Welcome To The Imperial” is a 1-minute viral video from Brooklyn born spoken word poet and actor, Lemon Andersen and Queens-bred filmmaker, Rik Cordero to the millions of New York City basketball fans. It features a mixture of Rik’s eye for iconic New York City sights and faces seamlessly combined with the richness of Lemon’s poetry. In essence, the Big Apple exerts a powerful influence over those who live here and those who play here. Welcome To The Imperial…
“…It represents two artists on their way to the throne. It’s Majestic. It’s us. Now when you hear “Welcome To The Imperial” you will hear our stamp.” – Lemon
“…What we’ve done only scratches the surface of what Lemon and I are capable of but ultimately we achieved our goal with Imperial: to visually capture the essence and magic and complexity of New York City.” – Rik
I started this blog with different interview series, such as Tastemakers and Bright Future (see Interviews). Now I give you Interwebs Famous.
Brian Moore is a smartly dressed chap that is interning at BBH NY this summer within our Barn program. He decided to crowdsource his dating–leaving the people of the interwebs to choose who he dates. (Visit DatingBrian.com to see where the project lives. For (near) real time updates about the social experiment check @DatingBrian). Becoming interwebs famous is not easy, and I doubt we have heard the last from Mr. Moore (and his amazing two team members involved in the project). While you ponder about how you can become internet famous, watch my exclusive (part 1 of 3) interview with Brian.
Shout out to head coach, Arjay Perovic and assistant coach, Amir Younesi for letting us film such an amazing group of talented young men.
The City played in the AAU National tournament this past weekend. I will let you know how it turned out. These boys are the future of basketball and society.
The people at Fallon have concocted a nice integrated campaign that has my senses tingling (no Spiderman). The Guerrilla activation took place in NYC. I saw some of it in Union Square (Manhattan). Part of me got flashbacks of Donnie Darko until I saw this…
If you are still ‘scratching your head’ take a look at the below.
1. 50 Real human Rabbits run around NYC
2. Real human rabbits disappear and a huge building sized projection shows the rabbits climbing the wall…
3. Rabbit projections and real rabbits continue to run around NYC prompting people to “FOLLOW ME” which of course means twitter… and real life… (nice use of alice in wonderland meets twitter, fallon.)
4. On the twitter account you can find the link to The White Rabbit Inc, a detective agency of course. The man-rabbit is there again teasing you to follow.
5. Clicking him takes you to Wonderland Tea Shop, where he causes some havoc and teases you to follow once again.
6. Now you end up at the Happy Hearts Casino, faced with an eerie Kathy Bates Queen of Hearts backed by some show girls… and he escapes again, waiting for you to follow.
7. Where you finally land at Syfy’s Alice.
Oh, but wait, that’s not all… Also fascinating, Kay jewelers is sponsoring the miniseries, and they’ve done even MORE silliness to integrate with them… There is also Alice’s Jewelry Box, where you essentially click on each of the Kay jewelry pieces to get to the “fabled Stone of Wonderland” ring of Alice’s, which then lets you see concept art for the film…
Foreign Exchange is one of those special groups that will not be fully appreciated till they stop releasing music. The depth of their work is what puts them on another echelon. It is barrier bending without being unnecessary. In this case, R&B singer Darien Brockington contributed his soulful voice to a smartly composed record. Darien took this song to another level with his live performance. If you ever have the opportunity to attend a show, I highly suggest you get to the front row.
Those who know me are aware that I love to experience brands. I especially have a soft spot in my heart for Converse. This love comes from the opportunity I had to intern in their advertising department in North Andover, MA while in college. I was out in Mass during the summer of ’07; a time when Converse was edging their way back to the forefront of the footwear and lifestyle category. They had recently began their relationship with John Varvatos and were quietly adding seasons to their fledgling apparel division. This post is a nod to the development of the aforementioned apparel– of which they were so excited about while I was doing my intern stint. Cudos to their agency of record, Anomaly, and the team that concepted and executed this idea.
More info:
Converse presented each collection in different rooms of NYC’s famously bohemian Hotel Chelsea. Visiting the homes of long-term residents Man-Lai Liang, event planner; Zaldy, clothing designer and Steve Willis, film director was a unique opportunity to to take in the creative material these artists choose to surround themselves with.
P.S. I can not wait until J. Crew and Converse take their relationship to the next level. I am patiently waiting…
A few months ago I asked the artist, Michael Neff if he would mind doing some chalk shadow work around different Creative Week NYC events. Fast forward to June, a piece has surfaced and it is here for you to see. Also check his Flickr for other work from the talented artist.
More info about the chalk shadow project by the name of ‘Umbra’:
The Umbra project is born of an attempt to share a phenomenon I find beautiful. In my travels through the city at night I was constantly encountering thought-provoking shapes projected on streets and sidewalks that were cast by the lights we keep on at night. In an attempt to both draw attention to and temporarily preserve these projections I began outlining their contours in chalk. Chalk, like the shadows themselves, is a fugitive material. At times these drawing have lasted two years, in many cases they are washed away the next morning. I began making photographs of the completed pieces in an attempt to further share these short lived installations and my appreciation for the beauty of the night.
This project is an ongoing series of chalk-outlined shadows at night around the US in cities like New York, San Francisco, Seattle and small towns in Oregon and California and began in earnest in March of 2006.
Twitter
Facebook
Flickr
LinkedIn
RSS