Baffling Smoke Signals
We love our matches. They are wonderful things. They may only be small and cheap but they are kernels of reference that contain much meaning. Herein we will examine two reasons why they are wonderful. It can be something of a shame to dissect design objects into a pile of metaphors and signifiers, especially a book of matches, but in light of the previous four sentences we should go on. The first thing that makes the matches wonderful is that they are matches. You use matches to light cigarettes. Smoking cigarettes is bad for you. It is a vice. Vices are eternally alluring and attractive. They speak of an attitude that sits outside the parameters of expected behaviour. Expected behaviour is dull and monotonous. So the matches are devious. They are the medals of late night honour.
Secondly, in keeping with our wider agency identity, the matches have an obscure song title printed on their cover, ‘Baffling Smoke Signals’. The song was recorded by Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry. The songs lyrics examine the arcane methods used to signal the election of a new pope. When white smoke rises from the chimney of the sistine chapel it signals that the papal conclave has reached a decision on the new pope, in turn, black smoke shows the conclave is still undecided. The election of Pope John Paul II in 1978 was shrouded in mystery as the white smoke that initially billowed from the sistine chapel, signalling his election, gradually turned black. Lee Perry was troubled by this discrepancy and questioned the legitimacy of Pope John Paul II through the medium of his lightly toasted dub classic, Baffling Smoke Signals. Fire and brimstone. Mediums and messages. Character building stuff.
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Holiday Invite 2009
Christmas time, Mistletoe and wine, children singing christian rhyme. Well that’s what Cliff Richard reckoned anyway. You can’t say Christmas too loudly these days as you might upset someone, and you sure as hell shouldn’t mention the choral Christian youth. With this in mind our 2009 Holiday party was a cracker. Not that sort of cracker, a Christmas one. We are big believers in Holiday parties and indeed parties of any kind. There is always a lot to celebrate. This year we brined the party, covered it in bacon and roasted it slowly until the juice ran free and the meat was moist. Everyone knows that a party is not a party unless you go into outer space, so we booked America’s #1 Funkonaut, Dam Funk, to escort us into orbit, and he launched the boogie rocket. Everything that is worth anything needs to have a name and an identity. So our Holiday party was entitled, “O Come All Ye Faithful”. Cliff would have loved it.
Untitled (Black Hole)
According to the general theory of relativity, a black hole is a region of space from which nothing, including light, can escape. It is the result of the deformation of spacetime caused by a very compact mass. Around a black hole there is an undetectable surface which marks the point of no return, called an event horizon. It is called “black” because it absorbs all the light that comes towards it, reflecting nothing, just like a perfect black body in thermodynamics. Under the theory of quantum mechanics black holes possess a temperature and emit Hawking radiation.
Colorful Language
In heraldry, an escutcheon, or scutcheon, is the shield displayed in a coat of arms. The term “crest” is often used incorrectly to designate this part of the coat of arms. The escutcheon shape is based on the Medieval shields that were used by knights in combat, and varied by region and time period accordingly. Since this shape has been regarded as a war-like device appropriate to men only, British ladies customarily bear their arms upon a lozenge, or diamond-shape, while clergymen and ladies in continental Europe bear theirs on a cartouche, or oval. Other shapes are possible, such as the roundel commonly used for arms granted to Aboriginal Canadians by the Canadian Heraldic Authority.
Fighting Zebras
These images were created as a celebration of the feminine form and exotic prairie animals. The imagery was used to promote our seasonal showroom press day. Upon completion of the series we were in a great cocktail bar looking at the proofs. Our waiter was interested in the pictures and enquired as to there provenance. We explained our theory to him and informed him the body of work was entitled ‘Fighting Zebras’. This struck a chord and our waiter vowed he was going to create a cocktail of the same name. He did. It was great. It was created using ingredients that responded to the imagery. It was a really strong. I believe Rum and ginger were involved. It was also sparkling.
