Fashion

Dazed Digital are chronicling the Converse-branded four-week music tour around China that includes the making of a branded documentary. On the details:

The Converse Love Noise tour aims to give Chinese rock a bigger platform and will try to distract attention from the Olympics by taking two Beijing bands, PK-14 and Queen Sea Big Shark on a specially-designed tour bus through six cities, beginning and ending in Beijing. Along the way, the bus will pick up local bands, and documenting the ups and downs of the entire tour and the climactic event in Beijing will be two brave Dazed Digital correspondents.

On filming:

P.K.14 got kitted out in ripped Converse, the sky was dark above a large expanse of concrete, and the graffiti-ed bus squatted behind the band as the equipment van edged in on the stage to point its headlights at the action. Remarkably, a group of service station staff came to watch the band disturb the peace, as did a stray praying mantis. Praying mantises have been known to kill small birds, said Queen Sea Big Shark guitarist Wang Jing Han, as he held one between his fingers. (A brief aside: we asked the Chinese Converse blogger Lua why graffiti in her country often contains numbers. She told us that it’s not graffiti, these numbers are hasty adverts for lines to call if you’re after some sort of forged document.)

Dazed

Comscore reports that American Apparel is the top online advertising spender in apparel brands. They say that in April, the majority of their 483 million impressions were delivered via social media. Nearly half of AA’s ads appeared on top social networking sites - MySpace.com (24 percent) and Facebook.com (19 percent) and AOL’s AIM IM-chat service carried nearly 12 percent. Here’s a break down:

Comscore

Johnny Cupcakes just opened a new location in Los Angeles after amassing a line of people who waited up to four days for the grand opening. The store doesn’t actually sell any cupcakes but rather focuses on a quirky retail experience to guide you through the process of getting your paws on their coveted clothing. SlamXHype writes:

The attention to detail that went into every small aspect of the shop is unbelievable… everything from a fake stove that lights up underneath the counter where you pay for your shirts to the full wall of ovens that open and close randomly with steam coming out.

[via SlamXHype]

Grow Interactive is a smart out-of-town agency that can punch above its weight. But while it likes to take on as many national clients as local, it still likes to ensure that the team work on enough socially conscious projects too. We talked to Eric Green about what’s been going on in the agency.

Eric, It’s been a while since we last talked. How has the type of work Grow Interactive produces changed?

Since last we talked, our company has grown fairly substantially in both our size and capabilities. This along with our focus on building relationships within our industry has afforded us many great opportunities. So I’d say our work is definitely richer these days, filled with even more varying creative and technical executions. If you haven’t checked us out lately, please do so at thisisgrow.com.

You recentlty created a socially conscious project called The Girl Effect for Nike with W+K. Can you tell us about it?

I’m glad you brought that one up. We’re especially proud of it. When W+K first told us about the Nike Foundation led initiative, we were floored. A girl is a definitely an unexpected solution to many of the world’s problems so when we learned the facts like “when girls and women earn income, they reinvest 90 percent of it into their families, as compared to only 30 to 40 percent for a man”, it was immediately evident that the Nike Foundation had found a mission with enormous potential to start that change. At that point, the decision to get on board was a no brainer.

Are these types of projects important to you?

Very much. We spend the bulk of our time creating channels to promote brands and their goods, so when an opportunity comes up to create change for the benefit of others, we welcome the challenge. We also think it’s very important not to repeat ourselves because variety keeps our team sharp. Feel-good projects are always good for morale too.

You seem to have a good spread of big brands and smaller companies as clients - why the mix?

We spend a lot of time in the community, taking part in local design and advertising organizations. We do so because we believe that if our company is to remain strong at the root level, we have to participate in our community. This participation leads to organic relationships with the people around us. In addition, smaller companies afford us branding opportunities we don’t typically see working with our agency partners.

How have you been working with social media and sites like YouTube?

Done sensibly and right, social media can afford great opportunities. For example, we recently teamed with Saatchi & Saatchi New York to design and develop a karaoke music video contest website for JC Penney called “Rock Your Look“. The winner wins a trip to LA and presents at the 2008 Teen Choice Awards.Early on in the planning stage, Saatchi approached us with their idea. This allowed us to develop some key insights into teens we thought would be most likely to participate in our contest. We found these teens on YouTube and because we were aware of YouTube’s recently released APIs, we were able to suggest and interface our website with YouTube. This not only put us in front of these teens, but because our website enhanced their outlet for self-expression, our contest became a hit with them.

