Back from holiday and ready to show you some of the most exciting things to have hit our consciousness
H&M has just confirmed its latest designer collaboration will be with French luxury fashion house Lanvin. Having teased us with 7 short videos on their YouTube channel this video final went live yesterday to rapturous applause from the fashion pack. Lanvin will be producing a range of both mens and womenswear for the high street store – Could this be the most hotly anticipated H&M collaboration yet? Only time will tell.
As you may have noticed, a beautiful piece of fashion advertising often finds its way in to our weekly blog. This film may have to jump to the top of the favourite list though!
Shot by none other than Martin Scorsese this new ad for Chanel fragrance Bleu de Chanel is . . . well, we’ll let you decide for yourself!
It was with great sadness this week that we heard of the death of photographer Corinne Day. Arguably one of the most influential photographers of the 90’s her images of a young Kate Moss are instantly recognizable.
The imperfect and voyeuristic feel of the images that Corinne produced were in stark contrast to the perfectly made up supermodels and photography of the time, paving the way for the documentary style photography that became synonymous with the late nineties and beyond.
Now that our Venice Beach office is up and running we thought we’d keep you updated with the coolest things that LA has to offer.
First up is a Laundromat with a difference. Fresh Pressed in Los Feliz, LA is a DIY screen printing shop where the machines are cleverly disguised as vintage Westinghouse dryers. You can roll through your own personal designs or simply adopt the skills of the graphic design staffers. Next time we’re there we’ll be dropping in to get a present for someone lovely- or maybe just ourselves!
Summer is coming to an end and what better way to enjoy the last few balmy evenings than watching a film in the open air. At the Hollywood Forever Cemetery you can do just that, sitting under the stars and amongst palm trees, oh- and graves! There are a few more weeks left to join in the fun. Last weeks Goodfellas screening came with an introduction from the real Henry Hill. Who will turn up this Saturday night? Head down there and find out for yourself. Cinespia
Kanye Westmay not have been the best behaved boy recently but it hasn’t stopped us from watching his latest music video, POWER, over and over- oh, and over again. The video was directed by Louis Vuitton Don and visual artist Marco Brambilla. The Sistine Chapel was used as a reference point for what Brambilla says is a ‘moment of transition’ for Kanye.
As ARCADE FIRE’s critical acclaim continues with stunning third album THE SUBURBS, this week has witnessed a truly jaw-dropping video for next single “We Used To Wait”
The interactive film by Chris Milk (director of promo’s for Green Day, U2, Kanye West, Gnarls Barkley & Johnny Cash) is built in HTML and using google satellite technology - described as a mash up of technologies by Google’s Creative Labs you are asked to enter the address of your childhood home and watch the story unfold before your eyes, instantly and seamlessly making it your story.
Thomas Gayno of GCL says “modern web technologies craft an experience personalised and unique for each viewer, as you virtually run through the streets where you grew up.”
As a way of expressing his deepest love and thanks to his wife, Rachel, for all her unerring support during his treatment for cancer, 35 year old Sydney man Kristian Anderson made the following video below for her birthday.
Soundtracked by Train’s “Marry Me”, the clip is intro’ed by New Zealand PM John Key – Rachel is a Kiwi – and features Hugh Jackman, who appeared in the video after Kristian asked radio station Triple M - Sydney’s premiere morning breakfast show - for help.
Also used to encourage donations for The Cancer Council who finance treatment for cancer patients and as a platform to urge Triple M’s listeners to seek medical advice as early as possible, the video is a touching and uplifting a message.You may need tissues!
And finally. . .
A huge congratulations to Dominic Hyman (Art Director for our wonderful Alice Tour) and his talented team, who won Best Art Direction for Movie/Mini at The Emmy’s for their amazing work on ‘The Pacific’.
Firstly, apologies for the lack of blog last week. We were lost at sea and engaged in some serious skullduggery!
To make up for our absence we’ve got some fascinating treasure for you this week…
We’ve been exploring the darker side of seduction and this new teaser trailer for the Reiss Fall/Winter collection is getting us hot under the collar.
Shot by Jamie Morgan, the campaign explores three key themes - elements, protection, sensuality – (Reiss says they wanted to go back to basics), but its the alluring black and white temptation that we love.
Sometimes you wait all year for a mind-blowing movie and then TWO come along at once. The inspirational genius of Pixar is back and in full effect with the joyous Toy Story 3 and Christopher Nolan has done it again with the head-trip action spectacular Inception. Seek these films out… they are both superb.
What better way to celebrate the release of these two future classics than with this inspired trailer mash-up that enters the architecture of Buzz and Woody’s minds!
