M-novels, M-soap operas and a musician who goes on world tour from his living room – Kirsty Allison reports from Tokyo in this special CR film on Japan’s mobile culture
More on what Kirsty saw:
M-FILM: the Pocket Films Festival “These screens are portable, digital and easy to edit and distribute from. It’s culture in your pocket,” says Professor Masaki Fujihata of the Tokyo University of Arts, and director of the Tokyo Pocket Films Festival. He sees the medium as the message, with M-films currently serving as sketchpads for ideas where an ideal duration is under five minutes, although he predicts that future M-films “will go on to win Oscars”.
M-SOAP OPERAS: Voltage Production company Voltage specialises in M-games and M-soap operas. Shooting for half an hour a week, Voltage breaks weekly stories down to five-minute chunks which get downloaded by young girls largely in search of romantic titillation. It claims hits of up to 10K per episode. CEO Tsuya Yuuzi likens the current era to the early gaming industry.
M-STREET ART: HP France Gallery Shibuya’s hub of hip is this basement gallery where street artists such as Sense, Baku, Kanosue Shunsuke and Takeru Nakabayashi meet with software developers to design comedy mobile interfaces that add a little more wasabi heat to regular mobile menus. These collaborations lead to animations such as sushi belts which speed up and slow down according to levels of mobile reception. Mao Sakaguchi, curator of HP France began customising screensavers with artists several years ago, 3 is the first British company to adopt similar tactics to reach the social networking, data-loving generation, and has recently commissioned artists to create screensavers for its INQ handset.
M-LIVE: Merce Death The name for this one man band derives from the Japanese pronunciation of Mercedes. Art director and home lover, Shingo Oono goes on world tour from his living room studio in the suburbs of Tokyo, thanks to the wonders of modern technology (mainly streaming site, Ustream.com); he layers guitars with bass and drums, broadcasting direct from home. Watch online, on phone, or join in with the World Online Jam.
M-BOOKS: M-Novelists The Keitai Shousetsu phenomenon is particularly popular with the young, and is encouraging them to get back into books. Written and delivered on mobiles (authors Honjo Sae and Tadashi Izumi, above), with associated paperbacks, merchandise, anime and TV, this is true cross-platform culture. M-books follow viral patterns, with initial chapters often being free. Bestselling Tokyo Real has 32m hits, and paperback sales of 3m plus.
Kirsty Allison travelled to Tokyo as part of the 3snapshots.com project
CR May issue cover, issue side. Photography: Luke Kirwan
The double, May issue of CR features nearly 100 pages of the finest work of the past year in The Annual, plus features on design for the London Olympics, advertising and YouTube, the amazing rollercoaster ride of Attik and, we hope, lots of other interesting thing too…
Cover, Annual side
The Designers Republic’s special issue steel cover for Autechre album, Quaristice, was one of our Best In Book selections. Warp and tDR have produced so much great work that this seemed a fitting endpoint for a great client/designer relationship
More spreads from The Annual
Will designers remember the London 2012 Olympics as fondly as they do those of 1968, 72 and 84? Not without an improved tendering process and a strong creative director, says Mark Sinclair
Inspiration? Rip-off opportunity? Eliza Williams looks at the effect of YouTube on advertising
The amazing rollercoaster ride of Attik
Beatrice Santiccioli colours your world – she may even have chosen the colour of your Mac
Airside is ten, but it nearly wasn’t. Gavin Lucas interviews Fred Deakin
Rick Poynor on Milton Glaser, artist
James Pallister reports from the Colophon magazine festival
Do we need 128 versions of the same typeface? David Quay responds
This month’s Monograph (for subscribers only) features Dixon Baxi designer Aporva Baxi’s collection of Nintendo Game & Watch games, shot by Jason Tozer
The May issue of CR is out on 22 April. Or you can subscribe, if you like…
Or, ‘I’m sure I’ve seen that dancing bear before somewhere’. Thanks to Chunnel.tv for alerting us to this clip (by Vinichou) pointing out that, when it comes to recycling, Disney was way ahead
“I would assume that Disney regarded some of these sequences as sort of ’stock’ motion,” says Chunnel’s Stu, who posted the clip, “and it was probably the new guy’s job to go dig out those Jungle Book cells and translate all the monkeys into dwarfs.”
