diamonds falling from grace.

three years ago i was quite in tune with my inner bookworm judging from a little note i wrote about admiration. nevertheless, being the one-click addict that i am, my amazon shipments have lately included a couple of memoirs – literature i knew to steer clear of before.

judging from how i feel right now, i probably should have kept on avoiding them.

since i never really discuss books here, this may seem an odd way to start – although i am not promising any continuance – but here goes nothing.

i adore beth ditto. i love the gossip. one of my most memorable starstruck moments was when i met her, post-show and after complimenting her singing she gave me the warmest, squishiest hug in the world.

it might have been the single incident that promoted a feeling that i already somehow was connected to her, that despite my overall hesitation to indulge in autobiographical storytelling, that regardless of my understanding of the perilous nature of stories describing subjective facts, that now, here, somehow it would be different.

her memoir, coal to diamonds, started as a light read that i trudged through. the unfastidious language annoyed me throughout, but it was really the structure – or lack of – that became increasingly irritating towards the end. it would be kind to describe the narrative as stream-of-consciousness or circular. truthfully, it was just a messy turmoil with no shape and time-leaps that were nothing short of confusing.

i will try to avoid the potholes of creating a mental image of beth as simple, actually i refuse to believe it, but the memoir's insights offer very little substance with heights such as – and excuse me for paraphrasing – not all people who look like punks embrace the punk mentality or queer people do not all share the same political agenda. the more interesting, complex personal-is-political issues – riot grrl, fat-positive thinking – were merely touched upon and not explained to the uneducated reader.

perhaps a good editor could have pulled this one up from its sad state that was, quite honestly, a waste of paper and time. far better queer coming-of-age stories come from jeannette winterson and, for example, ivan e. coyote – but they happily call them semi-autobiographical.

you can imagine the dread i felt yesterday afternoon when i picked up grace coddington's memoir grace. compared to the ditto version, her's is at least double the length – comparable with their respective ages – and i was afraid i would not finish it. my time is more precious than that. this morning over my cup of coffee, i turned the last page.

it was clear from page one that this was an eloquently written and well-edited story. nevertheless, after a few more pages, i already knew why my literature of choice stays on the fiction side of things: made-up stories are so much more real and insightful than actual life lived and described...

grace was a collection of entertaining dinner party anecdotes suitable for a night with acquaintances; the stories revealed only the surface of their protagonist although providing insight into the world of fashion  editing. the amount of dispensable namedropping at times felt rather ridiculous, but otherwise the accounts of adventures with famous household names provided a peek into a life normally hidden from mere mortals.

perhaps i will stick to fiction from now on then.

disruptive pattern material.

the approaching summer has brought the joys of night walks and bike rides through the city. i've strolled and rolled the streets, breathing in the smells and feeling the wind caress my bones with sometimes a stronger chill factor than june would imply.

i've got my hair wet and fallen short when trying to make it pedaling up the hill.

i've walked with a smile on my face with solid – and not-so-solid – ankles.

and i have worn a trusted set of boring old clothes and haphazardly realized my hair has grown. i have also sported an increasing amount of camouflage – i guess a need to blend into my surroundings and disrupt my edges feels more appropriate and sheltering than before.

at some opening at design forum finland with silver wearing old zara trf jacket. (photo timo idänheimo)

good old – and i mean from 2004 – vans slip ons in a limited edition stitched camo and natural rubber.

a camofleur in spring bloom.

chief cannot let go of the feather toupee and warrior duck gone insane.

it was flow. it was festival. and i was dj'ing prime time on saturday night with stella.

because it was diesel garage and style was expected, we did our best. hence, may i present: the duck hat – my only purchase from a style blogger trip to stockholm.

moreover, since we're ladies and ladies to lady things, we looked our best.

wearing rick owens top and martin margiela mm6 necklace. and a duck.

always.

the time was perfect for partying, from 8 to 10 pm, but lykke li was booked simultaneously. fortunately for us, she suffered from stomach cramps (or so we heard) and cancelled.

the party was off the hook...

this is what i call a pleasant view from the dj booth.

if you were there, i hope you enjoyed it. we did. and will do again. and again. and again.

