Monday, December 31, 2007

Free Air Guitar


Here's a cool promo idea to launch 96.3, a new rock radio station. Guitar Stands were placed around Glasgow City Centre inviting people to help themselves to an air guitar.

Agency: The Bridge, Glasgow
Creative Director: Jonathan d’Aguilar
Copywriter: Gregor Stevenson
Art Director: Simon Parker

Air This!

Merry New Year!

Peace,

That's Right,

HMK

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Ugly Beauty


“I ALWAYS wanted to own a dream car,” said Andy Saunders, 44, who has a flair for customizing cars. “But others had already bought all the dream cars.”

So Mr. Saunders settled, instead, for a nightmare.

“I remember one day going through a book about dream cars, and I saw a tiny drawing, a sketch really, or artist’s impression of a car called the Aurora,” Mr. Saunders said in a telephone interview. “My dad commented, ‘Have you ever seen anything so ugly?’ He was right; it was so ugly it was unreal. I said straightaway, ‘I’ve got to own that.’”

Mr. Saunders, who operates an auto importing and customizing business near his home in England, said he enjoyed a challenge. He has worked on cars that include a Lancia and a Cord.

He saw the image of the Aurora in 1993, and it took him several years of detective work to find what happened to the car.

The Aurora may have had the most unusual pedigree in the history of the auto industry. It was created in the mid-1950s by a Catholic priest, Alfred A. Juliano, and partly bankrolled by parishioners of his church in Branford, Connecticut.

Juliano wanted to create the world’s safest automobile, and his Aurora featured innovations that were years ahead of their time. The Aurora also had many wacky ideas to go along with its bizarre styling. Some auto historians have called it the ugliest car ever made.

Although Mr. Saunders originally agreed, he has come to see beauty in the Aurora.



Designer Priest Alfred A. Juliano.

Juliano, who studied art, said he always wanted to design cars, even as he studied to join the priesthood. Published reports said he entered competitions for aspiring auto stylists, including one sponsored by General Motors. Juliano’s family said G.M. offered him a scholarship to study with the legendary designer Harley Earl, but he said the offer came just after he had been ordained a priest.

Juliano continued to be fascinated with cars and their design. He also believed that most cars were unsafe, and began a quest to design a car that addressed his laundry list of safety issues. His solutions were novel, to say the least.

Read the rest of Jerry Garrett's article over at: Ugly Car.

Personally I think Father Juliano's concept car is one of the sickest rides I've ever laid eyes on - it's perfectly awesome! I'd love nothing more than to be driving my little family around listening to A Holly Jolly Mystery Stream and checking out this year's perfect Christmas moon!

Happy Holidays and God Bless!

Peace,

That's Right,

HMK

Monday, December 24, 2007

Sunday, December 23, 2007

A Book Store Made in Heaven


Whoever said that reading was a religious experience was right, especially when taking a visit to Selexyz Dominicanen in Maastricht, Netherlands.

Having just won the Lensvelt de Architect Interior Prize 2007, this newest addition to the Selexyz book chain is well worth the visit to this Medievil city if you are ever in the area.

Erected inside a former 800 year old Dominican church, this bookstore is said to hold the largest stock of books in English in Maastricht, one of the oldest cities in the country.

It was always going to be a challenging task for Amsterdam based architects Merkx + Girod who designed the space, to stay true to the original character and charm of the church, whilst also achieving a desirable amount of commercial space (there was only an available floor area of 750 m2, with a proposed retail space of 1200 m2). Taking advantage of the massive ceiling, both have been achieved through the construction of a multi-storey steel structure which houses the majority of the books. This is one giant bookshelf, with stairs and elevators taking shoppers and visitors alike, up to the heavens (mind the pun), to roof of the church.

That's Right,

HMK

Thanks to The Cool Hunter

Visual Polution


We have never been here before, but we have been here before.

To the left, the Wendy’s, like a gingerbread house from a child’s nightmare.

To the right, the Burger King, like a highway restroom that sells hamburgers. And everywhere, the billboards and neon, the strip malls and parking lots, urging us to look here, here, no here, drive up, drive thru and, remember, drive safely.

The gift of this column has taken the Times photographer Ángel Franco and Dan Barry to dots on the map wondrously distinct in look and feel. The snow-blown journey over the moonscape of the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota does not blur in mind with the snow-blown journey beside the rushing Rio Grande in New Mexico. The relatively short drive across the Golden Gate Bridge in California does not blend into the 24-mile drive across the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana.

Quite often, though, the two find themselves forging through familiar and hideous commercial stretches that all but dare them to guess the state they are in. True, it can be comforting to know that up ahead there must be, there has to be, a Subway sandwich shop.

But why are these stretches almost uniformly ugly, so much so that most of us have conditioned ourselves not to notice?

Read the rest of Dan Barry's New York Times column: A Place Just Like Every Other Place. Only Not.