Chunnel.tv is a creative showcase site that is run by WPP’s United Network.
Set up by AKQA three years ago, The Cannes Future Lions Awards is open to students around the world. This year, the challenge is to create an ad campaign for a global brand that would not have been possible five years ago.
There are no rules in terms of media or technology; no restrictions around product or target audience. The winners will be flown to Cannes and receive a delegate pass to the advertising festival.
Hironao Tsuboi’s Faceless LED watch where the spaces between the bracelet’s links form the characters of the display
The first event in D&AD’s new talent scheme, Creative Faces To Watch, showcased the work of some of Japan’s most exciting design talent
D&AD plans to stage Creative Faces To Watch evenings in different regions around the world. The first was in Tokyo last month where a panel of luminaries each nominated someone they thought was producing great creative work in Japan.
Joe Ferry, Head of Design at Virgin Atlantic, chose Hironao Tsuboi: “He has the ability to look at everyday objects in a completely new way. Only a real design talent could breath new life into mundane objects such as umbrellas and light bulbs.
“He refrains from adding unnecessary details. In fact making simple designs look good is one of the most difficult things to do. Who would ever have thought that a watch could become exciting if you entirely remove the watch face – this guy clearly did. He turns a negative into a positive. Hironao Tsuboi’s glass design creates a beautiful detail from essentially a condensation drip. I feel this glass captures his positive take on life, which is both admirable and infectious.”
The Cherry Blossom (Sakura) glass – when wet, the base leaves the pattern of cherry blossom on a surface
D&AD President and Creative Director at Williams Murray Hamm, Garrick Hamm chose GT: “It’s a brave team that sets up their own, but to have done so and won a D&AD nomination and a host of other awards within the first couple of years of operation is a real achievement. Some may feel that GT’s collection of international awards doesn’t make them a ‘face to watch’, but I’m really impressed by their determination to be recognised on an international level. It shows a real sense of self-belief, which is a critical element to the success of any studio.”
GT’s PikaPika film, in which 16000 still photos were animated to promote So-net’s online entertainment services
Takayuki Soeda, Founder of Soeda Design Factory, chose Home Inc: “A few years ago I was asked to judge at the Sapporo Art Director’s Club. I was really impressed by the work from Home Inc, the design studio that is home to Ryohei ‘Wabi’ Kudow and Kazushi ‘Sabi’ Nakanishi. In Japanese, ‘wabisabi’ means imperfect or impermanent beauty and this ethos flows through all of their work. Their graphics have such a distinct ‘Japanese’ style, but I think they can be understood by anyone.”
And Koichiro Tanaka (see CR Jan), Creative Director of Projector, chose W0W: “W0W try to re-define how images are used. Their work is like a journey discovering a new relationship between images and the media in which they’re used. I’m passionate about W0W.”
Getty Images has launched its Flickr Collection – a set of images from the photo sharing community available for licence through the Getty Images site
The Flickr Collection features images selected by Getty’s photo editors “based on their expertise in licensing digital content and insights into customers’ needs,” according to a press release. Their choices major on “a variety of conceptual imagery, such as everyday scenes and believable subjects, and original and regionally relevant content”. New images will be added each month.
There are more details on the selection process on Getty’s Creative Blog, but none regarding payment terms. However, when the deal was first announced last year, it was reported that Flickr photographers would “be paid in the same manner as professionals if their images are used commercially”. That would mean that photographers would receive 30 per cent to 40 per cent of the licensing fee for limited use, or 20 percent if the image may be used with fewer restrictions.
