BEST AND WORST BOOK COVERS OF 2012

After roaming the aisles of a few bookstores and sifting through a shit-ton of bestsellers list, I’ve narrowed down my picks for best and worst book covers of last year.

This is often my most dreaded entry because I am not the most avid book reader (gasp!), however, I often find some sweet little gems within. Here’s my best/worst list TRL countdown style:

2. Bloodland by Alan Glynn - There’s nothing more static than a book cover, but the position of every single of element on this cover makes it look like it’s moving. Good photography. Good layout. Just good everything.

1. El Asesino Hipocondriaco by Juan Jacinto Munoz Rengel - Oh shit, how fucked up is this? I guess I cheated by including a foreign book cover, but this is so good it hurts.

BEST AND WORST LOGO CHANGES OF 2012

Ah, logo changes! You’re the most fun way to gamble with your company’s money! Easiest way to throw away millions of dollars worth of brand equity out the window if it doesn’t go well foooo sho! Good for you guys.

My picks may entice some disagreements, which is fine, as long you understand that if I agreed with you when you think I’m wrong, then we’d both be incorrect. 

Wow, that was deep. Here they are:

—- 5 BEST LOGO CHANGES OF 2012: 

5. Twitter - Thank god they ditched that dated-looking-bubbly wordmark for the bird. You know you’re taking over the world when you’re able to ditch your name completely and have a symbol instead.

4. Say Media - By far the best use of a serif font in a new logo, which isn’t saying much because they are few and far between these days. Also, clever use of quotations. I’m sold!

3. DC Comics - It’s bold. It’s fresh. It’s a page flip!!!!!!!!!! So good. I love this one!

2. Bookworld - Everything about this logo makes perfect sense. Thank god that wonky ‘w’ from the old logo is gone. Long live the power of negative space.

1. New Zealand Antartic Research Institute - Definitely the coolest (!!!!) use of gray I have ever seen. Also, the best use of a square, like, ever. Good job!





—- 5 WORST LOGO CHANGES OF 2012: 

5. Arby’s - They 3D’ed that penis-looking hat, but they forgot to do the same to that terrible fat-looking font. Tasteless!

4. Czech Republic - This horrible pun-ny logo to promote tourism in the Czech Republic went all social media on us, and the result is terrible. Insulting to anyone with taste.

3. Comcast - For those who can’t tell, NBC is blowing huge amounts of money on an unnecessary rebrands. Stop it! The old one was way, way, way better.

2. Stedelijk Musem - Never been, and now I don’t think I wanna go. Using typography to illustrate more typography is never a good idea.

1. eBay - The old logo certainly needed an update, and by update, I didn’t mean making it completely bland, boring and lame. And I miss the overlay.

BEST AND WORST ALBUM COVERS OF 2012

Your CD cover flow interface on your iPod is probably the first and last place you get to see album covers these days. So let’s give them some attention before they peace-out just like CD themselves!

Once a year, I get to a judge a record by its cover, and here’s my mix tape of best and worst CD covers of last year. Start with the good, end with the bad. Enjoy!

—- 5 BEST ALBUM COVERS OF 2012: 

5. Best Coast, The Only Place -  A bear hugging his own state. Sold! How super awesome.

4. The Hives, Lex Hives - The bodies spell out through a shadow, an old trick, but still pretty eye-catching.

2. Kanye West, G.O.O.D. Music: Cruel Summers - A bit of a visual sequel to Watch the Throne, but that’s okay, because that was a great cover, and this is even better. So good!

1. Madonna, MDNA - Look, they auto-tuned the cover, too! It’s a pill-popping, drug-induced, lenticular-3D shot of Madonna that actually makes her look good. Almost forgive her for the awful content within. Great job, team!



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—- 5 WORST ALBUM COVERS OF 2012: 

5. Ke$ha, Warrior - Kesha-dollar-sign knows how to write a catchy tune, but she sometimes comes across as purely disgusting and trash bag-gy (as seen in above cover). The colours and typography are actually pretty good, but their combination is making me dizzy. Needs a shower, sorta like her.

4. Kreayshawn, Somethin’bout Kreay - Somethin’ supah uglay about this.

3. Nicki Minaj, Pink Friday Roman Reloaded - This is such a joke. I don’t get any part of it. Neon nightmare. Make it stop!

2. Battles, Gloss Drop - These guys made my list last year, and now they are back with a sorta-sequel on this Remix album, which is so beyond gross and weird, it’s just bad. Maybe there is a reason for this disaster, but I’m too turned off to care.

1. Keyshia Cole, Woman to Woman - No. No and Fuck No.

BEST AND WORST MOVIE POSTERS OF 2012

The time of year for hatin’ and luvin’ and ramblin’ is here! My retrospective 2012 posts begin now, starting with some fave (and not so fave) movie theather eye candy.

