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Where's my home? No idea but this world feels like a cool place to call home.
Unfocused postings on whatever catches my attention, makes me think or demands that I point and shoot.

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experience

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Champs

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It looks like a typical crowded street except this is the Champs
Elysees and the complete champs is closed - converted in to a nature
park for two days.

Today is the last day and tomorrow morning, cars and Vespas will race
down here as if nothing was here.

You can't deny France the ability to dream on a big scale.

The measuremet of success is getting over 2 million visitors today. I
think they've achieved that easily.

Filed under  //  experience   france  
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Great Response


I love it when friends react to a post - Eddie sent me this as a reply to my disappointment with the Paris IKEA Metro initiative.

This is a great execution and genius of the team to amplify the effort through traditional media.

Filed under  //  advertising   experience  
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Titanium Sacrifice


I see a Titanium entry for the Cannes awards right here with this clever stunt by Heineken.

It takes a brave client to mess with a man's football (soccer) passion.

Filed under  //  advertising   experience  
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Two Goats and Fresh Powder

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Just done some amazing off-piste climbs and rides in Courchevel over the last 3 days.

Today we were high enough to intercept a couple of Chamois (mountain goats) who looked at us with amusement.

Here's a video of our climb to one peak.

This was a scary climb because this side of the mountain was icy and one slip would mean a long drop. I love the fear that goes with these treks and I sure felt it these last few days.

(download)

Filed under  //  adventure   experience  
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That Monster Can Sing

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Sorry about the quality of this shot - I share it, so you can see how many people were taking pictures...

Lady Gaga was amazing last night for two reasons.

First, the show was out of this world. The multi media/multi engagement model created a truly augmented concert experience.

Secondly, Lady Gaga can seriously sing. Her voice is outstanding.

If you get a chance to see the show, do it.

Filed under  //  concert   experience   multi media   music  
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(download)

Anybody who loves to shop will have visited Colette on rue Saint-Honore, 75001. It's the mecca of limited editions.

For those who don't believe that stores can be free museum visits, you have to visit Colette.

The products are completely immersed in design - it's like the director's cut but for fashion, accessories, jewelry, appliances, music, books...

What I also love is that their website creates the same atmosphere as the store with cool tracks playing and a cool blog space for starters.

Check out the site here http://bit.ly/4zZ2K8

Filed under  //  design   experience   retail   shops  
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Four Broken Bikes and a Roundabout

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I had fun cycling through Paris this evening.

The Bastille is not the best place to find a working bike.

Such a shame that people like to bust these bikes up - the arrondissement's reputation seems to match the level of damage.

This picture was taken at the Arc at 1am.

* roundabout = traffic circle but roundabout is a much funner word

Filed under  //  experience   paris  
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Lousy Lounges

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Why is it that airport lounges in the US suck so bad?

It's not the "business center" requisite furniture that upsets me although that's certainly a good reason. It's not the lack of wireless although what the hell's with that Delta? It's not even the overcrowded nature of every lounge. It's just that they are never comfortable and surely the word lounge should be a clue to one thing they should get right.

I'm on my way to Paris via London and one thing I know for sure is that as airport experiences go the US one will be the worst. London's Heathrow has practicaly made airport lounges obsolete because its terminals are so comfortable. However, if you want to go into the lounge there, the experience is beyond loungable.

Filed under  //  Travel   experience  
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Touch Screen Window

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MTVs new engagement piece brought to life in a huge touch screen on 5th Avenue. Like the tech and like the telegraphic name of the site - theburiedlife.com

Filed under  //  advertising   experience  
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In the Gutter

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This picture is courtesy of a great article in Wired UK http://bit.ly/5xWxrn

I love Contagious magazine but it's got be one of the most expensive magazines out there and the design of the magazine is so delicious that I literally see people nervous to open it and explore inside.

Enough about my challenge with the magazine. 

I want to talk about challenging technology. Our relationship to technology has been discussed for a long time but recently I'm seeing a new an interesting trend around challenging the technology behind the technology. There have been numerous articles, TED conference speeches and the like focusing on this angle. You have Kevin Kelly expounding the idea that - I will try to sum up his deeply philosophical perspective - technology wants to be heard and we should listen to it and be guided by its potential http://bit.ly/8nGCBn. We have the dude in the picture above - Durrell Bishop - who wants to "physicalise" software http://bit.ly/5xWxrn. His words "An iPhone is really Plasticine confined by an anonymous box, and dressing it up lets it express a part of itself". 

And then we have Nathan Martin, Founder and CEO of Deeplocal - the guys who did the Nike Chalkbot that worked the Tour de France in 2009. He has written a great article in the latest "Contagious Magazine". 

I want to focus on Nathan Martin's article for two reasons - First, I love his perspective and secondly the article is locked, so no one can see it accept for those few lucky subscribers. 

I apologize up front for the length of this post but I wanted capture some key highlights from Nathan's article.

Here are the key quotes that grabbed me.

"To invent radical new experiences through technology, think more like an artist than a developer, more like a freight hopper than a commuter, and more like a parasite than a human."

"On its own, technology is stale and unaffecting. Deeply understanding the motivations of an audience and the adaptability of old and new technology allows us to transform seemingly boring machines in to clever system that engage participants."

"Nike Chalkbot - part monstrosity, part artistry, the Chalkbot relied on adaptation and 'Gutter technology'. Gutter tech means using the lowest possible technology to solve a problem. This simple idea is rarely executed well. Developers and even creatives devise concepts built strictly around new technology, ignoring the old. They forget to problem solve and base solutions on past successes." 

"Chalkbot was made up of a notebook computer, spray guns that are typically used to paint lines on the roadways, the typography tool that they used to build custom fonts sets was nothing more than a grid of check boxes on a web page. Every component was reinterpreted. This collapsing of buzzword tech with old-school encoded wheels, trailer cranks, and toothbrushes (used to keep the spray nozzles clean) led to the Chalkbot's success and offers a glimpse into what's possible when we squint instead of look."

I love this thought of squinting and Nathan's interpretation of it. "To squint is to distort. To avoid the details and focus on the outline. Squinting opens your mind to the potential of what something can be rather than what it is. To squint is to forget your expertise and become a daydreaming amateur."

"Technology comes with a prescribed set of rules. Innovative amateurs naturally disregard these rules; experts almost always subconsciously abide by them." 

"A gutter technologist makes tools when kits, manuals and prescribed rules do not exist. They employ pirate radio before they employ Flash. They break free from the noise that surrounds technology and introduce radical new uses to traditional hardware."

To summarize using Nathan's words "The downside of a greater understanding of technology is our adoption of its conventions and a restriction in our creativity."

Transferring this logic to brands "For brands, thinking like a gutter technologist means developing engaging, moving and personal experiences that are not guided by technology but rather by the movement of people."

I really love this final thought and strongly believe in it in relation to my industry of advertising, where we should live in a more experimental world than we typically do. I could express a more radical thought here of replacing the word technology in this last thought with the word advertising to get a more laser focused prescription of how we should engage consumers "Do not spend extensive time on involved campaigns; think fast and prototype. Try, fail, and try again; think in the gutter. Your audience does not care about technology, they care about experiences. The brand that brings them a memorable experience is the brand they care about."

Filed under  //  Technology   experience  
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