I have never been a fan of Eric Prydz. His cheesy chart topping hit Call On Me was a large part of the mainstream house phenomonon that inspired millions of jocks worldwide to embrace tight jeans and bright coloured t-shirts. Rumour has it the provocative video made the notoriously randy British Prime Minister Tony Blair quip, "I nearly fell off my rowing machine".

That was 2004. Last December, Eric Prydz released his new single sampling Pink Floyds Another Brick in the Wall, aptly named Proper Education. Why do I care? I was enjoying some catharsis in watching Saturday morning television when the music video for Proper Education came on. It starts off like any strange black & white British commission flat film clip (trust me, there are quite a few), but came into it's own when the 'troubled youths' started to do some strange things...

If you're like me and not so keen on the tune, turn down the volume and turn up your own music.



What I love most about this clip is how it is subtly making the mission to save energy 'cool'. It's almost a little bit bizarre to see these kids doing something good in a dodgy way. I'm definitely not one to endorse shock tactics when it comes to environment-anarchy, but switching peoples light bulbs without them knowing seems harmless enough.

The video was directed by Marcus Adams, who has made a couple of feature films. Adams and Prydz collaborated with Global Cool to decide what the kids would do. Global Cool is a British initiative run with generation y set firmly in their targets. Not only did they help with content for the video, they helped make the release of Proper Education carbon neutral.

At the end of the video when the troubled youths triumph by spelling "SWITCH OFF" on the side of a building, the powerful tagline appears: "You don't need an education to save the planet". What a great line. It is a huge pity though, that Channel Ten decided to cut it out of their programming.

When I was fifteen, I walked into Greville Street Bookstore for the first time. They had a wall dedicated to design books and another to glossy magazines I had never dreamt existed. Being the young lad I once was, I couldn't afford much. But I had to buy something.

The celebrity hotshop of the time Rinzen, had created a book called RMX. I loved the idea, featuring 96 remixes of artists work. Sadly, it came in way over my budget. But to my surprise Rinzen had released a condensed poster version with a similar concept and a considerably cheaper price tag. It compiled works remixed by designers where, 'the first participant produces a piece, with only the final edge being passed onto the next player. They must then continue the image, taking off from where it began.'

Taking pride of place across two walls in my room, I stared at it for many hours. It was a stunning 3.6 metre design masterpiece. Not only did it look good, it marked the start of a booming marketable design trend, the collaboration project.

Everywhere I look they seem to appear in a range of forms. In 2005, the then RMIT student Martin Hungerford won the Saxton Scholars competition with the design-for-charity project Umbrella Street Art. It showcased the talents of twenty national and international designers and artists, each customising a white umbrella that ultimately hung from the atrium ceiling inside Federation Square.

This month the creator of Speakerdog (Ben O'Brien) decided to get 14 different designers to decorate their own versions of his wacky creation. Visit the website and download a pdf template if you want to make your own. I opted for the brain eating zombie dog, designed by Sjor Strimbach. The outcome of my cut & paste session sits at the top of this entry. It really is a nice idea and a bit of harmless fun. But it got me thinking, how far can these collaboration projects go before they become another victim of consumer culture?

Nike have been doing it for years with sneakers, yet telecommunications giant Samsung are the most recent global heavyweight to jump onboard. Unveiled during Melbourne Fashion Week, the Samsung Developing Designer Program hit town with a wave of media frenzy and B-grade celebrity overload. (Matt Welsh thinks the designs are 'totally cool'.) Although it may have been over-hyped, it did feature some quality fashion talent with the likes of Gorman, Alpha60 and the ever strange Richard Nylon taking part. My verdict on the outcome is that it lacked all the qualities needed for an underground gen-y success.



Mass-consumer catastrophes aside, I am glad to report Rinzen have finally released the long awaited next instalment in the RMX series, Neighbourhood. A small hand-made doll was sent around the world to several designers who re-worked it's previous incarnation. The book is beautiful, it has a felt cover.

Collaboration projects will always have their place in marketable design culture, but only when they're done well. Otherwise they run the risk of becoming another passing fad we're all too keen to wave goodbye.

