Archinect - News

A New York City MTA train has been wrapped in Supreme in new collaboration

2021-08-17T15:11:00-04:00

A Supreme-wrapped subway train has been added to the New York City MTA. This marks the second major collaboration between the two, following their 2017 MTA MetroCard release.

Looks like Supreme is linking up with NYC & MTA again. This time full wrap on subway trains @DropsByJay @snkr_twitr @J23app

Thanks to my man Kenny for the pics! pic.twitter.com/BMb6pY1g35
— C (@IDKwhyImHere) August 9, 2021

Rolled out this past weekend, one train, fully wrapped in Supreme’s iconic red Box Logo, will run on the L line, an MTA spokesperson told WCBS reporter Vincent Barone. The MTA representative also stated that this partnership is part of a new revenue stream for the organization, along with a means of promoting Supreme’s upcoming Fall/Winter 2021 collection. This comes as the MTA recovers from sharp declines in ridership as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic last year.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Supreme (@supremenewyork)

The pair’s first collaboration came i...

How to Craft an Effective Job Ad: Talk About Lifestyle

2019-11-13T14:27:00-05:00

Writing a job ad can seem like a toneless task. Just get it out it out there as fast a possible, we need people, some might think. But, really, the desired outcome is to attract the best talent, and that takes some finesse. Especially in our current market, where job-seekers have a plethora of opportunities to choose from, firms more than ever need to approach their search for new talent with a spirit of excellence and creativity.

Like a job seeker's application package, a firm's job ad is essential in its search for quality candidates. Templated formats don't usually work here. Rather, one must craft an impactful representation of the opportunity at hand and creatively display what makes a particular place of work worth pursuing.

Of the several details a job ad needs to cover, lifestyle (what some might call "work/life-balance"), especially in architecture, is one of the factors many job seekers consider in their search for a career change. Every job post should contain some menti...

Taco Bell to open a hotel in Palm Springs

2019-05-16T19:38:00-04:00

Get ready for “Bell”hops and Baja Blasts, Fire Sauce and Sauce Packet floaties, because The Bell: A Taco Bell Hotel and Resort is opening for a limited time in Palm Springs this August, meant for 18+ superfans. Complete with exclusive Taco Bell menu items and plenty of surprises, The Bell is sure to be the spicy twist of your summer. So pack your swimsuit, mark your calendars and start the countdown, because The Bell is about to make all of your taco dreams come true.

for a limited pop-up run this August, Taco Bell will open a hotel in Palm Springs (not to be confused with their permanent wedding chapel in Las Vegas).

Photo courtesy of Taco Bell

The Taco Bell-themed hotel is just one example of many recent strategies for well-established brands to develop interactive spaces as methods of promotional marketing. We recently covered a more permanent version with the recently opened Shinola Hotel in Detroit.

Anish Kapoor reaches settlement with NRA over usage of his iconic Cloud Gate sculpture

2018-12-10T14:21:00-05:00

British artist Anish Kapoor has reached a settlement with the NRA for using his reflective Bean sculpture in one of their promotional videos. The ad, titled The Violence of Laws, had used images of modern architectural landmarks, such a Gehry's Disney Concert Hall, Piano's New York Times building, and Kapoor's Cloud Gate, as stand-ins of liberal elitism.

In March, Kapoor condemned the non-profit which advocates for gun rights for their use of the image, and filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in the US District Court in Illinois later that summer. Reached out-of-court, the current settlement has the NRA agreeing to remove the image from their video. Further, Kapoor has asked the US gun lobby to donate $1 million to charities working with victims of gun violence such as Every Town for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Actions for Gun Sense in America.

In a press statement released through Lisson Gallery, who represents the artist, Kapoor declared triumph over the NRA. "This is a victory...

#SailsNotSales: public protests after Sydney Opera House displays horse racing ad on its facade

2018-10-15T16:13:00-04:00

After a horse race ad was projected onto the structure’s iconic roof earlier this week, protestors took to the streets in objection to the commodification of their beloved building.

Hundreds of protesters had gathered in the evening hours of October 9 when the, usually, off-white iconic sails of the Sydney Opera House were used as a video projection canvas to promote a major upcoming horse race in New South Wales. The crowd booed and tried to interrupt the projection with a small army of flash lights, chanting "Whose house? Our house".

The protest meanwhile has drawn much wider circles, resulting in a Change.org petition with over 300,000 supporters against any future use of the UNESCO World Heritage Site as a promotional billboard and a rebuke from the Heritage Council of NSW.

Zaha Hadid Architects transforms the classic billboard into public art

2018-09-04T15:00:00-04:00

JCDecaux has taken the wraps off a unique piece of out-of-home inventory in London designed by Zaha Hadid Design. The agency briefed the agency to redefine 'the design language of billboards'. It ditched the conventional shapes and frames that have steered the industry to date. Dubbed 'The Kensington', and located on the road from London to Heathrow, the structure takes the shape of a curved double-ribbon.