(did i say again?)

quack.

all photos by mikko rasila.

transient seclusion.

creeping loneliness in the middle of a bustling city. the need to reach out to someone familiar. to smile about the little things that can fit into 160 characters – or usually less.

knowing that in this bubble i just created for myself is a longing for a little beep and a response "i am there with you." no vocalization required, no need to involve others around.

how genius technology can be.

these photos of random people on the street texting by joseph o. holmes highlight how the simple act of typing a short message can create a small space of intimacy. although terms like 'intimacy' often build up expectations, the unpretentiousness of holmes' pictures reveals that expressions of proximity rarely need dramatic measures.

be the message itself mundane, hostile or an expression of love, the result is a connecting capsule between people muddling everything else around.

dead drops.

it must have been about a decade ago when i was hanging out at one of my favorite bars in turku and got an idea: there were cigar boxes from all over the world decorating the shelves and i had been opening and peeking into them ever since i started frequenting the place. that night i decided to pick a small post-it from my calendar and scribbled a brief message on it saying

hello, like-minded being! please, leave me a note.

and dropped it inside one of the boxes.

i had started a dead drop without knowing the term. it comes from good old espionage jargon: a secret place to exchange information between agents without the need to meet in person.

for years i collected little messages from my box; i think there were a few dozen in total. several were from people who knew me and had seen me peeking into my precious wooden chest in the hopes of finding a new note, but many were from strangers who shared my curious nature.

most were brief, perhaps merely a "hello!", but some could be described as short letters. there was a tingling sensation each time i opened my little letterbox and every single addition felt like a revolution.

my note is still there as far as i know.

photo from deaddrops.com

a digital alternative to my little experiment is the project of aram bartholl. he has left empty usb-drives around the urban landscape for people to use for file-sharing.

his manifesto describes a publicly accessible, passively powered hub for any kind of information anyone might want to share with others and appears critical of information clouds with limited accessibility. although for someone more-marginally-than-nyc located his perception of virtual shareability as limited rather than sharing at a random physical location might seem rather distorted, i find plenty of appeal here.

popping and peeking from walls anywhere one could imagine, the excitement of finding a usable file somewhere unexpected seems like something i could get excited about.

and let's not start with the viruses, ok? i know i know, it's dangerous and stuff and everything and undoubtedly someone is going to vandalize these little ports, but let's pretend like we can trust each other for once, please.



to find out more and to install your own, go to the site.

spam on my walls.

i betcha thought that "hey, that's an appetizing way to emerge from silence...", but fear not, none of those processed meat related products coming your way.

instead i wanted to introduce a way all of that mailbox filling nonsense can be put to creative use with results that could be called – ta dah! – beautiful. spamghetto is a wallpaper with computer generated patterns where the messages that fill your email are added into the fluid and organic forms. the result is stunningly pretty and comforting and, additionally, worthy of some laughs up close.

customizable and available online.

font fanatic.

as far as i'm concerned it is impossible to be interested in graphic and web design without some rather pronounced opinions about fonts and their usage. i lack all formal training, which in the world of web and graphics does not coincide with unprofessionalism since many established designers are self-educated, but i claim to be no such thing – just an avid follower.

it must come down to being a bookworm and an aesthete, but i have always given an immense importance to the form the words i ingest come in. obviously the cover design of a book is essential and i have spent several moments considering whether it is plausible to buy the same book wrapped in different covers just because they're all so incredibly beautiful. fyi, my answer so far has been no. moreover, since my early years the usage of serif and sans serif and their myriad forms have become familiar.

being an outsider of a kind – as in not taking active part in the particularities of design myself – i have not acquired many of the common pet peeves graphic designers tend to hold. but my work, which focuses on usability and functional issues, is design-oriented enough to provide me the sort of insider background to find sites like clients from hell and comic sans criminal amusing. needless to say, a throw-up of fonts in a design raises the hair on my body.

regardless of the pukey possibility offered in the project, i was thrilled to find one of my favorite games and one unsurpassed pastime dedicated to the beauty of words upgraded. andrew capener has taken good old scrabble and remade the base product classy in addition to adding a customizability option to it.

his vision is to have it produced and sold via the scrabble website where you could order the font you like best or a preselected assortment of fonts – in case you're not dismayed by the possibility of receiving comic sans in your set.

which font would you prefer?

witty luxe.

viral visibility has caught on brands that formerly relied on taking over glossies with their multipage campaigns. the degree of airbrushing has since only exceeded what anyone believed possible and the pouts still adorn the pages, but the whimsical humor a clip of video can portray has appeared in places i hardly suspected.

first there was hermès with their successful fingerskate flick.



and now chanel is showing a sense of humor about their beauty line.


