mighty mouse

If you're familiar with music poster art, you've seen the work of the iconic Stanley "Mouse" Miller. Perhaps best known for his work with The Grateful Dead, Mouse is also responsible for the poster and album cover art for Big Brother and the Holding Company, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix and the Steve Miller Band, among others. Mouse's significance in the music scene of the 1960's and 70's goes undisputed. "Legendary concert promoter Bill Graham referred to Stanley Mouse as one of the most important figures from the 1960's," while Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart recognizes Mouse as core to their DNA, referring to Mouse as a “part of our mythology.”

Like his peers of the psychedelic era, Mouse's rock art was heavily influenced by the work of Czech artist Alfons Mucha (a personal favorite), the godfather of a style that would come to be known as 'Art Nouveau'. Mouse continued to work in this style, making rock art and memorabilia through the 1980's, later experimenting with a variety of media and ultimately producing a significant portfolio of illustration and fine art.

Today, you'll have the chance to meet the man they call Mouse at his gallery opening at the Govinda Gallery in Washington, DC. The exhibit will run from April 13th - 30th, and marks the first ever showing of Mouse's work in The District. It's no coincidence the exhibition coincides with The Dead show at Verizon Center on April 14th. In fact, "the majority of the artwork in this exhibition has been created especially in honor of this occasion."

sound and vision

Every image does have a sound. True, a sound production company could be considered a dream client for any agency, but DM9DDB delivered a stellar "interactive" print campaign nonetheless for Saxofunny.

little red corvette

Brilliant and beautiful ads for Mattel's Hot Wheels by Ogilvy & Mather London peel back the nostalgia of floor play for Dads. You know that inner kid - the twinkle sparked when they over-orchestrate the Science Fair project or obsessively keep the Nintendo going long after the young ones have gone to sleep. It's no wonder the ads, marking the 40th anniversary of the Hot Wheels brand, have been placed in adult publications like the Observer Magazine; the latest from Hot Wheels taps into that very set of ingrained associations adults have with childhood 'play' - the imaginary worlds created in years past - at about a foot above the floor.



















It's a well-executed strategy by Ogilvy for the Hot Wheels brand, and specifically by Jason Mendes and Andy Wyton, the two creatives behind the clever Hot Wheels ads to come out of the anniversary campaign. The ads don't show the product or any sort of vehicle, but instead utilize a more subtle and sophisticated approach suggesting the sensory delights and resourceful childhood stunt constructions created when playing with the mini toy cars.

magical mystery tour

After much anticipation and speculation, Beatles: Rock Band is set for worldwide release on September 9th of this year, marking the first video game licensing of The Beatles music. The game, which will be immediately available on the PS3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii, will take players through the history of the band and will feature the entire music catalog.

According to Harmonix (the company that develops Rock Band) CEO Alex Rigopulos, Beatles: Rock Band seeks to deliver something a bit more experiential than just song licensing: "we're trying to create something that is an art object, that's really an extension of the Beatles' music into another medium." As a means to this end, the project includes collaborations with those closest to the source, including Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison. MTV Games and Harmonix have also announced "a limited number of new hardware offerings modeled after instruments used by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr throughout their career." Time to get practicing your sitar scales, mates.

The implications of Beatles: Rock Band are many and reach well beyond the obvious news-worthy excitement around the opening of The Beatles catalog for...well, anything. As the insightful 'entrepreneur's entrepreneur' Charles Planck pointed out, "the big coup for the publishers is that the game concept strikes squarely in the heart of a much older, non-traditional gaming market - the pre-Atari’s - and gets them into gaming in a way that I don’t think anything else could."

Certainly, there's a multi-generational appeal to the music only heightened by other recent Beatles projects, including the Cirque du Soleil show LOVE, creating a significant market expansion for The Beatles enterprise, and likewise with Rock Band, the gaming industry. The music of this era is in high demand in the industry for this very reason. According to Entertainment Weekly, "In June...Alex Rigopulos put the Beatles at the top of his artist wish list, along with Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Pink Floyd, and the Rolling Stones; 'titanic bands of that era that have a special place in people's hearts.'" MTV president Van Toffler sums it up: "We’ve been waiting, as everybody else in the world has been waiting, to get their music."

Rock Band = 1, iTunes = 0.

the art of surprise

Visionaire, the limited-edition art and fashion publication, has released their 55th issue: Surprise. The first 2009 release of their thrice annual "gallery in print", Surprise features one of my favorite art forms...the pop-up. I know I recently posted a pop-up entry, but you just can't pass up on the beauty and brilliance dished up by Visionaire. Surprise contains 12 hardcover pop-up books with the likes of Sophie Calle, Mario Testino, Yayoi Kusama and Alasdair McLellan featured inside, bound in a beautiful purple, portable case.


















Getting your paws on a Visionaire galerie à aller isn't easy or cheap. There's a $750 starting price for one of the 4,000 per issue produced, though collectors have been known to spend upwards of $5,000 on a single issue, like #18: Fashion Special, which came packaged in a Louis Vuitton portfolio case. Other popular issues include #53: Sound, which featured contributions from over 100 recording artists, including David Byrne, Kim Gordon & Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, Yoko Ono and Animal Collective, and #37: Vreeland Memos, which features four-hundred original and intimate memos from Diana Vreeland to her staff at Vogue dating from 1966 to 1972.




















Be sure to visit the Visionaire site to see a video on Surprise.

on your feet

Industrial designer Marie-Louise Gustafsson gives the term 'happy feet' a whole new meaning. One part utility and two parts play and whimsy, Gustaffon's Mop Flip Flop and Mr. Brushy designs put the 'fun' back in functional. The Stockholm-based artist invents and designs home wares that truly bring to light the small pleasures in life. From a mobile bathtub to a beanbag computer chair on wheels, her designs uncover a sense of novelty and discovery in routine activity. Gustafsson reinvents the typically mudane day-to-day moments.

Gustafsson received her Masters of Arts in product design from the Royal College of Art in London and works as a freelance designer, both with self–initiated projects and commissioned work. She has exhibited all over the world, including New York City, Los Angeles, Berlin, Milan, London, Seoul and Tokyo.

beard brigade

I love this poster created for the South Central Alaska Beard & Moustache Club by Young & Rubicam's New York office. Designed by Jason Nitti and Neel Williams under Executive Creative Director Scott Vitrone, the graphic serves as a promotional announcement poster for the 7th annual World Beard & Moustache Championships event to be held in Anchorage, Alaska from May 20 - 24, 2009.

The poster is clean with a nice retro feel. It's reminiscent of great rock poster art, containing imagery that represents both the band and some localized symbolism. Here, the dual-meaning visual is achieved through the morphed beard/arms, reinforcing the poster's purpose: beards and competition. Truly a great visual translation of the message.

Registration is still open if you're interested in competing for the Mr. Fur Face 2009 title. It looks like there's already some good representation from the United States in this years Battle of the Beards.