On Street Art in Marketing

Thanks to a recent work meeting, I've had to pay a bit more attention to tattooing and street art.

So needless to say, I was thrilled when I came across this fantastic little feature on PingMag.

It's an interview with Excusado Printsystem, a Columbian art collective geared at making art inventions in Bogata. It got me thinking about the recent craze on using street art in advertising. Pepsi Co.'s recent launch of the Green Label Art, for its Mountain Dew drink.

What I love about that campaign is what you never see in the ads, the partnership with the artists. These artists, who might never reach the audience that Mountain Dew can provide are getting a chance to have their work seen (whether you think the artist is "selling out" or not is irrelevant to me - artists and designers have to eat too!).

There seems to be a resurgence in allowing outsiders to have a crack at logos, designs and campaigns, and I like the spirit behind it. But it needs to be done very, very carefully. There's a cred that goes with graffiti and tattooing. And if you're going to allow people who claim they're "artists" a shot at shaping your brand, you'd better be damn sure they're legit and they're not going to blow it.

Today's appreciators of "urban" and "street" (whatever you want to call it) culture have a finely tuned bull shit detector.

Mountain Dew has always been branded pretty well in my opinion. They latched onto the X-Games before the X-Games were cool and use their sponsorship bucks very well. Nice to see they worked with some legit artists here as well.

At any rate, check out all of the above. Any thoughts on use of "Street Art" in a campaign?

I'm digging for fire.

On the iPod: "Do You Remember?" - Jack Johnson

A user (a Texas A&M Computer Science major named Cole) instant messaged me last night and conducted an informal interview. One of his questions was as to why my bio page was so thin.

Well, I suppose that's because I've done my best to try and keep this page as business as possible, despite the occasional rambling about my engagement, wedding planning or my thoughts on books and film. While it was something I once enjoyed, I don't really care to be the center of attention too much these days.

But since Cole asked me an interesting mix of computer geek and art/music/culture geek questions, I'll go ahead and make that public. Cole and I conducted this little chat via Google Talk yesterday. Here's the transcript, which he graciously allowed me to repost. Thanks for the interesting conversation Cole. Note: Spelling has been corrected, grammar has not.

Cole: Hi Dan. I'm a computer science major in Texas (Texas A&M actually). We're doing this project on CSS in my Web design class and I came across your page thanks to a template you posted in an open source forum. I'm using your personal site as one of five in my case study.

Me: Hi Cole. That's a pretty big compliment, since design is more of a hobby of mine. My job is really content management and programming related.

Cole: Yeah, I saw that on your bio page. I like the design of your site though because it's simple. I was wondering if you could answer a few questions for me about the site, and some of the things that interest you?

Me: That sort of depends. I'm not big on sharing too much about me.

Cole: Well, I have a theory that a Web designer's personal page is heavily influenced by the media they use and by the Web sites they visit. Would you be willing to answer some questions about that?

Me: Doesn't sound like it will be overly painful. Fire away.

Cole: Awesome. It's pretty apparent that you like music. A lot of different music. Can you give me a top five CDs?

Me: That's like asking me which of my children (not that I have any) I would kill first, but I'll make an effort. (1.) "Pet Sounds" – The Beach Boys, (2.) "A Rush of Blood to the Head" – Coldplay, (3.) "The Moon My Saddle" – Chamberlain, (4.) "Jersey's Best Dancers" – Lifetime, (5.) "World Waits" – Jeremy Enigk/"Aja" – Steely Dan.

Cole: Same kind of list, but with movies.

Me: The Big Lebowski, Pulp Fiction, A Waking Life, Tape, Kill Bill Vol. 2, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, Stagecoach, Melvin Goes to Dinner, The Burbs.

Cole: The Burbs?

Me: Tom Hanks man... his best work ever. Forget Forrest Gump, Philadelphia, Big... The Burbs is fantastic.

Cole: Never heard of it.

Me: That's unfortunate. Go get it.

Cole: Any books stand out?