I have christened 2007 the year of the Magazine. With at least three subscriptions to my name, not to mention the unofficial 'subscriptions' from the footpaths of Melbourne city, it is my mission to indulge in all things high gloss & high art. Speaking of footpaths, there are hidden gems to be found on the stoops of stores throughout the CBD, most of which are edited and designed by the collaborators of Australia's best newsstand publications. (And they're all free.) An example of which is the inspired Nerds Gone Wild, which happens to be the brainchild of one of the country's greatest editorial talents, Mia Timpano. If you haven't heard of her before, she mixes articulate thought with sheer innovative wit in many articles written for Frankie.

Yet when the laser ink starts to rub on your hands from the array of street publications on offer, who can say they don't prefer the smell of fresh gloss stock in the morning? If you subscribe to this belief, then you cannot possibly live without visiting Mag.nificent. Regularly updated it provides true insight into the magical world of magazine culture. While making my daily visit, I found the fresh & French culture offering, Clark. Art directed (in the true sense of the word) by Parra, it's seriously worth looking at purely for it's use of colour and editorial design. But sadly that's all you're going to get out of it, unless you speak French.

I found this video on their myspace page. I think it sums up their successfully new wave thinking.



I've had four French lessons so far this semester. If I ever hope to subscribe, I'm going to have to work a hell of a lot harder.

The advertising industry is in a constant Sisyphean battle over the word cool. Phrases like 'fully sick' (thanks thorpie) and 'totally dope' have somehow been deciphered as 'cool' and used to sell a range of products from cereal to computer games. Many large agencies and marketing companies have employed cool hunters to do their dirty work. These cool hunters find out what 'today's youth' deem cool and sell it back to the agency at a premium. Websites like Cool Hunting and The Cool Hunter are slowly bringing this phenomenon into an era where it may be a palatable resource. Locally run NOWNOW is a similar initiative run by some Melbourne boys & girls with a penchant for sweet and mysterious parties and events. Yet the epitome of cool hunting has to be the ever-enigmatic Li Edelkoort of Trend Union. She claims to be 'the world's foremost trend predictor', working for clients such as Apple, L'Oreal, Siemens and Braun. Twice a year she and her trend spotting team release a 'trend book'. Highly sort after and respected, the latest issue tackles the possibilities of an 'emerging grey palette'.

In the capital of cool New York, Nylon Magazine have just released a book called The Nylon Book of Global Style profiling subterranean fashion from the streets of NY, Berlin, London, Paris, Tokyo, Copenhagen and our own Melbourne. In a similar vain, the uber-crude Vice Magazine did a recent yet brief run down of street fashions in the same cities. It seems everyone wants a piece of the cool cake, but is it even worth pursuing?

Journalist and cultural critic Mel Campbell is someone trying to find out. She wrote an opinion article for the Sydney Morning Herald on how cool and street are the marketing buzzwords of the moment, but may not be the Midas touch tentative clients think they are. She keeps a regular blog on the subject at Footpath Zeitgeist.

The now common way of tackling the cool debate is to snap at your fat CD, 'if you say it's cool, it's not'. But the irony is that cool hunters are constantly preaching what is and what is not cool. If a client wants their (insert boring product here) to become cool in the eyes of teenagers, I feel the future in consumer culture will be just as boring. At least the people who just want to be part of a dense and exciting society will continue to create so everyone can point and scream 'cool!'

Everybody has a favourite band, artist, act or album. They're the cds you've scratched until they can't play without jumping in the middle of your favourite bit. But I have to say, there are favourite bands and there are bands that change your life. Groove Armada is that band. Every album they've made has romanticised some part of my life. So you can imagine my aching anticipation for the release of their yet to be named new album. You can hear some of their tracks which 'may or may not end up on the album' at their website.

Yet if Groove Armada don't particularly tickle your musical nerve, it is at least worth checking out the video for the newly released single, Get Down. It's RABID!

Lots of people at uni carry a Moleskine. Be it a diary, sketchbook or notepad they are truly ubiquitous. Hell, even I have one... Make that four. But what makes them so desirable?

Maria Sebregondi is the brand equity and communication person over at Moleskine headquarters. She says it has something to do with the fact that "Moleskines [are] also a ‘book yet to be written’ and the notebook’s owner is the person writing it."

She says a lot more about the little black books in an interview with the Lovemarks website. She has a few interesting insights but nothing you wouldn't expect the brand equity manager to reel out after a long day in the office.

