'Only You Can Silence Yourself'

Via Toxel.com.

Declare Yourself’s new ad campaign, titled 'Only You Can Silence Yourself', is aimed at encouraging young Americans to vote in the 2008 presidential election. Featuring a mix of 'real people' and young celebrities, the overall concept of the campaign is anything but subtle. The impactful, unique spots are aimed at making those who see them to stop, look, discuss, and, ultimately, become moved to participate.
































The campaign also features a website.

Don’t expect your food to look after itself

Clever campaign by DDB Sydney for the OSO Food Wrap. The personification of foodstuffs as innocent, naïve and in need of protection is charming, funny and to the point. These are ads that make people smile - and that's never a bad thing.

Agency: DDB Sydney, Australia
Executive Creative Director: Matt Eastwood
Art Director: Jakub Szymanski
Copywriter: Alex Stainton
Designers: Jay Young & Erwin Santoso
Photographer: Mat Baker
Retoucher: Dennis Monk

SOM's Cathedral of Christ the Light

Cathedrals have forever represented some of humanity's most awe-inspiring architectural wonders. And Skidmore, Owings & Merrill's recently completed construction, the Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland, California, looks set to continue this trend. The structure makes beautiful use of glass, fly ash concrete, and wood, but I'm most impressed by its incredible use of natural light - which was in fact the main focus for the design: Craig W. Hartman, head architect, proposed that light would be the key 'to create a contemporary design that was still evocative of the Church’s two millennium-old traditions'. The structure, only recently completed after a 3 year build, replaces the Cathedral of Saint Francis de Sales, which was irreparably damaged in the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989. SOM is well known for its work on many other large projects such as offices, airports, islands, museums, and skyscraper, and its website provides an interesting read.

The Rolling Bridge, London

Created by Thomas Heatherwick, The Rolling Bridge, located on the Paddington Basin in London, measures twelve metres long and opens every Friday at noon. At first sight it struck me as nothing more than a glorified drawbridge, probably more concerned with form than function. Thinking about it, though, it does carry out the obvious function of bridging one point to another whilst providing a method of allowing passing boats through the canal. And every time it opens and closes we are given a reconstructed definition of the function of a bridge - in real-time. Relating the structure to the natural world, it reminds me of the defensive motion of an isopod. I also find it amusing how, from what we can see in the video, someone (albeit a very slow moving someone) could potentially get trapped inside the bridge in its closed position. And the vision of someone launching themselves off the bridge in its half-deployed state also makes me smile.

Banksy in New Orleans

Just before the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, celebrated street artist Banksy visited New Orleans and left his mark. All quotes are from Banksy and are taken from his website.

'I came to New Orleans to do battle with the Grey Ghost, a notorious vigilante who's been systematically painting over any graffiti he can find with the same shade of grey paint since 1997. Consequently he's done more damage to the culture of the city than any section five hurricane could ever hope to achieve.'

























'Three years after Katrina I wanted to highlight the state of the clean-up operation. Only later did it dawn on me that if you choose to do this by drawing all over their stuff, you're actually only slowing down that clean-up operation.'

One of the most striking pieces depicts a pair of soldiers looting a house. I interpret this as an attempt to convey the view that, as the street-level representatives of the will of the state, Banksy believes the government bears a large amount of responsibility for the events that transpired following Hurricane Katrina - which included widespread looting. Or, perhaps he is saying that during a true disaster, even the most responsible and respected of people can and will regress toward crime, presenting really quite a bleak and hopeless outlook. I have also come across several claims that National Guard troops were caught looting - which suggests the meaning behind this piece could be more direct. Either way, it's typically anti-establishment and unmistakably Banksy.











'I looked out the window of the taxi on the drive into New Orleans and remarked 'There's still so much devastation - I can't believe they haven't cleaned this mess up' - to which the driver stared at me and said 'this part of the city wasn't affected by the hurricane - it's always looked like this.''











I've always admired Bansky and have recently been taking a keener interest in both his and the work of other graffiti artists. Anyone looking to broaden their horizons on the subject should take a look at 12ozPROPHET.

