http://www.psfk.com Your Go-To Source For New Ideas And Inspiration Wed, 15 Feb 2012 18:09:55 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.psfk.com/2009/02/psfk-talks-to-italian-design-firm-leftloft.html Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:02:36 +0000 As so much content migrates to the web, we can’t help but think that something must get lost in translation. Without being overly nostalgic for what some may claim is a dying medium, we still have love for the typefaces, a nice paper stock, the way images and copy are laid out on the page. But can this be replicated online? Will it ever? Recently, PSFK sat down with Francesco Cavalli of Leftloft, a noted Italian design firm known for having a foot solidly planted in both camps – physical and digital. The talk ranged from the importance of infographics to theRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/12/psfk-talks-to-abe-burmeister-co-founder-of-outlier-tailored-performance-clothing.html Mon, 08 Dec 2008 18:11:30 +0000 With cycling’s recent surge in popularity as a commuting alternative, it was only a matter of time before the clothing caught up. We spoke with Abe Burmeister, co-founder of Outlier, on the line’s inspiration, futuristic textiles and good ideas for public transport in 2009. Describe the inspiration behind the line. Was it born out of necessity? Absolutely. I just couldn’t find the clothes I needed when I wanted to ride my bike on the daily. I was destroying all my jeans, and I couldn’t ride to business meetings out of fear of getting caught in the rain or ripping upRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/09/psfk-talks-to-fabrics-cameron-leslie.html Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:29:57 +0000 We’ve always appreciated London’s fabric, not only for their innovative musical lineups and overall curation, but also for the rigorous attention to detail the staff puts into the entire experience. This past weekend, the team behind fabric launched a new, highly-anticipated London venue called matter. We spoke with Cameron Leslie, fabric’s Managing Director and a key architect of the new venue (along with owner Keith Reilly) to discuss the overall vision, creative collaboration with Pentagram, and their obsessive quest for perfect sound. Explain the rationale and vision behind matter. Our intention was to build a music venue – it mightRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/08/checking-back-the-clear-card-for-jetsetters.html Mon, 04 Aug 2008 19:14:21 +0000 Back in March 2007, we wrote about our initial experience with Clear, the security clearance program geared towards frequent travelers rolling out across several US airports. The premise is simple: users submit to a basic TSA background screening, and after paying the annual fee, they receive a card that allows them to use special “fast” lanes at participating airports. In the earliest stages, there were some growing pains related to the enrollment and vetting process, as well as the actual airport experience. In the past year or so, we’ve used the service several times and can report that things haveRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/04/ghostly-swim.html Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:47:10 +0000 Our friends at Coolhunting have an excellent interview with Ghostly‘s Sam Valenti, where he describes the label’s recent collaboration with Adult Swim: a 19-song compilation available for free download. And, in a playful example of brand synergy, a few Ghostly mascots — BoyCatBird — make their animated debut on Adult Swim. Following is an excerpt of the interview, available in its entirety here: CH: As an indie label owner, you’ve obviously taken some unique steps towards enhancing your brand. Ghostly is one of the only companies taking a lifestyle approach to the music label. What guides your choices in brandRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/04/trimming-the-fat-from-inflight-services-and-utensils.html Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:47:40 +0000 Service cuts on domestic U.S. airlines are all too familiar. In 2005, US Airways cut pretzel packets to the tune of $1 million in annual savings, and American Airlines cut $30 million out of their costs by eliminating free food in economy. Many others followed suit. It’s gotten so bad that Continental actually bases an entire advertising campaign about how they actually feed customers and haven’t taken away pillows. Now, as the cost of jet fuel has skyrocketed approximately 60-70 percent in the past year, BusinessWeek reports that some airlines are trying to combat the load on each flight. ThisRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/03/pitchfork-to-launch-online-tv.html Tue, 04 Mar 2008 22:03:52 +0000 Today, online music hub Pitchfork Media announced the upcoming launch of their new music-oriented online TV channel, Pitchfork.tv, set to go live on April 7.  