The digital magazine format of iPad continues to evolve with a forward thinking app that enables users to build their own custom publications tailored to their own tastes. Check out the future-ready page-turner that is Flipboar
Announced on September 7, the Mercury Music Prizealways manages to raise a few eyebrows when the nominations are announced!
It’s a solid list (announced this week), with some of FIVE33’s favourite albums of the past few months getting much deserved recognition.
Dizzee Rascal, The XX, Foals, Mumford & Sons, Corinne Bailey Rae and Biffy Clyro have been constant audio candy on the office stereogram.
Us? We’re pitching for The XX or Dizzee - they have to be this year’s hotties!
The full list of nominees is below, but we must give a mention to the modfather Paul Weller…
Weller always sweeps up as The Brits Best Male whenever he releases an album, but not so the Mercury’s…unbelievably, this is his first ever nomination for Wake Up The Nation.
And finally, as we are slap-bang in the middle of the geek-pageant that is Comic-Con, here’s a Batman movie you may not have seen before - but which is a stunning piece of fan-film making. It’s dark, violent (be warned) and making a lot of waves in the fan community. Something to tide the fanboys over until Christopher Nolan dusts off the sequel to the Dark Knight.
We’ve been out and about this week and as always were on the look out for inspiration.
First up are some pics of our favorites from the Paris Couture shows.
Created by the ever wonderful John Galliano it wasn’t just the giant flowers and billowing dresses that caught our eye.
The model’s ultra modern eye make-up really got us excited, we’re looking forward to a time when we can all wear make up like this!
Emily and Maria managed to get to fashion trade show Bread & Butter in Berlin this week.
We’re not quite sure how they managed to see everything and bring back so much inspiration after such a short trip (officially just 4 hours!) but they did!
Take a look…
SHAKIRA is often hard to ignore, but as we reach the pinnacle of what has been a genuine World Cup fever, the hip-quaking one has been dominating charts globally. Waka Waka - the official 2010 FIFA World Cup anthem - has become a worldwide no.1 hit n 17 countries, and that could swell with the exposure of her live performance at the closing ceremony. The video has been viewed over two million times a day since June 10, taking its total to over 80.7 million views on YouTube as of July 9, making it the most viewed music video of June. Waka Wakahttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRpeEdMmmQ0
Stepping outta the spotlight and into the shadow… DJ SHADOW to be precise. Check out his newby DEF SURROUNDS US. His unique audio darkness provides a beacon of light for fans of pure production. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcESmqxS4kI
With whatever Shadow surrounds us, it always most def, Def.
And lastly, we end the week with some exciting news . . .
Next week sees the official opening of our new Venice Beach office in LA!
To say that we’ll miss Emily and Andrew is an understatement. Emily is our rock and the office will be a different place with out her – thank goodness for skype!
But it’s an exciting new era for FIVE33 and we can’t wait to bring you even more news and inspiration from both sides of the Atlantic.
This week we’ve been spaced out. Maybe because it’s so melonfarmin’ hot, maybe because we’ve been working on such an out-of-this-world new project, maybe just because space is… you know… cool. Anyways, we were glad to see that we’re not the only ones.
American photographer Hunter Freeman shows us that it’s not all fun and games being an astronaut in his latest series of photos. Here’s our personal favourite . . .
And it’s not just photographers. Paris fashion week was in on the act too!
New York based menswear designer Thom Browne had all his models in space suits at the start of his show. Each model then removed their suit to reveal Thom’s S/S 11 collection.
It wasn’t just spacemen that caught our eye in Paris. Skulls were also walking the runway… or should that be the plank? Swashbuckling their way down the catwalk, the models in theComme Des Garcon Homme Plus show took the concept of ’skull and cross bones’ to the next level. Captain Jack would be proud!
We can’t mention Men’s fashion week in Paris without tipping a wink to the wonderful John Galliano. The theatrical aspects of his shows always brings a smile to our faces and his mens S/S 11 collection didn’t disappoint. Drawing more than a little inspiration from the Godfather of slapstick comedy Charlie Chaplin.
Back To The Future (ooh, that’s a good name for a film…someone should make that) and the wonder of EveryDay Looper. This simple audio-looping iPhone App is causing more that a bit of a stir on YouTube, and this video shows why! Delicious homebrew harmony.
The weekend doesn’t get airborne without a musical send-off, and here’s a couple of ear blasters we wanted to send your way.
First up is the appropriately named summer sexpot ‘Hot Hot Hot’ by Dee-Lux. The synthetics on this track are out of control:
And finally some pure joy to sooth your overheated head - for those who haven’t seen it yet, this is Janelle Monáe on Letterman… and it has been scientifically proven that it is impossible to watch this without smiling.
