Hasta La Ideas

Last fall, The Gap had a front row seat at witnessing the power of bad press on the internet when they released a uniformly-hated brand redesign, then stumbled into even worse territory when they tried to pass it off as the launch of a spec-based “we need a new logo competition,” and ultimately just killed the whole thing and probably wish people like us wouldn’t bring it up again. However, they give us no choice but to rehash old history because it appears that the company might soon have the internet against them once more. San Francisco hobbyist photographer Chris Devers posted on his Flickr page the remarkable similarities between a photo he’d taken nearly two years ago of an old Jaguar parked on the street and a “Thermal Body Double” outfit for currently being sold as part of The Gap’s Baby line. It’s been less than 24 hours now since Devers posted images of his original photo next to the sales listing on the company’s website, but already the story is gaining some major traction. What’s more, a second party managed to posterize the image being used on the shirt and placed it over the original, thereby offering more proof that something seems fairly amiss here. Here’s from Dever’s original post:

I have various thoughts about what’s going on here — for example, the mind-boggling idea that some unknown factory in southeast Asia somewhere is cranking out thousands of $16.95 tshirts with my photo on them on behalf of the Gap, and yet they never attempted to contact me about their use of my work — but I’m trying to keep most of my thoughts to myself until Gap has a chance to respond.

This certainly isn’t the first time a photo posted to Flickr has been at the center of this kind of repurposing/theft issue, with stories we’d reported on about Virgin and Sears getting in trouble for doing similar things coming to mind off the bat. Those seemed to fade away fairly quickly, but we’re sure to see how well a company as high profile as The Gap fares in due course.

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Roughly two and a half years after a flood ravaged the area, the University of Iowa is still finding itself fighting an uphill battle in trying to restore its UI Museum of Art. The building it had been housed in was damaged by the swelling Iowa River during a disastrous flood in the summer of 2008. After the water level had returned to normal and damages were assessed, the Federal Emergency Management Agency agreed to help finance the repair and restoration of the building. This would have been ideal were it not for the insurance issues that arose post-flood. Insurer of the museum’s collection, Lloyd’s of London, told the museum that given the chance of another flood, they would not take the risk of offering insurance again in the museum’s current location. When the University approached FEMA last year with a request to not simply repair the building, but to move to a new, less water-adjacent area, they were denied the funds. Six months later, the University’s appeal of that decision has also been rejected, with FEMA still arguing, despite receiving information about the insurance issue, that “the UIMA suffered less than 50 percent damage and that it could be restored to use as a museum.” Still putting up a fight, the university is now planning on taking the case to both the state-level Homeland Security office as well as FEMA’s headquarters in Washington.

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More on the Jeff Koons‘ vs. Everyone Who Makes Balloon Animals front. Following Friday’s detailed reports on the copyright and intellectual property aspects of the cease-and-desist case the famous artist has lobbed against the shop Park Life in San Francisco and the Canadian manufacturer of the balloon dog bookends at the heart of the debate, Art Info has gotten its hands on the federal complaint the shop filed in order to try and “head off a lawsuit from Koons.” Their post is entitled “6 Hilarious Zingers from the Balloon-Dog Freedom Suit Filed Against Jeff Koons” and hilarious they are. Drafted by a lawyer the shop has hired, they’ve clearly enjoyed poking at Koons and his legal team as much as they possibly can in legalese, all the while likely enjoying their underdog martyr status in the face of the big fancy artist. Art Info’s Emma Allen also adds her own commentary along the way, next to these six choice lines they’ve pulled out from the complaint, which helps make it all the funnier. Here’s the first:

The document begins: “As virtually any clown can attest, no one owns the idea of making a balloon dog, and the shape created by twisting a balloon into a dog-like form is part of the public domain.” I’d like to call to the stand the first expert witness. Dr. Bozo, will you please raise your right hand.

While we’re back on this topic, why hasn’t Koons gone after the Israeli design firm Ototo for their Doggy Bank? That looks much, much more like his sculpture than the Park Life one ever has?

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Photo by Jeremy Hood

It has been nearly six years since I first moved my design business into Art Central in downtown Calgary. At the time, my plan was to have a nice design studio and, as a side business, I would also have a small shop selling design-related books and stationery. Thus UPPERCASE was born. I mused that someday I’d like to publish books under the same name, so I designed a logo that would look good on a book spine. I didn’t think I’d delve into publishing so quickly nor so thoroughly, but I love it.

Alas, I had to close the physical retail aspect of UPPERCASE one year ago. Expecting a baby was a big factor in the decision, but also the cost of maintaining store inventory plus paying magazine print bills was just too much to take on. Customers through the building had begun to dwindle and Art Central didn’t have the buzz of activity and energy that it once had. I had far more web traffic and online orders than actual people coming through the door and the need to focus my business to an online model was very clear.

I still love my studio space in Art Central and plan on revamping it to meet my current needs (baby-proofing?) I hope to be able to work downtown on a more regular basis now that Finley is approaching his first birthday. I have lots of ideas for events, workshops and the like to best make use of the space… it is just a matter of finding time!

I am dedicated to staying in Art Central; I think the place still has loads of potential as a focal point for creativity and community in Calgary. However, over the past two years, tenants have come and gone and it has definitely been seeing some tough times. We could blame this on the economy but that’s an easy excuse. I would like to hear your opinion on Art Central. What can we do to make it better? What would you like to see happening in the building? What sort of tenants would be a good fit? What would you like to see and do in UPPERCASE?

Please leave your comments below or if you have something lengthy to say, please email me.

Last month’s news that the American Institute of Architects‘ Architectural Billings Index had finally reached the pre-2008, industry meltdown levels was great news, though approached cautiously after the unpleasant and unexpected dip the month before. That celebratory caution seemed definitely warranted at that time, and will likely continue to be the case in the foreseeable future, even with this month’s news that the Index has continued to rise. Jumping up more than two whole points to 54.2 (anything above 50 indicates an increase in billings and averaged growth within the industry), it shows that perhaps things might be getting better for the business of building. That the increase continued to hold in December makes it an even better sign, explains the AIA’s official decipherer of such things:

“This is more promising news that the design and construction industry is continuing to move toward a recovery,” said AIA Chief Economist, Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA. However, historically December is the most unpredictable month from a business standpoint, and therefore the most difficult month from which to interpret a trend. The coming quarter will give us a much better sense of the strength of the apparent upturn in design activity. ”

For further reading, we highly recommend checking out Matthew Lynch‘s “Industry Outlook 2011” for Archinect, which gives a great, detailed overview of what the Billings Index will tell you and how this year is likely to pan out for the industry.

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