PDN Online tried out the Collection and found it pretty pricey. For a shot of “Mount Hood seen from an airplane”, to be used half page on a website for five years the price was $2,070. A dedicated Flickr message board has more details of how things work.
Of course, if you want to use Flickr images, you could always go direct to the photographer (as we have often done in order to use images in CR), in which case they would receive 100% of the fee. You can’t do this with images in the Getty Flickr Collection though as Getty demands exclusivity over not just the images featured but also those that are substantially similar (see comments below). But there’s no doubt that the sheer volume of traffic that Getty attracts on its site, the idea that their team has filtered a collection to provide only those images that people are likely to use and the security and trust element that comes from having Getty manage the licensing/quality etc could prove an attractive model for image buyers.
Crispin, Porter + Bogusky is an advertising agency that, to say the least, divides opinion. When bestowing its coveted agency of the year award for 2008 on CP+B, the US trade magazine Ad Age sounded almost apologetic, acknowledging that the announcement meant that “any number of curmudgeonly bloggers and envious creative types all over adland are fuming”. Its sister title, Creativity, observed that “the agency is unrivalled in the amount and the intensity of antipathy it arouses”. Most successful advertising agencies will suffer sniping from others in the industry, often motivated by simple jealousy, yet CP+B’s detractors are especially persistent and vocal – but why?
A survey of online commentary about the agency, combined with the opinions of creative directors at rivals (off the record, natch) reveals certain themes. Accusations of facile humour, a lack of interest in art direction or aesthetic qualities, and an aggressive interest in courting the press, both for its clients and its own gains, are all regularly repeated. Another common complaint is that CP+B is simply a ‘rock star’ agency, fond of its own press but without the work to back it up. A recent rant on thedenveregotist.com claimed that the agency’s “recent ‘big’ ideas were recycled, either from themselves or other work”. (Although the author, Felix, also neatly illustrated the dichotomy surrounding CP+B by claiming at the end of his long rant that he’d “still take a job at CP+B. I’m just mad … not insane.”)
Whopper Sacrifice homepage at whoppersacrifice.com
Certainly the agency appears to enjoy courting controversy. As is typical, it entered 2009 riding on a wave of both admiration and admonishment, caused largely by its recent work for Burger King. Whopper Virgins, the agency’s latest spot for the fast food brand, was launched in early December to accusations of insensitivity and even cultural imperialism. People in far-flung corners of the world who were previously untouched by American fast food were featured in a BK comedy taste test. ‘Poor, backward foreigners: let’s give them some real food’ is one possible reading of its message. By contrast, Whopper Sacrifice, a Facebook application also for BK that encouraged users of the social networking site to ditch ten friends and receive a free burger in exchange was being heralded as an innovative step forward in digital advertising (despite being quickly banned by Facebook itself for breaking its privacy rules). Such debate and discussion is nothing new for a company which actively encourages conversation around its clients’ work, recognising that creating discourse around a brand can be a vital way of breaking through our over-saturated media. “We ask ‘will the press write about it?’,” readily admits partner/co-ECD Rob Reilly. “That’s our ultimate goal.”
CP+B’s unconventional approach to advertising has been evident since its early days. The agency was quick, far quicker than most, to realise the benefits of digital advertising, and scored a huge hit with its Subservient Chicken website, created in collaboration with the Barbarian Group, which has achieved over a billion hits since its launch in 2004. Other experimental projects followed, with the agency creating Burger King’s Xbox King Games project – a tie-in with Microsoft to create a series of computer games around the BK ‘king’ character, which were sold only through BK outlets. Both of these campaigns were prescient in predicting the structure of CP+B today, with its heavy emphasis on digital – its in-house digital team is “the biggest at any advertising agency”, according to partner/co-ECD Andrew Keller – and also its recent expansion to include an in-house industrial design department. Designs produced by the agency so far range from the invention of Chicken Fries for Burger King to a LED Wi-Fi lightbulb.
