H

The best fucking sites I´ve ever seen

 What the fuck should I make for dinner?

This site offers you these fucking great inspirations:

And you can always click "I don´t fucking like that." for the next idea.

And this one below is a real help for the so-called "social media gurus", inspired in the one you just saw:

What the fuck is my social media "strategy"?

When you click "I've already fucking used this one" it offers you another great strategy with these awesome cliché engaging words. And the best is yet to come: when you click on "about", it explains how to create these perfect social media strategies on your own, just by mixing and matching words of these two columns:

These people just amaze me.

I´ve been awaaaaaay

Yes, I know. I´m sorry. But there has been so much going on!

Let me summarize the latest happenings then: Jack Johnson´s concert here in Amsterdam, a couple of friends visiting, then a trip to London where I was lucky enough to see The Ting Tings and Pink at the Wireless Festival! Then back to Amsterdam and two days later... surprise trip to Paris! Which was amazing, by the way. And it was really a surprise, I knew about the trip 2 hours before departing... So I´ve been running, that´s the truth. But hey, Here I am again and I have a lot to share about all these great concerts and trips, so don´t give up on me! (that´s actually me talking to myself, telling me not to give up on my blog)

See you soon :)

xx

Madonna, is that you?

About Alejandro, Lady Gaga's latest video: do you see a lot of the 90's Madonna or is it just me?

To name some references: 

- Madonna's Like a Virgin bed performance on her Blonde Ambition Tour 

- Like a Prayer's religious outfit

- Vogue choreography (4:22)

- S&M look

- La Isla Bonita for the Spanish accent

- At the beginning it looks a bit like the Frozen videoclip

- And Gaga herself resembles so much of Madonna sometimes! Check time 5:20

I hope these obvious references are an homage to Madonna and not just plain imitation...

I love the guy who fixes my bike

Directly from Lady Gaga's concert in London

My dear dear friend Aline Mazzocchi is right now in front of the O2 Arena (London) where Lady Gaga is performing tonight. She has just sent me a message telling me the girls' outfits were amazing - and of course I asked her to send me a picture of the greatest look she could find. Here's what she just sent:

I loved it :)

Thanks darling!

Sex and the (Amsterdam) City 2

As every girl on Earth certainly knows already, this week is the global debut of Sex and the City 2 - and here in Amsterdam you can feel it on the streets.

Yesterday I spent all day outdoors and wherever I looked I could see at least one beauuuutiful Mercedez-Benz driven by the most handsome men. 

Apart from that, at one point I actually stumbled upon two camels. I didn't have my camera in hands by then, but I took it as fast as I could and walked after the camels so that I could post a picture here. Unfortunately they were already going home...

Here are two pictures from the film that link to these marketing stunts, which I loved by the way (of course I would) :)

Guia de Amsterdam (Amsterdam Guide)

This is for my brazilian friends who are always asking me for hints. Here you'll find some nice places to visit, but it's more like an overall guide to understand how the city works. I intend to organize it in different sections, adding some more information and rewriting it all in English, but this is what I have for now. I hope it helps! Enjoy :) 

AMSTERDAM

COISAS PARA VER EM CADA LUGAR

Jordaan

É dos lados mais legais da cidade. Quanto mais perto da centraal station, menos glamuroso é. Bem próximo à estação, tu vai encontrar um bairro com uns brechós, umas antique shops, umas lojas de balas super tradicionais.

Uma coisa que tem pra esse lado mais perto da estação é a Supermarket: loja muito legal, com um monte de coisas lindas e caras. Cheia de designers legais - ela é meio fora de mão, mas eu acho que vale a pena visitar.

> Rozengracht 191-193

Daí, tu pode ir caminhando pela Prinsengracht ou Keizergracht, que são lindas. A Herengracht tb é legal (todas as ruas que terminam em ‘gracht’ são as de canais, ou seja, essas que formam semi-círculos ao redor do centro).Tu vai passar perto do museu da Anne Frank. Uma lojinha legal é a EggMercantile: cheeeia de coisas lindas! Vale muito a pena. Não é exatamente nessas ruas que coloquei, mas tá na rota.

> Leliegracht, 6.

Nas ruazinhas menores, que ligam essas 3 grandes que te falei, tu vai encontrar brechós legais. Essa região é chamada de 9 straatges (9 ruas), porque forma um retângulo de quadras que só têm coisas bonitas e originais.

