Fans of LOST who also happen to be underground art aficionados now have something to spend their time and money (and conspiracy theorizing) on til the TV show returns in 2010. What began as seemingly a prank on the part of comedian Paul Scheer has turned into a full-fledged ARG, where the “A” could just as well stand for “art” as much as “alternative.” Paul’s Damon, Carlton and a Polar Bear painting (see website of same name) was the beginning of a viral campaign containing LOST clues and resulting in a (staged) cease and desist letter from ABC. Now, with the help of Gallery1988, 16 artists are getting in on the action. Initially revealed on Sunday at a Dharma Initiative event with DJ AM and Steve Aoki, but available for purchase beginning today, is Tim Doyle’s take on The Numbers. Each of the 16 prints will be hand-pulled, hand-signed and numbered limited edition screenprints. Tim’s has glow-in-the-dark elements. Check it out before there’s a time shift and they’re all gone at actuallyitsketchup.com.
My pals from The Buried Life just dropped me a note with a link to their new trailer shown above. If you missed the news, they’ve been given there own MTV show! Fantastic coverage of what they’re up to in this past Sunday’s New York Times
Four buddies set off across the country in an R.V., video camera in tow, to knock items off their “100 things to do before I die†list: kiss the Stanley Cup, get a tattoo, grow a mustache.
With plenty of high jinks and adolescent humor, “The Buried Life†seems like the perfect MTV reality show, except for one unexpected twist. At each stop the group helps deserving locals with their own wishes. In Idaho, for example, they took eight children with brain cancer on a shopping spree at Toys “R†Us.
Gallery1988 was once snubbed by Juxtapoz, but it now celebrates its fifth anniversary as one of the most relevant art galleries of our generation. On April 2, G1988: LA presents Idiot Box, 100 artists paying tribute to icons of the small screen. The gallery has previewed some truly awesome pieces like Alex Pardee’s rendering of Steve Urkel and Adam Rex’s homage to Small Wonder. Toy fans should look out for something stupendous from Doktor A and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle by Le Merde. The roster of artists guarantees the show will be amazing, and to top it all off, Idiot Box will be hosted by Mr. Belding — yes, Dennis Haskins from Saved By the Bell. There will be an opening reception from 7 – 11 p.m. on April 2. The show runs through April 23.
If you have an HDTV, you’ve noticed the wasted screen space when you’re on certain television channels. That’s a little inconvenience that Studio FRST has remedied with their Double Aspect Ratio 16943 concept, a TV with a slightly odd shape that can handle two viewing formats: a 16:9 format for films and 4:3 for television (hence the name). The clever design makes it clear why it is referred to as a ‘technological sculpure in levitation’. The black screen rests on a clear glass base, giving it the illusion of floating, and the 120mm thickness surprisingly conceals a DVD player.
If you enjoy watching a little morning TV as you drink your first cup of Joe, the folks at Vizio think you might find it more aesthetically pleasing if you had a widescreen that complimented the best part of waking up. Their incredibly sleek-looking Java HDTV is available in both 32 and 37-inch versions. It not only looks great with cream and sugar, but also amidst the dark decorative scheme you’ve chosen for that TV room. You might want to reconsider an extreme room makeover that includes a lot of fine wood finish.
Take some modern furniture, a liquor cabinet, and an endless supply of questionable ethics, and you have advertising in its heyday. Surround that with a white picket fence (and some very good bone structure), and you have Mad Men, AMC's sparkler of a series that's been making it okay to watch television again.
Dirty, juicy, and maybe even a bit creatively inspiring; Mad Men and its supporting characters have spawned a league of dedicated fans. But what happens when those fans start pretending to be employees of Sterling Cooper… and move into Twitter?
Ha. We interview them, of course.
Read on as Peggy Olson and I chat copywriting, office politics, and discontinued candy, then get in on the game here.
A few Emmys later and it’s official — Mad Men is an outstanding drama series. The 60s throwback sets, costumes, and conundrums are inspired, but they’re also inspiring. New York designer / unofficial official house designer for UCB, Dyna Moe has illustrated scenes from the first and second season using a period-invoking cartoon style. Her stylized pics portray everything from Betsy and her steed, to the crew at Sterling Cooper enjoying their Christmas party (the piece that started all of this, commissioned by Rich Sommer aka Harry Crane in the series).
You’ve most likely seen writer Steve Dildarian’s work before. That is, if you’ve watched major league sports events in the past 10 years or any television in general. Dildarian worked as a copywriter for world-renowned San Francisco advertising agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, where he created a series of spots about a certain set of amphibians for a beer company. After giving Budweiser lizards and an eager donkey something to talk about, he worked with girlfriend Leynete Cariapa to create the short film Angry Unpaid Hooker, a prelude to the new animated series The Life & Times of Tim set to debut on HBO on September 28.