Pitchfork has already established itself as a respected source for independent music news, reporting and commentary across several genres, and now they’re branching out with some compelling video content — on their terms. As stated by Pitchfork: As a visual extension of the music coverage Pitchfork has provided for more than a decade, and a means of updating and advancing the music television format, the online channel will bring you closer to the artists youRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/02/bassline-house-a-reaction-to-overly-masculine-grime-and-dubstep.html Fri, 01 Feb 2008 17:23:33 +0000 We’ve noticed a lot of chatter in the clued-in dance music community about the continued rise of UK bassline house. In essence, the sound is not unlike late 90′s two-step, with 4/4 beats, poppy, sped-up vocals and copious amounts of wobbly digital bass. Just as a lot of female dancers fled the late 90′s drum and bass scene when it got self indulgent, excessively dark and testosterone-addled, some are now calling the pop side of the bassline sound a reaction to the recent, sometimes overly masculine dub-step and grime scenes. English critic Simon Reynolds, author of Generation Ecstasy, sums itRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/01/pop-up-culture.html Wed, 30 Jan 2008 19:33:11 +0000 Last weekend’s Financial Times examined the global trend of temporary, pop-up spaces for galleries and retailers. The writer credits the first example to Rei Kawakubo of fashion label Comme des Garçons: …she set up a temporary retail outlet in a disused, dilapidated building in an unlikely neighbourhood of Berlin. The space was cleaned up – just enough – and equipped with rails of clothes, some design objects and a cash register. It was an instant success. Customers who found it felt they were in on something edgy, secret and slightly illicit: something that was hardly a business at all. OtherRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/01/copyright-and-creativity.html Mon, 07 Jan 2008 23:17:46 +0000 It often takes years for the academic world to catch up to the breakneck pace of technology. But a new study from Center and American University’s Washington College of Law recently examined the issue of copyright and creativity and came to some interesting – and surely controversial – conclusions. The report, entitled “Recut, Reframe, Recycle: Quoting Copyrighted Material in User-Generated Video,” finds: …many uses of copyrighted material in today’s online videos are eligible for fair use consideration. The study points to a wide variety of practices—satire, parody, negative and positive commentary, discussion-triggers, illustration, diaries, archiving and of course, pastiche orRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2007/12/psfk-in-copenhagen.html Fri, 07 Dec 2007 17:44:26 +0000 We’re swinging through Copenhagen late next week, and staying through the weekend. Know of anything great going  on? Fancy a coffee? Email colin *at* psfk.com ]]> http://www.psfk.com/2007/11/ambient-social-activity.html Thu, 15 Nov 2007 17:24:07 +0000 Twitter, Facebook’s status updates and newsfeeds, Tumblr, and a variety of other sites are creating a soft, ambient haze of social activity akin to leaving the television on in the background. Though sometimes pithy, pointless or irreverent, these updates and short dispatches fill in the gaps about what you know about your friends, colleagues, and acquaintances. In fact, you get to know them in a different way. This, combined with the voyeuristic effect of it all, has undoubtedly created a new social dynamic. How will people’s “passive activity” be turned into valuable data? Who’s doing it?]]> http://www.psfk.com/2007/11/the-rise-of-the-full-ad-supported-content-model.html Mon, 12 Nov 2007 16:34:45 +0000 Pali Research analyst Richard Greenfield cut his rating on the Warner Music stock to Sell from Neutral. His reasoning? “No matter how many people the RIAA sues, no matter how many times music executives point to the growth of digital music, we believe an increasing majority of worldwide consumers simply view recorded music as free,” he asserted in a research report Thursday morning. “A new model for music consumption must emerge and that model most likely involves DRM-free downloadable music at no cost to consumers, fully supported by advertising.” But as Greenfield notes, “the music industry is not ready toRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2007/10/curtis-hougland-on-advertising-and-social-networks.html Thu, 25 Oct 2007 21:40:21 +0000 Following the announcement of Microsoft’s investment in Facebook, Attention PR founder Curtis Hougland shared some thoughts with PSFK about what advertisers must do to succeed on social networks: Advertising can certainly be profitable in social networks. After all, the holy grail of advertising is micro targeting, and social networks are chock full of people publishing their personal information. You can now even export your friend’s data to a .CSV file. However, the golden eggs will most likely kill the goose in the end. This is what is happening on MySpace. The effectiveness of advertising and publicity overall is diminishing, becauseRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2007/10/john-geraci-talks-to-psfk.html Thu, 25 Oct 2007 17:51:25 +0000 Outside.in is a company focused on aggregating information that is relevant to place. So, for example, if you live in Nolita in New York or Primrose Hill in London, you can find restaurant reviews, community board decisions, events, news, and all sorts of information that is targeted or “geo-tagged” exactly to your specific neighborhood. It is part of the broader trend of location-based information, allowing people to access content that is relevant to where they are at any given moment. PSFK recently spoke to John Geraci, co-founder of Outside.in, on the company’s business model, the future of local advertising, theirRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2007/10/taking-stock-xlr8r-goes-grn.html Thu, 11 Oct 2007 20:28:11 +0000 Over its fourteen-year history, XLR8R magazine has been documenting underground electronic music, fashion, culture, and design. The approach to editorial, in their words, is to "break new artists and challenge cultural paradigms." The recent Paris issue is a beautifully curated guide to all things in emerging culture in the city, and is also the first issue they've produced to use 100% recycled paper stock -- one of the few publications in the world to use this level...