Cultural Cartography

Writing in the sky

Recently there was a bit of a kerfuffle on Ads of the World about a campaign using "Urban Typography" by both Mercedes and Renault. As far as I can reconstruct it, this typography originated from a graphic design student.

I don't really want to get into the whole story of whose idea it was and who copied who. What really struck me about the whole thing is the point of reference which is driving through cities with high buildings, so that you only see small sections of sky. This is not something we could have referenced before the 20th century. However statistics show that in 2008 for the first time in the history of the world more than half the world's population will be living in cities. (Reference here). I can't help feeling that this really does mean the end of rural iconography. Even now it's difficult to understand what is going on in some of the friezes on the buildings that I pass on the way to work. And it will be even harder for the next generation. This isn't all bad, I love the idea of "Urban typography" but maybe there should be something that marks the passing of "rural typography" or semiotics.

Virtual Coke

Walking through a shopping mall in berlin yesterday, I came across a vending machine from Coke. It flashed at me, and beeped at me and basically did its best to stop me in my tracks. Of course I thought nothing more about this than normal because that's what vending machines always seem to do nowadays. Until I looked a bit closer.

The thing was I couldn't see how to get a bottle of coke out of the machine. That's because it was a digital vending machine. It sold content such as ringtones, logos, pictures etc. And also coke.

It took me a while to find the Coke button but I did. And then of course I felt like I was acting like a true dinosaur, trying to get Coke from a Coke machine.

Didn't get a picture as my new status as dinosaur prevents me from carrying a camera phone, leaving me only with a Blackberry which I can onyl just about work.

More here, but still no pictures