Zaha Hadid Architects has created a new design for street advertising with JCDecaux Group, a multinational corporation known for its bus-stop advertising systems and billboards. Creating a sculptural advertising approach, the firm's design reinvents the classic billboard into public art. Brands have been invited to bid for placement on the 85 by 20 foot screen structure. So far Audi and Coty are the first to sign up.

Anish Kapoor sues the NRA for using image of Cloud Gate in a 2017 ad

2018-06-20T14:32:00-04:00

In a new statement, Kapoor claimed that it was the “solidarity and support” of the public that encouraged him to take action against the NRA, and urged everyone “to stand up to the dark and aggressive forces in society that seek, out of fear and hatred, to lead us backward into a primitive, paranoid, and defensive worldview.”

After denouncing the National Rifle Association in an open letter this past March, artist Anish Kapoor filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the group on June 19 for the unauthorized use of an image of his famous “Cloud Gate” sculpture in this 2017 ad titled “The Clenched Fist of Truth”. Kapoor filed the complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Comic-strip ads created as marketing to entice millennials to move to a Chicago suburb

2018-04-10T13:51:00-04:00

Welcome to Homewood, Illinois, a suburb of 20,000 that is marketing itself to urbanites as a hidden hipster gem. The town, which is about 25 miles south of downtown Chicago, just launched a new advertising campaign called “Think Homewood.” Ads posted inside trains on the L’s Blue Line and elsewhere in Chicago contrast the laid-back vibe of Homewood to the stress of city living. The ads are comic strips drawn by illustrator and Homewood resident Marc Alan Fishman.

The Chicago suburb Homewood harnessed the graphic skills of a local artist to launch their comic-strip ad campaign, Think Homewood, in order to attract millennials. Joining the list of suburban towns that must now work to attract the demographic they were originally intended for, Homewood strives to market itself as a diverse neighborhood for young families.

Homewood ad campaign by artist Marc Alan Fishman.

Think Homewood addresses the inconveniences of city life, especially for those with kids, and promises a stress free alternative. The campaign plays off millennial tropes including love of avocados, children named "zen", and brunching at farm-to-table cafes.

Homewood ad campaign by artist Marc Alan Fishman.

Get one of ten free advertisements in the first issue of 'Ed', Archinect's new print magazine!

2017-05-02T15:31:00-04:00

The first issue of Ed, Archinect’s new hybrid print/digital magazine, is entitled “The Architecture of Architecture” and seeks to investigate the forces that determine and delimit the possibilities of architectural practice and thought. In short, the issue endeavors to make visible the limits of architecture, to probe its normative assumptions, and to propose alternatives for the discipline and profession. Find out more here.

A constitutive part of the ‘architecture of architecture’ in the 21st century is self-promotion, branding, and other forms of identity-production. We’d like to critically interrogate this imperative, without necessarily issuing a single or reductive judgment. To that end, we’re including 10 free advertisements in the inaugural issue of Ed, both solicited and selected from an open call that is now open.

We welcome a range of approaches in these advertisements—from the polemical to the self-promotional. You can take this as an opportunity to sell your practice, sel...

Sorry architecture, you're being 'disrupted.'

2016-06-07T09:58:00-04:00

Mr. Greenberg expects its future clients' new offices can expect similar results. In R/GA's first five months in its more "connected space" employee retention is up 5%. The ultimate goal and "magic number" will likely be akin to the higher retention rates of tech companies, like Google and Facebook. Those companies are growing in cities like New York and forcing agencies like R/GA to offer more desirable workspaces if they want to keep their talent, explained Mr. Greenberg.

When does a billboard become a protected landmark?

2016-05-09T14:06:00-04:00

If someone told you today that a new, brightly lit neon sign was going up across the street from where you live, you might react with disgust at the thought of such a commercial eyesore invading the skyline of your community. Yet when some older sign or billboard is threatened, everyone is suddenly up in arms, rushing to its defense. How does something as mundane as outdoor advertising grow to become considered an essential piece of the urban fabric?

“They become landmarks, loved because they have been visible at certain street corners — or from many vantage points across the city — for a long time,” writes Michael J. Auer in the brief. “Such signs are valued for their familiarity, their beauty, their humor, their size, or even their grotesqueness. In these cases, signs transcend their conventional role as vehicles of information, as identifiers of something else. When signs reach this stage, they accumulate rich layers of meaning. They no longer merely advertise, but are valued in and of themselves. They become icons.”

Visual pollution: inside the global movement to ban urban billboards

2015-08-13T16:21:00-04:00

In 2007, [São Paulo] Mayor Gilberto Kassab implemented the Clean City Law, labelling outdoor adverts a form of “visual pollution”. In a single year, the city removed 15,000 billboards and 300,000 oversized storefront signs. [...] The ubiquity of outdoor advertising means that we have come to take it for granted; accepting both its presence and its purpose as natural features of the urban environment.

Previously on Archinect: Rethinking Billboards as homeless shelters, and as land art projects in Art + Architecture: The Los Angeles Nomadic Division Sets Up Camp.

