Last Thursday afternoon I made my way to The Natural History Museum for their 19th Annual Environmental Lecture and Luncheon. The theater was quite full of spirited New Yorkers eagerly interested in finding ways to make changes in the everyday for the environment. The panel was moderated by Lynn Sherr from ABC News 20/20.

The three speakers were Sloan Barnett who is a reporter and published a book this past September called Green Goes With Everything: Simple Steps to a Healthier Life and a Cleaner Planet. Her tips focused on our homes and the myriad of harsh cleaners and detergents we use that can be replaced by natural products which are often far less costly.

The second panelist was Alisa Gravitz who is the executive director of Green America and had a lot of information on fair trade and recycling. The third was James Gustave Speth, Gus as he was referred, is a Dean at Yale on Environmental Policy. Gus made a few choice comments that yielded applause from the audience. He pointed out the insatiable need we American’s have for stuff – we have storage units because of all the crap we collect and not part with and in the currently depleted economy we should turn to our relationships with one another and focus on those things that truly make us happy. He also suggested some meat free days in our diet and even suggested owning chickens! This made the crowd giggle at the thought of chickens on New York rooftops but I went out after and got some herbs to grow in my garden.

We had lunch after in the Hall of Ocean Life under the belly of the whale and nibbled free-range chicken salad nicoise and iced tea. Claire Bernard was in charge of our table. Amy Greenspon, Leigh Lezark, Sparrow, Derek Blasberg and Dani Stahl all made for a very spirited discussion on being more green and the amount of chemicals already inside our fragile little bodies. Also where to buy mace. We left and strolled through the Upper West Side in the perfect spring day. I ate dinner outside in my garden.

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SHOWstudio’s latest LIVE broadcast has launched, chronicling all the action behind the scenes and in front of the camera during Nick Knight’s shoot for the July 2009 issue of Wallpaper* magazine, guest edited by graphic design legend Peter Saville.

Working with set designer Gideon Ponte, stylist Francesca Burns and star model Mariacarla Boscono, Peter Saville will construct an ‘Erotic House’,
unveiling unique, graphic interiors designed to sexualise furniture, fashion and flesh alike. Outstanding contemporary furniture pieces and innovative sets will be married with Autumn/Winter 2009 fashions from the like of Chanel, Prada, Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Jacobs and Lanvin to name but few, creating a unique visual experience through moving image.

Click the link below for more….

http://www.showstudio.com/project/softfurnishings/ 

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If you notice, today’s Google page has this logo on top. As you know, Google has a way of making you scratch your head and wonder what the origin of their “daily logo” is. Today, it’s written in Morse Code, a code created also for emergency S.O.S….. appropriate times if you consider the urgency of the swine flu.

Samuel Finley Breese Morse (April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872) was an American painter of historic scenes, and (more notably) the creator of a single wire telegraph system and Morse code.

Today, we remember Morse’s birthday! If you care to read any more on this guy, read his wikipedia page here.
J

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Designer Louise Gray
by George MacPherson
(Starworks London)

No less than 100 of Louise Gray’s closest friends were invited to a dinner in her honour last night. The irreverent and idiosyncratically London young designer had been given the opportunity to welcome her friends and comrades from all over the city to a three course supper at east london’s finest, Bistrotheque, courtesy of New Look, our favourite fashion webzine Ponystep.com and the restaurant-come-club itself. All this was pulled together by Louise and east-east magnate Richard Mortimer who told us  “Louise Gray is fashion and fun and that is the future. Louise is making fashion fun again”  Thank goodness for that.

After drinks and a superb dinner of trad brit fish & chips (what else) we had some zing zing raspberry cocktails and caught up with some of Louise’s invited guests that ranged from St Martins Alumni Christopher Kane and Richard Nicoll to  course tutor and global fashion legend Louise Wilson, a flock of Gray fans swathed in multi coloured/textured/everything Louise Gray combinations, via original pirate supporter Fashion East’s Lulu Kennedy and a host of editorial support from British Vogue, Love, Dazed & Confused, iD, Ponystep itself alongside Style.com’s Sarah Mower and Tim Blanks.

The Style.commers were obviously in cahoots, Sarah quite rightly implored ”Everyone we love in london is here. It’s been so great to celebrate Louise’s talent” and Blanks added, “Every city needs someone who pulls all the threads together. I love the way Richard Mortimer melts fashion art and music into one glorious lump”

Fashion, food and Gray-t fun. More please again.

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Last week I had the chance to take part in the first F5 conference put on by Motionographer.com. If you’ve never heard of Motionographer be prepared to lose the next three hours of your life watching short animations and commercial work from the top guns in the industry. Rumor has it that it began as Justin Cone’s senior project, but has since spiraled into a mecca for creative minds to display their latest creations whether it takes the form of a music video, television commercial, online viral or anything else that seduces us on screen. Here’s some samples of work from a few studios put together specifically in preparation for F5.

F5 RE:PLAY / SNEAK PEEK from F5 on Vimeo.

Speaking at the event was everyone from The Black Heart Gang, who came all the way from Cape Town, South Africa to Brian DiLorenzo from the legendary BBDO. The topics discussed here weren’t necessarily what you’d expect from this tech heavy industry. One or two video game trailers did pop up, but countering that was Jonah Lehrer, editor for Seed Magazine, who discussed metacognition and the psychology of the creative process or Charlie White giving us insight to the research that goes into his photographs. Without corporate sponsors for the event, presenters seemed to feel especially free to talk about whatever they wanted. Developing personal work was a theme that kept popping up. I caught up with Jannes from The Black Heart Gang and spoke to him about the delicate balance between doing the work that makes you happy and work that keeps you fed. For them, this came in the form of their new company Shy The Sun. “You know, it’s like having two jobs now, so it’s a bit harder, but if you’ve worked so hard building something you love the last thing you want is to have someone come in and tell you to change things.” Still keeping true to their their style with animal based characters and elaborate landscapes and they produced an outstanding spot for United Airlines. Keep yours eyes open for the new book they’ll be putting out as well as some hand-crafted designer toys that are sure to impress.

Sea Orchestra from Shy the Sun on Vimeo.

Andre from Shilo also had a bit to say on personal development and getting up, out, and away from the computer. Instead of showing off Shilo’s impressive back-catalog of Emmy Award winning material. He chose to show a montage of stuff he shot on 16mm with a home-made dolly, not a speck of animation. Props for bringing it back to the basics. Pes also kept it real with his humorous stop-motion creations. We even got a step by step walk through of a few of his pieces. I never caught it before but the goggly eyes he drops in his Western Spaghetti are meant to be see salt. clever.

PSYOP was on point as always, their Converse spot with Santogold, Julian Casablancas and N.E.R.D is proof that they still got it. But what happens when you take this idea of motion design and story telling and apply it across multiple platforms like the web, TV, mobil devices, etc… Brian DiLorenzo brought with him a bag a tricks that really blew me away. With campaigns like the BMW Films and HBO Voyeur it’s plain and simple that these guys don’t think small. My personal favorite was their Burger King campaign as sadistic as it was. Luckily I managed to escape unscathed, but for those of you that were de-friended on Facebook for a 1/10 of a cheeseburger just know that hunger is an age old technique of persuasion. Nothing personal.

Quick thanks to Scott and Andre at Media Temple for hosting the after party at Touch, Wonho for being on the mic, and of course Bernie for keeping things moving smoothly. With such a good turnout I wonder when Justin and the folks at Motionographer will consider dreaming up an F6.

– Stephen

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