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2007/09/online-advertising-surges-ahead.html Tue, 25 Sep 2007 18:49:00 +0000 In today’s FT, Aline van Duyn reports that online ad spending will be immune to economic downturn, and may even benefit: Indeed, pressure on companies to cut costs if the economy softens could even hasten the switch in spending from traditional media to more targeted and measurable digital forms. “…If marketing budgets shrink, and they are often the first to be cut in a downturn, digital will still continue to grow,” said Eric Bader, managing director of digital at MediaVest. “The focus will be on advertising that can be measured for effectiveness, and online will gain share relative to television,Read more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2007/09/more-on-iphone-roaming.html Tue, 11 Sep 2007 15:53:36 +0000 Seems like Piers isn’t the only one with exorbitant charges related to international roaming with the iPhone. The IHT reports: When Neil Dingman recently went on a vacation to Europe, he took his iPhone with him, with no intention of using it much. In fact, for the 14 days he was there, he used it only a handful of times and expected to see just a small increase in his next bill for roaming charges. Instead, he was charged $852.31. As it turned out, the cellphone carried by Dingman, a mortgage consultant in Minneapolis, made calls on a European dataRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2007/09/radiohead-circumvents.html Sun, 09 Sep 2007 21:07:22 +0000 We’ve been wondering which major act will circumvent the record labels completely, and distribute their album with no middleman whatsoever. Recently we’ve seen Prince give his new record away for the price of a Sunday newspaper, and now it appears that Radiohead have a new approach to release their newest album, In Rainbows. No word yet if a secondary label/distribution deal is forthcoming, but the kickoff approach is quite interesting: According to Pitchfork, fans can download the album, or pre-order a discbox containing CD and heavyweight vinyl versions of the record, an additional enhanced CD, along with lyric booklets andRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2007/08/behind-the-monocle.html Fri, 24 Aug 2007 18:13:21 +0000 One of the intriguing things about Tyler Brule’s latest endeavor, Monocle, was the distinct lack of a major PR/marketing push around the world — especially stateside. In a recent interview with the New York Observer’s Michael Calderone, Mr. Brule sheds some light on his hope for organic growth, his relationship with Norm Pearlstine, and highlights the pitfalls of overhype and overexposure. Despite a tumultuous relationship with Brule during his tenture at Time Inc, Pearlstine has some laudatory words for the magazine: “Not unlike The New Yorker, Monocle has a capacity to surprise, with serious journalism,” Mr. Pearlstine said. “I thinkRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2007/08/planning-for-good.html Thu, 23 Aug 2007 20:59:36 +0000 Ed Cotton from BSSP and Influx Insights recently tipped us off on Planning for Good, an interesting initiative that seeks to enlist planners to help non-profits, charities and other organizations. He describes the initiative further: Planning for Good is an organization made up of marketing communication strategists and their friends who’ve come together to lend their skills to support nonprofits…Here you’ll find some of the smartest thinkers in the business, people who intimately understand how to uncover insight, build brands and create powerful stories around them. The stated mission is to help organizations create compelling stories that will attract others.Read more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2007/08/guardian-eyes-us-push.html Wed, 08 Aug 2007 19:15:17 +0000 Rupert Murdoch’s victory in securing the Wall Street Journal has left the Financial Times scrambling to form alliances to compete with the overwhelming synergies that News Corporation’s global reach will provide. Meanwhile a lesser-known entity, the UK’s Guardian, is making some strategic decisions of its own: eyeing a US push in an apparent attempt to capitalize on current perceptions of corporate influence in the news media. In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Carolyn McCall, chief executive of the Guardian Media Group, shared some telling insights about the company’s strategy: “We are trying to be a 24/7 global newsRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2007/08/treehugger-acquired.html Wed, 01 Aug 2007 16:45:47 +0000 The New York Post’s Peter Lauria reports that Discovery is acquiring Treehugger for approximately $10 