Sound Design

After a much longer hiatus than I’d intended (felling several small forests of writing), I’m back on the blog, and I hope for good.

 

This time, I wanted to do a little follow-up on a short piece I penned for the February issue of Twin Cities Business about Minneapolis company Taiga Records. You aren’t likely to see any of the musicians on the vinyl records that Taiga releases performing at the Grammys. (You can check out some samples here).

 

I’m not the fella to ask about the music. But the album cover designs—not to mention the designs of the vinyl—I can dig, and do.

 

Taiga 11

Musical artist: Douglas Quin
Album name: Fathom
Design by Loaf Nest (Michael Carlson and Andrew Lange), drawings by Mitchell Dose, letterpress printing by Studio on Fire

 

Taiga 9

Musical artist: MAP
Album name: Fever Dream
Design by Loaf Nest

 

Taiga 15
Musical artist: Lotus Eaters
Album name: Wurmwulv
Design by Stephen O'Malley, paintings by Stephen Kasner, drawings by Aaron Turner

 

Taiga 2
Musical artist: Rafael Toral
Album name: Space Solo 1
Design by Helder Luís at NOTYPE, drawing by Rui Toscano, typeface by Mário Feliciano

 

Holidays Made Happier

I wanted to post part two of my little discussion with Paul Isakson of Colle+McVoy on the provocative topic of cyborg anthropology. But this week, I’ve been performing a delicate pas de deux with sheer insanity. So to give Paul’s thinking the contemplation it’s due, I’ll get back to this intriguing topic on Monday. Absolutely. You have my word, yo.

 

In the meantime, savor this holiday cheer from local design mavens Eight Hour Day, of whose work I’m an unabashed fan. (Much more of EHD’s work here .) You can buy holiday cards with these images here.

 

I’ve been walking this earth for more than half a century, so what charms me particularly about this work is its 1950s quality. Still, it doesn’t give off the minty scent of cuddly sentimentality detectable in a lot of “retro” or “vintage” imagery. This work swings, like Miles Davis or Dave Brubeck in their 1950s prime. It’s part beat, part Eames, and all its own 21st century thing. Dig.

Are We Not Men? We Are Cyborgs!*

               Paul Isakson

Creative types around the towns (and beyond) know Paul Isakson, now director of strategy at Minneapolis ad/marketing agency Colle+McVoy, as one of the more intellectual people in the business.

 

Cyborg anthropology was new stuff to me (true, most stuff is), so I recently checked in with Paul (I’ve blogged about him before), wondering whether the machines would indeed be taking over.

 

It turns out that Paul’s no Ray Kurzweil; nor does he foresee a Matrix-like cyber-dystopia. Paul’s thinking is far less melodramatic. But like many of us, he does wonder about how digital technology and attendant aspects such as social media are influencing and altering how we interact with our surroundings and each other.

 

guyrobot.com/home

 

It was a TED talk that Oregon-based tech entrepreneur and cyborg anthropologist Amber Case gave about a year ago that helped to coalesce his thinking:

The TED site’s summary: “Technology is evolving us, says Amber Case, as we become a screen-staring, button-clicking new version of homo sapiens. We now rely on ‘external brains’ (cell phones and computers) to communicate, remember, even live out secondary lives. But will these machines ultimately connect or conquer us? Case offers surprising insight into our cyborg selves.”

 

In October, Media Post covered the topic via Paul’s experience and thinking. He notes that he’s still working through his thinking on cyborg anthropology, particularly what it might mean for marketing. I’ll post more on that next week.

And another thing: While there have been all sorts of press and patter about robotics and the sociology around our digital nerve extensions, another conversation is sounding a contrapuntal theme. New York Magazine last summer called it the “analog underground.” That underground also is rising above the Minnesota soil (metaphorically speaking). We’ll return to this, too. In the meantime, my brother and sister androids, here’s a quick gander at the past that’s also our future.

*A Devo reference, for the young people out there.

Mono’s Forward Movement

In the latest issue of Twin Cities Business, John Rash wrote about Minneapolis ad/marketing/design agency mono’s work for MSNBC. We didn’t have room to run images of the work, so allow me to show some here.

 

The two “collages” below comprise various elements of mono’s MSNBC campaigns—print, TV, digital, and “out-of-home” (or OOH, as they say in the business). The latter includes train station “dominations” in and around New York City train stations, and light projections on buildings throughout the country. Everyone but me may know what a “domination” is: According to mono’s Anne Mahoney, it’s when an advertiser takes all available media space within a train or subway station to display its message. (In case you, too, didn’t know.)

 

The top collage shows images from the initial brand launch in 2010; the bottom one comprises a second round of work, which came to fruition in 2011.

Mono wrote all the copy as well as designing the campaign images, including the one used in this projection in Washington, D.C.

 

 

And this “station domination” in NYC:

 

The “Lean Forward” slogan was also a product of the mono culturati.

 

Mono says that the dominations don’t represent the core of the campaigns. (But I do dig their visual quality—and the industry term, perhaps.) For the record, the monists cite these two other elements as more innovative:

 

• TV. All 54 talent spots (to date) have been created as content rather than advertising. They feature MSNBC’s top on-air talent (including Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews) speaking without scripts or storyboards and championing the issues that progressives care most about.
• Projections. A crew from mono and Klip drove across the country lighting up iconic American structures using the Lean Forward logo and declarations of the brand’s core beliefs. (In and outside of major markets: NYC, DC, Seattle, Denver, Chicago, and Atlanta):

 

 

All told, the campaign materials feature the clean, simple, yet compelling visual quality that mono aspires to in all of its work. Indeed, in a few weeks, I’ll be talking with mono again on a topic near and dear to their creatives’ hearts and minds: the intersection of design and marketing. A taste of their overarching philosophy:

 

• Design isn’t just an aesthetic, or a surface treatment—it’s a problem-solving approach
• Designers are wired to think differently—and more broadly—about business problems
• Good design has the capability to change behavior and innovate (create new technology and new products)

And another thing: mono’s cofounders were included in the December TCB’s 200 Minnesotans You Should Know feature. (Here’s the link.) For complicated yet unfascinating reasons I won’t delve into here, we listed only one of the cofounders. Rest assured on two points: (1) all three fellas are equal in the company (part of the reason they named it mono); and (2) all three are eminently worth knowing.

Worlds to Explore

Given the short week and the impending national celebration of postprandial somnolence, I’ll get out of the way and just note that Print magazine’s December issue features its Regional Design Annual. If you haven’t gotten your copy yet, you can dig the local cats represented therein via their digital portfolios:

• Eight Hour Day
• Phil Jones Design
• Morsekode
• Walker Art Center
• Studio on Fire
• Wink

Going to get my copy of Print. Then I plan to explore these aesthetic realms more deeply in the coming months.

Tip of the homburg to FOTO (friend of The Other Thing) Lars Leafblad at KeyStone Search for searching this out and sending me out on the trail.