Animating Chanel on Nowness.com.

reputable and respectable fashion houses marketing via the power of smile is definitely something new, and i, for one, do not mind a little chuckle associated with the buck aimed at buying prestige.

what do you think: can high fashion take itself lightly without losing credibility?

let it pop.

ok, i know that everyone hates pop-up windows. but you might just want to enable yours for this here, a clever little nibble of human communication in a refreshing visual and technical creation.

just let the window take its course...

the smartest thing she ever said.

yet another exciting project online, the ann taylor funded platform curated by alexis hyde: the smartest thing she ever said exhibits the talents of four pairs comprised of a writer and an artist.

each pair will post twice a day for three weeks, and move over for the next couple. i am particularly drawn to the website because it is a welcome addition to this age where more and more visual stimuli is offered without text – and i hardly find endless pictorial flows gratifying.

the first pair consists of photographs by laura taylor and short prose by tess lynch, and so far the text adds and twists the photos – by themselves so far rather compelling, for sure – to reveal perspectives otherwise lost.

pic+text from the smartest thing she ever said and tweaked by me.

go enjoy!

makia online.

this is the way finnish traditional imagery should be exploited. greatness!



and the clothes are more than ok, too. go shop!

mergers.

during the last decade, the eventual downfall and probable disappearance of print magazines has been on the lips of media enthusiasts, and for many of us who design and work with user interfaces with their myriad of possibilities, the problems online newspapers and magazines suffer from are more than apparent and acute.

there were brief (although probably still continuing somewhere, i suppose) discussions whether blogs posed a threat to professional journalism, but as with most oppositions between pros and amateurs, there seems to exist at least some kind of a concordance about their valuable and mutually beneficial coexistence. the most obvious example of this is the inclusion of blogs written by amateurs in official newspaper and magazine sites.

bloggers also took making money to their own hands rather unexpectedly: at first there were blogshops that were an inexpensive way to create a small business on a free blog platform – a kind of a self-built catalogue online with varying methods for making purchases, but usually no additional content. by no means a disappearing breed, there are several still around the blogosphere.

moreover, many bloggers started to host a secondary site where they sell their own handiwork or items they no longer need. they're similar to the blogshops mentioned above, but these sites are indistinguishably linked to blogs by design or, if hosted by other services, such as etsy, carry the signature elements of the original blog. in fact, they resemble brand sites that combine designer/product/brand information and a separate store, and in this case the brand bloggers rely on is obviously their blogger persona.

blogshops as byproducts of otherwise non-commercial blogs are one of the creations of the merging of internet applications that take a direction that was not expected. nonetheless, lately i have noted an emerging trend that seems to be coming to meet blogger entrepreneurs halfway visually, but acts from a different angle altogether.

many conventional webstores have changed their layout to resemble blogs, such as the newly launched us site of finnish design shop. their commercial purpose is recognizable on the front page but in order to land on a page that creates a visually familiar webshop experience, you'll need to feel inspired to do some clicking. there is brief additional content, but the store is still more or less only a place to buy interesting items and learn only what is necessary to make the purchase.

nevertheless, there are further mergers that interest me now.

that is, some have gone as far as concentrating on content creation to the extent of almost hiding the shop aspect of their webstore. one of the latter example is hanna sarén's new website which differs very much from a traditional designer site+store concept, but rather suggests a digital magazine with multiple contributors or a more professionally created lifestyle blog. the site lists interesting products that are not associated with sarén herself, events that might appeal to her followers and occasionally a pop-up of a product listing that can be bought from the (still very unfinished) webstore.

the kinds like this suggest a shift in creating online content that relies on providing a fuller experience in lieu of taking the chances of ending up linked rather randomly to other sites that gather a regular following. point being, why not be the site your customers want to follow for interesting news, not only the site that's being linked to where they regularly hang out, right?

sure, it might not be for everyone. it is more time-consuming to gather and post newsworthy substance from various places and several angles: anyone who blogs knows that producing content is an effort whether we're talking pictures or text. needless to say, having others do it for you is expensive.

nevertheless, it may prove to be a lucrative venture business-wise, because keeping people at your site seems to be one of the key elements in closing a sale online. when you appeal to your potential customers at times when they do not even consider buying or browsing what's new, the chances of creating whims are greater.

what do you think? do you look for certain certain telltale signs when you land on an online store site? could you consider stores that visually resemble stores only vaguely reliable or not?

edit 22 sept: finnish design shop launched their new, bloggy look today in finland, as well.

forbidden fruit.

i actually bursted out laughing when i saw these.

disclaimer: my blog did not turn into a virtual cutting board showcase, it is merely by chance that clever wooden chopping slabs appear in my posts two days in a row...

