Last year my old Editor told me she could predict what I would wear the following day, and without telling me she would be close to correct every day. She would tell her PA the day before and for 3 months straight they keep a tally of what she predicted and then what I showed up in the next day. At the end of the 3 months, I was called into the “oval office” and given this spreadsheet on my work attire. She started the conversation by saying “What is it with your Australians? No matter how cold or wet it is outside you always wear thongs”. And fair enough, the facts were on paper… the spreadsheet told me so. For 2 months, 3 weeks and 2 days I wore thongs to work, only opting for converse sneakers on 3 Fridays when I was apparently going out dancing after work.
Before this I had never noticed my shoe wearing or lack of wearing in this case. But thinking back I do have a habit to walk barefoot around the office sometimes…
Now this memory only popped into my head an hour ago when I was walking down a busy Pitt Street on my lunch break towards the bank, when this man stopped me and pulled me aside. The conversation went along these lines…
Man: Are you Australian?
Me: Ahh, yes…
Man: What is it with you Australians? (please re read his parts with a English accent)
Me: Im sorry?
Man: You people always wear thongs, are your feet not cold?
Me: No they are not actually
Man: Is your neck cold?
(I stare blankly at him…)
Man: Well its just your wearing a scarf… its like your feet are in the Tropic’s but your neck is in Russia!
Me: (looking down at my feet) well I never really thought of that this morning
Man: Well do you check the weather reports?
Me: No
Man: I think you should. He then walks away…
Now I know I don’t have the most awesome taste in clothes or that I am so up there with fashion of the current day… but what is wrong with wearing a scarf and thongs?!? If I wasn’t so shocked and in awe that a stranger stopped me to tell me off in the street I would have taken him on in a debating argument on the matter.
Is it such a conflict of interests to wear a scarf and thongs? Hasn’t the trusty pair of havaiana’s become a staple in all wardrobes of both men and women? And hasn’t this guy been to Bondi on a Sunday afternoon? Shouldn’t he be fitting into the stereotypical mould of the English backpacker and donning his own pair of flip flops, billabong shorts, bonds singlet and red raw sunburn?
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Epic
Epic Win!
I got me some Faith No More tickets this morning.
Today is going to be a grand as day now. Mike is streaming his vocals though the earphones, seriously these tickets are not leaving my hands today. I can not stop smiling. To see the line up of members from The Album of the Year album, is going to be something else. Don the red suit Mike Patton, we have a date in February.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Thursday, October 22, 2009
PACKLAB
I want to go to PACKLAB school.
PACKLAB is the packaging and Brand Design Dept at the Lahti Institute of Design in Finland. They work closely with the industry to conceptualise and create designs that push boundaries. And some of the work is amazing! Below is Anni Nykanen’s popcorn concept, and you know I heart popcorn.
PACKLAB is the packaging and Brand Design Dept at the Lahti Institute of Design in Finland. They work closely with the industry to conceptualise and create designs that push boundaries. And some of the work is amazing! Below is Anni Nykanen’s popcorn concept, and you know I heart popcorn.
New Look Coke Can??
Stumbled across these images on a few different design blogs this afternoon, while trying to avoid as much work as possible. Designed by Dzmitry Samal the shape of the tradition coke can has become so much more geometric. I really like the concept, and how each section could be a different colour... it could actually work. But then again design quialies dont sell products off a shelf do they?
Check out Dzmitry Samal full range of work here
www.samaldesign.com
Check out Dzmitry Samal full range of work here
www.samaldesign.com
Monday, October 19, 2009
Photo Blog
In case some of you didnt know, i have a second blog, just for my photographs. you wont find any of my jibber jabber over on the other one, just some pretty pictures.
eye-take-photos.blogspot.com
eye-take-photos.blogspot.com
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Generation i
So we have the Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y. I think we should now be in the Generation “i”. I have been noticing that everyone I seem to walk past lately in the streets has white earphones draping down their bodies. I normally am one of these people too, but yesterday I went for a stroll without my beloved music and actually listened to the world. And again this morning walking to work, I didn’t don the earphones; I just walked in music-less.
Now I understand that almost everyone on the face of the planet has an ipod or iphone these days, I mean I have the phone the pod and the shuffle, and I understand that they each do have a great purpose. I couldn’t do an overseas trip with my ipod, or a long drive in the car without it. But I am starting to think that I somehow rely on it a little too much. It’s almost like one of my senses has been taken over.
