Sneaker Lovers Can Get Their Kicks With These Cool Items

Now, you can own a part of advertising history.
Freedom Of Creation (FOC) designers, Janne Kyttanen and Mads Thomsen, produced this Laser Sintered creation for the international ad agency Amsterdam Worldwide for its client Onitsuka Tiger ‘ASICS’ premium heritage brand and the ad campaign called Electric Tigerland. (By the way, the recent Tansu Shoe for Onitsuka Tiger by Amsterdam Worldwide won a Gold Lion at the 2010 Cannes Advertising Festival for design)

The meter-long shoe called the ‘Electric Light Shoe’ was central to the global Electric Tiger Land campaign for 2008. The 70 cm and 40 cm sized versions were created for Onitsuka Tiger stores world-wide and are now available for purchase.

Several additional designs were produced by FOC to support the campaign such as USB sticks, keyholders, POS material, shoe displays etc. and now you can buy some of these items.

The Electric Shoe
Created for the 2008 Onitsuka Tiger brand campaign, The Electric Light Shoe was the 2nd in the series of iconic sneaker sculptures developed from the agency's ‘Made of Japan’ strategy.



The one meter long ‘city in a sneaker’ was inspired by and pays homage to the Toyko cityscape and provided a platform to tell more stories about the brand to engage the target audience.





The sculpture was used in POS, online and television advertising and received numerous awards and now is your chance to own one.

Electric Light Shoe (large, 70 cm and small, 40cm)
Limited consumer edition of 10 pieces
Type: Media art developed in cooperation with 'Amsterdam Worldwide' for Onitsuka Tiger campaign
Color: White with LED colored lights
Material: Laser Sintered Polyamide
Designers: Janne Kyttänen & Mads Thomsen 2007
Awards: Titanium Lion, International Advertising Fest. Cannes 2008, Dutch Design Awards 2008, Integrated Silver, ADCN 2009
Price for Large (excl. VAT): € 5879.83 buy it here
Price for Small (excl. VAT): € 1678.15 buy it here
Delivery Time: 6 weeks

The USB Shoe (sold as 4 pieces)
And the USB memory shoe – a tiny replica of ‘Electric Light Shoe’ that once activated, the key diffuses a soft illumination, is also available.



Type: 2 GigaByte USB-stick
Color: White with colored LED
Material: Laser Sintered Polyamide
Designer: Janne Kyttänen 2008
Price (excl. VAT): € 81.51
Delivery Time: 2 weeks
buy it here.


Shoe Sculpture Charm (sold as 4 pieces)
A metal miniaturized reproduction of FOC’s ‘Electric Light Shoe’ which can be used as a key ring, pendant or charm is also available for purchase.



Type: Miniature reproduction
Material: Stainless steel
Designer: Janne Kyttänen 2008
Price (excl. VAT): € 81.51
Delivery Time: 2 weeks
buy it here.

Soup For Sluts & Other Rad Ramen Noodles

The folks over at Blue Q have taken the college student's staple, instant Ramen Noodle Soup, and cleverly repackaged four different flavors with hilarious names. The genuine and yes, authentically edible, instant Asian noodle soups come in the following flavors; Soup For Sluts [spicy vegetable], Wasted & Broke [spicy beef], Hello Lazy [chicken flavored] and Din Din Fuk Chow [shrimp] and cost $2.99 each for each 3oz 85g package. Admittedly a bit more that the .39 cent versions you can find at your local market, but the reaction when someone sees them is worth the $2.60 difference.







Sadly, these are no longer carried by BlueQ. 

Intel's CHASE Web Video Is Kicking Ass On The Viral Charts

To build excitement around the 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i5 processor, Intel launched this action-adventure video titled "The Chase." The spot demonstrates the performance capabilities of the new processors by creating an action-movie style chase sequence that takes place through a wide variety of program windows on a computer desktop.



Ad Age reports that "With 1.8 million YouTube views and its first entry onto the chart, Intel's "Chase" mini-movie makes it to the straight to the top for a good reason -- it's a great action flick with a sexy heroine and two leather-jacket-and-gold-chains bad guys. The campaign won 1.1 million views in its first week alone."


Credits
Advertising Agency: Venables Bell & Partners, USA
Executive Creative Directors: Paul Venables, Will Mcginness
Creative Directors: Paul Foulkes, Tyler Hampton, David Kim
Copywriter: Josh Parschauer
Art Director: Beau Hanson, Dan Kenneally
Director Of Integrated Production: Craig Allen
Agency Producer: Kacey Hart
Interactive Producer: John Eagan
Interactive Design Director: Ezra Paulekas
Production Company: Nexus Productions
Director: Smith & Foulkes
Director Of Photography: Oliver Wood
Executive Producer: Tracey Cooper
Production Manager: Alistair Pratten
Editing Company: Trim
Editor: Paul Hardcastle
Sound Design: Human
Music: Human
Composers: Edmond Dunne & Gareth Williams
Music Producer: Jonathan Sanford
Mix: Play, John Bolen
Color / Flame: Time Based Arts, James Allen & Sheldon Gardner
Aired: January 2011

A Fake Pool Makes A Splash All Over The World.

Initially conceived of 12 years ago, the 'fake' swimming pool by Argentinian artist Leandro Erlich, known for his illusion-like installations, has been featured at various museums around the world. In 2001, it was featured at the 49th Venice Biennale in Arentina. In 2004, it found a permanent home at the 21st Century Art Museum in Kanazawa, Japan. In 2008, the fake pool was set up for a 2 year installation at MoMA's PS1 Contemporary Art Center. And as of December 2010, the pool was being installed in the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, Australia.

