cultural freedom finally after 40 years!

internet is making great steps towards a more human, more open, more personal approach.

i can not describe how excited i am to witness this wonderful change!

all the revolutions of the past, none could have came even close to such a change which happened today. and this change has been given so freely and openly… to everybody.

my work online is for businesses but i try to make it about individuals… individuals who own and work for businesses, individuals who use businesses for their own benefit, about communication between these individuals. it is not about selling but about understanding and respect. internet essentially is not a business tool but a human tool, which makes everybody an equal participant. this is an amazing step towards true equality and respect between people of the world.

this change in internet, in my view, is more important than landing on the moon.

thank you for taking this great step towards a better internet, a better world.

i wish that people around the world feel equally happy about this.

thank you!

when we see porn its not cool, when we see women naked in media it can be profane, but this seems cool to most, but its naked women again…

what ’s the difference?

fashion and music imagery is usually as close as it can get to pornography. art sometimes as well. but we do not see that.

how strange!

nike follows adidas advice and achieves impossible by presenting something as glamurous as nba in such an unglamurous way!

photobomb!

some one designed the new london 2012 olympic pictograms

this is really awesome work. here is why:

first, they had to follow the main london 2012 brand done by wolff olins, and they followed it quite well. it is not easy to build on someone elses work, and especially such controversial and particular work, to make something which looks and feels same. they achieved this. pictograms fit right in with the logo, logo fits well with pictograms, they compliment each other. if you like the 2012 logo or not (i love it) you still have to accept that some one additional works very well.

second, some one studied the sport, the movements, the moments. most previous pictograms have been easy abstractions which present movements and shapes which never happen in sport. sort of physics defining moments that have nothing to do with biomechanics or the competition. this is great if you are vignelli making anew york subway map but i think sports should be respected in as much detail as possible because athletes spend decades perfecting these movements. sports is about details and olympic games is about sports. sport is dedication and obsession with most smallest details and respect of such by pictograms designers is most welcome.

third, pictograms have solved some very hard challenges. for example a lot of old swimming pictograms show the freestyle starting block, not the swimmer actually - quite boring. runners have been shown in bizarre positions. multisports like triathon and pentathlon have been shown by runners with dots which is just plain slacking - running is not so dominant and confuses spectators and athletes. some one really tried hard to understand sports and present them. there are five pictograms with have bicycles (road, track, downhill, mtb, triathlon) and all are very clear, no mistakes, no confusions, to the point, emotional, and inspiring, perfect moments are picked.

some interesting details:

swimming pictogram shows the palm in a really interesting and detailed position. it is very precise and shows freestyle technique perfectly with the palm being behind the shoulder before the middle of recovery. palm is bended not to touch the water surface - a swimmer with longer arms? this shows how much time they spent to understand the particular sport. this is no accident. they probably went through 100s of images of swimmers to pick one that works so well.

boxing one is also great. half hook from the side. nice moment. typical one which scores points or wins a match.

mountain bikes is more upward that the road cyclist who is more upward that the track cyclist.

modern pentathlon i really like. it tells a story and pays equal respect to each discipline.

triathlon one is also cool as it shows the transition from swim to bike which is crucial for gaining a proper position in itu rules (olympic) triathlon. if this was an icon for draft illegal long distance triathlons it would not work, but for draft legal short olympic rules it works perfectly. some one either got it by accident or they understood the strategy of the sport: fast swim, catch a good group, stay in, gain position on the run. t1, the first transition, is an important element of the race even though it is neglected in media. also the pictogram shows water, running and the bike (all three).

it is cool that some one tried hard to get close to athletes and sports, and did not keep a snobbish designer distance which was common from the past. with more and more information availabe spectators understand sports much more and want also people who work for olympics to share their enthusiasm. i think previous designers who mostly treated this work as an abstract art piece could have gotten this job 30 years ago but hopefully not any more. today it is important to understand what you are making, to really understand it and ti respect it in as much detail as possible. some one did not just do what they wanted and expected the audience to adore their work, but their got into the subject.

some one have done modest and hard work, a service to the event, audience and sports community. best olympic pictograms ever!

bravo!

vignelli and norda did the same with the new york subway map, they studied and respected the purpose of their work. aicher’s work on pictograms was unfortunately limited by technology so he had no choice but to be simple and abstract. also not much competition in those days. which is what makes vignelli’s and norda’s work also so awesome.

what i do not like with aicher’s work is that some of the icons are confusing: modern pentathlon uses a horse rider and five dots(?!?!) and volleyball could easily be basketball. some one cleared out these problems so well.

etc etc

i could write a book on this now… very good work…

few days ago i had to explain how using applications to get twitter followers is bad, recently i had to explain to another guy how using an application to steal images from other sites is not cool, and in next few days i have to skype a client and explain how having a ghostwriter is not a good strategy.

all i can say:

lord of the rings is not the best book ever because tolkien went around scamming people into reading it, he sat down, wrote it, put it out there and people loved it and there you go… simple and it works.

anything else is a scam which will eventually cost you your reputation.

especially since there are so many content strategies which do not need to be scamming. its really easy to be honest and cool so why risk?

here are some twitts by celebrities:

p diddy: They want me to stop talkin about GOD on twitter!!! And my answer is NEVER!!! #Godismyhero take that!

shaquille o’neil: shaq vs @aplusk twitter style. watch yo back, ima catch u. RTRTRT times 2 million, lol

wes craven: Got a Vespa for my birthday… now if I could only find the time to get my driver’s license for it.

sasha grey: I’ve been wet for this tv, but for the price a projector is the way to go!

trent reznor: and with that.. BLOW ME! - I’m going to go play a show! (trent reznor deleted his account recently)

hard to imagine these are press releases

some celebrities do not enjoy twitter but have an equally different attitude towards their own content in other channels - check out kanye west blog post about twitter.

overall, much more emotional and personal content…

twitter.com/bmw

this is twitter of brian m. westbrook, not of better known bayerische motoren werke ag.

reminds me of armani.it which was owned by a small italian glasses manufacturer, but is now in hands of giorgio armani spa.

brands should make sure to own their brands on as much major social media as possible and as many domain names as possible.

this is a bit of a problem because why would bmw own a stumbleupon or delicious url? but you never know when one of these will become relevant next year or the year after.

kabuki actor bandō tamasaburō does sagi musume.

vince mcmahon announced sale of monday night raw to businessman donald trump.

troy lee designs, studio specialized in motorcycle racing aesthetics, works with avia, a sports shoe company, on avia’s first racing bicycle.

sports photographer delly carr defines olympic triathlon aesthetic as an official photographer of itu world championship series.

internet artist rafael rozendaal made jello time.

governor arnold schwarzenegger has

214 photos on flickr (very organized)
516 posts on his twitter (885,227 followers but can’t tell if content is good)
59 photos on his twitpic (authentic and emotional)
138 videos on youtube (obviously video is his medium but videos are very boring and there are very few views)
7 submissions on digg (very slow)

he also has

official governor of california website
joinarnold.com
join arnold facebook page with 190,025 supporters (i expected much more than this)

and

schwarzenegger.com

governor schwarzenegger explains why he uses social media, at the last 1/3 of the video

found it on @americanapparel

user generated soft porn for the purposes of selling cheap fashion online

competition + swimsuit + photo + facebook + twitter = cheap content based marketing perfection!