Watch the slideshow: This Land: Visual Pollution

That's Right,

HMK

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Steampunks



According to Wikipedia, Steampunk is a subgenre of fantasy and speculative fiction which came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often set in Victorian era England—but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date

Lots more info regarding Richard R. Nagy and his steampunk projects over here: Datamancer.

Merry Christmas!

That's Right,

HMK

Friday, December 21, 2007

Santa's Back!


Forget the dancing Elf - show them you mean it and send a custom Santa Tattoo!

Cool stuff from Creativity's Interative Agency Of The Year: R/GA.

That's Right,

HMK

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Have A Holly Jolly!



Let it snow, grab a glass of Christmas Cheer and turn up this weeks audio offering: A Holly Jolly Mystery Stream.

Happy Holidays - Make It Louder and Stay Tuned Y'all!

Peace,

That's Right,

HMK

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Be A Man, Self Exam



Nutty stuff
for non-profit Sean Kimerling Testicular Cancer Foundation.

Agency: Struck
Creative Director: Steve Driggs
Writers: Nick Driggs, Rich Black, Steve Babcock, Edgar Sanchez
Art Directors: Mark Rawlins, Brandon Knowlden

That's Right,

HMK

Yeah I Know, I'm Old...


I'm in the process of scanning my old concert tickets and I've scanned about 100 so far, in no particular order, as a set over at my flikr site: Migwell's Concert Tickets.

In general, 1977 was a great year for albums, probably my favorite year. I was a sophomore at Madison High School and had a weekend gig at Northern Hills Golf Course and so I had a little cash for music and concerts.

The above ticket is from my first Rush show that was in support of their 5th studio album, A Farewell To Kings. The album would become Rush's first US Gold selling album going Gold in almost two months of its release and eventually Platinum.

The more I think about it the more I realize how lucky I was to have such awesome bands and great music providing the soundtrack to my life. A few of these albums* from 1977 truly changed my life.

Cat Scratch Fever from the Nuge, *AC/DC - Let There Be Rock, UFO Lights Out, Meatloaf’s Bat Out Of Hell, Live at the El Mocambo from April Wine, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors, The Ramones Rocket To Russia, Jackson Browne’s Running On Empty, Elvis Costellos’ My Aim Is True! Plus the first Clash album, Jimmy Buffett’s Changes In Latitude (with Margaritaville), *Steely Dan’s Aja, *Even in the Quietest Moments from Supertramp, the Grand Illusion from Styx, *Point of No Return from Kansas, Sin After Sin by Judas Priest, Billy Joel’s The Stranger, Kraftwerk’s Trans Europe Express and last but not least *Tom Petty & the Heart Breakers first lp!

I was lucky enough to see all of the above live excluding Meatloaf, Supertramp and Kraftwerk.

Let There Be Rock indeed.

That's Right,

HMK

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Whopper Freakout


What would happen if Burger King, Home of the Whopper, 86ed the Whopper?

Awesome new campaign by Crispin Porter for Burger King: The Whopper Freakout.

They pretend that the Whopper is no longer available and instead they give out Wendy’s burgers, Big Macs etc.

Watch the customers, as they “freak out” over here: Whopper Freakout.

Genius.

That's Right,

HMK

Monday, December 17, 2007

Que, Wieviel? Nein!


Ah, the power of 9. Did you know that you can create any letter with a 3 x 3 base unit grid?

And now, thanks to the generous folks over at ABC Button: Der Button, you’ll not only be able to see the power of 9 via some buttons in action, but you can also grab the typeface that was influenced by the buttons for absolutely amazing low price: Nada!

That's Right,

HMK

Big gracias to Michael Surtees, lots more insightful design related items over at his cool blog: DesignNotes.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

shoe

Size 10

Innovation & Creativity Rule


According to Advertising Age, in 2008 Marketers' ingenuity will continue to expand as the competitive marketplace challenges brands to devise ways to reach their audiences online and via other "out-of-the-box" avenues. Targeting consumers using unconventional methods in creative places will be the gold standard for outstanding creative. Marketers won't run away from traditional media -- but will leverage technology and new media to accentuate message delivery to consumers and customers. There is no turning back -- and creativity will rule.

Read the rest of Bob Liodice's insight: Trends to Watch in 2008

That's Right,

HMK

Friday, December 14, 2007

Christmas Rewind!


Happy Holidays! And as the Fab 4 once brilliantly observed: "Everywhere it's Christmas, at the end of every year!"

With that in mind - Wanna make your iPod super holiday happy and the hit of your next get together?

Well then, check this out...

Way back in 2005 I made it through the entire month of December, each and every day, posting some of my favorite and obscure Christmas gems.

If you missed it, fear not and behold the beauty and power of the blog!

Here's a day by day posting of some tasty December's goodies all on one page - and like most things in life that prove truly worthwhile, you're usually best off starting at the bottom (of the page!)

Enjoy and Happy Christmas!

Take Me Back: Audio Stocking Stuffers!

