we ask that you pardon the moving boxes and lack of posting for a short period of time. the trip north was successful. a Shudio is in the works currently to keep this signal and message pumping. please be patient — your due diligence will be rewarded with some more gut level design and eye level thinking soon to be coming from our new RVA backyard.
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there is a moment where you have to go for a ride.
you can study, sketch, research, analyze, interview, think, observe, criticize and admire an idea. you can buy the clothes, wear the glasses, learn the language, copy and paste the awards & ideas, and carry the tools of the experts of the world. you can blend into the crowd gathered around conversation and enjoy in this fraternal order of belongment.
then there is a point where you will have to speak. you have the choice to keep the current conversation going or change the subject to a curious observation or a story you wish to share. as designers or creatives this moment of speech can take several different forms – a poster, a film, a website, a chair — etc. while we define ourselves with our final medium of choice :: the act of observation and experience of the ride is a lifelong journey we all seek to have a story to tell.
this week i asked nate and laura to do something :: ride the bus.
I asked them to document the experience.
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the CMRTA is plagued with problems — the most practical observation that i’ve made in the past few weeks is the lack of shade and benches for people // long time intervals between bus connections // and triple digit heat of our summer.
the other troubling observation is the billboards left to advertise the concept of public transportation in our city — the benches we pass with huddled masses of people left to cook or be soaked by afternoon thunderstorms unprotected as they attempt to simply go to work // purchase goods for their homes // or perhaps just be people.
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we will continue our ride next week.
theUNSCHOOL ::
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yesterday morning i rounded the corner on my way to work and saw laura bousman waiting outside the studio doors. she had a large white sheet of paper in hand. Laura was one of the four interns we worked with 2 summers ago with the529collective. though her application was technically late — her previous working experience opened a back door to the rules.
we took a few minutes to catch up – i set up the iphone on a stack of books and below is what laura had to say about her reaction to the idea of surfing & creative farming. enjoy.
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theUNSCHOOL :: Laura Bozeman // application from larry thacker on Vimeo.
There was day where this point of dirt meeting pavement was beginning and end of the world as I knew it. There is a difference of pace that begins once you step off the paved road onto the gravel lane to the house. You begin to notice the open blue skies and green fields that surround you. You slow down to say hello to the garden and see the fresh calf crop – a sign that the land has helped produce another generation of life and the longevity of the farm will continue one more season.
The temperature is beginning to thaw the long hard winter of this past year. The wear of the winter shows in the faces of those who live to work this land.
It is nice to be home and help with the work load – even if just for a short visit. After this past winter, some of the best time spent is in the den sharing pictures, talking and sharing a meal at the kitchen table. The rest of the time in-between fills in with small projects as another gesture to say thank you.
Everyone is glad to see signs that spring is here. Time to play ball and plant crops — this is the season to adjust your thinking from lessons learned last year and start planting new ideas for the year ahead. This is the season of opportunity to prosper.
There was a time when you could talk to this country with a traditional campaign of print, tv & radio. Consumers loved the content and didn’t mind the interruption that built the advertising industry. And for the most part a depression and two world wars would make you grateful to sit at home ready to consume all these new things we were making.
Here we are two/three generations later again in a depression (that according to this same trusted box of content isn’t a depression) – monetarily we are broke, our unemployment should stay around 10% for a while, culturally — art funding is always the first cut to help balance the budget, and next is the inflation.
The model is overloaded and broken – yet to pay the bills we are forced to squeeze another year out of this gas and oil guzzling engine.
Regardless of the 30 minutes we spend to watch the world news and pharmaceutical ads — technology has shifted the consumer culture… Actually technology has replaced the middle class. Consumers – who were once just americans – are starting to rethink value. They are also finding their content in other places. DVRing shows they love to spend time working, famlying, or whatever they want until that show is in proper priority.
This shift in priority actually puts greater emphasis on content. With the right technologies our workforce and our culture have taken a step back to nomadic tribes. Funny how we fight so hard to come back to what we knew 1000 years ago. Agriculture – organics, local farmers markets, gardens, & the slow food movement. Workforce – shifting from the factory model back to homes, cars, panera’s & starbucks. The music industry is now being driven by singles not albums – which was how the industry first thrived in the early 1900′s. There is a growing culture of DIY entrepreneurs that are at the fringe of the old machine and leading a new movement. Sure facebook is great… but local is back. smaller markets, less fuel, homegrown, regionally driven by generations of culture that needed to be updated.
These local spots – remind me of the watering holes of africa. These watering holes are where change can be made. These watering holes have the passion needed to build aquaducts to others who need a fresh sip of water. The movement of water and cross pollination of ideas is being built right now and we as designers, creatives, brand enthusiast can help build these new sources of water for our economy to grow on. This should be our focus – helping identify these watering holes and building a new america with our industry knowledge.
that’s all i have for now.
Now normally while traveling from wilmington back to columbia — the “best” thing you see could be the South of the Border billboards – which are a “real wiener”.
This past weekend on the way home I spotted these hands wrapped around the cooler of this work truck. At first nothing – then I grinned. I have no idea what these guys do. If they custom fabricated the hands or not. But if they are welders/fabricators I’d hire them for this one detail alone. And for the simple reason – “that is funny and they get it.”
I guess they could have paid a designer to make a bitchin logo for the side of the truck and ditched the hands on the cooler, but for me the hands are great for now.
Logos are great but we have to shift to thinking of the details. Push ourselves to look at an opportunity for the cooler to advertise for the company. Give character to our clients — in the details that others ignore.
This will be my first post for the new year. So much has changed in the past few months. All for the better.
And with this constant flux of change comes a need to refocus and keep the goals of the year simple.
Well here I go ::
1. Live Today First.
2.
BOOM – I was close but this is so much better than my earlier post.
Check out the full post on The Fearless Blog.
here is a snippet:
“I’m Alex Bogusky at FearLessRevolution.com. We like to think of ourselves over here as insurgents in the new consumer revolution. I guess, in the simplest terms I’ve gone from working as a brand advocate to a consumer advocate—but I don’t really think of it as a very radical transition, because all the smartest brands have actually been transforming themselves into consumer advocates. Collaboration is the new competition, so…”
Well played Alex — nice to see the fresh air is kicking in.
Why is it that 11-year-old Birke Baehr can see the problems in our industrialized food system that most of America fails to see? Maybe because like a lot of other kids, he’s not waiting for us “grown-ups” to solve their problems.
This is a fantastic Idea.
I had to post and share.
