mtv international + universal everything.

Universal Everything is my favourite motion design studio in the world. Yesterday MTV International rolled out a brand new identity – to umbrella across all of it’s 64 channels around the world – created in collaboration with Universal Everything. So basically I just shit my pants…

Lots of people like to chirp that MTV is becoming increasingly irrelevant since it basically stopped playing music videos.  Depite MTV’s undeniable shift to creating reality programming rather than promoting videos, you can’t exactly say that reality TV has been a big pop-bust. It’s culturally less worthwhile, arguably, but MTV has a history of innovative identity and design. If MTV exposes a lot of mainstream, Hills-watching folks to a level of design they wouldn’t normally see, then I consider that relevant. You never know when some kid is going to be zoned out in front of MTV, see a new ident from Universal Everything, and be inspired to learn more about art.

I’m so pumped to see this new work from Universal Everything. It is absolutely stunning. Working similarly to their epic series of sound sculptures “Advanced Beauty” (which is my favourite project of all time, just sayin’…), Universal Everything founder Matt Pyke again collaborated with a series of filmmakers to create each ident. Sound design, also just like “Advanced Beauty”, is by Pyke’s genius brother Simon (a.k.a. Freeform).

This stuff is all epic:

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Via Creative Review

nic hess: m&m+M=3M.

Looking at Swiss artist Nic Hess‘ 2004 light-box work “m&m+M=3M” I’m totally struck but what I’m gathering was probably the biggest part of it’s intended meaning: an alarmist poke at the omnipresence of corporate advertising and perhaps a subversive allusion that all companies are the same. Got it.

What really strikes me, though, is that I also think that if you showed this to anyone working in the Brand departments for any of these companies that they would fucking totally love it. Because if an artist recognizes your logo (and a logo to a brand is like tits to a porn star) and agrees that there’s enough general cultural recognition of it to create a piece of art out of it, that means… there’s enough general cultural recognition to create a piece of art out of it!

A.K.A. – everyone knows our logo. Which, to a brand, is nirvana. It’s like Warhol and Campbell’s. Regardless of what Warhol may or may not have been saying about the actual nature of branding, consumption, and society, that soup can was seen everywhere. To some, it’s an iconic piece of art. To others, it’s an iconic piece of logo. Tom-a-to, Tom-ah-to.

Via Wrong Distance

dove + axe = unilever’s hypocrisy.

As I brought up in my first Axe post, I have a personal vendetta against Unilever. In case you don’t know:

• Dove has made a monumental world-wide splash with it’s Self Esteem Fund and online ads “Evolution” and “Onslaught”.
• Axe has gotten huge web play and a booming market share with wet dream, mega-horny, Porky’s style advertising.
• Unilever is the huge mega-corporation that owns both brands.

Watch this great vid and check out the Dove vs. Axe advertising for yourself:

Here’s the thing: both campaigns are amazing. They’re doing their intended jobs perfectly. The Dove ads, created by Ogilvy + Mather Toronto, are inspirational and groundbreaking and tap into the growing female backlash against the beauty industry and the need to love yourself for who you really are. The Axe ads, created by Bartle Bogle Hegarty, are hilarious and actually pretty witty and tap into the genetically inherent male desire to watch boobs jiggle and fuck as many people as you can. One plays on breaking stereotypes and one plays on supporting them. It’s win-win. Good for them.

momspit: but my mom swallows.

That’s right. It’s a “no-rinse cleaner”. It’s called Momspit. What a kick-ass example of taking something relatively mundane (hand sanitizer) and making it memorable / gross / nostalgic /interesting / Oedipal all with one l’il zinger of a name.

Although personally I remember my Mom’s spit tasting like vodka and Lithium, this stuff comes in pleasant, if completely unrealistic, flavours like Fig & Green Tea, Lemon & White Tea, and the ominously open-for-interpretation Unscented.

Via Ad Krispies.