Creativity: Live From Norway
Posted on November 13, 2008 - Filed Under Creativity
Originally published in the June 2008 issue of Creativity. If you have the chance, be sure to rent, Netflix or whatever, Trier’s film Reprise. You won’t be disappointed. Read it at Creativity or scroll down.
Live From Norway
Director Joachim Trier points his lens toward English-speaking shores.
by jeff beer
The arrival of director Joachim Trier’s stunning debut feature Reprise may be the best thing to hit North American shores from Norway since Turbonegro’s Apocalypse Dudes. With the film’s Stateside release in mid-May also came the announcement that the director had signed with RSA for commercial representation in the U.S. and U.K.
Creativity: Campfire Sinks its Creative Teeth into True Blood
Posted on November 13, 2008 - Filed Under Creativity
Anyone watching Alan Ball’s new vampire show on HBO? Before True Blood launched I spoke with the guys at Campfire who created an entire backstory for the series as part of the show’s marketing campaign. Click here for the full Creativity edition with video and more links, or check the basic version below.
Campfire Sinks its Creative Teeth into True Blood
Independent agency goes beyond advertising to shape the back story of HBO’s new show.
by jeff beer
Mysterious mailings in a dead language and vials of an unknown red liquid. Secretive websites with webcam gatekeepers and hidden passwords. A Scottish informer who ends up dead. A lauded screenwriter who allows a marketing company to contribute to his newest project.
All strange elements pondered on their own, and yet collectively add up to key plot points in the ad campaign for Alan Ball’s new HBO series True Blood, based on the popular book series about vampires by Charlaine Harris. Ball, the Oscar-winning writer of American Beauty and the man behind Six Feet Under, wanted the lead-up marketing to this new show to prepare the audience for the world of True Blood through a back story series of prequels a comic book and more, essentially intertwining the advertising with the artistic property. For this particular challenge, there could hardly be a better match for an HBO show about vampires than a creative shop called Campfire.
Creativity: Between Beautiful & Branding
Posted on November 12, 2008 - Filed Under Creativity
This originally appeared in the June 2008 issue of Creativity .. Click the link to read it all or just keep on scrollin’.
Between Beautiful & Branding
Aaron Rose’s new documentary explores the increasingly blurry divide separating art and commerce.
by jeff beer
In the new documentary Beautiful Losers, designer and artist Geoff McFetridge looks into the camera and says, “This is the game. Are you going to decide you’re playing the game or not playing the game?”
Given you’re flipping through the pages of this magazine, chances are your days are spent playing the game he’s talking about—that of bridging the divide between art and commerce. That, or you might just make funny pictures to sell stuff. Either way, the defining line between artistic endeavor and commercialism is a common contemporary debate, mulled over by everyone from that kid in a Minor Threat t-shirt to the filmmaker directing his first sugary soda spot. It’s also a key issue addressed in the documentary, directed by Aaron Rose and Joshua Leonard and produced by Sidetrack Films.
Austrian and Swedish Delights
Posted on November 12, 2008 - Filed Under Uncategorized
We often look at North American culture as a prelude to an Idiocracy-like future… But I think I’ve found some evidence that the world has been on this path for quite a while now. Witness the regal glory of the Swedish dance bands of the 1970s.
Here’s an entire catalog of striking images from an unforgettable era in Scandinavian music. Oh, and then Nick passed on this more modern example of what Austrians are doing to ensure the success of the impending Apocalypse.
Huzzah!
Snowboard Canada: The Non Sequitur - Where in the World is Lukas Huffman?
Posted on November 12, 2008 - Filed Under Uncategorized
This is the first installment of my Snowboard Canada column for 2008/2009.. The column’s called The Non Sequitur because there a lot of interesting topics and stories out there that don’t have a common theme or thread. Randoms. Anyway, this appears in this year’s Buyer’s Guide issue.
The Non Sequitur: Where in the World is Lukas Huffman?
By jeff beer
Standing atop a nameless craggy cliff deep in an unknown backcountry outpost, he tosses the board from outstretched arms held high above his head. It twists and flips in the mountain air like a cigarette flicked out an open car window but you can still read the word printed on the base in bold green caps. Huffman.
Whether Mack Dawg’s Shakedown was the first time you met Lukas Huffman or not, that 2004 video part testifies to why his polished and powerful riding style is such a goddamn joy to watch. But in February 2007, the Vermonter who became an honorary Canadian by conquering the best of our West for so long, peeled off his pro rider name tag, climbed into his truck and pointed the headlights to Brooklyn, New York.
Life Lessons Four: How To Be Successful
Posted on November 12, 2008 - Filed Under culture
The last of the regular back page column I did for Snowboard Canada in 2007/2008 under the banner of “Life Lessons.”
Life Lessons # 4: How To Be Successful
by Jeff Beer
So far in our journey down the road of Life Lessons, we’ve addressed three key principles to lead a happy, luxurious and relatively facial hair injury-free lifestyle in snowboarding. Now it’s time to look into the mirror, deep into your eyes, past the redness, that mystery shiner and probably a good amount of shame, to see what you can do to usher in an era of yet-unseen success.