That's where blogging makes it's entrance. Moleskinerie is a blog run up until recently by a guy by the name of Armand B. Frasco. It's full of insights into the brand from a totally grassroots level. Effectively generating a constant stream of product research and testing, without Moleskine having to do anything. Well I think they grasped this fact last December when the owners of Moleskine, Kikkerland, decided to buy Moleskinerie from Armand Frasco. Let this be a motivation to all the bloggers reading this, you can make money from blogging!

To get back to the point, I found an interesting link on Moleskinerie to a Queenslander's blog who had some interesting and humorous insights to share about Moleskines and writing in general. He makes the candid point that, "do you really think Van Gogh, a dude who had to scum money off his brother so he could afford to eat, would fork out the equivelant of $32 for a notebook? Of course he wouldn't!"

And here I was reading Hemingway with the sounds of Coltrane in the background, staring at my Moleskine on the bench and thinking the damn breakthrough novel would write itself. Pshhh! I know where I'm going for inspiration now. And it's not within the pages of a Moleskine.

This is the future of online advertising.

Denver agencies Cactus and AgencyNet (Not to be confused with 'CORNER OFFICE NOW!' - Agency.com), have created a visually stunning, bang on strategy online campaign for the state of Colorado in the US. It has just taken out the prestigious Gold Award at SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas. For those of you who are out of the loop, SXSW is the premiere awards and conference shindig for interactive agencies worldwide.

The website is called OwnYourC. Don't make a quick click and look job of it. Be sure to spend at least ten minutes exploring the mesmerising landscape that is C-Ville.

The message is all about making the right choices in life. You can customise the weather and the mood automatically changing what's on screen and the sounds you hear. But marketing the value of choices is a strange thing I hear you say? Well, it's a not so thinly guised push at educating teens about the health effects of tobacco. Its completely non-preachy form of communication is refreshing and the perfect tone for speaking to teens.

Along with the website there is a forum, viral ads, downloads and an 'OwnYourC' ice-cream truck that visits schools in the area. The comprehensive cross-platform strategy works it's butt off and succeeds. Unfortunately I couldn't find any post-campaign statistics to back it up, I have no doubt it became a major success.

Even if it didn't, it has paved the way for a flourishingly creative online industry in the future.

The other day fellow friends and myself did a small gallery crawl around the CBD. The Narrows was one such gallery I harboured deep personal feelings for. Once you've braved the steps and the 'have I come to the right place' curse, the name makes sense in a completely literal way. The space is mini. But aren't all good things these days?

The current exhibition is almost over. (Tomorrow actually) But if you're in the flinders lane area you'd be a fool to not to go along. The walls are systematically covered with 1950's record sleeves designed by Ronald Clyne. He is a true master of form meeting function through the use of grids and geometric shapes.

The next exhibition looks just as intriguing. Beginning on the 23rd of March, the design works of Masato Takasaka will be on display. I'll be going. Will you?

What product do you think this is advertising?

(Read the comment to find out)

Every so often a group of creative wonderchildren emerge from the woodwork and blow everyone away. My current non-advertising creative heroes are the wildly irreverent boys from The Chaser. There is a promo for the new series of their show doing the rounds on the ABC lately. It is beautiful. Here it is.



Yet this is not the reason for my chaser fuelled mirth. Along with this promo, the lads have run an outdoor campaign worldwide. The twist being their billboards are located in the most remote media locations they could find. If you happen to be strolling the streets of Baghdad, Iraq; Reykjavik, Iceland; Majistral Shopping Centre, Estonia; or Gujarat in India, you'll see their ads and the tumbleweeds rolling by.



The genius being their use of the web. Being masters of viral, they knew people would talk. And send.

I'd like to see these guys do a talk and focus group with the advertising industry. They are true pioneers and leaders.

Read more about it here

Dear Blogosphere,

You may remember me from recent frequent visiting. Now it is time to quit being an onlooker, and start being a participator. If you're reading this post at the top of the blog, come back soon. If you've decided to skip back to my very first post to see what it said, stop procrastinating and get back to work. First posts are never cool and they never will be. Just like clapping at the end of a movie. Who does that?

Yours faithfully,

Tait Ischia.

(Blog virgin)