MyÜberLife

As we approach the rounding-out of another year, 2011, and we reflect on the ’many sights of wonder’ we have encountered this past year, we are filled with inspiration, hope and dedication for the year to come.  A new year, 2012, will bring with it opportunity, obstacles and the ‘vesseled’ lessons from the year before; a new year allows us to use all the harnessed creative energies from the year before to aid us on our future creative and business endeavors.      

One of the benefits of living in today’s world is the ability to constantly train one’s creative pallet through continuous edification, emotional growth, and an accumulation of multiple creative energies.  Today, our world offers diverse mediums, where creativity is constantly shared online and at a ‘magazine subway-strap-hanger glance ‘offline,’ if one looks, one can find an abundance of inspiration all around.

In my attempt to live the words I write, I went through hundreds of editorial ‘tears’ from this past year to document in my scrap book, searching for reminders of 2011 inspirations.  In the process, I came across the ‘Wired with Love’ editorial featuring model’s Nina Reijnders and Victoria Lipatova, who take on the role of bondage vixens for photographer Koray Parlak’s most recent work in Marie Claire Turkey.  ’Wire with Love’ was outfitted by stylist Hakan Öztürk and makeup by artist Ali Riza Ozdemir, with hair by Ferit Belli.  Together, all of the elements, from the leather whips, to lace veils, to photo framing technique and more; all make for a rich composition of sadist-meets-saint editorial narrative.

‘Wire with Love’ thematically exemplifies the notion that creativity, when explored in technique as well in philosophy, can create art.  When juxtaposed on each other, the exploration of both light and dark subject matters, allows for beauty to emerge. ‘Wire with Love’ serves as a philosophical metaphor for this past year: no matter what life throws at us, we, if we seek to, can create beauty, even from the darkest of places.  As, Marquis de Sade, French philosopher, where the word sadism is derived, once said, “Happiness lies neither in vice nor in virtue; but in the manner we appreciate the one and the other, and the choice we make pursuant to our individual organization.”

In May 2012, my wish for all of you is saintly resurrection in all your creative and business pursuits as well as moments of pleasure in your darkest hours.  Posted by Jey Van-Sharp of MyUberLife

Browsing today, we found these images with powerful references. Upon further investigation we discovered it was the simple brillance of Napoleon Hill.  These words are excerpts from Napoleon Hill’s book ‘Think and Grow Rich.’  We recommend this classic read to all of you fashionistas, artist, musicians, creative types of all sorts and future business moguls.  This book, by far, is the most powerful book I have read on success. 

Who was Napoleon Hill: Napoleon Hill (1883 –1970) was an American author who was one of the earliest producers of the modern genre of personal-success literature.  He is widely considered to be one of the great writers on success.  His most famous work, Think and Grow Rich (1937), is one of the best-selling books of all time (at the time of Hill’s death in 1970, Think and Grow Rich had sold 20 million copies).  Hill’s works examined the power of personal beliefs, and the role they play in personal success.  He became an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933-36.

Hill considered the turning point in his life to have occurred in the year 1908 with his assignment, as part of a series of articles about famous and successful men, to interview the industrialist Andrew Carnegie.  At the time, Carnegie was one of the most powerful men in the world.  Hill discovered that Carnegie believed that the process of success could be outlined in a simple formula that anyone would be able to understand and achieve.  Impressed with Hill, Carnegie asked him if he was up to the task of putting together this information, to interview or analyze over 500 successful men and women, many of them millionaires, in order to discover and publish this formula for success.

As part of his research, Hill interviewed many of the most famous people of the time, including Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell,George Eastman, Henry Ford, Elmer Gates, John D. Rockefeller, Sr., Charles M. Schwab, F.W. Woolworth, William Wrigley Jr., John Wanamaker, William Jennings Bryan, Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft and Jennings Randolph.  Hill was also an advisor to two presidents of the United States of America, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin 

please click through these images, Posted by Jey Van-Sharp of MyUberLife

These are some of the many reasons why we love Vogue Italia. These creatively-creepy looks and child like comforts have a compelling affect on the viewer.  A very creative shoot, to say the least.  

This editorial, understandably titled Mechanical Dolls by Tim Walker, captures models Audrey Marnay and Kirsi Pyrhonen in surreal doll poses.  Mr. Walker, who has been on a roll, merges fashion photography and fine art in this October issue of Vogue Italia.  He manages to walk the line between art and fashion gracefully, blurring the lines of reality, reversing the concept of personification; giving dolls human like qualities.  Mr. Walker distorts the child fantasy into a dark twisted one, all while skillfully using high fashion clothing as reference. Charming! 

The models are styled by Jacob K in doll like looks from the Fall collections of Louis Vuitton, Stella McCartney, Alberta Ferretti, Kenzo and others.

Click through and enjoy, posted by Jey Van-Sharp of MyUberLife

                                    Marketing To The Tribe 

Oh Autumn! You have arrived once again with brisk chilled air, street filled foliage, daylight savings and ‘fourth quarter earnings.’  For some, you return again with comforting surreal abstractions of yesteryear’s cold to come; and for others, you are the enemy of the wondrous warmth that went.  Autumn, for many New Yorkers, is poetic refuge; while for others, it represents misery and pain.  To put it quite simply:  some people like Autumn, others don’t.
 
