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Introducing Genrecore, Tweecore, Authentocore,and WTFcore

If you were cursed with an XY chromosome formation in the womb, then you’re fucked when it comes to fashion. Girls, your splendid array of halternecks, juliette sleeves and tapered hems leave me seething with rage. You hog the fashion smorgasbord and leave boys with nothing but discarded remains. As far as our torso’s go, we can choose between T-shirt and shirt. That’s it. You all sicken me.

Given our limited options, design is everything. So here are the T-shirts most likely to amplify your personal brand in 2010.

GENRE-CORE

Christian-blip, fish n glitch, shoe-rave – all legitimate trends for the discerning twenty-tensy music consumer. But how to let people know exactly what you’re buzzing on without looking like one of those fold up n’ draw three-people-draw-three sections-of-a-man-game? Enter Hipster Runoff to pull you out of this puddle of discontent. From Sufjan-house to Pitchforkcore, it’s all there. In any relevant dive-bar you won’t even need to open your mouth to let people know you’re surfing on the crest of an epic cultural wave.

As the above diagram shows, in 2010, ambiguity is out. Increasingly shorter attention spans are going to lead to a new-wave of litero-style. Look out for Article magazines new snow-boots featuring a constantly updating ‘last.fm most played’ list embossed on the sole. If you’re gonna leave a footprint, at least make it say something about you. read the rest

Demolition - The Fire Station Starts to Fall


There aren’t many spectator sports better than demolitions. They bring out emotions of retribution, joy, satisfaction and accomplishment. All you have to do is stay out of the way. Right now, a pretty spectacular one is going on in the city centre. The Fire Stations, who in honour of its impending destruction we eulogized in issue nine, is going down! I encourage you to pop down on your lunch break for a look. If you are lucky they will be ripping out a steel girder with a hydraulic clamp pincer thingy.

After some research, we have uncovered the demolition is being done by the Cuddy group. Apparently they are very good, currently holding the Demolition Company of the Year Award. (I love to think what the trophy looks like!) Other industry accolades include an award for Asbestos Supervisor of the Year and another for Industrial Demolition. Not just anyone can destroy a building it would seem. And these guys, are the best. The Manchester United of Demolition.

 

 

As discussed in our original article about the Firestation, destroying it is going to be a mission. Built to withstand nuclear blasts and the like, Cuddy have their work cut out for them. In the meantime, we can watch it ebb away, like a sand castle on the beach with waves lapping at its edges, a big red brick asbestos filled castle on the beach.

The Article Cool Report

Like other notable publications, we’ve been working hard at Article towers to present you with a guide to the world’s coolest cities in 2009. This is ‘cool’ in its best sense: wealthy young people and their needlessly complicated trends.

Given this, we can reduce coolness to its hard, bare facts. If cycling, and fixed gear bikes in particular, are the international arbiter of the trendy citizen, we can equate coolness with flatness.

Cycling is cool. Hills are bad for cycling. Therefore, hills inhibit coolness. Here, with negligent methodology, we present the world’s coolest cities with our original flatness to coolness ratio.

Graph A. Relative topographical inclines of various world cities.

Graph B. Gradients plotted with level of highest possible cycling conditions (y-axis). Hatched area below line indicates the relative ease of cycling between cities.

Graph C. Data from Graph B. Big hands indicate ‘yes!’ or ‘no!’

 

Conclusions.

Amsterdam takes the top spot, with Berlin a close second. St Petersburg looks promising, but is strongly warned against given the state of its roads. At the bottom, Sheffield notably performs better than Barcelona, which needs to sort itself out if it’s to perform better next year.

But of course, this is really a matter of geographical consequence. These cities have no hope unless there’s massive earthquakes or tectonic plate movement. Or, god forbid, a sport like street luge becomes cool.

‘User Generated Landscape’ aka Bad Street Layouts

Sheffield’s a creative place, what with its designers, filmmakers, spoon makers and all. But this is something else. This is all the times you’ve said what the fuck is this? Who thinks I’m going to walk another 10 metres just to turn back on myself?

Sometimes known as desire paths, the lines in the landscape formed through many people taking the shortest route, these markings could be a poetic statement, a line in the sand dutifully photographed in order to become a trite coffee shop/flickr image. But they are most interesting when they highlight the complete ineptitude of planners to understand how people might actually act. The photo above is a classic in this respect. read the rest

Take Me Away #1

They are ubiquitous. They are innocuous. They are horrible! And it seems like ten come through my door every week. Take-away menus are a black hole in graphic information design. Stock photos of greasy chicken burgers and cans of Pepsi matched with bright colors and horrendous fonts, the menus more often than not are all selling the same thing. The challenge is thus to make a menu that stands out. How do you do this? One tactic is to use as many photos as possible. Another is to use offensively bright colors. And then there is the choice of fonts, and themes. Sometimes the menus even go as far as to put personal touches, such as photos of the men who slave over grills and use electric kebab cutters to create perfect strips of rubber-band like meat. However, it seems that the best way to make your establishment’s offerings stand out is to use every technique available.

I will be examining more as they fall through my door. Here is just a taster menu.


read the rest

Ikea Camouflage

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Polonista Traktorzysta

The internet’s finest man

Novi God

Kawasaki! Kawasaki!

CULTURE
Dedicated to the Unknown Artist.

A look at Susan Hiller’s work in relation to this year’s Art Sheffield 2010: Life a User’s Manual citywide exhibition.

STORIES
Bike Shop Freemasonry.

Entering the bike shop with its array of gadgets, alien lingo and Lycra clad leg shavers was too daunting an undertaking for this self-conscious teeny-bopper: both literally and metaphorically I didn’t have the bollocks.

INTERVIEWS
FrenchMottershead: Shops - Interview.

An interview with Rebecca French and Andrew Mottershead. The artists behind the Site Gallery’s latest exhibition.