Photos courtesy of HBO/ Jason Merritt; HBO/ TIMS LIFE PRODUCTION
What do you get when you cross “America’s Favorite Serial Killer” with America’s favorite literary periodical? Conventional wisdom would say you get one very well read sociopath…or perhaps one devilishly clever ad campaign. Readying the launch of it’s promotional push for the premiere of Dexter’s third season on September 28th, Showtime has concocted their own mock cover of The New Yorker, replacing the usual masthead to trumpet “New Dexter,” accompanied by a wonderful cartoon likeness of the smiley slayer portrayed by Michael C. Hall. It’s quite the fiendish display, but we like it anyway.
With a cast as diverse as that of JJ Abrams’ Lost, there’s more than enough room for multiple toy tributes. In contrast to the detailed doppelgängers released by McFarlane Toys in 2006, the upcoming line of Lost Kubricks from Medicom Toy Co have been paired down to the characters’ broadest characteristics. In addition to Jack with signature stubble and Kate with characteristic cleavage, the range includes 2.4-inch representations of Sawyer, Sayid, Hurley, Locke, Charlie, Desmond and Ben. Each figure comes with a tiny trademark accessory. If you’re a Lost fan, but new to buying Kubricks, you should know that the collectible figures are sold by the case, carton and box according to individual ratios. A carton contains 96 boxes, which means that (for example) 19 of those boxes will contain a Jack figure, 12 will have Sayid and just one (known as a “chase figure”) will reveal Ben. Collect them all and remember, if you get doubles, you can always kitbash your own Dharma Initiative.
If you’ve ever wondered what you would look like as a Teletubby, complete with working TV stomach, we recommend getting a hold of one of DND Casa’s line of TV-equipped mirrors. The Korean electronics manufacturer has incorporated a specific mirror imaging technology from Germany’s Ad Notam to allow mirrored surfaces, whether they’re an actual mirror or a lamp or bookshelf, to display visual images. These unsuspecting idiot boxes don’t just double as HDTVs, they also can be connected as PC screens or LED displays. So when someone barges in to your room as you’re browsing Internet porn, you can make it look as if you’re just fixing your hair.
From the brilliant minds that brought you the design mag Beautiful/Decay comes Something In the Universe (SITU), an agency that will tackle creative services, brand strategy, and marketing. In addition to working on the mag, they’ve also helped out The Shins, Toyota, and the MTV Movie Awards, but from what we gather, you can hire them for a little guidance even if you’re not (yet) a household name.
We have a kind of man-crush going on with artist/illustrator/disco king Shepard Fairey. It’s no secret. But who would have thought that a marketing guy at Showtime would share our unrequited love? Dexter, the series about a serial killer killer starring Michael C. Hall (yes, the gay brother in Six Feet Under), is coming to the San Diego Comicon, and to get the word out Fairey was commissioned to create a poster. You may also remember that the Obey Giant originator recently lent his skills to another celebrity marketing campaign. And while there may be some of you that decry Fairey’s Madison Ave. turn, we’re just glad that he’s pimping a show worthy of his pimp slap.
This new guy from D.C. is smart. Wale (pronounced Wah-Lay) smashes open the vocal sampling goldmine that is Seinfeld and uses it as a framework for his Mixtape About Nothing, a record that comes off as one of the best conventional-yet-not hip-hop efforts so far this year. On the opening track, Wale establishes his chosen focus with a beat adapted from the familiar mimicking of Jerry’s stand-up (”What’s the deal with…?). Totally genius.
The tape carries over beats that are derivative of D.C.’s whole Go-Go thing, and Wale’s casual yet intelligent flow. Content-wise, he touches on everything: labels, music, love, lust, success, failure, and one of the most poignant critiques of the N-word, illustrated by Michael Richards’ infamous rant and the subsequent apology for it. Moody, layered, and yet totally accessible, this is an early example from an artist who will surely shake things up in a stagnant scene. Wale brings intelligence back to flare, and I while can’t wait for his album to come out this summer, the Mixtape About Nothing will have to tide us over.
The Brooklyn Brothers‘ mission to cut through the crap that is any brand’s “intended image” is one that will inevitably cure the quarter-inch, 15-second attention span that most of us have formed to protect us from bombardment. Every one of the spots from the ‘Music Is…’ campaign for Fuse TV is conceptually simple, honest, and totally engaging visually. Ranging from film to animation, there is no strict stylistic theme within the collection aside from the tagline, yet each invokes a similar feeling of fleeting delight. My personal favorite is ‘Music Is a Time Machine’ (I’m a sucker for a tight beatbox).
If you enjoy watching a little morning TV as you drink your first cup of Joe, the folks at 
A few Emmys later and it’s official — 
What do you get when you cross “America’s Favorite Serial Killer” with America’s favorite literary periodical? Conventional wisdom would say you get one very well read sociopath…or perhaps one devilishly clever ad campaign. Readying the launch of it’s promotional push for the premiere of Dexter’s third season on September 28th, 
If you’ve ever wondered what you would look like as a Teletubby, complete with working TV stomach, we recommend getting a hold of one of 
We have a kind of man-crush going on with artist/illustrator/disco king 
This new guy from D.C. is smart. Wale (pronounced Wah-Lay) smashes open the vocal sampling goldmine that is Seinfeld and uses it as a framework for his 
The 