LED Wi-Fi lightbulb, designed in-house at CP+B
CP+B’s attempts at creating a one-stop shop for its clients – providing them with solutions in digital and product design, as well as traditional media such as TV – has been heralded by many as representing a model for the ad agency of the future. The agency’s emphasis on collaboration means that every department will be involved in a brief, allowing the possibility for unexpected results, as John Winsor, VP/executive director of strategy and product innovation, explains. “It’s fully integrated,” he says. “So when there’s a brief for a project, our planning department attacks the strategy and research side of things, and the guys from the design group look at that problem as a product problem versus an advertising and marketing problem…. I think it’s the future. I think more and more clients want and need, especially in this financial environment, to figure out how to serve their customers better and how to grab market share and do a better job. Some of that’s advertising and some of it’s trying to figure out how to serve the client better with different design products.”
BK Chicken Fries, an idea dreamt up by CP+B
Keller (who now oversees all client work at the agency alongside Reilly, following Alex Bogusky’s move to co-chairman) sees the range of services on offer at the agency as a way of helping clients to adapt to the new marketing possibilities available now. “I think a lot of clients still think about television a lot, it’s still the main thing that they can think about,” he says. “And if we didn’t do digital, we’d be really happy to let them carry on thinking that way. But since we do digital, there’s no conflict of interest for us to help them see the light. We’re going to do that whether they want it or not, because we believe in it and we’ve got to help them be great. I think because we do both we’re in a great position to help clients make that transition.”
Not everyone agrees that such multiplicity of skills is the way forward for advertising, however, with concerns that no company is able to provide all the specialist skills required in today’s complex communications world across all media at the same time and at equal quality. And other commentary around CP+B’s practise has trodden a darker path than simply whether it is constructing a good business model for the future of advertising. In its early collaborations with digital agencies, it was accused of a lack of generosity when it came to acknowledging the input of others on projects: many felt that it could have done more to credit the contribution of the Barbarian Group in the Subservient Chicken website, for example. But these are issues for the ad industry as a whole, particularly when it comes to the major awards, which often reduce the contributions of digital agencies to a bit part, with the credit given solely to the lead agency. CP+B says that all its digital work is now done in-house (bar “some programming and testing and things like that”, says Keller), though complaints about its past behaviour in this area rumble on.
Burger King Whopper Freakout
What is undeniable about the agency however, and is a point that even its more furious detractors will acknowledge, is that it has a deft ability to recognise what will seep effortlessly into popular culture. It began 2008 with another hit for Burger King, for Whopper Freakout, which showed CCTV footage of BK patrons ‘freaking out’ when told that their beloved Whopper had been taken off the menu…. forever. The ad spawned a number of spoofs, including most famously the Whopper Ghetto Freakout, which has had over three million views on YouTube. The ad may have contained a gentle mockery of BK’s customers at its core, but this in no way put them off, with the ad leading to a significant increase in sales of the Whopper.
Other hits of last year included the introduction of Tivo-based ordering for Domino’s pizzas, as well as the ability to custom order your Domino’s pizza online and follow the order via the website a la FedEx. The Tivo ordering, while undeniably a clever idea, led to claims that the agency was promoting laziness, and in turn, obesity. “You see a lot of the press and they are on it,” acknowledges Keller. “And it’s just natural that they’re going to have to take a dig of the notion that ‘ah, how much lazier could you be?’. We can’t expect them to grab the insight, which is what we’re doing is connecting our product with moments…. To connect with movies and television that directly is an incredible thing. But certainly part of the tension resides in the fact that it’s like ‘wow, you couldn’t even get up to use the phone’.”