We Brit’s aren’t really used to 30 degrees of heat for more than one day a year we swooned when we saw this pool in Singapore. This truly is the ultimate infinity pool. At 55 storeys up we doubt there’s a better view of the city. We’re booking our tickets now!
Friday’s here again, all glittery and sparkly and giving us the eye, and here’s your regular fix of all the stuff that has set our spider-senses tingling this week. Marvellous.
The quintessential English Summer Season has begun, with the opening of the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition. It’s a suitably eclectic mix of well-established artists such as David Hockney and Tracey Emin alongside work by some really exciting new talent. Unlike most shows, almost all of the work is for sale… and there were certainly a few pieces that caught our eye. Where did we put that Royal Academy discount card?
Talking of Great British institutions, the Grande Dame of fashion herself, Vivienne Westwood, is about to launch her collaboration with Lee Jeans. The 9-piece Vivienne Westwood Anglo mania + Lee collection takes it’s inspiration from the Westwood archives and includes references to her seminal Punk and Pirates collections of the 70’s and 80’s. We’ll be sure to check out both the men’s and women’s pieces when they hit the stores on 5th July. Vivienne Westwood and Lee Jeans. Anarchy.
On a completely different note we were very impressed with this alterative use for sticky tape. Winners of the DMY Awards at the International Design Festival Berlin, For Use / Numen, created this beautiful space in Vienna. The installation took just 2 days to create, and 530 rolls of transparent self adhesive tape. The work is based on the concept of a dance that evolves from the movement between the pillars, with the performance taking place within the structure. The dancers are stretching the tape as they move resulting in a (tape) recording of their movements. Clever and beautiful – our favourite type of work.
Last but by no means least . . .
Music!
Our FIVE33 ‘Tune for the weekend’ is an entire album of tunes! BLOC PARTY front man KELE goes solo with debut album THE BOXER. Out next week, it’s a first-round KO to our ears, burning the floor and sending the woofers into meltdown here at FIVE33 towers. The sweet science that is Tenderoni is officially released this week. Ring the bell!
None of you could have failed to notice that the FIFA World Cup is well and truly here.
Somali-Canadian poet, rapper, singer/songwriter K’naan is scoring goals all over the international charts with one of the finer football and music moments. Searing optimism that uplifts the 2009 original. Coca-Cola’s Official World Cup song has many a version:
David Bisbal sings for the Latin American countries and is our personal favourite.
A Chinese version which brings K together with ‘God Of Songs’ Jacky Cheung and China’s very own Mariah Carey: Jane Zhang has already reached no.1 there while Def Jam Japan’s Ai represents.
Audio sunshine that has us flying the flag of every nation. Don’t laugh.
And finally, ending on a World Cup note. We just wanted to share some of our favourite pictures from the opening ceremony. Certain to bring the sunshine of South Africa to your screens (even if it’s a bit cloudy outside!)
Though our invites to the launch of the brand new Louis Vuitton store on Bond Street were lost in the post, we were thrilled to note one of our favourite theatre companies involvement in the event.
Punchdrunk productions have always been truly incredible immersive experiences and from the look of these pictures, they pulled out all the stops for LV. Critically acclaimed with a design team who have an almost unbelievable eye for detail, a chance to see Punchdrunk in action is one not to be missed.
Naturally we couldn’t let this blog pass without doffing our caps to three important milestones
Firstly the international release of Sex in the City 2 – okay, admittedly not a life-changing milestone but one that we have been a little overly excited about since we saw the first pictures of SJP in her gold aviators and white Halston dress.
Secondly, the end of television as we know it… dramatic? yes, but no less dramatic than the series finales of two of the most compelling dramas to grace our TV in recent years. Even the 5am screening did not hamper our compulsion to learn the truth about the passengers of Oceanic Flight 815. LOST was found and in a matter of seconds, 24 reached the end of its day.
Thirdly, here at last, the iPad has landed in Europe! There were queues outside London’s Apple Store, just down the road in Regent Street a full 24 hours before the doors opened, anticipation for the newest addition to the ever-growing Apple family couldn’t be more hyped. We can finally experience the game-changing loveliness of the iPad for ourselves and no longer covet our American friends.
Much has been written about the new dawn the iPad will bring, the demise of printed magazines already lamented - a little prematurely perhaps. All we know is, we can’t wait to get our hands on one.
Proving that print is still very much at the forefront of design we’ve been checking out brand new LA magazine JIMON. Full of glossy photography and spiky wit their vision statement says it all
‘The work is edgy and tantalizing to your vision with no limits. The only limit is taste’
This week, the FIVE33 office has been jumping to the sound of Skepta’s ‘Rescue Me’. Picking up plays on national radio, its only a matter of time before the North London rapper will be party rocking, champagne popping, just like his friends Dizzee Rascal & Roll Deep at the top of the charts.