Pedestrian street art

Peter Gibson (aka Roadsworth) began painting the streets of Montreal in the autumn of 2001. He was motivated by a desire for more bike paths in the city and a questioning of 'car culture' in general.

In the fall of 2004, Roadsworth was arrested for his nocturnal activities and charged with 53 counts of mischief. Despite the threat of heavy fines and a criminal record he received a relatively lenient sentence which he attributes in part to the public support he received subsequent to his arrest.

Since that time, Roadsworth has received various commissions for his work and continues to be active in both visual art and music. An obvious comparison would be to the work of pseudo-anonymous British graffiti artist, Banksy.

Creative student ideas

I love the simplicity of some of these, especially the Windex ad. However, the Toblerone design stands out as being particularly off message - does it not run the risk of delivering damaging brand attributes by inadvertently implying that a bar of Toblerone tastes like a block of concrete?














































































Haven't managed to find details for any of these students but the above work is credited to Elke Krause, Janine Mompour, Kristina Möckel, Shawna Laken, Tony Kalathara, Jeongjyn Yi, Peter Delgado, Noah Phillips and Jeseok Yi.

'The Really Good, Really Big, Really Cheap Book Sale'

Via Toxel.com.




































Creative guerilla campaign by the bounce agency to generate awareness and book donations for the Greenville Literacy Association's 'Really Good, Really Big, Really Cheap Book Sale' 2008. More images are available here, as well as a couple of videos here.

Lego Olympics

As the world watches the Beijing Games, enthusiasts from Hong Kong have unveiled their own Olympics - built entirely from Lego. More than 300,000 Lego bricks and 4,500 Lego people were used to create the display, by the Hong Kong Lego User Group, who said of the project: 'We believe that creations are not limited by resources, but by ideas'. The structure measures 10ft by 26ft and features most of the recognisable venues, including the Birds’ Nest Stadium and the Water Cube swimming centre.

I have no shame in saying at the age of 20 that I still have a bit of a soft spot for Lego!

3D chalk art

Julian Beever and Kurt Wenner mess with nothing but our perception of depth and perspective in creating this amazing street art.













































































I only wish these pictures would include a view from above to show how they're drawn. Further reading would suggest that this isn't just a hobby, either - last year Beever was commisioned for a beautiful cascade in Madrid for Herbal Essences. And it appears the Coca-Cola bottle was also a paid project.

Gutter art

Street drains aren't exactly conventional locations for works of art. In Brazil, though, Anderson Augusto and Leonardo Delafuente from 6emeia are using mundane urban components - namely grey sidewalks and gutters - as a canvas for refreshing splashes of colour and creativity. 'The duo's objective is to modify the means within which we all live, proposing a new way to view things by reflecting upon themes generated through creative and unusual works. Such modifications are made by painting storm drains, light posts, manhole covers and any other object which makes up the urban scenario.'

One man's trash...

Tim Nobel and Sue Webster take piles of trash and turn them into art. But sometimes you need to look at it under a different light...








































































Reminds me of the John Lewis adverts from Christmas 2007.

Parque España Library, Colombia

Designed by Giancarlo Mazzanti, the Parque España library is located on the edge of a steep incline overlooking the city of Medellín. Inside the library is a computer room, a daycare center, an art gallery and an auditorium. I haven't had the pleasure of visiting but I'm sure you'll agree it looks to be a stunning building and location - even if the image below does suggests there to be somewhat of a lack of books...

Creative 'books'

In spite of the constant increase in availability of online books, it's safe to say most people still prefer to read by leafing through actual pages instead of scrolling down a computer screen; experiencing a 'real' book is undoubtedly more personal than staring a rectangle of cold, lifeless pixels - for the forseeable future at least. And even though I've been guilty of using online resources on hundreds of occasions, I nevertheless hope that books as we know them - more or less - will weather the current technological maelstrom and re-emerge at the other end.

The images below, while they all exist mainly for the purpose of art and are mostly very difficult to actually read, show some really creative examples of publishing. Some of them are so wildly modified that they would be better described as pieces of art that were once books - something that I'm actually a little unsure about since I absolutely hate the idea of books being thrown away or defaced.



















































































































More here.