There are many options for every opinion here in New York, but there are few things we agree on.  We all can agree, even if not true, New York is like no other.  A New Yorker is not only one who believes that the city of York is the the center of the cultural universe, but also one who defends it beyond reason.  A New Yorker is a tribes(wo)man who survives and rises above hurdles of rent prices, crowded subways, packed streets, beeping horns and social climbing, all in the name of opportunity. This is what is referred to by Frank Sinatra as the ‘New York State of Mind.’  The ‘New York State of Mind’ is the the shared tribe psychology of its residents.  It is a survivalist mentality where the willingness to do what it takes separates us from somewhere else.  Don’t believe me?  Ask a New Yorker..

Of course, there are some other qualities that make this place special and exciting, even for the tourist who frequent here.  One of those qualities is the walking culture of the city. The walk-ability of the city allows for an experience within itself.  To experience New York fully is to walk.  Walking is akin to an anthropologist roaming the Amazon jungle.  New York walks allow for random discoveries and self epiphanies; an important facet and component to the creativity that thrives here.  

Last evening, I went for one of these brisk autumn walks and discovered, or finally noticed, something that spoke to the New Yorker in me.  I saw these advertisements from Manhattan Mini Storage, randomly positioned on phone booths and billboards, in big and small formats, seemingly all over the island.  This campaign did not feature models Laura Stone and Natasha Poly, or exhibit the editorial photography of Mert & Marcus and their contemporaries Inez and Vinoodh.  Nor did this campaign feature any endorsements from the likes of Lady Gaga or an ‘obscure-to-the-rest-of-America-but-secure-in-New York’ type of indie band providing backdrop hipster-esque visuals.  What this campaign offered was something quite different.  But what could a storage facility do to be more compelling, increase market share, and, more importantly, mind-share?  Every brand in the world knows how important it is to get a space within the ‘New York State of Mind.’  I was inclined to investigate..

Leonardo da Vinci once said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication,” and while one may argue these advertisements may not be sophisticated, it would be much harder to argue they are not simple.  For me, what makes the campaign sophisticated is how simply Manhattan Mini Storage ques into the deeper psychology of the New Yorker.  In 1923 Edward Bernays, the father of public relations and nephew to Sigmund Freud, spoke on the three main elements of public relations.  Mr. Bernays defined public relations as:  1. informing people, 2. persuading people, and 3. integrating people with people.  Manhattan Mini Storage honed into theses aspects by identifying psychological themes that are unique to the New York tribe.  The company shows they clearly comprehend New Yorker intelligence by using sarcasm - understanding the way their target audience would relate to these arching themes.  The company plays it ‘smart’ by aligning their marketing strategy with the witty sarcasm of  New Yorkers, a humorous legacy that goes back before Woody Allen, Larry David and Seinfeld.  Through this simple and lean approach of small quotes, the advertisement shows that Manhattan Mini Storage understands that branding, or according to Ed Bernay’s ‘branding the mind,’ is several incremental interactions with the target audience.  Every time a New Yorker interacts with these symbols of sarcasm and laughs/thinks, Manhattan Mini Storage is earning mind share with the hopes of finding a permanent place in the minds of potential customers.  Branding is essentially several interactions with a tangible and psychological message where the company is attempting to build trust with a target market to eventually gain their consumer loyalty.  What better way for a brand to build trust than to make someone laugh, and at the same time, offer us a service that all New Yorkers may use one day?  Especially with the sizes of Lower East Side apartments (joke).  Manhattan Mini Storage shows that simple creativity can scale a campaign, especially when you understand the consumer and their tribe’s pschycology; or in our case, the ‘New York State of Mind’

“Brand equity is the sum of all the hearts and minds of every single person who comes in contact with your company” – Christopher Betzer,

“A brand is a living entity – and it is enriched or undermined cumulatively overtime, the product of a thousand small gestures.”  Michael Eisner, CEO of Disney

“What is a brand?  A single concept that you own inside the mind of the prospect” – Al Ries

Posted by Jey Van-Sharp of MyUberLife

These pictures and quotes from Barbara Kruger embody timeless creative, social and business issues; one of the reason why art is enjoyable and necessary.  Art is both timeless and momentary.  Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.

Quotes:

“I think that I’m trying to engage issues of power and sexuality and money and life and death and power. Power is the most free-flowing element in society, maybe next to money, but in fact they both motor each other.”-Barbara Kruger.

“I think there are lots of ways to make good work. You can throw big bucks at a project and make what some would call crap, or you can work very modestly with eloquently moving results.”-Barbara Kruger.

“I think what I’m trying to do is create moments of recognition. To try to detonate some kind of feeling or understanding of lived experience.” - Barbara Kruger.

“I try to deal with the complexities of power and social life, but as far as the visual presentation goes I purposely avoid a high degree of difficulty.” - Barbara Kruger.

About Barbara Kruger: 

Barbara Kruger (born January 26, 1945) is an American conceptual artist. Much of her work consists of black-and-white photographs overlaid with declarative captions—in white-on-red Futura Bold Oblique or Helvetica Ultra Condensed. The phrases in her works often include use of pronouns such as “you”, “your”, “I”, “we”, and “they”.

Much of Kruger’s work engages the merging of found photographs from existing sources with pithy and aggressive text that involves the viewer in the struggle for power and control that her captions speak to. In their trademark white letters against a slash of red background, some of her instantly recognizable slogans read “I shop therefore I am,” and “Your body is a battleground.” Much of her text questions the viewer about feminism, consumerism, and individual autonomy and desire, although her black-and-white images are culled from the mainstream magazines that sell the very ideas she is disputing.