I’m going to keep my inner movie critic away as I look past content and analyze only the art direction, style and design of the posters of the following incredible (and god-awful) movies. Let’s see what movies managed to grab my attention (even if just for a second), and which ones made me happy to have only one functioning eye.

—- 5 BEST MOVIE POSTERS OF 2012: 

5. Sound of My Voice – Look, it’s a poster that makes you stop and actually read. Imagine that! The wrinkly/folded look gives it mystery. I feel weird just looking at it, so yes, I can’t stop looking.

4. Men In Black 3 – The logo-mosaic effect has been done many times before, and although it feels really cluttered, it caught my eye. Poster works best when looked at a distance (which works with that whole Black Suits Comin’ xtick), somewhat just like the movie, which works best when not looked at at all. Bam!

2. The Cabin in the Woods - Although the floating house/rubiks cube poster is just as awesome, this poster is that much better. That twisted 4D house represents the amazingness this horror-comedy-twisty-turny movie is perfectly. It’s not your average slasherfest poster, for your not-so-average slasherfest movie.

1. The Man with the Iron Fists - Remember this movie? Me neither! But this illustration with this mix of bloodshed and butterflies is my pick for the year’s best. Beauty!

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—- 5 WORST MOVIE POSTERS OF 2012: 

5. The Avengers - So you knew you’d be making a gadzillion dollars, but you couldn’t afford a real photoshoot?  The dudes at Paramount opted for a lazy and cluttered collage straight out of the movie! Did it really matter? NO. But it certainly hurts to look at. EDIT!

4. Fun Size - Hey guys, have you heard of something called perspective? Check out the pathway behind the kids on the sidewalk leading to the house, it’s wrong! It’s way too slanted. Which brings me to my next point, that fucking baby is the sharpest thing on the poster. And the guy on the far left is basically a cut-out of a magazine. Photoshop at its absolute fucking worst!

4. The Watch - Got an Idea? Got a better poster? (ps. Vince Vaughn, go to bed.)

2. Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part II -We get it, a bunch of horny book nerds turned this franchise into a money machine! Now spend it on a real photoshoot without the horrible photoshop.

1. The Devil Inside - Please tell me that’s not an actual person. I guess it’s supposed to scary, but that man-nun just looks like a tranny! Also, true events? Really? Do you want me to vomit in your face? What a scam! Absolute insult, at the highest level.

 

So, which one is bedroom-wall worthy? Which one is going to the shredder?

CIRQUE DU SOLEIL SAYS ADIEU TO IRIS

So THIS is happening this weekend:

SHOW CLOSES JAN 19! Huh?! WHY!!!!!???? That’s fucking insane!

IRIS is Cirque du Soleil’s first resident show in Los Angeles, a $100 million production that premiered in September 2011. It’s hosted at the Dolby Theatre, formerly known as the Kodak Threatre (you know, where they hold the Academy Awards every year). Here’s the kick-ass poster:

So good! They also spent $40 million just to update the theater so it could host the show under a 10-year contract. And now 500 performances/16 months later, it’s over. Shame! What the fuck went wrong?

I got to watch IRIS back in November 2011. It was magical and amazing. And trust me, I’ve seen pretty much every Cirque du Soleil show, and I would say most of their recent shows are NOT very good. So please take my word when I say IRIS is jaw-dropping! To see it close so early really pisses me off.

The show was supposed to turn the seedy part of Downtown Hollywood around. I guess the area has been pretty dirty and gross for a while. Someone figured a Cirque du Soleil show would do the job (not to mention a perfect place for a cinema-inspired show), but now it’s closing due to low ticket sales. But DUH, of course it’s closing, people from LA or people who go to LA aren’t theatregoers. They go for other shit, like surfing and Disneyland and cocaine and stuff.

Sad thing is, this is the 5th Cirque show to close in the past year. Lots of people are losing their jobs! That can’t be good! These four shows have recently closed:

Goodbye, Circuses. You’ve had a good run, except nobody wanted to watch you!

Every show closed due to low demand. I remember when Cirque shows were all the rage. NO MOH! The japan earthquake/tsunami led to the closing of ZED at Tokyo Disney. ZAIA closed in Macau, China, after a 3.5 year run because nobody gave a shit. VIVA ELVIS was a tribute show with more dance than acrobatics (and probably got eaten alive by the other better Cirque shows in Las Vegas). SALTIMBANCO retired after being around since 1992.

I’ve seen SALTIMBANCO and VIVA ELVIS. SALTIMBANCO certainly felt dated, while VIVA ELVIS was more of an acquired taste (much like Elvis’ music) and felt a bit lazy.

I personally think they majorly fucked up with VIVA ELVIS. They didn’t try hard enough and ended up making a mediocre show. Very dance-based, not so much a circus. If anything, Las Vegas is the perfect place for an Elvis tribute show. No location problem here (unlike IRIS) and still, it bombed!