Brechós:

Episode:  Eles têm diversas peças do mesmo modelo, vão atrás das roupas mais clichê, que marcaram época. Também tem uma loja na Waterlooplein, mas essa é mais legal.

> Berenstraat 1

Laura Dols: Brechó muito legal, tem fantasias e tal... divertido :)

> Wolvenstraat 7

Daí nesse caminho tem umas coisinhas bizarras, como uma loja só de produtos dentários, de pastas de dente, outras de livros antigos, etc... tem que passear por todas as quadras dessas 9 ruas, tem várias coisinhas interessantes.

No final dessa região, mais perto do “núcleo”, tu vai encontrar a Spuistraat. Tem a livraria Athenaeum (>Spui 14-16), que tb tem uma revistaria. É ótima! Na frente disso tem um lugar para tomar smoothies e comer sanduíches delícia.

Juicy Details: suquinhos e sanduichinhos deliciosos!! Vale :)

> Canisiussingel 26b

Famous: Toy art culture. É legal de ir, mas não imperdível.

> Huidenstraat, 17.

 

Gollem: Bar especializado em cervejas belgas. É super roots e tem mais de 200 tipos de cerveja. Nada caro.

> Raamsteeg 4 – ruelinha que faz esquina com a Spuistraat.

Museumplein

Área dos principais museus, o Rijksmuseum e o do Van Gogh. É também a área mais posh da cidade, com restaurantes mais chiquezinhos, marcas mais caras, etc. Tudo é lindo por lá.

De Pijp

Bairro muito legal pra ir de tardezinha passear e já ficar pra um happy hour. Cheio de bares legaizinhos, uns de mesas comunitárias e bem cool, outros mais posh... tem pra todos os gostos, o bairro é bem movimentado.

> Stadhouderskade 78

Bazar: é um bar/restaurante muuuito legal, vale muito a pena conhecer.

> Albert Cuypstraat, 182

Nessa mesma rua tem um mercado de rua bem tradicional, o Albert Cuyp Markt. O dia todo é uma muvuca, e no final do dia a feira acaba e a rua fica toda suja de frutas, legumes, etc… mas é bem legal o astral :)

Dam Square e arredores

De Bijenkorf: O último (ou penúltimo) andar da loja de departamento Bijenkorf é cheio de produtinhos bacanas. Tudo tem um visual meio pop, vale visitar. A parte de alimentação da loja é muito legal também, no último andar; tem um corredor com ilhas com vários tipos de comidas, tudo parece delicioso.

Gsus (Heavens Playground): Streetwear, camisetas coloridas, moletons.... Não é das mais baratas, e fica no Magna Plaza.

Loja de brinquedos do Magna Plaza: No ultimo andar desse shopping tem uma loja de lindos brinquedos de criança, tudo de madeirinha, pintadinho. Cavalinhos de pau, soldadinhos de chumbo e caixinhas de musica, um amor :)

Essa é uma loja de jóias bem legal! Um monte de designers independentes de diversos lugares do mundo vendem lá. O curador é o dono da loja, que também trabalha como vendedor, um velhinho simpático! http://www.grimmsieraden.nl/

> Grimburgwal 9 - ruazinha escondida perto da Rokin.

Laundry Industry: Roupas lindas com precitos salgados. No Magna Plaza e na Rokin.

  

> Highstreet

Tem a main shop street deles que é onde ficam todas as lojas como HM, Espirit, Diesel, Zara, etc... nada de mais, como qualquer rua de compras da Europa... sem grande identidade. É ali no mapa onde diz que é a zona mais comercial, entre a Dam Square e a Leidseplein.

_______________________________________

 Diquinhas gerais:

- Transporte: aqui todo mundo anda de bici, eu acho legal alugar uma, até porque a cidade é pequeninha e é tudo muito perto! Mas se optarem pelo coletivo, é legal saber que o sistema de tram (aqueles trenzinhos que tem dentro da cidade, vocês vão ver) e bus é integrado, então tu entra em qualquer um deles, compra um bilhete (custa 2,60) e ele vale por 1 hora para fazer conexões.

- Qualquer deli ou sanduicheria faz coisas deliciosas! Eu diria pra tu não tentar ficar comendo em restaurantes de comida típica holandesa, porque é tudo com batata, queijo e fritura, pesado e sem grandes sabores... Bem melhor explorar os cafés, delis e restaurantezinhos de bairro, que são incrivelmente bons, simpáticos e bem decorados.

