Music Video of the Week: Nine Inch Nails

The music video of the week is for The Perfect Drug by Nine Inch Nails. Mark Romanek is a truly visionary video director, a master of atmosphere. This entire video has s creepy, Victorian/Gothic, Edgar Allen Poe, Turn of the Screw, Edward Gorey type vibe to it, which is a high complement.

This video appeared in 1996 and blew me away, with it's muted color palettes and overhead, diffused lighting. Very influential to my own work in terms of composition and alteration of lighting source. I saw the making of this video long ago, and I was amazed that much of the video was filmed in a meat locker to achieve the cold breathe look. This of course was pre-digital era film making, so it required some ingenuity on the part of Romanek and Reznor to pull of these (still) stunning effects.

Nine Inch Nails have always had arresting videos, back to their beginnings in 1989. Take some time on youtube and watch them.

Some of the Greatest & Most Famous Logos Ever

Lots and lots of design posts lately, with great imagery and links but little content. Sorry for that. Anyway, here are some of the greatest logo designs, all in one convenient place. Again, thanks to nubbytwiglet.com for the heads up.

The King Finally Freaks Me Out

I have always been a fan of Burger King's marketing strategy, which has been humorous and sometimes creepy, occasionally at the same time (like the King commercials, which I find hilarious but I know people who are horrified by it). McDonald's schizophrenic marketing campaigns have felt a bit like that lost kid you went to high school with, who tries just a little too hard to be cool, and one day comes to school with a shaved head and pretends to be punk when he was gangsta the week previous. You know who I'm talking about. Those campaigns began with the "I'm Lovin' It" re sloganeering project and have attempted to grab onto anything "hip" or "in" since then - sad really. Anyway, over at the fantastic nubbytwiglet.com I spotted this: Burger King T Shirts. This leads me to several thoughts:

1. There is such a thing as a Burger King Studio, where they design things that aren't burgers. Seriously, this is really bizarre - you have to take a look.
2. That the t shirts they have designed are actually not bad.
3. That the Burger King Cologne is real.
4. Occasionally I see something that is so bizarre, so odd, so not from this world, that I cannot wrap my head around it or make sense of it. This is one of those times.

I cannot for the life of me understand this; in fact, I feel woozy and disoriented just looking at it. A fast food chain marketing directly to the Shepherd Fairey crowd - what do they wish to accomplish here? Are us artists and designers that big of a demographic that we might topple the fast food industry by tapping into our ranks? It's so bizarre, I feel taken in, and nauseous at the same time. Take a look and decide for yourself.