VIVA ELVIS closed because it wasn’t very good. People expected more from Cirque, especially a Vegas Cirque show. They want stuff to loose their shit over! And if you aren’t giving it to them in that department, the show better be fucking beautiful, much like Cirque du Soleil’s LOVE show, based entirely on music from The Beatles. It isn’t full of crazy stunts, but it’s a pretty good looking show. VIVA ELVIS was cool, some parts amazing, but overall, lackluster.

However, there isn’t much of a pattern here: IRIS was amazing and it closed. Viva Elvis was crap and it closed. I heard both ZED and ZAIA were great, and again, they closed. And while CRISS ANGEL’s BELIEVE show is pure garbage, THAT somehow, is still playing! A bad show doesn’t mean it will close, and an amazing show doesn’t mean it will live forever. Oh, such is life. There isn’t a perfect formula.

And one more thing, I just watched Cirque du Soleil’s AMALUNA this past weekend in Vancouver:

This is Cirque du Soleil’s newest show. Super girly. The storyline is vaguely based on an island with a bunch of acrobatic goddesses. Um, okay.

Is it good? Not really. Is it going to close? Probably not, because touring shows always make money. They come to people instead of the other way around. Their limited run in cities all over the world means people can’t (and won’t) wait around to see it. They must buy a ticket before the show packs up and leaves. Urgency = ticket sales. Good for them! But at least show us you’re worth the $150-dollar ticket!

With that said, I certainly think they fucked up yet again with AMALUNA. It was an insane amount of lost opportunity. While one or two acts felt fresh and unlike anything I’ve seen before. It also felt cheesy and underwhelming at parts. They could have pushed the envelope on this one. But they didn’t. COME ON, CIRQUE, get it together.

Anyway, enough ramble. My point is, IRIS is probably the most magical show I’ve seen in a long time. The soundtrack by Danny Elfman is fucking genius. And it’s upsetting to see it go. Hopefully they’ll find it a new home soon. Or at least give me a sequel, yeah?

Later, yo! In motion we trust!

THE END IS NEAЯ. #APOCALYPSMAS

Remember the last holiday card you received? ME NEITHER. That’s because they all sound the same. They’re all meaningful, heart-warming and you know, nice. ZZZzzz.

But with the end of Mayan Calendar coming up on December 21, we’re about to blow up into a cosmic storm of hellfire. So, why not tell people how you really feel before we all depart into, um, December 22? Better honest, than sorry! 

Introducing: Apocalypsmas Greetings Cards, by your friends at Rethink! That’s right, it’s time to send a festive farewell. 

See, Mayan-rock-countdown and everything. Get ready. Merry Apocalypsmas

Okay, so my amazeballs partner Morgan Tierney and I were given this project and basically ran with it to the darkest realm possible, just because we could. This became our baby (from hell).

The original idea began small but it grew so far into outer space, we had to pull it back into something more achievable. Oh, and we were on a tight deadline. I guess we couldn’t really postpone the Apocalypsmas. We may or may not have felt like quitting life altogether.Either way, the Mayan overlords sure as hell wouldn’t like that. So we kept going (and going) and what you see is the collaborative effort of a lot of people at Rethink. Like, a small village.

The idea is simple: let it all out before we all say peace-out! You can say something nice or something naughty. We even made it easy for you to write a message by using our patended Spide Sliders™ (left to right measures the level of naughty and nice). And if you’re feeling extra sassy, you can even write your own message:

Then, because no Christmas is complete without Santa, we asked the big guy himself to hand deliver your card to your (loved) one. Best of all, Santa has several video messages, ranging from mean to really mean, so your greeting is always accompanied by a different level of Apoca-Santa drunkness:

 And, we even made t-shirts so we can depart in style.

Get ready to die Mayan!

See you on December 22.

THE NEW AMERICAN HORROR STORY POSTERS ARE KILLIN’ IT!

If you’ve never seen American Horror Story, you probably sleep better at night. Good for you!

If you have, you know AHS is actually really scary and way dirtier than you’d think. Season 2 is set in the 60’s in a mental institution with some of the same actors from Season 1, who play completely different characters. While I haven’t seen it yet, these four promotional posters are compelling, weird and totally killin’ it (PUN!) and making me wish I did.

Art direction bow to the Art Direction Gods! Check it out:

So that black nun sees the heavenly lights and goes to heaven, while the creepy arachnid-looking-ghoul below just left it and is obviously disturbed. Sorry, God!

More crazy nun-wardrobe action. This time she’s in a forest dropping bloddy bodies and looking like a full witch. Um, okay, cool!

There she is again! This bitch is going to give me nightmares for a while. She must be Rubberman 2.0. I really hope she is!