carved out of apple tree (buahaha!) to the shape of a macbook, complete with the groove and the lip just like on yer beloved closed laptop, a half-etch of the apple logo on top – surely to avoid legal consequences – and – whopee! – comes in all three sizes, this is the perfect gift for an appletheist.

oh, yes it is.



available from designspray.

bros and mos.

i never thought i'd actually ever write this, but here goes nothing:

where are the hos? i want hos!

just talking about these stickers that warm the heart of an appletheist more than a customized bible cover ever could appeal to the devout christian. just cannot choose between these three amazing – and hilariously suitable – alternatives:

pics from stick with me, baby! more options (and mos) on the website. click to see a clearer image, blogger likes to smudge things...

and i haven't even gotten to the mos section, yet...

at 8€ a piece i could order a couple, but since they are proper stickers and non-reusable, i'd love to get it right the first time. any suggestions? which one would you go for?

creative correspondence.

although i claimed that using online video is still underused in marketing just in my last post, it in no way diminishes the fact that it is an established media in arts projects. one of the most interesting and vast of video collaborations of late has been the creators project, a website built in partnership with intel and vice where creative minds of different fields are interviewed and given a space for their video projects.

there are so many films, most of them between four and ten minutes long, that it takes a full day to go through them. nevertheless, i do recommend taking the time for watching and listening to both old favorites and new names.

one that struck me especially was the interview with cassette playa, i.e. carri mundane, whose design aesthetic appeals to me greatly – although not as something i'd wear but as a visual whole. (i tossed the video from this post because the player auto-launched. thus, go here to watch it.)

during watching i realized why: she is also deeply influenced by digital glitches in design which i have found fascinating for years.

by 'glitches' i refer to collapsed sites, faulty codes that influence layouts and platform errors that distort css. whether a small pixelated mess in a corner or a full screen of colorful chaos, i think digital problems sometimes create the most beautiful, unintended patterns that are incredibly reflective of our time.

a great book of the topic is this where images from television scrambles and atm-pixelaches are included as parts of digital imperfection.

i recommend going through the list of creators and enjoying what they have to say. perhaps you'll find unexpected similarities like i did.

move me.

for us working within digital media, it's been ever so subtly an underlying insinuation in the world of marketing that online video is taking over slowly but surely what print is failing to do. although digital newspapers and journals are still trying to find a form that was most efficient and usable, the addition of film clips seems an inevitable and natural part of the future of online journalism and ads.

i am not talking about taking television programs or commercials online, but actually rethinking online media advertising via moving images. flash is gasping its last breaths but movement itself – that so infatuated us with the appearance of flash code as an addition to basic html – is far from over.

video banners and blog posts are already a reality, but still rather rare. the use of video in marketing is terribly underused, but with the already existing entanglement of music and fashion, videos that serve the primary and explicit marketing purposes of fashion houses seem to be taking the first leap.

these works play with the borderlines of television adverts, movie trailers and music videos, but are without exception (as far as i have noted) dubbed 'short films' rather than advertisements. moreover, they are intended for online use, for virtual communities and many seem shot as part of regular advertising campaigns.

it's clear that moving images provide an idea of clothing and lifestyle that is more nuanced than a print campaign, which nevertheless, at best, can be incredibly strong as still images feed the imagination differently. with the addition of sound these clips suggest a space of immersion, just like movies.

here's one from last summer:

director zoé cassavetes for louis vuitton:


moreover, here are two great examples of this fall:

craig mcdean for alexander wang.


ruth hogben for gareth pugh:


what do you think: do you click on videos or skip them?

puppet master.

here's one cool take on a music video. the swedish band called fulkultur created an interactive for their song "ugly dance" where you can move the dancer by clicking on moves... you can also create your own dancer if the premade ones seem too boring.

the song ain't bad either – in either swedish (via their myspace page linked above) or in english (via link below)

go watch and play the puppet master here.

wait for me.

the increasing popularity of crowdsourcing – term coined by jeff howe in wired in 2006 – follows the tremendous force of DIT; do-it-together. it essentially means combining an open call for amateur (or not so amateur) efforts to reach a common goal whether a movie, a party or, as i've heard as the latest, an opera.

the basis of crowdsourcing is in the expansion of professional or semi-pro tools in the hands of amateurs because of their reasonable price and the growing number of freeware. anyone with a computer and a set of software can become a graphic artist, make movies, produce music, etc. as long as the talent and willingness to develop one's skills is there. it is a revolution of a sort, but not entirely unproblematic.