Alec Baldwin in an ad by CP+B for hulu.com
CP+B has also demonstrated a knack of knowing which celebrities will get our attention. Going against the commonly held theory of using a squeaky clean star that will make the associated brand look good, CP+B regularly chooses celebrities who have a history, and sometimes even a rather checkered past. It used Brooke Shields in a series of ads for VW’s family wagon, the Routan (which were accompanied by a website where users could get a glimpse of what their future babies may look like, with either real or fantasy partners), and, most recently, Alec Baldwin in an ad for online video service Hulu that aired during this year’s Super Bowl. Both had been caught up in very public celebrity spats in recent years (Shields with Tom Cruise and Baldwin with his own daughter).
Keller and Reilly emphasise that central to the agency’s success with such campaigns is a deft understanding of what will get people talking. Inevitably such a goal will also have its downsides, however, and the coverage of its first work for new client Microsoft last year can’t have made for easy reading. The campaign began with two ads featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld, an unlikely pairing that made for awkward exchanges and a somewhat confusing message, before the strategy abruptly changed direction with the ‘I’m A PC’ ads, which came as a direct response to the ‘Mac vs. PC’ ads by Apple. While the intention of these latter spots may have been clear, the agency was derided for riding on the coat-tails of the Apple campaign and faced further humiliation when some nifty technical types exposed that the ‘I’m A PC’ spots were in fact made on a Mac.
Microsoft ad from CP+B starring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld
This seemed a surprising mistake from such a press savvy agency, but if it was attention that they wanted with this campaign, attention is what they got, even if it was broadly negative. “You know, there really is no such thing as bad publicity,” says Keller. “People like to say it, but you have to believe it, because it really comes down to the fact that [if you want] to generate energy around something, [it] can’t be harnessed for a positive outcome. Unfortunately it’s not the nature of culture to generate a lot of excitement and energy around really positive things. But our goal is to be positive, it’s not to be cynical…. We know that we have to generate a conversation and to have a conversation there has to be two sides. If you’re not willing to have the negative side, then you’re not willing to have a conversation, and if you’re not willing to [do that], you’re not going to create anything.”
Perhaps in this lies the root of CP+B’s success. Its work may not be pretty, and it may at times centre on a certain style of frat boy humour, but it will always get our attention and get us talking. As will the agency itself. Those working there might find it frustrating – “it’s bad enough dealing with clients and the economy, before attacking each other,” says Reilly of the regular swipes the agency receives – but it seems that the debate around CP+B is as ingrained in the agency’s DNA as the conversation that its ads are intended to encourage. It will no doubt continue to be the one agency that everyone, but everyone, has an opinion about. But perhaps secretly that’s just the way it likes it.
Italian Vogue – A Black Issue, July 2008, fashion category winner
The winners in each category of the Brit Insurance Design Awards 2009 have been announced, ahead of an overall winner that will be revealed at a gala ceremony at the Design Museum in London on March 18.
The Design Awards have seven categories – architecture, fashion, furniture, graphics, interactive, product and transport. The exhibition of the awards, currently on show at the Design Museum, contains several entries in each category, which have all been nominated by critics, curators and design practitioners. These have been whittled down to a shortlist of seven who are now vying for the top accolade of Brit Insurance Design of the Year.
The panel of judges this year consists of broadcaster Alan Yentob, MoMA curator Paola Antonelli, designer and environmentalist Karen Blincoe, architect Peter Cook, fashion critic Sarah Mower, and last year’s winner, designer Yves Béhar.
The judges chose Italian Vogue: A Black Issue, July 2008 (shown top) as their winner in the fashion category. “Deemed a cultural watershed, A Black Issue firmly placed the debate about the lack of black models in the fashion industry to the very forefront of the fashion world’s consciousness as well as causing widespread debate outside fashion circles,” said the judges of their choice.
Shepard Fairey’s Obama poster won in graphics
Shepard Fairey’s Barack Obama poster is the winner in the graphics category. The judges commented that “if there ever were to be a ‘poster of the year’, the Obama poster would be it. The US election was a watershed in contemporary history and this poster demonstrates the power of communicating ideas and aspirations from grass-root level. Just as the presidential candidate’s campaign speeches recaptured the lost art of oratory, so this poster breathed new life into a form that had lost its purpose.”
