Visual Editions, nicknamed VE, is an interesting new publisher which creates books that offer a new kind of reading experience. Like this one, which takes American author Jonathan Safran Foer’s forthcoming Tree of Codes and die-cuts every page to form an integral part of the storytelling. Co-created by our very own Danish Britney and her friend Anna, they say, “Our belief is that books should be as visually interesting as the stories they tell. With the visual feeding into and adding to the storytelling as much as the words on the page do.” They have coined this ‘visual writing’ and their strapline is ‘Great looking stories’. The idea for VE came from the unnecessary divide as they saw it, between text-driven literary books and picture-driven art and design books. VE plan to publish books that others say are impossible to produce; books that aren’t worthy of being called a ‘book’; and bring heavy-reading books to life with a new visual language. In our increasingly visual culture, we really like the idea of bringing books to life in new ways and for new audiences (as Penguin are doing too).

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A report on the nature of employment in 2018 by the Chartered Management Institute, predicts that companies will come to regard ‘wisdom’ as a valuable resource. Companies will try to nurture an organisational memory by arranging rituals and storytelling, and listening to the accounts of long-term employees. Technology and the semantic web will move us from information management to “managing wisdom”. Managers will then be looked to more for their foresight, emotional intelligence, leadership, and ability to deal with change, managing a more diverse workforce on a more individualised basis. They will have a role in supporting employees as work-life balance evolves into work-life integration for many of us. These ‘wisdom workers’ will be driven by an ageing population and a more uncertain, evolving marketplace. Many talented people will become “multi-employed”. Indeed, collaborative working could become so important that companies abolish positions and job titles altogether. “Instead each employee should be seen as a valuable resource, to be employed according to specific organisational needs”, the report states. Read more about work in 2018 here.

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Of all the hoary clichés about women and sex that are wheeled out by men and by feminists who should know better, the one most ripe to be laid to rest is that which states that women favour erotic words over pornographic images, a sense of humour over a good body. If this were true, Anaïs Nin novels would outsell Sex and the City DVDs, and Peter Andre would be working in a kebab shop instead of posing for Cosmo. Sweet Action is a porn magazine for girls, which has been described as “Playgirl for Gen Xers”. Although it now exists as a blog, we think it’s ahead of its time and worth rediscovering. The tone and the style are pure New York hipster. As befits a small, independent zine, it’s a wonderful exercise in self-indulgence. The 3 girls who edit it say they “want to get women used to looking at porn and realising that they can have an active rather than a passive role in their sexuality”, and they lead by example with their editorial policy. Namely, they don’t accept erotica or poetry, and they pick straight men that they personally fancy as models. Sweet Action man is the beautiful scruff you saw at that gig, rather than an oily male model. Features include Eugene Hutz, frontman of the Ukranian gypsy punk band, Gogol Bordello, who takes his shirt off and says things like, “When you play in Zagreb, girls are more likely to jump up on stage and sit on your face.”

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The nipple tassel-inclined among us (rob, jess and sarah) recently attended the 4th annual London Burlesque Week, a global event that featured everything from Dita Von Teese’s favourite stripper (Catherine D’Lish) to Jesus Christ burlesque (Paco Fish). Now that Topshop does spanking paddles and Dita Von Teese is the face of Wonderbra, burlesque has arguably mainstreamed and we were interested to see how it is evolving. The recession has had a positive effect on burlesque, with audiences who would normally go to the theatre or musicals, opting for a more affordable show experience in burlesque. Burlesque is starting to be marketed as West End entertainment. It’s no longer just striptease but is fusing with theatre, comedy, and circus. As it mainstreams, what’s interesting is that it’s being treated more laterally. Which is where the opportunity for brands who want to be part of this culture may lie. Burlesque says a lot about modern femininity. As burlesque star Gwendoline Lamour says, “It’s about the fascination women have with reclaiming a fantasised view of femininity. The more women have moved away from being owned by men, the more they can have fun and empower that once weak femininity. Woman as ornament becomes a sign of power – I don’t have to do anything. In today’s burlesque, women are their own ornaments. It is designed for the female gaze”


Thanks to sarah for this story.