while the cynics claim that crowdsourcing is only a way to employ amateurs instead of trained professionals for work that is of lower but doable quality, those in favor celebrate the possibility of the web-based collaboration to have your talent known and utilized without diplomas or enviable agency jobs. taking part in a collaboration is a more efficient cv of your talent than linkedin or a personal website could ever be.

nonetheless, the downside is that the cynics have a point: it is a slippery slope down the collaboration slide towards exploiting talented people. why pay anyone for a great job if you can get similar quality for free? the phenomenon is more than apparent in interning (especially in the usa) that is a despicable field of abuse of graduate workforce – especially in fields of art, design and marketing. graduates must land internships in order to find a job – to gain practical knowledge of their field – but are increasingly finding it impossible to find start level jobs because agencies use interns for everything imaginable. interns are a free workforce, so why bother actually paying anyone...

the spirit of crowdsourcing echoes elitism, the idea that people can and are willing to work for free or for a minuscule compensation. the underlying assumption is that amateurs, the lovers of their chosen hobbies, are busybees who have a steady income supporting them while they take part in collaborations they feel a calling for. at another level there is a promise of future fame and possible work – as is with interning – which may or may not actualize. the problem is that the more eager to collaborate we become, the less likely it is that those promises will be bought and paid for.

i do, nevertheless, want to believe that crowdsourcing projects are not a way to create an underclass of creatives who depend on other means of making a living – already a familiar status quo for artists. nor do i want to believe the undercurrent that screams for the kinds of feminist critique towards describing some work as "a calling" and, thus, not requiring decent pay.

with results as great as these, i am more than happy to enjoy crowdsourcing projects. moby's competition for a video for his single "wait for me" produced hundreds of entries. what strikes me as odd is that the winner below by nimrod shapira – a cute, naive little flick – is posted on moby's site without any info on the maker or even a link.



another entry by jessica dimmock and mark jackson that moves at a level so fundamental it is impossible to ignore the human suffering. point being: these are great videos that moby did not pay a dime for...



i'm just not fully sold on the idea... what do you think?

list for the beginning of summer.

feelin' positive and everything. things that make me happy at the moment:

1. switching my facebook to pirate english. "yar scurvey self be aprreciat'in this."
2. foursquare and getting my friends excited about it. despite the many obvious bugs in it, it works as a miracle tool for meeting up with friends. if they remember to check in to places, that is...
3. my new shoes from zara. i've worn them everywhere, including the monki/weekday opening party you might have read about everywhere else. i had the chance to see everything an hour earlier at the press event, but have yet to return to the store for shopping. needless to say, i had fun, had a few drinks and chatted with friends. a great party, so thank you everyone involved.


4. nettle soup i made from freshly picked local superfood from the garden cottage. omnomnom.


5. the new solo single from bloc party frontman kele, "tenderoni". the song combines kele's hauntingly ripping voice with some club friendly twitching. i can feel this filling dark dance floors very very late in the hot night.



what makes you happy at the moment?

d fortify.

i have a habit of whining about my work to friends. it's not a tendency i am particularly happy or proud of since i am one of those fortunate people who really likes their job, challenges and all. as with most people, i presume, my complaints are just an outlet for stress, but i could try to locate more productive methods for letting out my vexation.

blogger lunchin'n'workin': 1. cold avocado soup and coffee from sis.deli and a good, freshly out-of-the-mailbox read. 2. good old cherry vans slipons. 3. sheer tee from cos, denim shorts from current/elliott. 4. park office essentials: macbook pro, iphone case by louis vuitton, vivienne westwood for sigg water bottle, sandwich and coffee from sis.deli, reflecting blogger wearing tee from zara men and denim shorts by current/elliot.

therefore, i want to remind myself and share one of the incredibly great things about my job: if i have no f2f meetings arranged, i can work whenever and wherever i want. digital media means i need my laptop and internet and i am good to go anywhere. sure, my clients call and i must be available, but my physical location is not important. although i am enthusiastic about having an office to go to, on days like these, the lure of sunshine is irresistible. thus, i have taken a couple of hours each of these past hot days to enjoy a long, working lunch at the park with my dog.

for her, these hours are precious since the cold months deprive her of exercise. moreover, the park provides endless sense data she greedily sniffs from the air and the ground – a blind as a bat dog has a limited set of entertainment. for me, the sun soothes my skin and i can just about feel the tingle of vitamin d production and you really cannot beat the view of blooming flowers and green grass.

the wildlife: 1. jorma nibbling a stick she found with her 7 remaining teeth. 2. a ladybug visit. 3. jorma claiming the weekday bag. 4. flowers next to my portable office. 5. jorma sniffing the news.

have you been able to enjoy the sun?