Archive for July 2006

Top news from PSFK’s Marktd site.

• Underground Brands : Rise Of The Designer Capitalists?
• Puzzles Boost Brand Recognition
• How To: Optimize Your Web Site
• Social-Networking Site Gives Retailer a Start
• Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants - Marketing Edition
• Fragrances For Youth Exploding?
• American Eagle: Try On Jeans, See A Free Movie
• How Do You Find Inspiration?
• When a Brand Taking from Subcultures Goes Wrong
• Interview With David Patton, Sony Europe On ‘Paint’
• Longtail: The Movie
• Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | The real thing. Or is it?
• Catch a concert live on your mobile phone…
• Is social media the next online wave?
• Finding Inspiration From Being Random

There’s a collection of short videos on YouTubewhere Perry Farrell interviews Shepard Fairey on street art, the concept of the medium as the message, Banksy and the origins of Andre The Giant.

Interview 2 : Banksy
Interview 3 : Toys

Look out for episodes 4 (Politics of Aesthetics) and 5 (Street Galleries).

Anxious to expose the latest trends in storefront windows, the PSFK team set foot roaming the streets of New York in search of the most innovative and creative storefront displays we could find. But to be honest, we were a little uninspired. That’s not to say the overall design and ambiance of stores was anything but first rate, there was just less of an emphasis placed on ornate window displays than we had expected to find… Maybe awesome displays are reserved exclusively for Christmas frenzy?  In any case, we did pick up on a few reoccurring themes for selling stuff in SOHO making use of bicycles. 

Bikes – For one reason or another, bike culture has peddled its way into mainstream with an assortment of cool-clinging companies spinning the tires.  It all began when laptop-toting commuters appropriated messenger bags.  Then came the fixed gear bike craze.  Now people are looking to stick it to the oil companies and hopping on their old school banana seats and beach cruisers.  The nostalgia these two wheelers evoke is evident in the number of custom cruisers and concept bikes propped up in storefront windows around the trendy shopping area of SOHO.

Both Stussy and Paul Frank had fancy custom designed beach cruisers parked in their stores.  Both bikes were custom painted and modified with the companies logo branded upon the top tube.  Despite the dramatic differences in styling, we wouldn’t be surprised to find out that the same company tricked both bikes.
 

Camper shoe store also had a custom designed wood-frame bicycle prominently displayed in their front window.  While their bike may have been around before the whole bike craze took off, they at least had the foresight to keep it around.   

Despite the heat Brooklyn Industries recently took from local bikers who accused the company of “selling out bike culture,” after displaying a tricked out “tall bike” in one of their windows several months ago, we found no evidence that stores are putting the brakes on biking.    

David Reiss is one of the last owner-founders left in British retail. Just as well, he tells the Telegraph, because he intends to triple the size of the chain that carries his name - and for that, he wants to be in total control:

“Owner-drivers have a vision but when you hand the reins down to other people, that drive and vision goes to other people. You have to have someone at the top who has energy, drive and spirit to make things happen,” he says.

“If you take your eye off the ball, things happen. You just have to look at the people who are successful and people who are not,” he adds, no doubt referencing Messrs. Hargreaves and Simon, who are seeing sales fall.

Telegraph | Money | Why Reiss is not for sale

As first reported in fashion.psfk last month American Apparel has released its very own newspaper and online radio station, Viva Mexico City. The newspaper is available from most American Apparel stores and features stories that tie in to the American Apparel brand. The current issue, Julio, contains articles on a homeless man winning a design competition, the truth about buttock surgery, and the Border Film Project.

The website contains details of the newspapers stories alongside a soundtrack to the month selected by DJ Tedward or Gay Beach fame. The whole package is well worth checking out.

Influx reports on Wasabi in London - a food chain that offers individually wrapped sushi pieces. Shoppers choose their mix of fish-food and then take their trays to the counter to pay.

Wasabi
Influx Review

Argentine PSFK contributor Hernando Gómez Salinas has launched a site called the Uncoolhunter.com - a look at the odd, strange and down-right intriguing. We don’t know if Hernando chose to launch this site after suffering our edit-amends to his Spanglish for too long - but he seems to know be concentrating on finding ‘no-trends’.

The site manifesto says:

Someone asked Dalí. What’s fashionable?
And he answered; “What is out of fashion”.
Taking into account this postulate a group of observers intend to
glimpse a vanguard in the anti global no trends.
Our goal is to observe everyday life and point out the uncool circuits,
the anti hegemonic culture.
From an objective and sharp look of the no trends, we want to make this
“off” culture known because it is left aside by what it seems to be
emergent.

Good luck, the fella!

Uncoolhunter.com

Thursday’s Wall Street Journal had an article that raised our brows. Friendster, the first of it’s kind social networking site (that everyone deserted for facebook and myspace) has been awarded  "a patent related to searching for people online based on their relationships."

The patent Friendster was granted last month covers "a method and apparatus for calculating, displaying and acting upon relationships in a social network" — in short, acting as a hub to connect Web users with common acquaintances.

Friendster’s founder Jonathan Abrams (who is now working on launching Socialzer) created the social networking tool that would lead to a new revolution and form the foundation of Web 2.0. Friendster is now refueling itself with money and talent to enter the market again. According to the article, Friendster also  recieved…

a "notice of allowance" from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office this week indicating that the company is likely to soon be granted a patent that covers technology that lets users upload their own content, like photos, onto a friend’s page.

The implications, as they unfold, will be interesting to observe. Article available for free today.

Target seems to be developing an obsession with European designers by now partnering with Sophie Albou from Paul and Joe to launch a pop-up store for a month on the corner of La Cienega.  Sophie best known in PSFK’s circle of friends as being the best mens shirt cutter and producer of girlie print tops in the business so this happening is definitely one to visit.

LA Times Coverage
Paul and Joe
Targets Website