because it's the holidays and I want to talk about clothes

I know i have already mentioned how much I love my google reader. It's there whenever I need to just switch off and look at pretty pictures and read about pretty things.

So since my little 'ode to the reader' post previously, i began to consider the blog phenomenon and what it means to certain industries. I have decided that I am a very nosy person, not that I'm overcome with the need to know everybody's business (of course I want to know that too) but i'm also interested in the little things, like why someone ordered pasta at lunch instead of the chicken baguette or what made them buy that over sized fuchsia knitted jumper?

The jumper however is what consumes most of my interest and considering the popularity of fashion blogging, apparently everyone else wants to know too!

I like to look at the photos from purple DIARY (see below) which basically presents images of a whole lot of exhibitionists who turn the viewer (i.e. me) into an exhibitionist. Olivier Zahm has created an empire out of his photographs portraying models, musicians and of course himself being fabulous. Similarly style bloggers like the Sartorialist and Garance Dore (who incidentally just got married and became the worlds first style blog power couple) have made their mark (and money?!) from travelling the world taking photos of hot people in hot clothes. However, once these photographs were not available to the masses and we could only wonder what amazing things went on behind the doors you couldn't get in to. As previously mentioned I'm nosey and if I am then other people are.

Along with the style comes the gossip, the bitching, the shopping and the stalking each one contributing to a significant shift. When previously this industry was unaccessible, now, on the internet, more and more people can be voyers to a once very exclusive club.

My Reader

This isn't an official post, I just wanted to say I love my Google Reader;

The future of the print ad: would you hang a screen on your wall?

These and many more exquisite posters are available for purchase from International Posters.

Recently I visited the Ian Potter Gallery on campus to look at a selection from the Gerard Herbst Poster Collection. They are beautiful! Thick vibrant screen-printed imagery in bold colours advertising everything from the Nazi Party to an Italian dubbed Sophia Loren movie. I would gladly display anyone of them in my home but I began to think about the effects digitisation will have on the printed ad.

According to the History of the Poster first printed by Phaidon on 1971, posters are ‘barometers of social, economic, political and cultural events designed to draw attention to social message, publicize products and invited us to events.’1 Apart from not being able to remember when the last time I received a paper invitation was I realised the printed ad might be an endangered species. Though marketers are still ever present in society, according to research printed in Advertising Age earlier this year, the way in which they chose to attract their audience is focused on hard objectives, such as specific market-share gains, rather than soft ones, such as brand awareness or visual aesthetic.

Though it appears online and television (though the advent of TiVo is threatening the commercial break) advertising allows for marketers to reach a broader audience, the actual design process has changed and the poster may be dead.

Back to the Future part II saw Marty McFly travel to 2015 almost 5 years away and hanging in his future self’s house are screens displaying imagery that constantly changes - i wonder how long it will be before Apple invent this?!

1 Josef and Shizuko Muller-Brockmann, 'History of the Poster', New York:Phaidon, 1971