million dollars: Discovery Communications has scooped up a companion Web site to its upcoming Planet Green cable network, agreeing to buy Treehugger.com for about $10 million, The Post has learned. The deal, expected to be announced today, marks the first acquisition for Discovery under new CEO David Zaslav and aims to build on the cultural movement toward environmentally friendly personal and business practices. Not unlike the combination of Petfinder.com and Animal Planet, Treehugger.com, which was founded in 2004 and attracts 1.4 million unique monthly visitors,Read more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2007/07/the-long-tail-goes-mobile.html Tue, 31 Jul 2007 15:02:07 +0000 Downloading music to cellphones is not a new phenomenon, but the New York Times today reports on EMusic’s recent deal to bring its 2.7 million independent songs from its catalogue to AT&T customers: Several services, including those run by Sprint and Verizon, let people buy songs directly over the air. But they focus on songs by mainstream performers like Prince, who has a deal with Verizon. EMusic sells music only from independent labels, a category that these days includes the new album from Paul McCartney as well as obscure punk bands. The arrangement with AT&T Mobile Music will make thoseRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2007/07/global-cities.html Mon, 30 Jul 2007 19:27:25 +0000 Global Cities is a major exhibition currently taking place at the Tate Modern in London.  According to the museum, “the exhibit looks at the changing faces of ten dynamic international cities: Cairo, Istanbul, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Mumbai, São Paulo, Shanghai and Tokyo and examines each of them through five thematic lenses – speed, size, density, diversity and form.” The exhibit uses films, videos, photography, and large-scale installations “to offer subjective and intimate interpretations of urban conditions in all ten cities.”  They have also created a surprisingly enjoyable and extensive website with all of the information neatly brokenRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2007/07/rip-asap.html Mon, 30 Jul 2007 17:52:05 +0000 Seth Sutel reports on the Associated Press shuttering their multimedia service, ASAP, which was originally aimed at a younger, web savvy media audience: Originally conceived as a premium service to help newspapers reach the 18-to-34 age group, asap had evolved into a broader product aimed at readers of all ages. In addition to news stories, asap produced videos, podcasts and multimedia packages. In her note, Carroll called the service a “terrific journalism success.” She cited the fact that asap had won an EPpy award — a prize administered by the industry magazines Editor & Publisher and Mediaweek — for bestRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2007/07/keep-calm.html Mon, 30 Jul 2007 16:53:55 +0000 PSFK reader Mark Coop recently tipped us off on his recent project. We love the t-shirts and posters, emblazoned with a lost British World War II slogan, “Keep Calm and Carry On.” Read about the history here, and pick one up if you feel so inclined. Keep Calm And Carry On]]> http://www.psfk.com/2007/07/with-this-ring-i-thee-wed.html Mon, 30 Jul 2007 15:57:35 +0000 Sometimes a brand’s efforts to underwrite culture can come off as forced and unnatural, not unlike a 40-something person trying to slip in street slang to their everyday vocabulary. However, last week PSFK witnessed a strong example of how, with the right approach, emerging culture and an established brand can have a symbiotic relationship. We were invited to experimental musician Bora Yoon’s performance at the Allen Room performance space in New York’s Time Warner Center. The event was sponsored by Samsung and no expense or detail was spared. The performance auditorium was the perfect setting, with the treetops of CentralRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2007/07/robert-polet-on-managing-creative-minds.html Wed, 18 Jul 2007 14:30:03 +0000 In the recent Fortune magazine, Gucci Group CEO Robert Polet shares his ideas for tips for managing fashion brands, where art and commerce collide: MAKE THE BRAND, NOT THE TALENT, THE STAR. In the late 1990s, Gucci’s lead designer, Tom Ford, engineered a legendary turnaround of the label–and became an A-list celebrity in the process. But now Polet says it’s crucial to promote the product, not the personality behind it, since the brand can outlive a designer or a manager. So he picks creative directors with strong opinions but with a clear focus on making great goods. “The designer worksRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2007/07/what-price-reputation.html Tue, 17 Jul 2007 22:25:48 +0000 BusinessWeek has a must-read article detailing the value of brand, and most importantly, how to quantify it: …CW’s Low and Cohen have spent more than a decade developing ways to measure intangible corporate assets, especially reputation factors, that can affect the bottom line. “There are plenty of data measuring the visibility and credibility of a company,” says Low. “But there have been no data showing how communications adds value to a company.” Says corporate communications professor Paul A. Argenti of Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, also a CCW partner: “If we can get this right, we have found the holyRead more...]]>