Public Domain Popeye

Popeye will be falling into the public domain in the UK on January, 1st! The famous spinach lover is one the first of the large pop culture icons to reach this advanced age, so it'll be interesting to see how this plays out as the corporations that have vigorously defended their copyrights will have to watch as the character at last gets to be used in ways beyond their control by the public. Folks in the US however will have to wait an additional 15 years to get access to Popeye because of the efforts of the Disney company to extend the laws to protect their own characters. More details at the Times Online.

And for more on copyright laws be sure to watch the highly entertaining A Fair(y) Use Tale.

Thanks Carlos!

Spotted in Seattle: Space Travel Supply Co.

I was delighted to discover another of the 826 stores, which house youth writing programs behind fun alternate reality store fronts, in Seattle. The Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co. sells everything the budding space tourist needs for comfortable travel (like the Black Hole Starter Kit) and even sports "rocket parking" on the roof. Behind the scenes 826 Seattle offers writing workshops and tutoring. Find out more about the 826 organization (created by author and McSweeney's founder Dave Eggers) and the six other chapters/stores HERE.

Speak of Peace

I was sent these images from Milan, Italy, with the following note:

More than 3000 comic balloons saying "Peace" were placed on top of the city's posters: now from the mouth of every single testimonial comes one single message. The promotions don't scream "cheap" or "new" anymore - "peace" became the key word this Christmas.

Pace, paz, paix, frieden, as-salaam, shalom, he ping, heiwa and mir. Different ways of saying the same thing: Peace.

Peace was the subject of a guerrilla operation to promote the social role of graphic design. The pacifist campaign hit the outdoor posters of Milan, Italy, between the 19th and 21st December, with explicit peace messages.

A silent army of socially concerned designers wishing to do raise awareness of social issues put up one of the most interesting operations of guerrilla graphics to have happened recently in the city of Milan. A universal wish for a peaceful Christmas, to be understood in every part of the world.

The project is a part of Good 50x70.

Smells Clean

The Reality campaign continues its series of entertaining "Clean" Coal commercials...

Last Minute Holiday Gift: Good Cards

Network For Good is offering Good Cards as a means of thoughtful gift giving this holiday season. For a $5 fee (which supports Network For Good) you can send an amount of your choice to a friend to donate to the charity of their choice. For last minute gift givers there is a digital option, but if you have a couple of weeks to wait they can send a physical card as well. Get the details HERE.

Spotted in Seattle: Bike Parking

I like this simple and clever bike rack that identifies itself clearly, which I found in several places throughout Seattle.




(Reminds me of the great bike racks I spotted in Hawaii)

Plant The Piece: In Sweden

I was delighted to see this image of the Seed Guns created by Christopher Humes and myself as part of our Plant The Piece project on exhibition in Sweden. They are on display through the summer of 2009 as part of the juried show Take Action! at the Museum of World Culture in Gothenburg.

More pictures of the exhibition are on the Plant The Piece site HERE.

Green Christmas

MC Lars wishes you a Green Christmas...



Thanks Mica!

Amnesty : You Are Powerful

Here is Amnesty International U.K.'s latest film called "you Are Powerful". It was created for the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Agency : Mother. Music : R.E.M - Until the Day is Done
From Dailymotion.


Here is another video of the Declaration of Human Rights re-interpreted in this nice motion film created by Seth Brau. A very nice mix of illustrations and typography. Produced by Amy Poncher. Music from Rumspringa.



Source : Human Rights Action Center.

Spotted in Seattle: Best Bus Stop Ever!

Despite complaints from the locals about sub par public transportation in the city, I must admit that Seattle has some of the nicest (ad free!) bus shelters I've ever encountered! Most had a lovely wave pattern on the glass, and some featured what looked like children's art on the bottoms halves, but in the Ballard area they had the deluxe package...






Think your bus stops are better? Send me a picture and I'll post it on the site.

Dutch Font designed to use 20% less ink

Of course the better thing to do is not print that document at all but if you do you might be interested in using a font that is designed to use 20% less ink. All things dutch are better with holes. Ecofont

Frosty The Coalman

You missed your chance to see this catchy holiday ditty on the oxymoronic American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCE) website, but thankfully YouTube has kept it alive in all its greenwashing glory...