You work with a lot of advertising agencies. Sometimes you hear horror stories about the relationships between traditional and digital agencies - what tips can you share about successful relationships?

Beyond approaching us for our technical and creative capabilities, we’re happy to hear from our agency partners that they appreciate our heavy focus on communication and timeliness. We believe this type of relationship gives everyone the confidence they need to know the project will go as smoothly as possible. In addition, by making the most of the time we’re allotted for each project, we’re able to achieve the best end result possible.

And what’s next for Grow Interactive?

We’re really excited to announce the addition of our new Interactive Director, Benjamin Mace. That and we’ll keep pushing ourselves and our work. We’re only getting better.

Congrats & Thank You

Grow Interactive

Once again, the clever Marketing Folks from H&M have put up the H&M Summerstore at one of Hamburg’s oldest Beach Clubs- Strand Pauli. Backed by a huge H&M Blowup, the store fits nicely into the Beach Clubs architecture and design. It gives all the beach bums who forgot to bring their Bikini for a spontaneous sun-bath the convenience of a cheap buy.

More photos can be found on this Flickr Set.

If fashion is moving away from seasons and schedules, where does that leave the fashion show?

What used to be a first-look for buyers, editors and top-tier clients has been pushing up against pure spectacle for some time. Last October, Fendi shunned the tents and used the Great Wall of China for their catwalk at a cost of approximately $10MM.

Potentially, shows could become brand-centric showcases, rather than product-driven events. Parties, concert tours, installations or hybrid commerce/event formats connect more viscerally with audiences — including a wider range of customers. Shifting the focus from product to brand would also create continuity from season to season while giving designers more creative freedom to set context around their work. The Chanel Mobile Art project, currently in Tokyo, begins to explore this idea: it’s a collection of art commissioned by Chanel inspired by the iconic “2.55” quilted handbag and housed in a Zaha-Hadid designed portable exhibition pod.

According to WWD, high-end jeweler Boucheron is also testing out the waters with a traveling theater production, Désir, that traces the history of the house:”In conjunction with the show, Boucheron will operate a pop-up boutique that will tour with Spielgelworld’s production. Désir — billed as part cabaret, part circus — is scheduled to open in New York on Aug. 14 before traveling to Miami, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Chicago.”

[via WWD]

- Contributed by Suzanne Hader

We like this one a lot. Timex recently ran a competition with uber influential design blog Core77. To celebrate its 150th Anniversary and “demonstrate an ongoing commitment to design and innovation”, Timex teamed up with Core77 to conduct a global design competition called Timex2154: THE FUTURE OF TIME.

640 entries from designers from more than 72 countries were submitted around the brief for personal and portable timekeeping 150 years into the future. The winning concepts will be permanently installed in Timexpo, the Timex Museum based in Waterbury, CT, which chronicles the story of Timex and its heritage dating back to the 1850’s.

Core77 and Timex present 2154: The Future of Time Design Competition

Taschen have created an ‘encyclopedic’ resource on contemporary design for packaging worldwide. Brands in the publication include Coca-Cola, Apple and De Beers. The site reads:

No other book on the market explores global contemporary packaging to the extent and detail that Package Design Now! does. Practically everything you buy comes in some sort of package—some are just functional, while others strive to be as innovative, elegant, and eye-catching as possible. This book features eye-catching package icons from Apple iPhone to De Beers diamonds, that reveal the hard work dedicated to deliver these products with intense appeal, including in-depth case studies about package design developments, giving readers a peek at the way packaging is made and designed.

This encyclopedic resource, divided into chapters by type (beverages, electronics, food, health & beauty, homecare & hygiene, luxury, pharmaceutical, and store & retail) explores the work of top design and branding offices from all around the world. Also included are chapters on material and processes. This unique tome is indispensable for design and marketing professionals, as well as anyone who wants to know more about what makes a great package.

TASCHEN Books: Package Design Now!

These Nike SB limited edition dunks were produced and packaged by CNCPTS. The design was inspired by New England lobster fishing.

[via TheDieline.com: The Leading Package Design Blog: Nike SB Dunk / Concepts Lobster]