer’s shapes and forms take on emotional qualities – just like the simple ink line of Lautrec’s black stocking are famously loaded with suggestion.
Recently, anti-smoking lobbyists have been pushing for any movie that features cigarettes/smoking to be slapped with an automatic R rating. This pains us. The royal We here at Badger & Partners love smoking. The Art Department in particular feels a strong and incessant urge to consume cigarettes.
More than the act of smoking, which is an undeniable physical pleasure/danger, We love the IDEA of smoking. “In this era of overshares and TMI,” as Nell Minow puts it, “we no longer need the lighting of a cigarette and softly rising smoke to demonstrate gallantry and symbolize romance and seduction. Perhaps it isn’t the cigarettes we miss so much as the metaphors.”
It would be a waste not to influence unaccompanied minors with the rich and powerful symbolism of smoking – the first cigarette is practically an initiation rite of American youth. If you keep on smoking them, you’ll become an art director; if you cough and pass out, you go account side.
So, in the interest of influencing our underage readers and future employees, here are some pictures of cool people smoking… don’t be afraid to light up, kids.
In the grand retrospective tradition of closing out the year, beautycall would like to acknowledge the ad campaigns we loved in 2009.
1. Dos Equis – Most Interesting Man in the World
Though this campaign launched back in April, 2007 in targeted markets, two new spots went national in 2009, airing during several popular primetime programs on Comedy Central, ESPN, FX and TNT. In addition to the new TV spots, the campaign also includes print, interactive, OOH and live events that position Dos Equis as a premium beer for those who want to live similarly interesting lives, and those who have the sense of humor to appreciate the concept. It’s an interesting way to capitalize on the current premiumization trend in the beer market.
On the Dos Equis website, you can watch videos from the archive, test your skills – Patience (keeping your finger on a button as long as you can), Recall (blowing a tune on Dos Equis bottles) and Strength (Arm wrestling deceased world leaders) – and even participate in the social media competition to become The Most Interesting Man in the World’s Assistant.
And, in line with our Socialife belief that all social media should have a real life component, Dos Equis hosts The Most Interesting Show in the World, live performances all over the country.
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2. Levi’s – Go Forth
With a vision that remains holistically consistent across all platforms, Levi’s Go Forth campaign is grounded in an emotionally charged Americana, intrinsic to our national psyche. In the aftermath of a recession that left many consumers unable to justify the purchase of $300 jeans, Levi’s offers a more affordable and, with this campaign, a more genuinely authentic alternative.
Their print and OOH executions exhibit young pioneers frolicking in sweeping, epic views of the American West, and the highly interactive website encourages users to tag lines of the Declaration of Independence with their own comments, audio recordings and pictures.
As Ad Age’s Bob Garfield points out, it may be a bit too heavy handed, ”The larger question is whether the bootstraps ethic will find a receptive audience in a dustbowl economy, and whether even the romantic admonition to “go forth” has any relevance to a target demographic that increasingly is going forth from their old bedrooms at Mom and Dad’s to their places of under- or unemployment.”
Garfield is right, but we don’t care! This is advertising for the sake of advertizing. The flawless integration of design, strategy and theme (along with the voice of Walt Whitman) make this campaign one of our favorites.
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3. Heineken – Walk In Fridge
This commercial was so popular when it first aired, it was even spoofed in a subsequent Bavaria spot. At the end of the year Heineken put the Walk-in Fridge commercial on air once more. At the same time they created a little mystery by putting huge Walk-in Fridge boxes on the streets of Amsterdam on garbage day, to imply that the huge fridge was actually for sale and that people were buying and enjoying the product. Another great example of bridging the gap with consumers.
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4. Snickers – Snacklish
As anyone who’s ridden in a cab with me over the last can attest, it pains me greatly to include this campaign on our list. I HATE Snaxi’s even more than I hate van cabs. But this integrated campaign has been wildly successful, as noted in the 2009 Zeta Interactive survey. It was their highest-ranking campaign – taxi, bus stop and subway posters featuring catchy phrases like “Pledge your nutlegience,” “Snaxi” and “Nougetaboutit.” – achieving an 82% positive reaction and overall buzz rating of 72.
The taxi-top “Snacklish” phrases are available for creation by the public on the Snacklish website. Below you can see the generated translations for “emergency” and “georgeous”.
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5. Apple – There’s an App for That
Apple appears on every best-of list EVER, but we included it here because of the campaign’s strategic synergy with Apple’s exploding app-development market. January 16, 2009 there were 15,000 apps available with 500 million downloads. By Decemeber 16, 2009 there were 115,00 apps available with over 2 billion downloads. Because Apple allows 70% of app revenues from the store to instantly go to the developer, their decision to feature the apps in their ad campaign has been key in keeping their consumer base engaged and personally invested in the product.
By Laura Schilling on Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Plastic Bag, Paper Roll, Bubble Wrap
When Hendrik Kerstens decided to dedicate himself entirely to photography in 1995, he turned to a model very near at hand – his daughter, Paula. He captured incidents throughout her development, such as her first day with braces or getting a bad sunburn, in an effort to immortalize those memories that make up life but fade from memory rather quickly. The project became known as ‘Paula Pictures’. He not only depicted her in relation to events in her own life, but eventually began to project on her his fascination with the Dutch painters of the seventeenth century.
Aluminum Foil, Refuse Cap, Refuse Cape
Kerstens said, “One day Paula came back from horseback riding. She took off her cap and I was struck by the image of her hair held together by a hair-net. It reminded me of the portraits by the Dutch masters and I portrayed her in that fashion. After that I started to do more portraits in which I refer to the paintings of that era. The thing that fascinates me in particular is the way a seventeenth-century painting is seen as a surface which can be read as a description of everyday life as opposed to the paintings of the Italian Renaissance, which usually tell a story. Northern European painting relies much more on craftsmanship and the perfect rendition of the subject. In this, the use of light is instrumental.”
Napkin, Lampshade, Red Rabbit IV
A number of the portraits of Paula are reminiscent of Johannes Vermeer – the austerity of the photograph, the serene expression on the young girl’s face and the characteristic Dutch light all combine to create this impression. In these later photographs, Kerstens exploits our natural tendency to associate visual cues with a certain era – clothing, makeup, accessories, lighting. By using modern, often banal objects to impart these visual cues, he plays an interesting, layered game with time.
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