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jean michel BASQUIAT
15 December 2017 
Hi MLE,Finally went to see the Basquiat show at the Barbican, which is said to be “the first large-scale exhibition in the UK” of his work. I have to admit, though I’ve always found Basquiat himself very cute, I’ve never found his paintings very interesting.
Well, I was proven completely wrong - when you see them in reality, and give them a chance, his paintings are, of course, amazing. I usually have the patience to be at an exhibition for maybe an hour and a half - but I was there for well over two hours and could have stayed longer.I loved watching the film, “Downtown 81” featuring Basquiat and loosely based on his life. I loved all the polaroids, sketches and stories of all the 1980s New York art scene hipsters. It was really great to get so much context for his work.
Of course Banksy had to make an appearance, creating some new work outside the Barbican (see last image above). Says Banksy, “Major new Basquiat show opens at the Barbican - a place that is normally very keen to clean any graffiti from its walls.”So now the Barbican is celebrating Basquiat, who started as a graffiti artist etc, and they have some Banksy graffiti on their walls making fun of the fact that they are doing this… The Barbican sort of wants to remove the Banksy graffiti that is poking fun of them, but doing so would make them look bad (who would paint over a Banksy!?)Have a nice weekend!Suzan xxPosted in: art -
DIRECT TO MEDIA PRINTING on dibond
24 November 2017 
Hi MLE,
Exciting day today - researching our first Dibond print. Dibond is of interest as we are researching printing a large one-colour vector illustration. It is an aluminium composite sheet specially optimised for display, so even though the sheets are huge and very thin, they lie super flat, which is amazing. Also, they are very light compared to aluminium. Dibond comes in a variety of colours including a brushed silver that looks like stainless steel and a mirror finish that looks just like a mirror.
The print quality is amazing, perfect for a one-colour vector drawing, however compared to a more traditional digital print, the quality is not quite there, especially when you look at gradients, that are a bit more spotty.
I had a look at the new direct to media printer, which was impressive (photos above). In addition to Dibond, it can pretty much print on anything. This printer has been used to print on a huge cow hide and also bricks. In fact, as long as it the material is less than 8cm thick, it can probably be done.
The bed is massive, and can print up to 3.5 x 2.5 meters. It has a series of holes in it that sucks the material to it, so that it lies as flat as possible, hence a high resolution print. There is a heating device that dries the link instantly as it is being printed. This heating device will cause some coated digital papers to burn, but these are some of the only materials that cannot be used!
One last interesting fact: the print head costs £45K to replace (photo of the print head is above). Which had to be done recently. After paying about £250K for the machine about three years ago, the printer was not very happy about this!
I will write again when the job is done…
Have a nice weekend!
SuzanPosted in: experiments -
The advantage of being a multinational corporation
15 November 2017 
Hi MLE,A trove of leaked documents published last week by the International Consortium for Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) have confirmed how the world’s ultra-rich become richer by exploiting tax shelters.Nike’s European headquarters is based in the Netherlands. In 2006 the Dutch government granted the brand a new tax deal that allowed it to open a subsidiary in Bermuda (which is of course a shell company). This subsidiary owns Nike’s intangible design assets – like its logo and trademarks – for all markets outside of the United States. Since it is based in Bermuda, which is a tax-free country, Nike is not taxed at all on the billions in revenue these licensing fees generate.But this was not enough. In 2014, Nike found a way to successfully exploit a Dutch tax law from 1830 called a “commanditaire vennootschap” (CV), or limited partnership, which lets multinational corporations skirt taxes in the Netherlands and abroad, too.Thanks to its corporate restructuring, Nike’s tax global rate dropped from 34.9% in 2007 to 13.2% this year.Other leaked documents show how other multinationals like Uber are doing the same thing. The UK is losing out on much-needed tax dollars from Uber. Yet another reason why I don’t want them in this country.
Speak next week!
Suzan -
TODAY'S shoreditch graffiti
10 November 2017 
Hey the MLE,
Was walking through one of the world's top graffiti spots, Shoreditch, and thought I'd take some photos for you. There's always something different, the walls seems to be changing by the second. Of course the medium goes beyond spray paint to silk screens, sculptures, stencils on wallpaper, framed photographs, etc etc etc.
Have a nice weekend!
Suzan
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Air Canada Advertising
3 November 2017 
Hi MLE,
I love the lengths that corporations must go to these days to sell, sell, sell.
The brief:
Sell more Air Canada flight tickets to young Londoners.
The solution:
Go to where the young people are, Shoreditch (of course) and give them what they want: a "popup" (of course), with "craft beer" (of course) and Canadian food, “poutine” (of course).
So here I am, jammed in the corner of this tiny room full of people eating and Air Canada branding. Next to me some poor kid is answering a survey via iPad. “Would I recommend this pop up to my friends? Yeah sure. Did I know that Air Canada flew to Singapore? Hmm, nope...” and on and on.
No one working here had ever been to Canada, but they were all aware that they were not actually selling “poutine” - as every Canadian, including myself, had informed them. Eg: "Boston’s Loaded Crab: Chips, fresh crab, gouda cream sauce, scallions, blue cheese crumbles" What is that?
Well, my chips and sauce is all done and all that remains in the box is a little flag to remind me to hashtag all my Instagram pics to “#coolnotcold to win a free Air Canada flight. Better go, someone is asking for my seat.
I leave, feeling a bit smug and rather happy that I do not work in advertising like this anymore!
SuzanPosted in: advertising