In Japan:




For the long-term exhibit at the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, he constructed a full-size pool [20 x 9 7/8 x 10 feet (600 x 280 x 300 cm)], complete with a surrounding deck [the installation in Japan's museum does not have a wood deck], underwater pool lights and ladder.



When one first approached upon the amazingly surreal piece from the ground floor, it appeared that people, fully clothed, were standing underwater, alive and engaged in conversation, on the floor of what appeared to be a very real swimming pool.




However, when examining the pool from underneath, one sees that it's actually empty and the illusion of the water-filled space is achieved by his placing a large piece of transparent laminated glass suspended over the pool atop which lies some actual water.





The interior of the pool's walls are painted aqua to further add to the illusion.


One enters through pool through the opening shown below:


Here are the installation photos of the pool's latest appearance at The Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, Australia:



Artist's Bio [courtesy of Sean Kelly Gallery]


Leandro Erlich was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1973. At age 20, he won a grant from the Antorchas Foundation to take an advanced sculpture and installation workshop under the direction of Luis F. Benedit and Pablo Suárez. Between 1998 and 1999 he took part in the Core Program, an artist-in-residence program in Houston, Texas, U.S.

In 1999 he moved to New York and presented his first exhibition in a commercial New York gallery. Over the next two years he participated in the Whitney Biennial and represented Argentina at the 49th Venice Biennale (2001).

Erlich's works are in several private and public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, Buenos Aires; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Tate Modern, London; Musee d'Art moderne, Paris; 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan; MACRO, Rome; and The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Fonds national d'art contemporain (FNAC), Paris.

Erlich lives and works in Paris, France, and Buenos Aires, Argentina.

images and info courtesy of the following:
The 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan
MoMA PS1
Somethingstartedcrazy on Flickr
Building process photos in Brisbane by Natasha Harth courtesy of 21c blog

Bottles Of Bud. Canna Cola Launches Five Flavored Pot-Laced Sodas.

If you've been following the news, there's been quite a bit of 'buzz', pardon the pun, about Canna Cola, a new line of THC-infused carbonated beverages for intended sale at medicinal marijuana dispensaries.



The five flavored medical marijuana soda pops; Canna Cola, Orange Kush, Sour Diesel, Grape Ape and Doc Weed are the brain child of multi-talented designer, concert photographer, political cartoonist and entrepreneur Clay Butler.




Scott Ridell of Diavolo Brands, who created the products along with Clay [they are not marketing it... that was an error in the Santa Cruz Sentinel article], says the beverage line's dosage of THC will be "somewhere between 35 to 65 milligrams" and that that "the levels of THC in his line of soft drinks will be substantially below the levels of many drinks now on the market." He likened his product to a "light beer" alongside high-proof liquors.



Although there are several THC laced sodas on the market, most are produced in small batches and lack the marketing effort of a larger brand. Kushtown Sodas and Dixie Elixirs are two examples.

Clay, a self-proclaimed "clean living guy" says he's never even smoked a cigarette, let alone marijuana.


above: Clay and some of his Soda Pot (photo for Santa Cruz Sentinel by Bill Lovejoy)

An article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel quotes Clay as saying "Marijuana sodas do exist in the marketplace. But, said Butler, none of them have the branding savvy of his product.

"You look at all the marijuana products out there, and they are so mom-and-pop, hippie-dippy, and rinky dink," he said. "If someone can put every color on the rainbow on it, they do. If they can pick the most inappropriate and unreadable fonts, they will. And there's marijuana leaves on everything. It's a horrible cliché in the industry."

Kushtown's THC-infused sodas and sauces:


Dixie Elixir changed their original marijuana leaf logos:

to a more subtle, but difficult to read, design:

Butler's epiphany was to market the THC-laced sodas "how Snapple or Coca-Cola or Minute Maid would make a marijuana beverage, if they ever chose to do it."

Thus, he used the marijuana leaf - it's an unavoidable part of the "brand DNA" of marijuana products, he said - but he designed a leaf made of bubbles (shown below), to suggest soda pop.


above: Clay Butler designed the logo and bottle designs for the Soda Pot.

Clay's graphic design skills came in handy. The bottles have fabulously fun imagery and clever names.

The sodas are intended to be priced at between $10 and $15 for each 12 oz bottle and are planned for launch in medical marijuana-friendly Colorado next month. California, however, remains a wild card. THC-infused sodas cannot be transported across state lines according to Federal laws (despite individual state laws regarding medicinal marijuana use), so the product would have to be manufactured in California to be sold there.

Plans are tentatively to have it in California dispensaries in the spring.

Canna Cola on Facebook

Read the Santa Cruz Sentinel article

Modern Highlights From The Los Angeles Art Show - Part II

above: Halim Al Karim, Hidden Love 3, 2009, Lambda print on aluminum, 67 x 47 inches (170 x 120 cm)

Yesterday I shared with you some of the more modern highlights from the Los Angeles Art Show in Part I and now the eye candy continues with Part II.

Joshua Suda:


Claudia Parducci:


Gerd Leider:

Irene Presnner:


Harry Holland:

Troels Worsel:

Lin Quinyan:

Margit J. Fureder:


Ronald Kulla-Kinzie:

Peter Clark:

Shen Jingdong:

Patrick Duegaw:

Ilona Zaremba:

Sara Friedlander:

Jean Wells:

Will Kissmer:

David Bromley:

Sebastian Artz:

all photos taken by laura sweet for if it's hip, it's here
See Part I here
The 2011 Los Angeles Art Show
Links to all the participating galleries