Tokyo, 2002. Don’t you just love the jogging inset?

Bali, 2007. I was reminded of Wanted! posters.

Brussels, 2009. All the European Parliament election posters we saw had an “ordinary-person” vibe to them, just slightly gussied up for the poster.

More pictures from Brussels (to come)
More pictures from Bali here
More pictures from Japan (2002 here, 2008 here)

I got this thing in the mail from a company called Veer. The cover slip said: “A giant hand. Angsty Cats. Rioting Models.”

How could I not open it?

It turned out to be a huge advertisement poster. It was so big that once I’d unfolded it, I had to lay it on a chair.

It looked like such a pain in the ass to fold it up again that I left it lying there and went and made coffee.

I was standing in the living room again a few minutes later deciding what to do with my Saturday morning, and I started absentmindedly reading some of the copy on the poster.

It was like I’d created a Veer billboard in my living room.

There was a picture of a sweatshirt I thought was kind of cool. Turns out it’s for sale at Veer’s website. (Veer’s primary business is selling stock photography, fonts, and other graphic design resources.) Then, a description of an animated short that sounded interesting, free to view on the site.

Next thing I know, I’m on my way to Veer’s website, looking for the sweatshirt and the film. Wow. They really got me, didn’t they!

In consideration of the web’s enormous power and ubiquitous presence as a commercial tool, I think this is a testimony to the continuing importance of things you can touch, that interpose themselves in our three-dimensional spaces.

But the story’s not over…

Veer’s website is down.

At this point, I’ve been so adroitly manipulated from being a complete bystander to actively seeking out this company that I’m sure this shutdown itself is also part of the strategy: a way to get me to come back on Monday and talk to someone at Veer, hooked in just a little deeper by thinking I’ve serendipitously ended up with this 10% discount opportunity.

Now I’m caught up in this interesting meta-story–curious about Veer’s tactical moves, wondering if they are being as deeply strategic as I’m imagining?

This whole interaction is an object lesson in the complexity of moving a potential customer back and forth between realspace and webspace, and how many interesting ways there are to go about pursuing this objective.

We’ll see if I use the 10% discount to buy a sweatshirt.

Trust Your Senses, security poster, London Underground, 2008

Eye Bee M, Paul Rand, 1970

See more of my London and Sheffield pictures here.

AirTran poster, Savannah airport, March 2008

Minipops (an ongoing project, but a big Internet meme in 2005/2006)

I’ve uploaded nearly 1300 of my Japan pictures to Flickr. For reasons I’m sure you’ll understand, I haven’t added titles or tags or descriptions proactively, but please add comments or questions on flickr and I’ll gladly offer a story or explanation.

Meanwhile, I’m including some of my faves here, as well as part 1 and part 2.

Plumber Protects is an interesting site from American Standard, manufacturer of toilets and other plumbing stuff.

They are taking a stand in support of the work of their main customers, plumbers, casting them as heroes with career advice, and swag such as some well-designed posters, including the obligatory constructivist image

(although one has to wonder about the level of intended or perceived irony).

And of course, the comic book.

American Standard Will Make You a Superhero.
Want a chance to star in your own comic book? Tell American Standard why YOU should be next . You might get to star your own Mega Plumber comic book adventure.

Do you do business with any company that casts you as a hero, even in a less literal fashion?

Does this poster for Mr. Woodcock seem at all familiar?

Remember BASEketball?

Lilly posted (a different image of) this poster:

Originally uploaded by h0mee.

The URL in the poster redirects to their blog which, among other things, tells residents of the Mission in SF where they can the poster to put on their own street.

The poster is pretty dramatic, with an interesting do and don’t icon flow. Gives insight into the problems some communities are facing.

Peter was bored by The Descent and his post finally motivated me to write about their use of Dali in the poster (except that Dali’s piece was a a Human Skull Consisting of Seven Naked Women’s Bodies and the six Descent ladies are certainly clothed)

Kiss Your Beer, Hong Kong, January 2006

Here’s an amazing advertisement for Budweiser, from Hong Kong. With the phase American Kiss across the middle, and the slogan Kiss Your Beer – Kiss Budweiser.

Drink it, if I have to, but kiss it? No way. Perhaps it’s a great image for Hong Kong, but it’s amazing how wrong it seems for us here.

I took a bunch of photos of the posters at DUX and put ‘em on flickr. Flickr is acting up right now and doesn’t seem to find all the photos with the “poster” or “postersession” tags. Very strange. I’ll blog this anyway, assuming that it’ll get sorted out.

The World Toilet Organization is offering a series of posters for their public education campaign. This was my fave.