For an alternative view on "clean" coal take a visit to Reality...

Spotted in Seattle: Signs of The Times

Seattle has some of the odder street signs I've seen in the US. Sadly I wasn't able to catch a picture of the ominous one that said "Litter And It Will Hurt", but here are a few of the others I encountered...




































































An honorable mention goes to the stop signs with their cute stripes, but hard to follow directions. I certainly can't eyeball what 30 feet looks like, and there was no indication on the sidewalk of that distance either.

Free Will Power

Free.Will.Power is a new campaign from NARAL Pro-Choice America which focuses on recruiting more young people to the cause by using a host of Web 2.0 tools. A series of videos was produced to promote the initiative, one for each word of the campaign title...

Prop 8 : The Musical

Created and written, six weeks later than he should have been, by-Marc Shaiman Directed and Staged by: Adam Shankman; Produced by Adam Shankman, Marc Shaiman and Mike Farah. Starring Jack Black, John C. Reilly, Andy Richter, Neil Patrick Harris and many more.

Found here.

Green Earth

One year after the 2007 "Love Your Earth" competition, Designboom.com along with TOBU department store and the Design Associaton Japan (DA) launched a new competition last summer : "Green Earth". This is an international design competition open to everyone created to raise awareness of the environmental issues affecting the planet.

There are two categories, the first one being "Green" and the second one being "Earth".
Green: Create a graphic artwork that illustrates the environmental protection and how human beings and nature could coexist in a greener world.
Earth: Give the gift of a greener world at Christmas. Create a graphic artwork that will make this festive time of the year a moment to consider what we can do to help our planet’Äôs survival.

The designers of the 5 winning entries were granted with cash prize awards

Also, TOBU department store printed a selection of the shortlisted entries on their "eco-bags" and other promotional material, which have been shown during the Tokyo Designer’Äôs Week 2008 (30 October - 03 November, 2008).

3966 designers from 91 different countries participated and the winners are :

1st Prize : "greening" design by : ji yoon yang from korea.

2nd Prize : "recycle at xmas" design by : benjamyn cox + lloyd moffat from uk.























3rd Prize : "plain cloud" design by : glen baghurst + matthew cullin from australia























santa's readjustment ' design by : camila gimeno from chile

See the results.

source.

Food Security: Bill Moyers interviews Michael Pollan

Bill Moyers recently interviewed Michael Pollan (author of In Defense of Food and Omnivore's Dilemma) on the state of food security in the United States. Sadly he's not interested in the job of Secretary of Agriculture. You can watch the entire thing or read the transcript on the PBS website HERE or in 5 parts on YouTube...

Stop Pain

Check out the campaign from the French non-governmental humanitarian organization, supported by the World Health Organization and state-approved, Douleurs Sans Frontiˆ®res (Pain Without Borders). Like Doctors Without Borders they try to help people with medical and social care in areas where suffering caused by wars, disasters or hunger never ends.
In their campaign they used the treadmill to show the endless suffering of people in places like Cambodia, Indonesia or Africa.
This campaign was made in March of 2008 by TBWA/MAP Paris and is meant for raising funds.

"To put an end to endless pain, Make a donation"
War : Cambodia


















Tsunami : Indonesia


















Fires and War : Africa


















They also have a video :


Source.

Trouble In Toyland

Speaking of the holidays, the U.S. PIRG (the federation of Public Interest Research Groups) has released it's 23rd annual toy safety report: Trouble In Toyland. Unsurprisingly it shows that the high number of recalls of unsafe toys throughout 2007 has continued into 2008:

’ÄúWhile the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act is a major step forward, many of its protections don’Äôt take effect until 2009, so it’Äôs still ’Äòbuyer beware’Äô for this shopping season,’Äù said U.S. PIRG Public Health Advocate Liz Hitchcock. ’ÄúWorse, last week the CPSC told companies that they could keep selling toys with toxic phthalate chemicals until they ran out of them, despite the law’Äôs clear prohibition against selling them after Feb. 10.’Äù

According to the most recent data from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), toy-related injuries sent more than 80,000 children under the age of five to emergency rooms in 2007. Eighteen children died from toy-related injuries that year.

Read the entire report as a downloadable PDF HERE.