Gawking in Traffic - Interactions... designed or not » design

swedish rap on repeat

cwallin — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 19:15:15 +0000

My Stockholm-born father blogged about this video recently and I was immediately captivated in all its prosodic glory (aka “Swedishness”). It’s a collaboration of a few mainstream Swedish musicians – none of whom, by the way, are actually living in the conditions portrayed in the video. But that doesn’t bother me – having wind beneath her wings didn’t mean Bette Midler could actually fly…

Anyway, love the engagement created strictly through the modulation and timbre of the language itself (at least for a non-Swedish speaker). Plus they made rap in Swedish sound good. Even my father was impressed they pulled that off.

(It’s about questioning the typical idea of what makes one’s life happy. Consider that a rough interpretation.)

parkour motion reel

cwallin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:52:21 +0000

Mia sent this to me yesterday because she’s totally awesome…

parkour motion reel from saggyarmpit on Vimeo.

the commercialization of the statue of liberty

cwallin — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:57:01 +0000

Thinly-veiled brand promise can be unnerving. Especially next to an oxymoron like “new york spring water.”

we do billboards right… haphazardly

cwallin — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:55:20 +0000

Click here to check out the original billboard post first, if you haven’t already (partial image displayed below for easy-breezy reference).

This Travel Show ad is the the first to go up in that space. This is the exact same billboard, from the far left, avoiding the obstructed views.

It’s surprising what folks can do with duct tape and staple guns, while concurrently reinforcing every Jersey stereotype ever.

an utterly disturbing logo

cwallin — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:57:53 +0000

Back of the truck: what do you see?

If you said a mostly obscene shot of a dairy cow’s hindquarters wearing a sombrero, you are correct.

If you said a one-armed man with enormous hips wearing a pink frock, cow-patterned western jacket, and sombrero, you are also correct. A true “cowboy.”

“Country Fresh Dairy Products.” Naturally, country=western and dairy=bovine derrière…

And voila! I’ll never look at milk and ice cream the same way.

UPDATE: Jane has brought it to my attention that the “sombrero” is the hat of the kid leading the cow, that you see on the side of the truck. Guess I didn’t stare long enough…

don’t Remorse’ls look delicious?

cwallin — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:18:24 +0000

I must have seen this billboard 5 or 6 times before I finally realized what they were doing…

I would catch glimpses of it as I slalomed other commuters in the breakneck race for Penn Station. Amidst the rush, all I ever really noticed of this billboard was the enormous “Remorse’ls” fudge rounds and the bright white text, “Chocolaty goodness without the guilt.” Seemed tongue-in-cheek in intention, yet just didn’t work. And to top off the ambiguity, fudge-covered remorse looks so delicious!

So when I finally left work a few minutes earlier and had some time to stop and take a picture of it for Gawking In Traffic, I noticed the real product in the bottom right corner…

Huh… thanks, but I’ll take remorse.

Anyone have a Mallomar?

PULL

cwallin — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:41:43 +0000

I figure the “Push-Pull” stickers come in packages of two, but that doesn’t mean you have to use them both.

northweast airlines

cwallin — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 02:43:46 +0000

Northwest Airlines uses an outlined circle and little triangle in their logo to create a compass. And it points, as you would assume, northwest.

Now that in and of itself is fine. But the problem comes when they put the logo on the “other” side of their planes. They don’t just do a print of the logo as usual – they flip it!

The result? The compass points northeast. Which, in my humble opinion, is just downright silly. But I guess it could have been worse – they could have flipped the image along the horizontal axis…

how to hide a windmill in a piece of paper

cwallin — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 20:51:05 +0000

Very cool technology – the image on the paper is recognized via the webcam and voila! You get an interactive 3D model on your computer screen.

Do it yourself here: PlugIntoTheSmartGrid.com

playing for change

cwallin — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 03:02:58 +0000

This video has people from all over the world singing and playing “Stand By Me” together. I would love working on a project like this, coordinating it, recording it, mixing it, playing it… totally awesome idea. Playing For Change