Okay, this one is obviously the most fucked up poster of them all. The nun-woman is now drowned in milk (?) inside a crazy straitjacket-type bed/coffin, trying to come right out of it and scare the fuck out of all of us. Okay, I get the symbolism. It’s totally a vagina and you guys are more fucked up than I thought.

I told you this show was dirty! Happy Halloween!

(20)12 BEST AND WORST OLYMPIC LOGOS

I’ve been on an Olympic-sized hiatus (due to work, stuff and life), so I figured the best way to get back into things is to talk about what’s super hot right now. And no, I’m not talking about Big Brother. I’m talkin’ about the Olympics, you silly bubba.

Gold medals, world-records, controversies, and the ultra hot divers aside, let’s talk about what really matters: the best and worst Olympic logos of the past little while, summer AND winter - so nobody gets left behind!

—- 6 WORST OLYMPIC LOGOS:

6. Lake Placid, USA, 1980 (Winter) - So a house (?) by Adidas (!) with a chimney (?) is underwater?! Is this what I’m seeing? Thanks, Tsunami! 

5. Vancouver, Canada, 2010 (Winter) - I’ve always wanted to like this, but I still don’t. It’s like a pride-flag-hockey-goalie-Inukshuk, and that’s a problem.

4. Nagano, Japan, 1998 (Winter) - It’s a flower! It’s a bunch of snowboarders! It’s a bunch of weird shapes and shadows! No, no and no.

3. Moscow, Russia, 1980 (Summer) - Red is Russia’s thing. Alright, cool! But then you get horrible alignment with the type and all those lines look too Empire State to me. And there’s a weird ‘c’ just hanging out over there.

2. California (!), USA, 1960 (Winter) - Remember when the Olympics were hosted… in a state? Me neither!!!! Also, I think that thing is supposed to be a star? Also, this is really ugly.

1. Lillehammer, Norway, 1994 (Winter) - So I’ve forgiven most of the logos prior to the 1960’s beacause things were just different back then. But come on, this hideous piece of shit is just bad, and done in the early 90’s!!!! Also, not sure what that thing is, and best of all, it’s WAVING! HUH?! And I get the snowflakes, but come on! Does this mean we should we also have a sun in any Summer Olympics logo???!!!! Shut up.

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—- 6 BEST OLYMPIC LOGOS:

6. Montreal, Canada, 1976 (Summer) - I think this was the last year where the logo could touch and become a part of the Olympic Rings (rules changed after). Good thing while it lasted, because this logo is super slick and super cool. One colour, one stroke weight. SO GOOD!

5. Mexico City, Mexico, 1968 (Summer) - Mexico (City) hosted the ‘68 Olympics, and it makes a pretty cool arrangement with the Olympic rings. I never want to look away. It’s way beyond ‘68, and amazing.

4. Munich, Germany, 1972 (Summer) - Kaleidoscopic fun at its best. It’s making me dizzy, and I like it.

3. Athens, Greece, 2004 (Summer) - The games went back to the place where they started: we get an old meets new, classic meets modern logo. It’s timeless, and that’s the point. Really nice!

2. London, England, 2012 (Summer) - Am I the only person who likes this? Yes. Is it trying to be too cool? Yes. Does it look fresh? Yes. Are you ever going to forget this? NO! See, what I mean!? If I’d agree with whoever hates this logo, then we’d both be wrong. ;)

1. Torino, Italy, 2006 (Winter) - Maybe a little futuristic and a bit too cool, but that’s what the Winter Olympics needs - a dose of awesome. This does the job. Dynanism (it’s a word…?) mixed with icy-cold-icicle-mountain-where-bigfoot-lives-goodness. Favezies!

MAXIMUM BAD-BREATH PARANOIA BEGINS!

Tic Tac has just called out (gasp!) people on their bad breath in the best way possible. Check out the ‘La pire haleine du monde’ (The Worst Breath in the World) video below:

Such a good take to the whole stunt/viral video thing AND it transformed something as fucking annoying as flash-mobs and made it cool and not stupid or lame or at all insulting to the human race. Freshness all around! The video went viral even before it was released, but obviously it was leaked on purpose, duh.

The human-domino-bad-breath-collapse was created by Ogilvy Paris, which is the same place yours truly interned at back in the Fall of 2009 (self plug #1). This Tic Tac campaign also reminds me of another world-takeover campaign by Ogilvy Paris - Perrier’s ‘Melting’ campaign (which I actually got to work on) (self plug #2). In that, the world is fucking melting, and Perrier will save your life:

Long live the hyperbole!

DECAL THIS!

Remember when Lost was the only show in the universe? Now you can get Dharma Initiative Macbook decals and become a Lostie all over again:

Now your life can officially begin.

Altogether now: ‘FLASHSIDEWAYYYYYSSSSSS’!!!!!!!!!