Category: Photos

User Generated Signage

I deliberated about posting this because of the very bad language in one of the photos. So if you’re easily offended stop reading and leave the page now…

Then I reconsidered when I realised that there’s actually an interesting point in here somewhere.

So here’s the story: my walk to work is made hazardous by dog mess liberally scattered around the pavements. I’m sure many of you suffer the same thing. Here’s some ‘fresh’ evidence from this morning:

The council try to persuade dog owners to not let this happen by giving them bins, and putting up signs.

Often the signs seem to be pretty ineffective. And like lots of the messages that we see every day they just fade into the noise and clutter of the urban environment. Over time they get defaced and fade away. If the message ever worked its impact gets diminished as it’s gradually torn away:

I was slightly shocked when I saw this on the pavement yesterday:

I was shocked mainly because of the use of very strong language. But you know what, I noticed it. I really noticed it. And I bet the people who walk their dogs round there noticed it too. Especially the c***ts who let their dogs shit on the street and don’t pick it up.

And my point is:

  • Councils have to play by the rules. They use recognised placements for their signage: lampposts, bins, etc. They use tedious ‘council-approved’ language: “fouling”, “provided”, “prosecuted”, etc.
  • ‘Consumers’ can use whatever language they like (as evidenced above). They can use whatever media they like. They’re just not bound by the same set of rules. Which means they can create much more compelling messages.

Sound like a familliar situation?

Bill Banned This Photo

Doesn’t that look like the most amazing sandwich you ever saw? Take it from me, it’s an amazing sandwich from an amazing shop. Bill’s in Brighton (there’s a branch in Lewes too but I’ve never been to that one. If you’re ever in the area you ought to pop in, it’s just stunning. It’s an organic deli and cafe rolled into one. But it’s not overly ‘soily’ if that’s a worry for you. Everything is beautiful to the point of art and damn tasty to boot.

OK, that’s where my praise ends. The purpose of this post isn’t to talk about sandwich art, but to talk about ‘banning photography’.

Nik was with me at Bill’s yesterday and as soon as he raised his phone to take a photo of a cake a guy dived in front of the lens like Britney’s bodyguard protecting her from the paps: “we have a no photography policy” he yelled. Same thing happened to me at the Whole Foods Market in New York a couple of weeks ago. (BTW I snuck the photo above a few weeks ago before I knew it was illegal, I didn’t break their rules on purpose, I’m not that much of a rebel!).

I guess that they’re worried about corporate espionage, people stealing the blueprints for their cakes or shop. But it feels a bit like some crazy form of Willy-Wonka-ism. Closing down the factory to prevent spies from stealing chocolate secrets. Next they’ll be making us eat cakes with our eyes closed. And what happens if I buy a cake and take it outside to photograph?

It just seems like a really backward step for companies to take. In a world where image sharing is so widespread. Stopping people from taking images of your amazing things and spreading them around the place is surely curtailing a great form of free advertising. Of course they’re not going to have control over the quality of the images or where they appear, but they need to let go a bit.

I know that in certain areas copyright and IP theft are big issues. So companies have to weigh up the risks of people stealing their designs vs the reward of people talking about them. I think the balance has changed and continues to change in favour of people using photos as a way to share and discuss rather than steal. But I could be wrong, what do you reckon?

As an aside – on the hunt for the names of the spies in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (which I didn’t find) I found this great article on real life chocolate espionage and how it touched Roald Dahl.

Flickr Romances

Funny article on ‘How to turn your Flickr crush into real romance‘, specially posted for Valentines day over at Wired. Starts off with a story of a real life Flickr Romance, then gives you the 10 steps to finding love on Flickr.

I particularly liked this bit on ‘Inventing a Cuter You‘:

But mostly there should be
pictures of you with attractive women, you next to motorcycles, you lifting
heavy things, you looking artsy and blurry. Use those Photoshop skills to
project a lifestyle your crush would want to be a part of.

Dig beneath the humour and there’s some semi-insightful nuggets into how you can extract information and learn things about peoples’ characters from their posting habits.

Computers Behind Blogs – Intro

Here’s a little pet project I’ve been thinking about for a while.

I wanted to do something that shows the computers that people blog from. I reckon it might give an interesting, non-verbal snapshot into the bloggers’ world. So I’ve gone and done it.

Read more here.

Please get involved if you’re a blogger. And tell all your blogging friends. The more the merrier.