Facebook = Skynet? Well, some people think so. At the F8 conference this week, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg announced a raft of new tools that backed up the company’s vision to be at the heart of social media. At the core of these tools, is the popular ‘like’ button, which will be extended to web pages and businesses. When people click on this, news and feeds will be published on their Facebook newsfeed. The whole package aims to offer an intuitive web experience, with people and their friends at the centre of everything. With this move, Facebook has thrown the gauntlet down to Google as to who ‘owns the internet’, and raised the question yet again of privacy and ownership and use of information. The need for privacy in a transparent internet world is probably going to be the defining generational divide between digital natives and tourists. In the meantime, watch who you poke.

It’s a universal truth that gloomy novels don’t sell. There’s one exception, however. Take a wintery landscape, a dead body, add a depressed main character, and set it in a Nordic nation, and you have the recipe for an international bestseller. Stieg Larsson’s hugely popular Millennium Trilogy has become a visible example of the global mania for what’s being referred to as ‘Nordic Noir’. Running a close second, is Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallander series, nine novels that combined, have sold more than 25m copies worldwide and spawned a British telly series plus several Swedish films. Now, publishers in the US and UK have jumped on the trend commissioning translations of Scandinavia’s most acclaimed mystery authors. The Bergmanesque Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In, is another Nordic success that hints at people’s inner glumness being reflected in their cultural consumption. The abiding mystery of the Scandinavian crime-fiction boom is why it should have emerged from a place where real violent crime is so rare.


Thanks to Gavin Cumine for this story.


References:
The Economist
The New York Times
The Wall Street Journal

A university education bubble has evolved, a result of distorted economics, bad government policy and social pressure. Government subsidised loans have made university attainable for many, but have created a debt for life culture in their wake. Obtaining a degree used to mean better wage and career prospects, but the reality is that most of us now have or could have degrees, rendering them a hygiene factor, rather than economic mileage. The market will eventually figure out that a degree doesn’t mean what it used to, leaving graduates with a depleting asset whilst their debt racks up interest. The US high-school drop-out rate is now 3 in 10, and less than a third of young people finished college, but what if these millions of so-called dropouts are onto something? As high schools and unis prepare the next generation for jobs that won’t exist, a dropout revolution could well be underway, sparking a new experiment in ways of learning and living.


Such new ways can be seen in the rise of ‘freeganism’ and in the small but growing ‘cage-free families’ who’ve abandoned their suburban lives for the open road. We also see it in the rising number of high school seniors taking gap years. We live in an age where there is a dearth of craftsmen— and as society evolves in the direction of renewable energy and rail transport, there will be plenty of jobs building windmills, installing solar panels, laying high speed rail. The world needs more skilled carpenters, painters, electricians, plumbers, glaziers, masons and auto-mechanics. These are jobs that cannot be outsourced to China or India and could become occupational choices for a huge number of our citizens. Master craftsmen can earn six figures. Even journeymen craftsmen routinely make incomes in the top half of the income distribution.

The technological revolution has made degrees look increasingly irrelevant for many. Bill Gates didn’t graduate; neither did Michael Dell, Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs for that matter. Such figures show that diverting from the standard school path doesn’t always lead to a dead end. If it leads you toward a trade where you can earn a living and be proud of your achievements surely it’s for the best. So as the higher-education industry continues to agitate for university for all employers are demanding actual evidence you are good at something. More and more, people are being judged by skills rather than a piece of paper. What this highlights more than anything is a failure on the part of universities that have become institutions churning out degrees and diploma’s with no real meaning, driven to perpetuate themselves and extend their budgets.


Thanks to Gavin Cumine for this story.


