Tag Archives: Blue Marlin Sydney

AFFORDABLE ART FAIR NYC

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Last weekend the spring Affordable Art Fair was held in NYC’s Chelsea neighborhood. The event, which occurs twice a year, showcases works from up and coming artists in more than 80 different galleries. All the art is for sale and visitors can get their hands on some originals from just $100, with the top priced work at $10,000.

The fair is a refreshing reminder that investing in art doesn’t have to kill your budget – there are plenty of talented artists producing great pieces that can be purchased for a reasonable price. Since the fair is geared to those who are interested in art and not necessarily experts, the organizers provide some advice on their website about collecting. Novices and aspiring collectors can get tips on what pieces to start with and what traits to look for in the artists. The most important factor though should be whether or not you have an emotional connection with the work.

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IMG_1233Look out for when the fair reaches a city near you.

PEPSI BITES THE BULLET & GOES SPORTY

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After 16 years Pepsi has decided to turn the page and unveil a new shape for its bottle, the redesigned structure is claimed by the beverage giant to make the pack more ‘grippable’ and enable Pepsi to tap into a younger market and challenge Coke’s iconic bottle.

Pepsi bottle chance in the past years.

Following its most recent logo change in 2009, Pepsi has taken a masculine approach to redesigning its bottle shape, perhaps due to an increasing number of male Pepsi drinkers. Pepsi claim that the new bottle’s base allows consumers to have a more stimulating, tactile interaction with the bottle itself. It’s clear that the new structure gives Pepsi a more chunky and powerful feel, which seems to have been its aim.

Pepsi

In its endeavour to stand out from its lifelong rival and create a more branded and recognisable shape, Pepsi have lost the curves and grace that served it well back in the 20th century, shifting slowly towards an aesthetic closer to that seen in today’s sport and energy drink category.

The redesign has been a brave move, and is a major step in Pepsi’s ongoing effort to create a more cohesive look for its brand, in reflection of its ‘excitement of now’ positioning. But while its famously alliterated nemesis has managed to create and maintain a timelessly cool, fresh, and smart image, we wonder whether Pepsi’s effort to keep up new will help it reignite the excitement its looking for.

DRIVING CHANGE: Innovative Ideas to Make the World a Better Place

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Dirty Water

Changing the world isn’t easy. Charities and awareness groups face several challenges to not only get their message out there, but to engage the public into response. Firstly, the issues at hand, from poverty to the dangers of spiked drinks, tend to be troubling and overwhelming. People may genuinely care, but no one likes to be depressed and so they shut them out. Rattling people with the truth may only cause feelings of guilt and despair – or even worse, apathy since there doesn’t seem to be a real solution. Secondly, for many charitable organisations the resources available to multi-national corporate businesses are in a different stratosphere, large scale campaigns and monopolising ad space are simply out of their grasp.

Thus, charities and awareness groups must depend on the cleverness of great ideas to capture and captivate the public. They’ve got one very significant thing on their side – the truth. With that in their arsenal, all they need is imaginative and innovative thought to truly make a difference. Perhaps big business could learn a thing or two from the campaigns dreamed up by these do-gooders.

Guerrilla Umbrellas. You could be next. That’s what the ‘Watch Your Drink’ campaign is trying to show you. ‘Nightclub ninjas’ place umbrellas into oblivious people’s drinks to prove how easy it is to spike someone in such an environment.

Umbrella drug awareness

Experience the issue. German publication FiftyFifty altered the air conditioning in German cinemas, with temperatures dropping to the uncomfortable levels that the homeless brave every night sleeping outdoors. The audience were shown interviews with homeless people and given blankets with QR codes on, which when scanned would lead them to a site to donate to a homeless charity.

Thirsty? UNICEF’s Dirty Water vending machine confronted people across Manhattan with reality they mainly see in the media. Vending machine dispensed bottles of water apparently infected with deadly diseases such as malaria, cholera and typhoid. The brown liquid reflects what those less fortunate are forced to drink on a daily basis. Passers by are encouraged to donate through the vender, online or by SMS.