Everywhere it's Christmas at the end of every year!

Peace,

Migwell

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

The Dias


Introducing the Dias, a nice little floating storage unit from FurnID out of Denmark.

According to the site, the Dias opens up sideways like a matchbox, dictating the positioning of other furnitures by claiming a central space on the wall. The drawer is covered with pyramids with the exception of a small flat tray-like surface. This has partly been in order to create strong contrasts caused by the highlights and shadows from the surface structure, but also to limit the tendency to place all sorts of knick-knack on the horizontal surface.

Very nice, I'll take mine in black por favor.

That's Right,

HMK

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

How to Do 'Riskier' Work


Or: Who Cares If Your Ideas Are Brilliant If You Can't Sell Them?

Back in April Sally Hogshead gave six speeches in five days in four cities. They varied from a half-day brand workshop in Milwaukee to a tech conference in Northern California, with audiences ranging from venture capitalists to marketing executives.

Yet no matter what the industry, the topic or the geography, she was asked the very same question: "How do I sell riskier ideas?"

The question's wording varied, but the point was the same: The client/boss/board of directors kills new thinking that's deemed "risky." Now, these audience members aren't scheming to sell wacky, perilous, ill-conceived ideas for the sake of being creative, but rather smarter, fresher, more relevant ways of finding and connecting with consumers.

Problem is, in business, risk doesn't work like that.

Business isn't a coin with "risk" on one side and "security" on the other; it's a two-headed coin and that head is risk. Not taking a risk is risky. And if you take a risk, well, that's risky too. The landscape is changing so quickly that we must literally invent as we go. There are no off-the-rack solutions anymore. Today, the opposite of risk isn't security. The opposite of risk is getting run over by a truck filled with a shipment of status quo while you dawdle in the middle of the road.

So, what have you got to lose? Read the whole thing over at Ad Week: How to Do 'Riskier' Work.

That's Right,

HMK

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Covered in Color


The smart folks over at Color Lovers have a nice section over at their site focusing on the color palettes used on current magazine covers.

These simple visual clues of color make a significant impact on folks browsing the magazine rack, illustrating and accentuating the contents of each issue while providing a nice pulse on what's happening in the ever changing world of color trends.

It's a pretty nice reference tool - check it out: Magazine Cover Colors.



And while we're on the subject of nice time saving color reference tools, I'm digging the Color Pallette Generator, Kuler from Adobe and Color Hunter. Both sites enable you to enter the tag, hex code, or image URL of an image to get a color palette that matches the image.

That's Right,

HMK

Friday, December 07, 2007

Rock Posters That Don't Totally Rock


Not sure who compiled Billboard’s list of the 25 Best Rock Posters of All Time - is it just me or are some of these just ok? I mean dude, we're talking of the Best of All Time!

Judge for yourself: 25 Best Rock Posters of All Time.

Really digging the above 1967 Johnny Cash poster from Hatch Show by artist Dennis Loren.

Thanks to AdFreak.

That's Right,

HMK

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Feast Your Eyes

If you're like me and you appreciate the time, effort and talent involved in creating the perfect restaurant space you're going to love Interiors.

Mermaid Inn, Upper West Side

Allen and Delancy, Lower East Side.

Mercat Negro, East Village.

Interiors is an awesome and ever-growing photoblog documenting some of photographer Noah Kalina's favorite shots while on assignment for numerous dining and entertainment related websites in New York City.

Go Noah!

That's Right,

HMK

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Color & Mood Play

Andy Warhol (1928-1987) was a key figure in Pop Art, an art movement that emerged in America and elsewhere in the 1950s to become prominent over the next two decades.

The Fauves used non-representational color and representational form to convey different sensations. Apply the same idea to the portrait of Marilyn Monroe below, using the controls to adjust the colors.

Click on Marilyn and experiment with how the color affects the mood:


That's Right,

HMK

Monday, December 03, 2007

how bauhaus was shaped into greatness

Bauhaus building, Dessau, photographed in 1926 by Lucia Moholy. (Lucia Moholy/Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin)

It was, as the young Philip Johnson wrote excitedly to his mother, "the most beautiful building we have ever seen" with "great strength of design. . . majesty and simplicity."

The building in question was the Bauhaus, the German art and design school designed in the mid-1920s by the architect Walter Gropius in the industrial city of Dessau. On his visit in 1929, Johnson, who grew up to become a famous architect, was equally entranced by the work of the students: so much so that he adopted Bauhaus habits, like typing solely in lower case letters. One of the teachers, the graphic designer Herbert Bayer, had banned capitals on the grounds that there wasn't enough time for them in the frenzy of modern life.

Read it all: bauhaus.

That's Right,

HMK

Saturday, December 01, 2007

Holiday Style


Well, it's officially December 1st, 2007 - the Holiday Season!

Check out the nicely designed new web site of T, the New York Times Style Magazine as it makes its debut with a Holiday issue. T Style Magazine.

That's Right,

HMK