Me: I read non-fiction mostly. Mostly philosophy books by Immanuel Kant, Aristotle. Lately I've been delving back into medieval philosophy though. My fiance can tell you I have an obsession with Thomas Hobbes at the moment, mostly because I think his argument for the State of Nature has a lot of validity to the present state of our world. She'll also probably tell you that she hates whenever I utter the words state of nature.

Cole: Any fiction?

Me: Vonnegut... Salinger, probably all of those insightful writers that most post graduates read to feel liberated, edgy and angry at the world around them. I wasn't all that different than a lot of other upper middle class suburban kids trying to "find the meaning of it all." I was really big into poetics in high school and my first year of college. Frost, Ginsberg, the beats. I was your typical wannabe trendy, arts guy.

Cole: Does that mean you didn't play a lot of sports?

Me: No, actually, I love sports, both playing and watching. I may have been that guy in the coffee house talking up girls with my guitar, but I was also the guy who played every intramural college sport I could get involved in. I also coached soccer for a while. I believe I was really good at one point. I'm a bit more stationary these days, but I do love sports.

Cole: Are you playing any right now?

Me: Does walking my dog count? Ha, no I'm not at the moment. I've been looking at getting back into drop-in hockey, roller hockey, and I'll do a lot of camping/hiking and paddling this summer if I follow through on my plans.

Cole: Outdoorsy then?

Me: Absolutely, I love being outside. I'm big on camping, paddling rivers, in canoes or kayaks. I spent a lot of my summers in northern Michigan, fishing, hiking and getting into trouble. My brother does extreme outdoor sports. I'm much more laid back about it. I enjoy recreational top-rope climbing, some sport climbing, fishing and paddling.

Cole: What are some web sites you visit a lot?

Me: Pingmag.jp is a big one for me. I also visit designobserver.com, typofile.com and a lot of newspaper web sites.

Cole: Any other media we should know about?

Me: Actually, I dig video games too, though I don't play them nearly as much as I did in high school or college. I haven't gone so far as to get an X-Box 360 or a PS3. But I do play my PS2 from time to time. I also have an old Sega Genesis and an original NES that get dusted off from time to time.

Cole: What games specifically?

Me: I play a lot of sports games. Boxing, Hockey, Football and Track and Field. I also like some war strategy stuff. I'm a big fan of the Metal Gear series. Anything that's semi-tactical, I really enjoy.

Cole: Thanks a lot. I'll send you a copy of my report when I'm done.

Me: My pleasure.

On Jackson Pollock, Art.

On the iPod - Little Red Rooster - Sam Cooke

A fellow developer and old friend recently referred me to Very Short List a nice little page dedicated to high and low culture and Web gems. They were the ones who provided yesterday's link to The Go! Team's video for "Junior Kickstart." Well, I've got something from the same page for today as well.

They linked to a Jackson Pollock related site. At Jacksonpollock.org you can create your own Pollockesqe work thanks to the wonders of Flash and the inspiration of an Etch-A-Sketch.

It's a nice little site if you're looking to kill of time while waiting for a finance who swears she wants you to wake her up at 8 a.m. but then fails to wake up despite repeated phone calls to Missouri. But it also got me thinking about "Art," more specifically, the "art" of Jackson Pollock. Personally, I don't see what Pollock did as being particularly brilliant. Full of torment? A little bit off? Yes. Full of artistic vision? Not in my opinion. Is it art? I would say so.

While many in the art world believe his work is "brilliant" and "beautiful." I experience crap on canvas. But that goes to show how subjective "experiencing" art can be to the appreciator. I love the work of Joel-Peter Witkin, who can be considered off in his own right. The photographer uses the remains of human corpses to recreate baroque scenes, wildly distorts his negatives and then prints.



I love the work of Witkin and certainly see it as art, but is "Art" itself inherently subjective? I would argue that no, it isn't. Of course we experience art in a direct and tangible way that can be expressed in specific emotions. But that isn't any different from how we experience everyday life.

Our emotional reaction to an artist's work has nothing to do with whether it is art or not. It is quite possible to set aside our personal prejudices and evaluate art for its qualities rather than merely how we react to them at a personal or emotional level. That's how I feel about Pollock. I personally think his work is crap and that it doesn't do anything for me aesthetically, but his technique, vision and methods can very much be considered as artistic.