Dirty Water Dirty Water

Real solutions. From raising awareness to positively impacting a community in the long term, there’s only a small, but significant step. UTEC university teamed up with an advertising agency to design a intelligent billboard, which turns air humidity into drinking water that turns air humidity into drinking water.

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GREEN SAFFRON STAND AT IFE13

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Green Saffron was exhibiting at IFE today (International Food & Drink Event). We took a trip Eastwards across London to the ExCel centre to see the stall which we designed.

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Green Saffron jars

You can find out more about our work on Green Saffron Spices here.

BM NETWORK CALENDAR: March

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It’s March, it’s a new month and consequently a new Blue Marlin network calendar. We’ve hand picked a few events taking place in our network to keep you busy ’til the Easter Bunny gets his act together.

London

1.  Kenectica: An art fair focused on kinetic, electronic, robotic, sound, light, time-based and multi-disciplinary new media art, science and technology. More info here.

2.  Is there life on other planets? you can weigh up all the evidence at the Alien Revolution exhibition in Greenwich this month.

Singapore

1. Watch in awe this month as a pair mechanical cranes alight and transform into real birds on Artillery Avenue. The recurring spectacle is completely free to attend. Moe info here. 

2. Artists hang found objects, toys and instruments from the ceiling for the Mosaic Music festival. Audience members are invited to come forward and use the instruments to tell their story through music. Info here. 

Sydney

1. Take selected architecture walks through Sydney this month. If you think you know Sydney, think again. Tours start at the Museum of Sydney. Info here.

2. Christie Torrington’s MACROSCOPE exhibition running ’til the 16th invites viewers to be taken into a crystal realm. Her illustrative drawings take inspiration from minerals, geology and crystallography. Info here. 

 New York

1.  Sleep No More is immersive theatre at its very best. Innovative immersive theatre company Punchdrunk are behind this show which will see the audience wonder from one room to the next in 100,000 square feet of warehouse and create their own story. No two experiences are the same. Info here.

2. From March 7th – 10th it’s the New City Art Fair. The fair, which focuses on Japanese Contemporary Art takes place at the hpgrp gallery in Chelsea. Info here.

Bath

1. From March 14th ’til the 24th its the Bath Digital Festival. Bath has a fast-growing digital sector, and the Festival has been developed to allow members of the public to explore the city’s thriving digital scene and to get involved in a variety of interesting projects. Info here.

2. Running until the 10th is the Bath Literature Festival. The event has established itself as one of the UK’s most respected literary events, presenting the best in local, national and international writers in venues throughout Bath’s vibrant city centre. 2013′s programme is brimming with some of the greatest names in contemporary fiction today. The programme even includes a public appearance from J.K Rowling. More info here.

2. Head to M Shed in Bristol for an exhibition all about Chocolate! Feast your eyes on choccy packaging of days gone by in this remarkable display. We don’t recommend eating anything over 250 years old – could taste a little funky. Running all month. More details here.

Making tracks

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Kaiser Chiefs have launched their new album using a new social media strategy that allows users to select the ten songs (out of 20) for their album and create a personalised album cover.

That’s not the clever part though. Consumers are then given their own page where they can then sell their version of the album and receive £1 for every purchase. If you don’t fancy making your own album, you can choose from the albums previously created by other consumers.

When I first read about this I was concerned that the Kaiser Chiefs were in serious danger of losing control of their brand and look and feel of the latest album. I thought it was a bold move to hand your brand over to consumers to do with what they will. The beauty of this campaign is that controls are in place so that the brand very firmly remains intact, while offering consumers enough customisation to feel satisfied.

The additional incentive is making a buck if another consumer selects your album to download. Consumers can then promote their own version of the album, creating more publicity… for free. Brilliant.

Check it out yourself:  http://www.kaiserchiefs.com