- Mint Tea: pede um mint tea em qualquer café, vem num copo alto com as folhinhas de menta, sabe? Tri bom :)

- As cervejas que tu tem que tomar: Kasteel bruine (mais docinha), Duvel e La Chouffe. ÓTIMAS!!!

- Coffee Shops: é tudo meio igual. Quanto mais longe da Red Light e da Leidseplein, menos pega-turista, apesar de todos serem um pouco.

- Quanto ao produtinho local mais vendido em Amsterdam... não sou entendedora do assunto, mas o que dizem é que as boas são a Santa Maria (ohhh o nome! Hehehe) ou a Ice (mais forte).

PS: todas as lojas / restaurantes que têm site estão com hiperlink.

Take the frickin’ insight off the frickin’ pedestal

This is for all people who work in Advertising. I totally agree with this post and that's why I'm pasting it exactly as it was written by the author - Heidi Hackemer, planning director at BBH NY. Enjoy :)

___

(Posted on May 6th, 2010 at 2:16 am by @uberblond on her blog)

the traditional brief should die.

traditional way: planners go off into their magic black box of thought and perception, ponder the philosophies of society and our world, and then emerge triumphant with the golden insight and magical one true thing. and i get the allure of that, both from the planner feeling like a hero and the creative having the assurance of the safety buoy of a brief. but as i do more immersive brand planning that’s geared for today’s realities, digital and not (which is different than being a “digital strategist”), my role is radically changing.

this is the system that i’ve worked out and through with pelle and calle sjoenell (@pellesjoenell and @callesjonell – yes they’re brothers; no they can’t agree on how to Americanize their swedish last name), first on Axe and now on Google.

i don’t give my creatives the one brilliant insight anymore nor do i give them an incredibly clever one true thing these days. I do give them three things: 1) a one pager of the story of the situation and problem we have to solve (incredibly crafted by the way – not a sloppy re-iteration of the client brief) 2) a center of a brief that is often a rather dry message that our target needs to walk away with (ie: “Axe Shampoo makes your hair twice as shiny as the leading competitor”). 3) a page worth of multiple insights that tie to our target and the way they might interact with this product/context.

the philosophy is this: i don’t presume to know the one bullet way in to solving the problem. I have my hunches, but I also think I work with a pretty smart group of people that can look at it in ways that I won’t think of.

so we pressure test insights through the group and through creative/strategic exploration (often in the form of a workshop , which by the way can be incredibly effective, more on that another day). as long as the insight isn’t false or irrelevant to the situation at hand, and if it leads to a viable solution, then its fair game. my job in this process is to provide fuel, represent the target and the business situation, corral thought and counter-balance creative whim that may whim to far into the “wouldn’t it be cool if…” zone (without destroying creative souls).

it’s more work. it’s more collaboration. and it means that i gotta trust my team and they trust me. but it works for us and seems more realistic.

what makes this difficult – i’ve had to give up what planners usually consider their (internal and external intellectual) weapon. no longer do i hold THE answer; rather I contribute to a series of smaller, iterative answers. no longer can I be assured that when all is said and done, i’ll be able to point to that magic middle of the brief and say “that was me”, because it won’t be. the ego has to drop. that vulnerable planner goo in me gets exposed.

but i believe in it. i’d encourage you to give it a shot (and ping me with questions if you need to).
___

8 ways to kill an idea

Abroad again

In Brazil right now, yayyy! I'll be back in Amsterdam on May 3rd and no more posts until then! I'm really busy here - with great things, thank God :)

Puma's clever little bag

I love when I stumble upon ideas I wish I have had. It usually happens with the most simple ones - these small shifts that don't seem that significant at the time but can cause change in a huge scale when you think of them in long term basis.

This is one of those ideas.

Sex and the City 2 - You really got me now

I HATED the first trailer, thought the film would be totally meaningless - just one of those awful continuations of a story that hasn't got anything else to tell. But this trailer here just changed it all... Carrie meeting Aidan in Abu Dhabi in a girls' trip after marrying Big? That's something I REALLY wanna see.  And yes, I am in fact a very silly girl :)

Lola Ciccone looking just like Jessica Alba

Haute Couture + Kandinsky in Den Haag (2)

I promised to write more about the Gemeentemuseum in Den Haag and to post some pictures, so here I am.