Take travelling for example, you are wandering around a new city or town that you have never been to before, there are so many new sights and smells that you can take in, yet you have your earphones in with some song from an old playlist you made 6 months earlier streaming into your ears. The sound of a new city also evokes a feeling and emotions and then a memory in time. I get that having music when travelling is a necessity but wouldn’t you want to take it the sound of the locals at the bakery having a conversation while they purchase their loaf of bread? Or the chit chat of people on a train on their morning commute? Or if you are sitting in a park eating the local cheese and drinking the local vino, would you not want to be surrounded by the locals doing the same? If you are in a country that speaks another language, don’t you try to half work out what they are talking about, or imagine what they could be talking about? I just feel that if you had your ipod in at times like these you would be missing so much about that moment. We travel to see new sights and experience different cultures and places. We do this by sight, touch, smells and sounds.
This also goes for the same situations in your own city and suburb. I grew up in the suburbs and my memory of child hood is the yells and screams of all of the kids in the backyard or yelling marco polo around our pool on the weekends. I don’t want to get all insightful and crap but, have those days gone? Last time I went home to mums, I looked over the back fence and the next door neighbours kids were on their laptops with earphones in.
Don’t get me wrong, I am a full supporter and believer in the ipod and that it certainly does have a purpose in life with me. And I do not know what I did without my iphone some days, but I also think that it has taken over my life a little too much. Good on Apple for doing this, in the mass market scale of things, but I kind of just want to take a step backwards and open my ears so to speak. Lately I feel like I have been missing some things by working 6 days a week, and by having the lifestyle that I have had over the past 12 months. Surely it wouldn’t be that bad taking a step backwards and just enjoying the mundane things in the everyday that we almost don’t even think/hear about?
Now I understand that almost everyone on the face of the planet has an ipod or iphone these days, I mean I have the phone the pod and the shuffle, and I understand that they each do have a great purpose. I couldn’t do an overseas trip with my ipod, or a long drive in the car without it. But I am starting to think that I somehow rely on it a little too much. It’s almost like one of my senses has been taken over.
Take travelling for example, you are wandering around a new city or town that you have never been to before, there are so many new sights and smells that you can take in, yet you have your earphones in with some song from an old playlist you made 6 months earlier streaming into your ears. The sound of a new city also evokes a feeling and emotions and then a memory in time. I get that having music when travelling is a necessity but wouldn’t you want to take it the sound of the locals at the bakery having a conversation while they purchase their loaf of bread? Or the chit chat of people on a train on their morning commute? Or if you are sitting in a park eating the local cheese and drinking the local vino, would you not want to be surrounded by the locals doing the same? If you are in a country that speaks another language, don’t you try to half work out what they are talking about, or imagine what they could be talking about? I just feel that if you had your ipod in at times like these you would be missing so much about that moment. We travel to see new sights and experience different cultures and places. We do this by sight, touch, smells and sounds.
This also goes for the same situations in your own city and suburb. I grew up in the suburbs and my memory of child hood is the yells and screams of all of the kids in the backyard or yelling marco polo around our pool on the weekends. I don’t want to get all insightful and crap but, have those days gone? Last time I went home to mums, I looked over the back fence and the next door neighbours kids were on their laptops with earphones in.
Don’t get me wrong, I am a full supporter and believer in the ipod and that it certainly does have a purpose in life with me. And I do not know what I did without my iphone some days, but I also think that it has taken over my life a little too much. Good on Apple for doing this, in the mass market scale of things, but I kind of just want to take a step backwards and open my ears so to speak. Lately I feel like I have been missing some things by working 6 days a week, and by having the lifestyle that I have had over the past 12 months. Surely it wouldn’t be that bad taking a step backwards and just enjoying the mundane things in the everyday that we almost don’t even think/hear about?
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Arcade Fire - Neighborhood Number One
And if the snow buries my,
my neighbourhood.
And if my parents are crying
then I'll dig a tunnel
from my window to yours,
yeah a tunnel from my window to yours.
You climb out the chimney
and meet me in the middle,
the middle of the town.
And since there's no one else around,
we let our hair grow long
and forget all we used to know,
then our skin gets thicker
from living out in the snow.
You change all the lead
sleepin' in my head,
as the day grows dim
I hear you sing a golden hymn.
Then we tried to name our babies,
but we forgot all the names that,
the names we used to know.
