Altered images, subway edition
Subway posters aren’t designed to be interactive, but sometimes they get hijacked—graffitied, blackened, torn and rearranged. Generally, I enjoy the results. The posters are ads to consume or deflect, not frescoes to revere. The altered versions tend to conform to just a few common themes. It isn’t exactly original to draw a moustache on someone—Duchamp … Continue reading
Storage Deluxe’s logo typo
Logo design, meet dirty mind… Is the oddly scaled box in Storage Deluxe’s logo an appropriate fig leaf for the friendly neighborhood mover hefting it? Not according to Saturday Night Live…
Dance makes music: Kanye West & Ulysses Dove
It may be old news that Kanye’s a douche, but I do like to track ballet’s convergence with pop culture (can we say Black Swan). His stylish Runaway video highlights a cluster of black-clad ballet dancers, but suffers from being choreographically thin. They clump more than they move. Two of the three soloists, the … Continue reading
Valentine TV spuds & duds
What passes for romance on Valentine’s Day? Is it sugar-spice-nice girls under the protection of boys formed from sterner stuff, like snakes, snails and puppy dog tails? (I’d like to see that rendered Arcimboldo-style, by the way.) Yes, in the case of this embarrassingly retrogressive Kay Jewelers ad, where a woman is cowed by a … Continue reading
Boozy New Year: sexy liquor bottles
Blogging virtue doesn’t require avoiding vice—it only means you should document it well. On a recent trip to Astor Wines & Spirits, much like a greedy child wandering through the snack aisles of a supermarket, I got separated from P. I was seduced by the bottle. Exterior, not contents, that is. We are not vodka … Continue reading
Ballet horror beyond Black Swan
The pretext for Italian director Dario Argento’s 1977 flick Suspiria is the arrival of a ballet student at a European academy run by a secret coven of witches. Dance isn’t the point—the eerie prog rock soundtrack by Goblin, a lush, restricted color scheme and elaborate production design fuel an expressionist gorefest—where beautiful women are violently … Continue reading
Christmas craziness in NYC
Venture out shopping or otherwise in New York City this time of year and you might encounter ad hoc bicycle art, drunk and disorderlies, crazy marketing ploys and extreme sugar highs. The city that never sleeps ratchets its energy up just a little more than usual. It makes me sorry I’ll be away over Christmas, … Continue reading
Art under pressure: Black Swan & ballet today
‘Tis the season for Christmas parties, and thus for impromptu movie reviews. My fellow brunchgoer on Black Swan: “That movie was TERRIBLE!!” Her opinion had to be somewhat credible because she brought an adorable pit-bulldog mix decked out in a red bandanna. You can’t go wrong with festive dogs. So how was it? Black Swan … Continue reading
rebecca henretta | design » into « words 