So the museum has 3 floors: 

The basement had an exhibition called "Wonder Kamers", which means "Rooms of Wonders". There are several rooms and closed doors between them, and before opening the door you can only see the colour of the room on the other side - not its content. So you'll be surprised each time you go from one room to the other, not knowing whats awaiting you. It's a very cool exhibition, everything really interactive and experimental and covers all the themes showing on the other floors of the museum (fashion, design, art, music, etc). As the rooms were really dark I wasn't able to take pictures - because using flash was not permitted. It is a trendy and young environment, worth one visit if you like this kind of things. You'll find more information (with pictures) here. 

On the ground floor I found some interesting things:

Georges Vantongerloo: a Belgian Painter / Esculptor / Designer / Architect / Theorist that makes such simple yet perfect things. His history is fascinating and his work reflects that. I had never heard of him before seeing this exhibition, but then I started to look for more information and found out he was really relevant though art historists say he didn't get all the attention he deserved for his work. 

Besides Vantongerloo, there are others artists that work with colours and geometric shapes on the ground floor. Really interesting.

I happened to find an exhibition about Tupperware as well, which I loved! Totally related to what I'm  professionally interested in. It was about how Tupperware emerged, the context by then, the appeal fof this product to the 40's/50's/60's housewives, how they were sold and advertised, etc, etc. There was even a 50's kitchen there to give the idea of how things really worked for women at that time.

First floor - this is the must-see floor, in my opinion:

Kandinsky and Der Blaue Reiter: this exhibition is sooo beautiful! So colourful, full of life... from the time Kandinsky and other great artists formed a group (Der Blaue Reiter) to start doing something different with their painting. Their purpose was opposing to what was being done by others and start painting from sensations and feelings, and not from reality. Just BEAUTIFUL. Pictures here:

And last, the Voici Paris! exhibition, showing the history of haute couture and its role through the decades, starting in the mid-1860's. Their collection include great creations from all major Maisons (Dior, Givenchy, Chanel,...) and a great sample of the couture work that's being done here in The Netherlands. This exhibition is mesmerizing, you can spend one whole day just there, admiring all those amazing gowns - some of them having an average of 800 hours of handcraftmanship on. It's pure art.

Here are some pictures, not of my favourite gowns though. I had to choose the clearer ones, because most of the pictures are just too bad, as the place was too dark - shame.

Armani Privé

Dior by John Galliano

Chanel by Karl Lagerfeld

And voilà! Today I was reading the Couture Suplement of the Italian Vogue (March edition) and found an article about this exhibition! So I guess it's really unmissable :)

Remember Me

Today I watched Robert Pattinson's 'Remember Me'. It made me cry.

Trendy Tilda (2)

Here are some of my favourite Tilda Swinton's looks:

Trendy Tilda

I love the idea of using Tilda Swinton as a model for fashion brands as she's really exotic, intriguing and interesting with her alien-like look. Besides that she has her own style, her own fashion identity which happens to be really elegant. I usually love her looks on the red-carpet, though most of the times she gets the worst reviews from the gossip press - but what do they know about elegance and good design, anyway. 

I find her androginy very fashionable and I really see her in campaigns for groundbreaking fashion designers, like Martin Margiela for example (and I know he doesn't advertise but I think Tilda could easily be his muse if he did). 

But why this ad for Pringle of Scotland? I get the brand is a classic as they make knitwear since 1815 (so it's a REAL classic) and they want to make it look trendier, but why this paranoid/terrified look on her face? It just doesn't fit. I'm not talking about the whole campaign, which I find beautiful, but this ad just doesn't look right.

Can one vote for the next 'it girl'?

 

I wonder what the Lola Bag will look like and which brand will be the one to create it... after the Birkin, the Kelly (both Hermés) and the Alexa (Mulberry), I guess Lola deserves to have one created in her honour as well!

RIP Malcolm McLaren

Malcolm McLaren, father of the Sex Pistols and owner of the first punk boutique (with Vivienne Westwood as his partner - in life and in business) died yesterday - after a long battle with cancer.

 Vivienne Westwood with Malcolm McLaren

 

This is the man who changed the course of culture in the 70's by introducing punk music and fashion in London - which became one of the most important and easily recognizable movement / style in the world. What happened then thanks to Malcolm is still a huge influence to almost every fashion collection and to a huge number of music bands.

Jean Paul Gaultier AW 2007

 

Agyness Deyn and her punk style