AIA launches second video in "Look Up" campaign featuring a blind architect

2015-05-19T20:33:00-04:00

Entitled "An Architect's Story", the video features Chris Downey, a blind architect and founder of "Architecture for the Blind" in San Francisco. The piece, which debuted at the AIA National Convention last week, focuses on Downey's approach to architecture before and after unexpectedly becoming blind in 2008, and features talking-head interviews with Downey, one of his clients, and a student of his at UC Berkeley.

The documentary piece is starkly different in approach and style to the first installment of the "Look Up" campaign. Yes, both have the kind of generically-inspiring music one would have equal luck finding in either a Koch Industries' ad or the trailer for a young-adult romantic drama. But while the first spot, tasked with framing the "Look Up" identity, tended towards cinematic, fast-cut clips of dramatic or cerebral moments to churn up excitement about the profession, "An Architect's Story" is more focused on personal perspective. It strives to take Downey's insights fro...

"All Work and All Play": Archinect Sessions Episode #16 with Jimenez Lai and Robert Ivy, CEO of the AIA

2015-02-12T19:40:00-05:00

What do Robert Ivy FAIA, EVP/CEO of the AIA, and Jimenez Lai, of Bureau Spectacular, have in common? Other than they're both architects, not so much! What better way to celebrate a profession at the crossroads than featuring interviews with both in our latest podcast episode.

Paul, Amelia, Donna and Ken spoke with Ivy about the AIA's newly launched "I Look Up" (#ilookup) public awareness campaign for architects, and Jimenez Lai joined us in studio to discuss his latest Graham Foundation-funded collaboration, Treatise: Why Write Alone?.

Treatise is currently being exhibited at the Graham Foundation in Chicago through March 28, and its eponymous publication launches March 18.

As always, you can send us your architectural legal issues, comments or questions via twitter #archinectsessions, email or call us at (213) 784-7421.

Listen to episode sixteen of Archinect Sessions, "All Work and All Play" with Jimenez Lai and Robert Ivy FAIA, EVP/CEO of the AIA:

iTunes: Click here to listen, and...

AIA announces upcoming national television advertising campaign

2015-02-06T12:23:00-05:00

Robert Ivy, CEO of the American Institute of Architects, has just announced that the organization will begin placing 30-second ads on national cable networks and news channels. The ads will begin airing on February 8th and will feature their recent "Look Up" campaign.

The campaign is a 3 year plan to "share the value that architects bring to communities".

‘Dronevertising’ Makes Real Life Pop-Up Ads

2014-09-03T13:49:00-04:00

It was only a matter of time before someone saw the commercial potential of drones. Their compact size and swift mobility makes them ideal vehicles for transporting goods and information around the crowded streets of a city. Amazon has recently been testing the potential for drone deliveries, but Russian creative agency Hungry Boys’ campaign has brought a new dimension to both advertising and drone use.

A Lost Cause? Alfredo Jaar’s “A Logo for America” Coming to Times Square Again

2014-07-29T14:07:00-04:00

When Alfredo Jaar’s glittering “A Logo for America” video first played on a Times Square billboard in 1987, it riled up New Yorkers. [...] shows the words “This is not America” inside the outline of the United States. “A Logo for America” will receive a second life this week; beginning on August 1, the video will pop up on Times Square signs and screens between 11:57 pm and 12:00 am. But this 2.0 version loses some of the video’s original intent to reach a broad—and hopefully attentive—audience.

Rethinking Billboards

2014-07-11T13:52:00-04:00

Billboards are commanding territory all over the world, offering just a blaring message in their occupation. Some designers have been looking at how to better use this advertising infrastructure, with Slovakia’s Designdevelop proposing a use for the space as small-scale residences for the homeless.

Orange Barrel Media Announces LEED Platinum Headquarters in Columbus

2012-04-21T11:46:00-04:00

The new Orange Barrel HQ will reuse existing concrete storage silos and a renovated 10,000-sqft warehouse with a new 10,000-sqft addition. OBM President Pete Scantland says they’re aiming for LEED Platinum certification with the project. Solar panels will be located on the back side of a 120-foot tall structure rising above the new offices, while the front side will provide a showpiece advertising space.

Orange Barrel Media is a nine-year-old outdoor wallscape mural design and advertising firm that serves markets in New York, Boston, Charlotte, Columbus, Denver, Cleveland and Cincinnati. Yesterday, they announced a new headquarters in Columbus that includes an innovative solar-panel advertising tower and 20,000 square feet of space on a former concrete mixing plant adjacent to Downtown.

The new development was designed by George Acock of Acock Associates with Landscape Architecture done by Keith Meyers and his team at MSI+KKG.

Brilliant Campaign for 3M Noise Cancelling Headphones

2011-06-09T12:41:04-04:00

Beautiful executed ads for 3M Noise Cancelling Headphones. Made by Grey, São Paulo, Brazil.

Advertising Agency: Grey, São Paulo, Brazil
Executive Creative Directors: Guy Costa, Alexandre Scaff
Art Director: Daniel Prado
Copywriter: Alexandre Scaff
Illustrator: Leandro Esparca
Published: April 2011