But sometimes, we remember our bedrooms,
and our parent's bedrooms,
and the bedrooms of our friends.
Then we think of our parents,
well what the hell ever happened to them?!
You change all the lead
sleepin' in my head to gold,
as the day grows dim,
I hear you sing a golden hymn,
the song I've been trying to sing.
Purify the colours, purify my mind.
Purify the colours, purify my mind,
and spread the ashes of the colours
Over this heart of mine
my neighbourhood.
And if my parents are crying
then I'll dig a tunnel
from my window to yours,
yeah a tunnel from my window to yours.
You climb out the chimney
and meet me in the middle,
the middle of the town.
And since there's no one else around,
we let our hair grow long
and forget all we used to know,
then our skin gets thicker
from living out in the snow.
You change all the lead
sleepin' in my head,
as the day grows dim
I hear you sing a golden hymn.
Then we tried to name our babies,
but we forgot all the names that,
the names we used to know.
But sometimes, we remember our bedrooms,
and our parent's bedrooms,
and the bedrooms of our friends.
Then we think of our parents,
well what the hell ever happened to them?!
You change all the lead
sleepin' in my head to gold,
as the day grows dim,
I hear you sing a golden hymn,
the song I've been trying to sing.
Purify the colours, purify my mind.
Purify the colours, purify my mind,
and spread the ashes of the colours
Over this heart of mine
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
iPod Magic Moments # 1
Don’t you like it when your sitting down at your desk at work, eating some food that your mum cooked for you, and a song comes on through your earphones that makes you sit up and go “hey, I remember these guys!”. Then you spark into a full blown research analysis of said band which leads you into listening to their back catalogue for the rest of the day.
Well today’s “hey, I remember these guys!” is VHS or BETA.
I was caught up in this today by their song Cant believe a single word, and it has speed up from there. This band can make dancing like a fool, cool again at a rock concert. I can just picture a load of kids with skinny skinny jeans on and hair sprayed hair, doing that lean forward then back, then repeat dance move with a hand clap thrown in for good measure (picture Vince Nior from The Mighty Boosh but without the sparkles).
VHS or BETA fit into the realm of band such as The Rapture and The Killers, just without the The. More dance dance than The Cure, and more pop culture then Duran Duran. Songs are packed with hooks and I quite like them.
Well today’s “hey, I remember these guys!” is VHS or BETA.
I was caught up in this today by their song Cant believe a single word, and it has speed up from there. This band can make dancing like a fool, cool again at a rock concert. I can just picture a load of kids with skinny skinny jeans on and hair sprayed hair, doing that lean forward then back, then repeat dance move with a hand clap thrown in for good measure (picture Vince Nior from The Mighty Boosh but without the sparkles).
VHS or BETA fit into the realm of band such as The Rapture and The Killers, just without the The. More dance dance than The Cure, and more pop culture then Duran Duran. Songs are packed with hooks and I quite like them.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Only NY
Only NY has some rad as tee's that i would love to get my grubby little mits on! and a bag to carry them in
find them here
http://www.onlynylives.com/
find them here
http://www.onlynylives.com/
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
An open letter to all marketing people
Dear Marketing,
Please write your briefs correctly before giving them to a designer. Believe it or not, but we actually use these letters & words on a page as an outline of what you what designed. Sometimes it can even cut down time spent on designing your poster as well. As much as I would love to have ESP, I don’t, therefore can not foresee you wanting yet another logo in the top right hand corner instead of some negative space. Just jot it down on your already perfect* brief and email it to me BEFORE the due date.
Thankyou
Sarah Holmes
*perfect means this A4 poster shouldn’t take 8 hours to design for you
Please write your briefs correctly before giving them to a designer. Believe it or not, but we actually use these letters & words on a page as an outline of what you what designed. Sometimes it can even cut down time spent on designing your poster as well. As much as I would love to have ESP, I don’t, therefore can not foresee you wanting yet another logo in the top right hand corner instead of some negative space. Just jot it down on your already perfect* brief and email it to me BEFORE the due date.
Thankyou
Sarah Holmes
*perfect means this A4 poster shouldn’t take 8 hours to design for you
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Wanderlust
A year ago today I was in Tokyo, Japan with two good mates going to see Radiohead for the second night in a row. This was my first overseas trip since coming back form the UK 2 years before hand, and now a year later I find myself planning my next big trip. Already with Glastonbury tickets in my hand for the 2010 festival, I know that I will have to end up in the motherland at some point. But where to before that? And I say before as I know I wont be able to hold out here in Sydney until then.