Make Magazine was the winner in interactive
Make Magazine is the interactive category winner. “Make Magazine is a website and blog that has created a remarkable resource through which to explore the process of making,” say the judges. “It is much more sophisticated than your everyday DIY website; Make Magazine presents you with unusual blueprints in which the users own input and customisation are both of practical and social value.”
Magno Wooden Radio won in product
The Magno Wooden Radio, designed by Singgih S Kartono, won in the product category. “The radio reflects a sense of purpose in the wider design context,” say the judges. “The designer has brought together local crafts people, teaching them new skills in making and assembling the radio, and by using local wood has brought a positive and sustainable infrastructure to a small community.”
Line-J Medellin Metro Cable won in transport
In transport, the Line-J Medellin Metro Cable in Colombia, designed by Poma, took the category prize. “This is a great example of how to re-appropriate an already successful cable car envisaged for ski slopes into a mass transit system for the urban poor,” say the judges.
Konstantin Grcic’s MYTO Chair was the winner in furniture
In furniture, Konstantin Grcic’s MYTO Chair was the winner and is described as a “design classic” by the judges. “It is tough creating a design classic, but the MYTO might just have achieved this through its rigorous experimentation and research, resulting in the technically very difficult outcome of a cantilevered plastic chair,” they say.
The New Oslo Opera House by Snøhetta won the architecture category
Finally, in architecture it was the New Oslo Opera House by Snøhetta which won the category award this year. “This is more than a beautifully designed building and an opera house,” say the judges, “it’s a living part of the city, a place for music, but also an outdoor space, somewhere all kinds of people like to go. Its mix of indoor and outdoor spaces attracts not just opera enthusiasts. It’s a building that gives people the chance to roam through, across and on top of it, all the way from sea to roof level.”
The Brit Insurance Designs of the Year exhibition will be on show at the Design Museum until June 14. More info is at designmuseum.org.
We shouldn’t be too surprised to learn that Christian groups are planning to respond to the atheist bus campaign which we posted about back in October. They’ve been riled by the on-bus banner that reads “There’s probably no god, so stop worrying and enjoy your life”. Now, thanks to The Bus Slogan Generator, you can come up with your own versions…
Of course, history tells us that some people feel quite strongly about their religious beliefs – so strongly in fact that they need to impose their beliefs on others. Yes, we humans have been merrily slicing, dicing, mutilating, invading, pillaging, raping, torturing, enslaving our neighbouring tribes since time immemorial for the simple reason that they don’t share our credos. How dare they believe the world is round / that there are less than six gods / that the world isn’t supported by a gargantuan bearded chap! (Not forgetting that assorted godless communists and totalitarians have been equally savage and intolerant in dealing with anyone who disagreed or threatened their world view, Ed)
How has the Christian Party responded to this lighthearted squeak of opinion (the original atheist slogan’s use of the word “probably” hardly qualifies it as the most inflammatory of statements) from the usually, let’s face it, quiet and retiring atheists? What pithy slogan has been conjured up to capture the imagination of the world’s ungodly? After, no doubt, much consideration it is: “There definitely is a god”. Ah, bravo!
Oh dear, oh dear. Surely any person with a working brain, a functional use of language and just a mite of enthusiasm for his or her faith could do better than that? Well, fortunately – thanks to a nifty new online gadget The Bus Slogan Generator anyone can come up with their own bus-side theological message. Simply log on and devise your own bus slogans in the privacy of your own homes. For your own amusement. Not to actually post them on a bus or otherwise force them down the necks of our enemies – sorry, I meant fellow world dwellers. Like this:
Can you do better? Send in your efforts to me at gavin.lucas@centaur.co.uk. the funniest / wittiest / best will be posted up in a follow-up post.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