References
Business Insider
Time

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This month, China’s cybercitizens hailed an anonymous beggar from Ningbo as China’s most handsome and fashionable man – all based on one photo taken by an amateur photographer testing his camera. When posted online, the picture of Cheng Guorong attracted a cult following all admiring his ‘good looks’ and ‘bohemian style’. There was also an offline search to discover his exact whereabouts and bestow upon him a dubious celebrity status, as envisaged in various photoshop creations. He has been dubbed the The Handsome Vagabond, or more commonly, Brother Sharp. One superfan is even trying to trademark ‘his look’ on his behalf. His appeal has been summed up nicely by one commentator: ‘Look at him wrinkle his brow … nothing needs to be said … sexy …’ We think Brother Sharp is an amusing parable of our times – high fashion being indistinguishable from the results of 6 months of sleeping rough.


Homelessness in the fashion world seems to be having a zeitgeist moment. Vivienne Westwood latest men’s collection for A/W 2010 was inspired by vagrants. Last September saw a homeless-chic cover on Italian Vogue. Elle awarded an internship to a homeless girl. Scott Schuman of The Sartorialist has been snapping the homeless. There is even a website dedicated to snapping the trend-setting homeless. The famed Olsen twins have been dressing like elegantly homeless hoboes for years. This may well be a statement to keep their distance from the celeb world. Maybe there is a parallel between the conscious shabbiness of the Olsen’s and the dressing down that has always been a way for the upper class to signal their distance to the nouveau riche? We love this quote from model Erin Wasson, which perfectly sums up fashions removal from reality on the subject of ‘homeless chic’:
‘The people with the best style for me are the people that are the poorest. Like, when I go down to Venice beach and I see the homeless, like, I’m like, ‘Oh my God, they’re pulling out, like, crazy looks and they, like, pulled shit out of like garbage cans.’


Thanks to Jacob Wright, Paula Bjork and Gavin Cumine for this story. This article was a two thirds Scottish and one third Swedish creation. With a dash of sarah rabia editrix multiculturalism!


Reference
Chinasmack.com

Image Credit
Funkydowntown.com

As men’s role in society becomes more ambiguous and uncertain, the concept of ‘brotherhood’ is resonating as a source of familiarity, support and guidance. Film has been preoccupied with such a question for decades, offering various sentimental, anthropological studies examining the meaning of brotherhood, from Some like It Hot to Grumpy Old Men. More recently, buddy films have been rebranded as ‘bromances’. Todd Phillips’ The Hangover documents the angst and indecency lurking beneath the surface of adulthood decorum and the importance and even beauty, of male bonding. Looking back at the 90’s evolution of the Loaded Lad, to the Beckham-idolising metrosexual depicted by GQ, we seem to have gone full circle to a stage where men need the rituals of being men and hanging out with their mates more than ever. Our hunch is that The Hangover’s portrait of man will be remembered for capturing the zeitgeist of Noughties Man.


Thanks to Matt Hardisty and http://iheartgum.blogspot.com/#mce_temp_url# for this story.


References
Time

On Wednesday night, Mother gathered a group of interesting experts from the worlds of sport, teens, and culture, together with an intimate audience, to discuss the issue of how to create a teen legacy from the 2012 Olympics for our client Coca-Cola (the main Olymic sponsor). Chantelle Fiddy, editor of CTRL.ALT.SHIFT, set the tone for the evening, astutely stating that teens feel more like “observers, than participants” in the Games. Mat Locke of C4, said lots of clever things too, including something worth sticking in your next Keynote on ‘participation’. If you want to create participation, he says, you should never see your audience as less than 2 people. It is not about the brand and the consumer, but rather about the consumer and their friends. Teens are driven by self-interest, immediacy, and doing stuff with their mates, as we all know. The conclusion of the evening is that brands don’t need to invent participation, but simply bring their marketing muscle to stuff already out there that needs a leg up. The highlight, however, was definitely the hilariously misjudged monologue from a particular audience member : )


Thanks to sarah and Gavin Cumine for this story.