I am a wanderluster and proud of it.
So here is my short list of places that I would like to hit in the not too distant future, and as most things in my life they are in no order.
South by Southwest – although this music festival is a little earlier than I would be hoping to escape too, I have always wanted to go to Texas and attend this 4 day festival. And i know i am being the biggest music groupies by even putting this on my list but hey, which of you wouldnt want to come with me? On lead up to the SXSW festival I would somehow coincide a road trip of the US some sort to the event. This would just ad to the build up of the music festival. And of course I would have a car load full of my music festival buddies in tow.
India – I mean why not? It has been on my list of places to travel to for over 5 years. I passed up India for Morocco in 2006 and have been itching to go since. 2010 marks the year that the Commonwealth Games are on in New Delhi in October, so surely I could spend a good 4-6weeks in April/May before the city gets overrun with UK and other Aussie Tourists? Hmm maybe, May is the hottest month of the year or India… 50 degrees… maybe I should re think this one.
Rwanda – I should have gone and done this last year with my friend Jane, but didn’t. So is life really! And now it ends up on my list again. Now I don’t want to be all Dianne Fossey on everyone, but I have always wanted to trek into the mountains of the Kibale Forest and see the chimps and gorillas. I honestly think it would be one of the most magical moments in your life. Seeing such animals in the wild and knowing that they are so close to extinction.
Trans Siberian Railway – Again something that I have had in the back of my mind for a while. Overland from China to Russia in a train just sounds so romantic to me. Need I say anymore?
Japan – yes again, for something like the 5th time. This country just amazes me every time I go. The people are friendly, the transport system is super fast and dedicated to being efficient (take note cityrail), the sneaker shopping is fab, the food is yummo and living is reasonably cheap. Japan wasn’t what I thought it to be when I first went and it took some time for me to become adjusted to it, but once that happened I fell in love with the place. Everything is so readily available for you, vending machines are god. From underwear to council estate size colas to beer or a bottle of wine, these things are open 24/7. The culture is amazing. People are very traditional, they support the communities and every Sunday you can find a sake drinking competition that even I can take part of.
I am a wanderluster and proud of it.
So here is my short list of places that I would like to hit in the not too distant future, and as most things in my life they are in no order.
South by Southwest – although this music festival is a little earlier than I would be hoping to escape too, I have always wanted to go to Texas and attend this 4 day festival. And i know i am being the biggest music groupies by even putting this on my list but hey, which of you wouldnt want to come with me? On lead up to the SXSW festival I would somehow coincide a road trip of the US some sort to the event. This would just ad to the build up of the music festival. And of course I would have a car load full of my music festival buddies in tow.
India – I mean why not? It has been on my list of places to travel to for over 5 years. I passed up India for Morocco in 2006 and have been itching to go since. 2010 marks the year that the Commonwealth Games are on in New Delhi in October, so surely I could spend a good 4-6weeks in April/May before the city gets overrun with UK and other Aussie Tourists? Hmm maybe, May is the hottest month of the year or India… 50 degrees… maybe I should re think this one.
Rwanda – I should have gone and done this last year with my friend Jane, but didn’t. So is life really! And now it ends up on my list again. Now I don’t want to be all Dianne Fossey on everyone, but I have always wanted to trek into the mountains of the Kibale Forest and see the chimps and gorillas. I honestly think it would be one of the most magical moments in your life. Seeing such animals in the wild and knowing that they are so close to extinction.
Trans Siberian Railway – Again something that I have had in the back of my mind for a while. Overland from China to Russia in a train just sounds so romantic to me. Need I say anymore?
Japan – yes again, for something like the 5th time. This country just amazes me every time I go. The people are friendly, the transport system is super fast and dedicated to being efficient (take note cityrail), the sneaker shopping is fab, the food is yummo and living is reasonably cheap. Japan wasn’t what I thought it to be when I first went and it took some time for me to become adjusted to it, but once that happened I fell in love with the place. Everything is so readily available for you, vending machines are god. From underwear to council estate size colas to beer or a bottle of wine, these things are open 24/7. The culture is amazing. People are very traditional, they support the communities and every Sunday you can find a sake drinking competition that even I can take part of.
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