One peek into your local bookshop and it’s obvious that advice is easy to come by. Titles guaranteeing everything from stock market success to unfettered access to the mind of the opposite sex line the shelves. One of the most popular of these self-help tomes is The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People by Stephen Covey. Since its publication in 1990, the book has sold more than 10 million copies and been widely celebrated for its conceptual approach, rather than looking for the quick fix. This is obviously a mistake. Sure, 10 million copies is nothing to shake a much-bejeweled finger at, but what if you want your success right away?
Read more
Life Lessons: Guide to Personal Grooming
Posted on November 12, 2008 - Filed Under culture
And now, the third edition of the regular back page column I did for Snowboard Canada in 2007/2008 under the banner of “Life Lessons.” As you can see by the headline, I was attempting to perform a major public service.
Life Lesson # 3: How To Groom
by Jeff Beer
For more than a few reasons, the issue of body grooming is a fairly delicate subject. It isn’t just a trim of the groin trees and off you go. No, my hairy disgusting friend, it’s about personal maintenance to ensure your body is both healthy and safe enough to guide you into old age and eventually, death.
Read more
Life Lessons: How To Be Cool
Posted on November 12, 2008 - Filed Under culture
Here’s the second installment of the regular back page column I did for Snowboard Canada in 2007/2008 under the banner of “Life Lessons.” Again, none of these had much at all to do with snowboarding, but what the hell, it’s the back page, folks…
Life Lessons # 2: How To Be Cool
By Jeff Beer
Coolness. Just what does it mean to be cool? Is it a stylish shirt? A new band? A glistening cluster of ice cubes gently nestled in the small of an exotic nubile’s back while she lay in a sunny meadow? Webster’s dictionary, after the requisite temperature references, defines cool as “great; fine; excellent.” But this hardly encompasses all that it means to be cool in this 21st century. No, being cool is a nuanced wizardry that dances the elicit line between many things among other objects, towards several… uh, situations.
It is widely acknowledged throughout the worldwide trend industry that there are three types of categorized cool classification — Classic cool, Fad cool and lastly, the dreaded Dead Horse.
Creativity: House Industries at Subliminal Projects
Posted on November 11, 2008 - Filed Under Creativity
heyooh… for those who may be wandering the Western coast of the United States, be sure to schedule some time to stop by Shepard Fairey’s Subliminal Projects to check out the Letters and Ligatures exhibit by the Delaware-based design wizards from House Industries.
I had a chance to talk to Andy and Rich from House about the exhibit for Creativity. You can read it here with pictures and everything, or a decidedly plain version below.
House Industries Hits Subliminal Projects
Delaware-based design shop opens exhibit at Shepard Fairey’s L.A. gallery.
by jeff beer
Since 1993, House Industries has made art out of the letters we see everyday. Often using cultural references to create lettering and type that not only communicate a message, but create a distinct mood and feel.
But while we’re used to seeing everyone from H&M to Lucky Charms to NYC’s beloved Shake Shack use their fonts, this Saturday the Wilmington, Delaware-based design wizards take their artful approach to communication and hang it on the gallery wall. Letters and Ligatures opens at Shepard Fairey’s Subliminal Projects gallery and promises to feature a new collection of prints, sculpture and installations that reflect the shop’s unique design sensibility.
We spoke with designers and shop co-founders Rich Roat and Andy Cruz about the exhibit, their approach to type and more.
Life Lessons: How To Be Classy
Posted on November 8, 2008 - Filed Under culture
This was the first edition of a regular back page column I did for Snowboard Canada in 2007/2008 under the banner of “Life Lessons.” None of these had much at all to do with snowboarding, but what the hell.
Life Lessons # 1: How To Be Classy (And Still Slide Sideways)
by Jeff Beer
When the editors of this fine publication asked me to pen a column aimed to impart nuggets of wisdom on their fair readership, I was faced with the daunting task of deciding just which nuggets they were referring to.
It took me days, literally days, to answer their inquiry. How can one narrow such a vast ocean of knowledge? Finally, drunk and missing a shoe, an answer presented itself. If there is one thing I would like to enlighten others about, it would have to be How To Kill A Rabid Goat With Your Bare Hands In Complete Darkness. While carefully considered and acknowledged as an important skill, this topic was politely rejected. And so here we are.
The subject we are left with is the acquisition and image of class, commonly known in societal terms as the hierarchical distinctions between individuals, groups or cultures. In many nations, the idea of high class is traditionally tied to the ownership of gargantuan piles of gold, diamonds and fur, and perhaps an overzealous penchant for marrying one’s own relatives. But in these modern times of refrigerated food and the interweb, things have evolved to a certain degree. It is here a distinction is drawn between labels such as “upper class” and “working class” and simply one’s ability to be or appear “classy.” I will address the latter.
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