We also have to give huge shouts to The Drums – their debut album has not been off the system since it dropped thru the mailbox, while Christina Aguilera’s Bionic proves the girl is always ready to duke it out with all-comers.
Eurovision-mania grips the continent this weekend. We’ll be joining the anticipated 125 million global audience to wave our flags.
FIVE33 predicts big things for Azerbaijan’s Safura - a clear favorite for us.
Didrik Solli-Tangen’s My Heart Is Yours should feature on the end credit of a James Cameron movie, making hosts Norway a strong contender; Germany’s Lene Meyer-Landrut’s quirky vocal has already taken Satellite to no.1 at home, Belgium’s Tom Dice is not typical of Eurovision theatrics - Me & My Guitar should have been James Blunt’s comeback single; Israel’s Harel Skaat performs Milim in Hebrew but with an emotion that transcends language – simply stunning. Giorgos & Friends make ‘Opa’ a rousing entry for Greece, we’re sure Ricky Martin wishes he had recorded it, Iceland’s Hera Bjork brings a powerful, larger than life vocal to Je Ne Sais Quoi. A true diva. We purposely haven’t mentioned the UK entry. Bottom three, anyone? Sorry Josh!
And lastly, one for the boys this week (with a fashion twist for the girls!)
Karl Lagerfeld has picked up his camera for ERES and created this inventive, if a little cheeky, exploration of their newest collection!
Life here at FIVE33 is, we’re glad to say, a never-ending whirlwind of creativity and we thought it was about time we let you know what’s going on in our world.
Our new blog posts will keep you up to date with all of our latest exploits - where we’ve been, what we’ve seen and who’s getting us excited. Not to mention a few clues as to the super-top-secret stuff we are working on. Maybe. If you’re good.
Currently we are more than a little obsessed with the brand new Groove Armada album Black Light(‘Look Me In The Eye Sister’ is a stunning track… if you haven’t heard it – loud – you might want to fix that).
Florence and the Machine were in London town last Friday, and a bunch of us managed to make it down the front of her spectacular Hammersmith show. Florence was simply amazing, singing standouts such as ‘Rabbit Heart’ and ‘Dog Days’ to perfection. The monumental sound of her band was augmented by a string section and members of the Hackney Community Choir. The crowning touch was a stage filled with glowing bird cages – an appropriate touch for the hottest songbird around right now.
Hot tickets this weekend are Miike Snow at The Forum and the Chemical Brothers double nighter at the ever-popular Roundhouse
Our FIVE33 Saturday morning wake-up tune is already blowing up across Europe, once Stromae’s Alors On Danse gets in your head, its not long before your feet they are a-shuffling
Before you start to think that all we do is listen to music, this was the week we:
Discovered brand new Japanese Magazine RICH (also available online). Seriously cool photography. If this is the future of magazines then the future is set to be very beautiful indeed . . .
Wished that we could own the entire new Kate Moss collection for Topshop, and look as good as she does in the promo video shot by Nick Knight. . .
Watch the video here…
Imagined what it would be like to live in the incredible Casa Son Vida in Palma de Mallorca (a long-term project involving the Marcel Wanders Studio, Los Angeles and Switzerland-based tecARCHITECTURE and developers Cosmopolitan Estates). . .
Launching at the NTV Studios in Tokyo on the 23rd of December, the Asian leg of the Alice in Wonderland Touring Exhibition has been the most successful yet.
Over 20,000 guests have visited Wonderland so far, and been enchanted by the props, set pieces and costumes of Tim Burton’s most visually stunning film yet.
The Rabbit Hole leaves on the 11th of January - so if you are in Tokyo and haven’t had a chance to experience it yet… be sure to head down there!
Our events team (or ‘miracle workers’ to give them their full job description) have found a way to pack all the wonders of Tim Burton’s imagination into three shipping crates. As you read this, Alice is sailing the 10,000 kilometres to Tokyo.
The Exhibition arrives in Japan and begins construction on the 19th of December, with the doors to the rabbit-hole opening on the 22nd, at the NTV tower, in the heart of one of the world’s most exciting cities.
Our fearless custodian of all things Alice, Maria Walker, is going along for the ride, and will be posting updates from the site, as we get nearer to the big day.
The FIVE33 Group is a creative communications agency known for its groundbreaking International campaigns.
With a global business and enviable client base in entertainment, fashion, retail and sport, FIVE33 combine quality of thought with quality of execution, binding them together in new and unprecedented ways.
